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The case for Document Assembly
The idea of automating the production of documentation has been around almost as long as has PC-based word processing. Although the potential advantages are clear, the challenge has always been to deliver a solution where the benefits measurably outweigh the costs of implementation and maintenance.
The main business considerations that drive the introduction of Document Assembly are the need to:
- Ensure consistent, quality, compliant documents;
- Produce documents efficiently; and
- Adapt to changing requirements.
It is important to identify accurately the business processes that can benefit from Document Assembly:
- The production of high-volume, low-complexity documents such as bills and consumer contracts is not a candidate because the business process is essentially data-driven and there is no negotiation;
- The production of low-volume, high-complexity documents by experts is not a good candidate because each document is produced bespoke and the negotiation process is essentially unpredictable;
- The production of mid-volume, mid-complexity documents such as business contracts, tenders and proposals, by knowledge workers, where there is predictable negotiation, is where there is the greatest scope for process improvement via Document Assembly.
Historically, Document Assembly solutions have suffered from one or more of three major issues:
- Too hard to set up and deploy;
- Too hard to maintain; and
- Too hard to use.
The case for implementing a given Document Assembly system is most effectively made when it satisfies all of the following criteria:
- The end-user experience is delivered completely via a web browser thus eliminating major deployment issues;
- The author experience is delivered both within the familiar Microsoft Word environment and also via a web browser interface;
- The author experience requires no download or installation whatsoever of any add-ons, templates or macros and requires no programming skills;
- The system integrates with existing sources of information (both during and after the Document Assembly process) to eliminate re-keying;
- The interview element of the Document Assembly process can be reliably stopped and restarted at any point;
- Authored documents can be amended and extended within the familiar Microsoft Word environment;
- The system can be piloted with a single business process / document to establish a success story on which to build.