If Document Generation Can Be Automated, It Should Be!

By Olga Zakharenkava

This strategic move that can lead to significant cost savings, efficiency gains and improved organizational performance

Organizations are fundamentally dependent on document creation for their operations. From contracts, invoices and reports to production documentation and omnichannel customer communications, document generation is required at every step of a business process. Yet, some businesses still don't view document generation as a core process where automation is a must-have. This oversight leads to inefficiencies, including wasted time, increased costs and subpar customer and employee experiences. Organizations constrained by resources should seriously consider all document automation opportunities as a clear path to ROI and growth.

Is manual document generation a problem worth solving?

The answer lies in the natural and omnipresent consequences of manual work. Manual document generation involves repetitive tasks, higher risks of human error and inconsistent communication. Valuable resources are wasted, and both the quality of work and customer interactions suffer. For instance, errors in invoices or contracts can lead to disputes, delays and a loss of credibility. Moreover, manual processes can frustrate employees who must deal with cumbersome systems and repetitive tasks.

But is all this worth the effort and investment in automation software? Consider a few research-based data points: According to a Forrester study, businesses that implement document automation technologies experience up to a 50% reduction in document processing time and improved productivity (Source: Forrester, 2023). Gartner estimates that organizations can save between 20% to 30% in operational costs by automating document generation and related processes, due to decreased labor costs and reduced error rates (Source: Gartner, 2022).

Document creation processes should be a top priority if your organization is seeking cost-cutting measures and efficiency improvements.

Let’s automate! Who will do the work?

Implementing document generation automation involves various internal stakeholders, each playing a crucial role in the evaluation and success of the project. Here are the key players and their typical roles:

IT Team: Oversees the deployment and integration of automation solutions, ensuring alignment with the organization's IT infrastructure and security protocols.
Operations Team: Focuses on enhancing business process efficiency, including document generation, and may lead the automation initiative.
CRM Owner: Manages the CRM system, which often includes document generation functionalities, ensuring it meets customer communication needs.
Document Management Team: Handles the setup and maintenance of document management systems, including template creation and automation rules.
Customer Service Team: Oversees tools and strategies for customer communications, ensuring they improve customer experiences.
Finance Team: Involved in automating financial documents like invoices and reports, ensuring accuracy and compliance with regulations.
Compliance Officers: Ensure automated document processes adhere to legal and regulatory requirements, collaborating with IT and operations.
Business Analysts: Analyze automation needs and identify requirements, working with various departments to implement effective solutions.
End Users/Department Heads: Provide feedback on the functionality and effectiveness of automation tools, ensuring they meet their needs.

If you are one of these stakeholders, you can take charge and drive the automation project. It takes a team to automate document generation processes, but all teams will benefit!

So many documents. Where to start?

Not sure which documents to prioritize for automation? Start by taking an inventory and reviewing your document processes. Engaging a business analyst can help. Consider systems that will feed data into your documents and envision how your new library of templates will eventually come to life with personalized data. Here are some common documents and processes that can benefit from automation:

Contract Creation: Automate contracts by populating templates with client-specific data from a CRM system.
Invoice Generation: Create and send invoices automatically based on sales orders or service records to ensure consistency and accuracy.
Proposal Generation: Streamline proposal creation by integrating CRM data to automatically include client information and project details.
Report Generation: Automate routine business reports, such as financial summaries and sales performance, by pulling data from various systems.
Employee Onboarding Documents: Automate the creation of onboarding paperwork, including offer letters and benefits enrollment forms.
Compliance Documentation: Generate audit reports, safety certifications and other compliance-related documents automatically.
Customer Communications: Create automated templates for order confirmations, shipping updates and follow-up emails.
Legal Documents: Automate the generation of legal documents like NDAs and service agreements using predefined templates.
Financial Statements: Use automation to produce financial statements from accounting system data.
Internal Documentation: Automate the creation of internal documents, such as policy manuals and procedure guides.

By automating these documents, organizations can significantly reduce manual effort, enhance accuracy and improve overall efficiency. The right document automation software can handle any document, any template, any data source and deliver any output format for any channel, print or digital.

So many ideas. How to prioritize?

Once a list of documents for automation is ready, it’s crucial to prioritize which areas to tackle first. Here are some tips for prioritization:

Assess Repetitive Tasks: Identify tasks performed frequently and repetitively.
Evaluate Error-Prone Processes: Focus on areas with high error rates.
Review Communication Channels: Look for opportunities to automate responses and updates in customer communications.
Analyze Document Workflow: Examine how documents are created, reviewed and stored to identify inefficiencies.
Identify Data Integration Points: Target processes involving data transfer between systems to reduce manual entry and improve accuracy.
Evaluate Compliance Requirements: Ensure automation addresses areas requiring strict adherence to regulatory standards.
Survey Employee Feedback: Gather input from those involved in document creation to identify pain points and areas for improvement.
Monitor Customer Interaction Patterns: Automate common customer interactions to streamline communication.
Conduct a Cost-Benefit Analysis: Assess the potential ROI of automation projects.

By carefully analyzing these factors, organizations can make informed decisions about which automation projects to pursue first.

So many ways to automate. How to choose the right technology?

Having identified priority areas for automation, it’s time to select the right technology. Consider whether an on-premise or cloud-based solution best fits your needs. Versatile, any-premise solutions that can operate across different environments — on-premise, cloud or hybrid — offer several advantages:

Flexibility and Adaptability: These solutions adapt to various IT environments, providing seamless integration with existing infrastructure.
Scalability: They can scale according to organizational needs, adjusting to changes in document generation requirements without significant infrastructure changes.
Business Continuity: They ensure continuity in document generation capabilities regardless of infrastructure changes or failures.
Cost Efficiency: They allow you to choose deployment models based on budget and resource constraints, optimizing costs.
Enhanced Collaboration: These solutions improve collaboration by integrating with various platforms, facilitating real-time document sharing and teamwork.

By selecting an any-premise solution, organizations can ensure their automation efforts are both flexible and robust, meeting diverse needs and providing a solid foundation for future growth.

It’s time to automate. What to expect

Automating document generation is not just a trend but a strategic move that can lead to significant cost savings, efficiency gains and improved organizational performance. For example, Gartner found that IT teams can save up to 50% of their time on document management tasks by implementing automation (Source: Gartner, 2022).

By understanding the stakeholders involved, identifying key documents for automation, and choosing the right technology, organizations can transform their document processes and deliver better results. If document generation can be automated, it undoubtedly should be. Take the leap (and have a plan!) — embrace automation and become the change leader within your organization.

Olga Zakharenkava focuses on delivering business value to organizations through world-class SaaS customer communications management solutions. She has a strong background in CCM technology and regularly contributes thought-leadership content to industry publications. Olga covers topics that include SaaS software, marketing, strategy and digital transformation.