250+ industry leaders trust Workist
The process that costs inside sales the most time. In production at proALPHA users such as BACHL, CiS and Stabila.
3.5 minutes saved per order, around 350 orders a week. Sabine Dietrich and Michael Groß from inside sales tell the story (video in German).
The agent works in four steps. Each of them is traceable in the Workist Workbench.
Emails land in the Workist Smart Inbox or are forwarded to the agent. PDF, Excel and image attachments are read directly, including order forms and handwritten notes.
The agent reads header and line item data in context, regardless of layout, language or sender. Units of measure and packaging units are mapped to your proALPHA codes.
Customers, delivery addresses, items and customer item numbers are matched against your proALPHA master data, delivered as a nightly export from proALPHA. When something is unclear, the agent asks your team.
The validated order goes to the proALPHA import as pAX XML or straight into your tenant via REST API. proALPHA creates the sales order. Pricing and availability stay in the ERP.
Three things that set Workist apart from OCR, RPA and middleware.
Workist hands over orders in the pAX XML format that proALPHA processes through its standard import. Alternatively, the integration runs through the proALPHA REST API in both directions. Both routes are live at customers, with no changes to the proALPHA core.
Customers, contacts, delivery addresses, items and customer item numbers arrive as a nightly export from proALPHA. Validation runs against your current master data. Pricing and tiered prices stay in proALPHA.
Rush orders, deviating billing addresses or configurable items are recognised by your rules and held for manual review. New customers are created with one click in the Workbench, and proALPHA takes them over with the new-customer flag.
"The time we currently save per document averages 3.5 minutes. We process around 350 orders a week through Workist, which adds up to 20 hours saved every week."
What prospects ask most often about proALPHA.
Orders from email or PDF are extracted by the agent, validated against your proALPHA master data and handed over as a sales order. proALPHA imports the order automatically. Your inside sales team only sees the cases where the agent asks a question.
In one of two ways. The standard is file exchange: Workist places the validated order as pAX XML on an SFTP server, proALPHA collects the file and imports it automatically. Alternatively, Workist connects to the proALPHA REST API and exchanges master data and orders as JSON in both directions. Middleware such as Lobster Data can be included.
Reads: customers, contacts, delivery addresses, items, customer item numbers and units of measure as a master data export. Writes: sales orders with header and line item data, with a quote reference if required, plus order confirmations and incoming invoices via EDI.
Any version with XML import, including proALPHA 9.x. The REST API is only fully available in newer versions; older installations are connected through the file import. We clarify which route fits your setup together with your proALPHA consultant.
No. The pAX XML import is proALPHA standard. Your proALPHA consultant sets up the import job, Workist delivers the XML in the agreed format. For the API route, Workist configures the interface and the proALPHA core stays untouched.
Typically a few weeks. The integration phase covers the master data export, agreeing the XML format with your proALPHA consultant and testing the import with real orders. After that, your key users take the agent live step by step rather than for every order at once.
In the EU. Workist is SOC 2 Type II certified and GDPR compliant, and a data processing agreement is available. Data exchange with proALPHA runs encrypted over SFTP or HTTPS.
