This series uses Dingli, a Patisco demo account. Every system screen and all the data shown here came from real operations in the system, including the exchanges between buyers and suppliers; they are not mock-ups. The people and dialogue are dramatized, and the illustrations are for illustration only. Screens are shown in the system's Chinese interface; Patisco is also available in English and other languages.
In the story: the first Monday of A-Mei's leave, 9:00 a.m.
Day one
Xiao-Yu is just out of military service. He's quick on his phone and fast at typing, and his understanding of international trade amounts to one three-credit required course in college.
A-Zhe gave him his first assignment: "Start by going through the shared folder, and get familiar with our documents."
Ten minutes later, Xiao-Yu turned around with a complicated look on his face.
"A-Zhe, 'PI_latest_really_latest_for_real_this_time' and 'PI_latest_really_latest_for_real_this_time(1)': which one's the real one?"
A-Zhe was quiet for a moment. "…Neither."
How it used to go
A new hire's first month used to go like this:
Dig through the shared folder and not understand it. Ask a senior colleague, who's busy. Finally make sense of one document, then discover it's last year's version. As for why this deal was negotiated this way, why the customer wanted this price, why the supplier pushed back the delivery date, you just waited for a senior colleague to have a free moment and explain it bit by bit.
A-Zhe had gone through the same thing. It took him three months to figure out the unspoken understandings between Dingli and Velostrada.
How it goes in Patisco
First, give him an account
In [Account & Authority Management], the admin adds a new employee: name, email, department, job title, language, password, and an [Authorization Type]. Dingli had already set up an authorization type called "Purchasing Assistant," with each usable module switched on one by one.
The system doesn't send invitation emails. The admin gives the new hire the login and password in person.
Start from one document
A-Zhe stopped telling Xiao-Yu to dig through folders. He said: "Open PI-0411 and read it from start to finish."
Xiao-Yu opened it:
- Items: cassette, chain, rear hub, and later a BB bottom bracket set added on.
- [Change history]: v1, v2, v3… with a PDF for every version. He saw Jonas change quantities, add the BB bottom bracket set, quietly take off 0.3, and the spec go from "nickel plating" to the new plating.
- Discussion: Jonas's emails, A-Zhe's replies, LINE messages from the Hongtai group, inspection photos, that all-caps follow-up email.
In one morning, Xiao-Yu read this deal from the trade show through to shipping.
"A-Zhe," he said, looking up, "is Jonas kind of a tough customer?"
"How'd you know?"
"He changes unit prices without saying anything."
Stuck on something? Ask AI
Some of it still didn't make sense to Xiao-Yu. What's FOB? What's an additional charge? Why does shipping on samples get charged separately?
On PI-0411 he clicked [Ask AI] and asked straight out: "What does FOB mean? What are the additional charges on this document?" The AI explained FOB in plain language and answered from this document itself: no additional charges are listed at the moment.
The AI assistant only works once the company has set up its own AI key. The AI can see only the data this account has permission to see. It can explain and organize; when it needs to write data, it lists a proposal first and only acts once someone clicks confirm.
On Friday afternoon, Chairman Lin asked Xiao-Yu, "How was your first week?"
Xiao-Yu thought about it. "Better than I expected. I thought I'd have to learn to find files first. Turns out I learned to read documents first."
Before vs. With Patisco
| Before | With Patisco | |
|---|---|---|
| What a new hire reads | The shared folder and a pile of versions | One document to start, with items, history and discussion all there |
| Why this deal went this way | Wait for a senior colleague to have time | Visible in the change history and discussion thread |
| Unfamiliar terms | Ask a senior colleague, or look it up yourself | [Ask AI] right on the document |
| Time to get up to speed | Senior colleagues say "about three months" | A whole deal read in the first week |
A word for the boss: Skilled hands are hard to find these days, and growth can't always mean hiring one more person. But every new person should be able to get up to speed a little faster. What they need to learn isn't finding files. It's understanding the business.