Document automation is the technology-enabled process of creating commonly used documents. Here’s everything you need to know about document automation.
Document automation, also referred to as document assembly, is the technology-enabled process of creating commonly used documents, such as contracts, invoices, quotes, or offer letters, at scale.
Document automation relies on software that pulls data either from a questionnaire or an existing database to populate a template and produce new documents.
For example, when creating a standard contract, the document automation software can identify personal data, such as the client’s name and address, from a form and input it directly into smart fields within a document template. The software can also scan third-party databases or internal systems, such as the organization’s configure price quote (CPQ) or customer relationship management (CRM) systems, to further personalize and customize document fields.
Any document that is commonly reproduced is a good candidate for document automation. However, organizations must keep in mind that the software will update only select fields based on rules within the system and information available within the organization.
While document automation software continues to advance and can now produce more detailed and nuanced files based on more complex rules and detailed templates, the most common use cases involve files that require minimal changes from one instance to the next. These may include:
The primary purpose of document automation software is to create documents faster by automating the time-consuming, labor-intensive manual processes associated with drafting and creating common documents. However, a document automation system offers many other important benefits beyond time and cost efficiency. These include:
Document automation is a critical capability for any organization that needs to create and share documents at scale. It is especially important for large businesses and growing companies, the likes of which cannot afford to spend valuable resources recreating the same core document multiple times.
While document automation has many use cases, some of the most common include:
Document automation software can be used to develop quotes, contracts and other assets used during the sales process. In this case, document automation not only saves valuable time, but also reduces the likelihood of human error by ensuring all documents contain relevant, complete and updated components related to the terms and conditions of the sale.
Lawyers and legal professionals are among the most frequent users of document automation. Use of document automation software by law firms and legal teams reduces the time-consuming tasks of researching and drafting contracts and other detailed legal documents, allowing staff to focus on more high-value activity.
HR is another function that generally needs to produce a high volume of documents based on a standard template. Automating processes for employee relations, which can include offer letters, policy agreements, confirmation of training, or completion of a review cycle, are excellent candidates for document automation in that they require very little customization and can be pushed through to the e-signature phase quickly using a workflow tool.
Any organization that operates in a complex regulatory landscape would benefit from document automation. This may include financial services, insurance, healthcare and others. Document automation ensures that any customer-facing or public documentation includes the proper compliance measures, reducing the risk of the organization.
The document automation solution landscape can be crowded and confusing for many organizations. Here are some questions to consider when evaluating various document automation systems:
As the number of documents produced explodes each year, organizations charged with reviewing such documentation may find that they are spending copious amounts of time to validate and authenticate such files.
Inscribe is a technology partner that helps businesses review documentation and detect fraudulent customer information through advanced technology and automation. Our rules-based fraud detection capabilities and machine learning helps banks, financial institutions and other organizations generate a full analysis of the legitimacy of various documents – even those produced by another company with a document automation tool.
To learn more about how Inscribe is helping organizations detect and prevent document-based fraud, please schedule a personalized demo.
Check out our other guides on document processing: