Where is the technical knowledge when the engineer is on holiday?
IT, engineering & project management
A project manager faces a complex configuration change to a control system. The crucial agreements with the client and the technical specifications are not in a central wiki but scattered across the inboxes of the engineers involved. If one of these engineers is unavailable, the other must painstakingly search through emails to reconstruct the current status and decisions made.
When project status and technical details from emails and chats are centralised, the system answers questions with well-founded sources. The assistant links scattered information and highlights contradictions rather than smoothing them over.
- IT ENGINEERING
- PROJECT MANAGEMENT
- KNOWLEDGE LOSS
- EMAIL IMPORT
WHAT THE LOSS COSTSThe time lost searching for scattered information leads to duplicated work and delayed decisions. In the worst case, new decisions are based on outdated or incomplete information, resulting in technical errors and rework.
Capture. Connect. Find.
- CAPTURE01PeopleThe team uses the channel it already employs for communication with clients and suppliers. Email inboxes can be imported as .eml or Mbox files, capturing historical communication without manual input. The assistant understands the content of these messages and integrates them into the knowledge network.
- CONNECT02Connectors & measurement dataAlongside emails, technical reports, measurement series, and photos from the construction site or production line are understood and linked. These documents are not merely filed but semantically indexed, making them available for answering technical questions.
- GRAPH & OUTPUT03Colleagues & systemsColleagues access the linked knowledge via the chat channel. The response includes specific findings, such as a page in a report or the timestamp of a voice message. This makes the basis of the answer transparent, and contradictions in the sources are explicitly highlighted.
What it sounds like day to day.
A typical question from this situation, the assistant's follow-up and the answer with its reference — an example, not a transcript.
What changes were agreed with the client last Friday regarding the voltage withstand capability of the switchgear modules?
I found several emails on this. One from 14 March discussed an increase to 10kV, but one from 16 March confirmed 6kV with an exception for the outdoor station. Which variant is currently valid?
The 6kV with the exception.
The current agreement specifies 6kV, with a specific exception for the outdoor station, which must be rated for 10kV. This was confirmed in the email from 16 March. However, there is a contradiction with an earlier discussion from 14 March, which proposed a general increase to 10kV.
Reference: Source: Email (eml), Role: Project Manager, Timestamp: 16.03.2024 14:30; Source: Email (eml), Role: Client, Timestamp: 14.03.2024 09:15Self-check — loads when visible.
What businesses in this industry ask.
How can I create IT documentation without the team having to learn new software?
You use the channels the team already uses. Emails, voice messages, and photos are imported and understood. The assistant only asks for clarification if information is unclear and requires no manual typing of documentation.
What is IT documentation software that understands emails?
Such software imports email inboxes as .eml files and analyses their content. It links the information with other documents and answers questions about them, citing the original email as the source.
How does project document management work for scattered emails?
The system aggregates emails from various inboxes and integrates them into a central knowledge network. It recognises connections between emails, technical drawings, and minutes, ensuring the project status is always traceable and up to date.
Is an IT documentation wiki better than scattered emails?
A pure wiki requires manual maintenance and is often not kept up to date. A solution that automatically imports and understands emails ensures that knowledge is captured where it is created and made immediately available for search queries.
Limits that apply — even when nobody asks.
- Explicio never discloses credentials in the chat — only through a release process.
- Explicio does not change systems or deploy anything.
- Explicio does not assess work on code or projects by person.
The same question from two directions.
Does this exact knowledge island exist in your business too?
Test this scenario now for 30 days free of charge – one voice message is enough.
- Term
- 30 days from your first knowledge
- Cost
- 0 €
- Licence
- none — we bill the knowledge, not the seat