Over the past decade, many organizations have digitized much of their document processing. But even though most business documents are now stored digitally rather than in file cabinets, the processes for creating and sharing digital documents can be convoluted and time-consuming.
This is particularly the case for certain types of documents that are used again and again, such as sales proposals or monthly reports. Manually recreating these documents each time is often a poor use of your employees’ time. Businesses can create these documents more efficiently and automatically by using document generation software.
Let’s dig into how document generation software can work to automate and accelerate document creation.
What is document generation?
Document generation allows you to quickly build and share custom, data-driven documents with just a few clicks. By automating the document creation process, you remove the burden of these tasks from the shoulders of your teams. That means no more cutting and pasting, searching for data, and manually typing up information. Instead, you can focus on more valuable and fulfilling work.
It also ensures you remove the risk of human error. With access to Salesforce, Office 365, and data gathered through electronic forms, documents can be instantly and accurately filled with correct data. This accelerates processes, so you can populate documents with pre-approved templates and text in line with compliance, governance, and branding.
De-risk your documents
Manually copying and pasting data into documents is slow and inefficient, and not scalable across a high volume of recipients. This data may also not be current or pulled from the right place. The document template itself could be outdated, not using the organization’s latest approved template; and that document could be stored on a local computer with no governance or security around how it’s stored or transmitted.
This ad-hoc, decentralized, non-standardized approach to sending out documents is fraught with risk and a recipe for a compliance disaster.
Automated document generation fixes all this. Centralized, standardized document generation ensures teams send the right documents with the right data to the right people through the right channels, reducing IT and legal risk, improving customer experience, and driving regulatory compliance.
Business risk is a process problem.
Put your own mark on it
With document generation software, you can also ensure all documents are correctly branded. Documents can automatically include company branding, so any document created, whether it is internal or external, will always meet brand guidelines and the standards set by your organization.
But that’s only the start. To gain the truly transformative benefits of document generation software, you should use it alongside other process automation tools, like workflow automation or eSignature. That way you can automate the entire document routing process — streamlining reviews, simplifying signing processes, and securely storing documents.
Document generation software in action
Here are three examples of use cases that are applicable to almost all businesses and industries.
1. Contracts
Lots of important documents need to be created again and again, like customer contracts in a sales process. Recreating these documents quickly and accurately is key to pushing through those all-important sales agreements. Also, recreating them manually can be a poor use of your sales team’s time, when they could be talking to the prospective client and getting the sale past the finish line.
2. Onboarding/offboarding
When new employees join or current employees leave your company, documents get passed through many hands. Making sure these are shared efficiently is crucial in making the transition as smooth as possible, and creates a great experience for newly-recruited talent. Document generation can ensure all information is accurate and stored in the right place.
Read how Participate streamlined teacher recruitment and more.
3. Customer service agreements
With customer service agreements, accuracy is everything. Document generation allows you to ensure that documents are automatically created with the right information so that they cover everything that is required.
Read how Cartelligent automated a whole host of paper-based processes including customer service agreements and licenses.
Part of a bigger picture
As we mentioned above, when organizations integrate document generation software with a wider process automation platform they can achieve the most effective transformative digital change. The Nintex Process Platform makes this a reality.
No other platform combines all the process automation tools that your organization needs to cover every aspect of your most crucial processes. For instance, Nintex Process Manager can help you visualize, document and continuously manage the state of your processes, providing valuable information about which processes work and which don’t, and who is involved. This can help you plan what needs to be improved. It could highlight the areas of your business where automation, including document generation, could make a big impact.
The Nintex Process Platform offers:
- Document generation
- Process management
- Workflow automation
- Robotic process automation
- Electronic forms
- Mobile apps
- And much more
Document generation can drastically improve how your organization creates and shares documents. When used as part of a wider picture of process automation, it can transform how your organization operates.
Making a start is easy
Discover more benefits of document generation and learn how to get it up and running quickly at your organization by requesting a demo. Our experts will take you through the following:
- Automating document generation in Salesforce
- Digitally sending contracts and documents for eSignature
- Easily archiving documents for auditing and compliance purposes
Get a personalized demo today.
