In other words, for any business that creates documents, adopting technology that powers up your document creation process is vital to remain competitive.
Document automation provides a solution for businesses or firms that produce repeated documents or sets of documents as part of their daily operations, for example contracts, agreements, letters, etc. If you want to learn more about what document automation is all about, see our Document Automation 101 article.
We set out in this article a range of practical examples so that you can better understand how your business can benefit from document automation.
The examples show you exactly what benefits you can expect when when implementing document automation software. This software is built specifically to work together with your current document creation tools, such as Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF.
Document automation whether used with Microsoft Word (word automation) or with PDFs (PDF automation) will save a significant amount of time when creating documents.
Here are a couple of examples of how document automation can save you time and money:
Document automation uses templates which are stored centrally:
When you want to create a new document, you no longer have to hunt down the correct document. You simply launch the template / interview in your document automation software.
The time-consuming part of creating a document (e.g reading the document line by line to make sure it contains the correct data, wording and paragraphs) is eliminated when you use document automation software:
You answer a questionnaire / interview and based on your answers the document automation software creates the document. Your document always contains the correct information, paragraphs, clauses and/or schedules based on your answers.
You can complete a set of related documents in one go, instead of completing each item one by one. If you need to enter the client address on each of these documents – you only need to provide it once – and the address will be automatically placed where it needs to go.
When a client’s details are updated – because they moved house or got married – this could result in time-consuming work in updating all the relevant documents. With document automation software, you change the data once and in one place only.
You can create several related documents all in one go.
Information that is used across all the related documents only needs to be entered once and this information will be included in all the documents:
A client’s name is entered once, and is inserted in all the correct places in the related documents (for example on the all the cover pages, in the definitions clauses and on the signature pages).
It is often the case that you need to get your client to provide you with information and documentation so that you can prepare a document.
Without document automation software you may have to send the client a PDF form that they must complete and email back to you. PDF forms are static so this is a tedious process for your client, and they often provide incorrect information.
When you receive the PDF document from the client you may have to manually copy the information from the PDF into the document that you want to create.
This whole process is very time-consuming and error prone.
With a modern web-based document automation system you can avoid these tedious steps.
When referring to a client’s details in a document, it is essential that the data, such as the client’s name, address and contact details are accurate and up to date.
Maintaining the consistency of data is something that document automation software was specifically designed to do.
By reducing the amount of manual data entry into each document, you are also reducing the possibilities of typos caused by human error.
When creating a document you may decide to use a document from a previous transaction. You quickly search for the name of the client and replace it with the new client’s details.
This is a time consuming and error prone.
Since document automation software is based on templates, and you create a document using a simple interview or questionnaire, you will never have to use a previous document as the basis for a new document.
Document automation software allows you to get relevant data from a central database. For example, instead of entering a client’s address details manually, you can simply pull in the client’s latest physical address from your CRM or other system.
To maintain a strong brand presence and professionalism (corporate identity), you expect all your documents to look the same – using the same logo, dimensions, font and colors across the board.
This visual consistency can be built into all of your documents.
Let’s say your corporate logo is getting an upgrade. As a result, all the templates that you use will need to be updated. When you use document automation software, you will only need to change your logo once and in one place for it to take effect everywhere.
Your company has an established font style, color, size, and styles in Word. These need to be accurate and the same every time, no matter who is creating the document. When using document automation, a style template will ensure that every document that is created will conform to your corporate style guide.
The time and effort that you save through using document automation will result in improved staff productivity which will translate into cost savings for your business.
Your business can stop wasting money on time consuming document creation processes and free up your employees’ time to focus on more important tasks.
If you’re familiar with HotDocs but are new starting out with XpressDox, it can be a bit tricky getting used to the new way of doing things. But on the other hand, since you are familiar with the HotDocs way of doing things, you’re off to a good start. Consequently, there will be many concepts that cross over between the two systems that will be familiar to you.
Luckily, there are a number of resources that you can make use of to help you along:
Document automation software can help avoid costly mistakes and is an invaluable tool in your compliance toolkit to help reduce your legal risk.
Using inaccurate or out-of-date data can cause problems for you down the line.
Most importantly, this could result in costly litigation against you.
By using templates to generate your documents, the created documents will always contain the correct clauses.
By adopting document automation software whether through automating your Microsoft Word templates (word automation) or using document automation to generate PDF Forms (PDF Automation), you will drastically increase your value to your clients.
Keeping track of data, being accurate 100% of the time, providing the right layout every time – these are elements that you can and should hand over to document automation software.
This means lower risk, greater cost-saving, and greater value for your business.
If you want to learn more about document automation, please contact us.
Our experts can set you up for success from the very beginning.
If your business needs to be super-charged with all the benefits of document automation, you’ve come to the right place. Our experts will help take your business to new heights:
