Choosing a Business Document Design Software

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There was a time when the average business document design software involved settling on a Word Processor application and ensuring employees were sufficiently trained to use it. How the documents created with that platform were categorized and stored for efficient retrieval was often left to the individual user, or sometimes, when a forward-thinking CIO came along, to a corporate-wide strategy.

However, even when a business has a document design software in place, valuable time and resources are often wasted because the design was not well thought out or lacked the proper design solution for its particular needs.

The Importance of a Business Document Design Software

Every business, from the mom-and-pop novelty store to multinational corporations, needs some kind of business document design platform to ensure all the forms, receipts, invoices, work orders, and a million other documents are consistent.

Most businesses need to review and reduce costs to some extent, because the true cost of document production is often far higher than most realize. In fact, industry analyst IDC* reports that up to an astonishing 30% of the average company’s revenue spent on document processing could be saved. Astonishing, because many businesses are not aware of how much of their profit is being lost in badly designed business forms and documents and the hours spent tracking down reports, receipts, etc. IDC* points to a disconnected document process as a major handicap for investment. And most of that lossage is caused by gaps between back and front office business processes.

Business Document Design

A business document design software, in the context of document processing, does not refer to typical graphic design products, such as Adobe^®´s suite, but to a software platform used to design business document templates that can be used to generate documents in different formats with flexible data that is constantly changing. Good examples include contracts, insurance policies, bank statements, etc.

Main Features to Consider

When choosing a business document design platform, here are some things to consider:

The design solution should be easily integrated within an existing infrastructure and within any already implemented document process solution. For example, does the design software you are considering offer a quick, efficient and safe migration from legacy applications, such as IBM^® InfoPrint^® Designer and Adobe^® Central Server? A good document design platform will save time and headaches, not create more.
The design interface should be easy to use.
The business document design software should offer multi-layer features, to allow users to work on different templates at the same time. For example, when the same document design template is to be created in different languages.
All documents are different and have specific characteristics. Therefore, the document design software must offer a variety of design objects: static and dynamic text fields and image fields, different types of barcodes, 2D and 3D charts, flexible columns, etc.
Report generation is important, for users to be able to track changes and errors.
Preview of the final document.
Finally, an adequate document design software offers repository features, to securely store and control the different versions of designed templated and all their resources (images, text fonts, etc. ).

Enhancing the Complete Business Document Cycle

The best business document design platforms help to nurture and strengthen an enterprise’s clients’ relationships by optimizing their Document Output Management and Print Process Management processes. As they are typically part of a larger document process system, they help to enable a business to see and manage the complete document cycle, from the design and generation stage to the actual distribution of the documents and files that constitute the company’s methods of communicating with their customers.

Many businesses have a very ad-hoc approach to document output and printing, and the result is a very high ratio of devices to the number of employees. Therefore, intuitive and flexible business document design software is a major component in streamlining your print output more efficiently, thus saving time and money.

Four stages of the Business Document Cycle

To better understand the importance of agile and flexible business document design, let´s have a look at the some of the main steps of a document cycle:

Design – The business document lifecycle typically begins with the design of the template that will be used for the final document (e.g. invoices, contracts, policies, etc.), ideally employing an easy-to-use, flexible and complete document design software.
Process – This is the stage of the cycle where it becomes possible to trigger document routing and processing when new content is created or existing content is updated. Streamlining authorization processes allow digital review of documents beyond the office.
Output – This involves everything from simple monitoring and tracking or print, copy, fax, and scan jobs to employing MFD hardware that provides secure and controlled access. The Output stage is controlled, among other systems, through the effective use of Print Management Software. Such software gives a business the tools to effectively manage users, devices, and access controls. The process enhances user productivity and improves efficiency.
Records Management – It is often when your documents enter this part of the cycle that the right platform is most valuable. Depending on the business need or document, documents can be stored securely to meet regulatory and statutory requirements. Consistency in your organization’s workflow is essential. Good records management ensures against inappropriate and unauthorized access. This is not just for security but also to ensure documents remain consistent.

All in all, it all begins with understanding your business and its document processes. The demands on an office’s document design, storage and output environment are changing as sources of information increase exponentially. The answer is, without a doubt, the right document design software that can be easily expanded with document management and generation features.

References:

André Klein
Freelance DocPath Consultant

Disclaimer: DocPath trademarks are the property of DocPath Corp. IBM trademarks are the property of IBM Corporation. Android and Google Play DocPath logo are Google Inc. registered trademarks. Other company, product and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.

Jul 24, 2018 | *Blog Articles*, Document Design, Document Software