Documentation questions vs live-data questions
Two questions that sound identical to a search engine and are completely different in practice — and the reason the Ngage Suite has two products that both begin with a text box.
In short
Questions about IFS split into two kinds. Knowledge questions ask how IFS Cloud works and are answered from documentation and API references. Data questions ask what your IFS holds right now and are answered by querying your tenant. NgageConsult is built for the first; NgageChat is built for the second and can also handle the first in the flow of work.
- Knowledge questions have the same answer for every IFS customer.
- Data questions have a different answer for every customer, and change by the minute.
- Answering a data question requires a live, authenticated connection to your tenant.
- Most real conversations contain both, which is why NgageChat covers both.
What is a knowledge question?
A knowledge question asks how IFS Cloud behaves: what a setting controls, how a process is designed to work, which API to call, why a state exists. Its answer comes from documentation and metadata and is the same for every customer on that release. No access to your data is needed to answer it.
- “How does work order scheduling decide dates?”
- “What does the Reserved state mean on a customer order line?”
- “Which projection exposes supplier addresses?”
- “How do permission sets control projection access?”
What is a live-data question?
A live-data question asks what your environment contains right now: which orders are late, what stock you hold, whose approval something is waiting on. Answering it requires an authenticated query against your tenant, and the answer is specific to you, to this moment, and to what the asker is permitted to see.
- “Which work orders at site 100 are overdue?”
- “What is the balance for part 74821 across all warehouses?”
- “Which supplier invoices are awaiting my authorisation?”
- “Why is order 5610 blocked?”
Which product should we use?
Use NgageConsult when the primary need is IFS knowledge — implementation teams, consultants and support desks answering how-it-works questions with cited sources. Use NgageChat when the primary need is your own data and getting work done in it. NgageChat also answers documentation questions, because real conversations move between the two.
They are not competitors — they are aimed at different people. A consultant configuring a module lives in the first column. A planner running a shift lives in the second.
| If you need to… | Use |
|---|---|
| Understand how an IFS process or setting works | NgageConsult |
| Look up an IFS API, projection or OData detail | NgageConsult |
| Ask what your own IFS data currently says | NgageChat |
| Create, update or release a record in IFS | NgageChat |
| Do both in one conversation, in the flow of work | NgageChat |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.