What is DOCCM? A Forrester report entitled "Document Output For Customer Communications Management, Q2 2009" explored the capabilities of a sample of vendors and products in this very specific sector of the Document Automation space. Look here for more information.
Is ActiveDocs Opus a DOCCM solution? Yes. Look here for more information about DOCCM and the Forrester report in general, and here for more detail about ActiveDocs Opus in relation to DOCCM.
Why would we want to use templates? Templates allow you to start standardizing your documentation by providing a convenient starting point for document creation using corporate standards. On their own, however, templates still have drawbacks:
Users still have to go looking for templates with attendant risks and time costs
Template repositories need to be kept up-to-date with changes like branding, regulations, and market drivers
Large numbers of templates can produce significant maintenance issues
Unless templates are easily found and easy to use, users will fall back on practices like copy-and-paste
Standard templates don't easily support repeated instances of the same data, filtered access to external data sources, and other features to help reduce errors
What advantages does an ActiveDocs Opus solution have over ordinary templates?
ActiveDocs Opus provides an integrated environment for Template Designers using a component-based approach: ActiveDocs Opus Designer
ActiveDocs Opus allows Template Designers to build intelligence, rules, and user help, into Templates
Users can find, and use, all of their ActiveDocs Opus Templates via the ActiveDocs Opus Express Wizard's web browser interface, allowing your end users to use the right template, right now
The web-based ActiveDocs Opus Document Wizard takes users through a well-controlled, rule-driven, help-assisted, logical process to complete their documents
ActiveDocs Opus provides Designers with the tools to access external data sources via reusable components
ActiveDocs Opus supports rapid change and deployment through reusable components, a robust and comprehensive Design environment, and server-based web-enabled access to Templates
ActiveDocs Opus Templates are Word-based with added ActiveDocs intelligence, supporting multiple instances of data, external data sources, Image capture, Free Text, and other features covered elsewhere on this site
Interactive (User-Driven) and programmatic (Automated Mode) usage of the same ActiveDocs Opus Template is fully supported
What is a “component-based approach” for Templates? Is software development required?
ActiveDocs Opus uses a component-based approach for Template Design - and there's no programming involved
Designers develop catalogs of reusable ActiveDocs Opus Design Components which include:
Templates
Snippets for common content
Data Views for accessing data in other systems
Templates use Snippets and Data Views, and can be used to build Template Sets
Snippets can be purely passive content or can also contain their own ActiveDocs Opus Intelligence as Active Snippets
Snippets - passive or Active - can be reused in other Office applications
Does ActiveDocs Opus require significant IT involvement?
No.
Installations do require IT support, take less than a day, and can be done remotely
ActiveDocs Opus Designer was especially created with business users in mind for template design and management
User-driven document creation is a simple web-based process using a browser without any application rollout
ActiveDocs Opus is designed to integrate with your other applications and your IT people will want to get involved with configuring that - it's their job and what they do best
Does ActiveDocs Opus support multiple delivery channels?
Yes.
ActiveDocs Opus supports delivery in multiple formats via print, fax, email, and onward handling
Delivery integrates with your existing IT infrastructure
Print, fax, and email delivery use configurable queues and support grouping and OCR for cost control
Onward handling includes options for storage into other applications and via web services
What level of post-creation document processing does ActiveDocs Opus support?
ActiveDocs Opus supports a comprehensive range of post-creation document processing.
Designated regions of the document which are refreshable via the ActiveDocs Opus Client
Delivery which integrates with your print, fax, and email infrastructure
Onward handling including options for storage into other applications and via web services
What about support for open standards?
ActiveDocs Opus provides document output in multiple industry standard formats including Word, PDF, TIFF, and HTM
The Open Document (Text) Format (ODF-ODT) is fully supported as an open standard output document format
For output documents, ActiveDocs Opus will support the ISO/IEC OOXML open standard when it is supported by Microsoft® Office
ActiveDocs Opus Template Design is performed in Microsoft® Word and will support the ISO/IEC OOXML open standard when it is supported by Microsoft® Office
ActiveDocs is proud to be a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner. ActiveDocs Opus is built on Microsoft® technology.
How much re-use of content and other components does ActiveDocs Opus support?
Part of the core philosophy behind ActiveDocs Opus is content re-use.
ActiveDocs Opus Designer provides for modular design of Templates using reusable components for common content, data access, fields, and rules
Designer provides complete control, enforcement, and reporting of relationships between components
ActiveDocs Opus Version Control integrates with Designer to provide complete version control and publish-now, publish-later control over components
ActiveDocs Opus Snippets are designed for common, reusable, content such as standard paragraphs, terms and conditions, legal clauses, and other recurring content
Snippets can be purely passive content or can also contain their own ActiveDocs Opus Intelligence as Active Snippets
Snippets can enable re-use of existing external content - ActiveDocs Opus can access content mapped as Snippets in other systems
Templates are built using their own content and with links to Snippets when common content is needed
Snippets may be re-used outside of ActiveDocs Opus, for example in Microsoft® Office via the Research Pane
In summary, Snippets can use common content you already have, and new common content, for use in ActiveDocs Opus Templates and throughout your other Office applications
ActiveDocs Opus Templates may be combined into Template Sets
ActiveDocs Opus Templates and Template Sets may be used for interactive (User-Driven Mode) and programmatic (Automated Mode) document generation
How do I manage the content that I'm using in ActiveDocs Opus?
ActiveDocs Opus Designer's Content Manager provides full content management for ActiveDocs Opus.
Check-In as Draft or Publish Now or Publish Later (Deferred Publishing)
Discard Check-Out
Promote and copy-out previous versions
Design Component Approval for pre-publication verification of new or changed material
Optional mapping to existing external repositories of snippet and template material
Export and Import functions for moving components between development, QA, and production systems
Tell me about performance and resilience, as these are especially important to us?
ActiveDocs Opus is a high-performance enterprise-grade application
Multi-threading for scale-up performance using multi-processor servers
Multi-server for high-resilience and scale-out performance
High volume output benchmarked at over 150,000 documents per hour
One of our customers produces over 7 MILLION documents per annum with our automated solution
Proven design-and-use capability with thousand-page templates
Our customers have between 100 and 7000 automated templates and document sets
Do ActiveDocs Opus Template Designers need to manually build the end user interview?
No. Designers create Templates using ActiveDocs intelligence with grouping and ordering for consistency and flow
Designers also use rules to control the flow of groups and the content of the output document
The ActiveDocs Opus Document Wizard works automatically with any ActiveDocs Opus Template
The Document Wizard follows the Designer's ordering, grouping, and rules
What software do my end users need with ActiveDocs Opus?
To use ActiveDocs Opus Templates from the ActiveDocs Opus Express Wizard, all you need is a web browser
Documents can be created in most Word formats, ODF, PDF, and XPS
Other software needed will depend on the selected document format, and what your end users need to do with the document after creating it
The ActiveDocs Opus Client'sResearch, Refresh, Update functions allow users to save documents back to ActiveDocs Opus, use ActiveDocs Opus Snippets in other Office applications, and refresh their documents
Can we integrate ActiveDocs Opus with other applications?
Yes, in many ways
ActiveDocs Opus Templates can use data from other systems
The Document Wizard can be invoked with preset Answers
Other applications can use ActiveDocs Opus in Automated Mode to create documents programmatically using ActiveDocs Opus Templates
Documents created with ActiveDocs Opus can easily be forwarded to other applications for onward processing
Do we need to install Microsoft® Word on our server?
ActiveDocs Opus creates documents in Microsoft® Word 2007 (OOXML) format by default, without using Microsoft® Word.
ActiveDocs Opus can automatically create documents in a wide range of other formats for which a single user copy of Microsoft® Word is required on the server.
We provide strict guidelines when implementing which means that the Microsoft® Word instance is well-managed and runs under very high security.
Do ActiveDocs products work with Open Office XML (OOXML)?
ActiveDocs Opus Designer's Design Tools is an add-in for Microsoft® Word 2007 which uses OOXML for creating Templates. ActiveDocs Opus also creates documents in Microsoft® Word 2007 (OOXML) format by default. ActiveDocs Opus can create documents in a wide range of alternative formats which are described here. ActiveDocs Opus will support the OOXML IEC/ISO specification when the specification is supported by Microsoft® Office.
Can ActiveDocs Opus create documents in the Open Document Format?
Yes. ActiveDocs Opus can create documents in a wide range of alternative formats, including ODF/ODT, which are described here.
How are ActiveDocs products used?
Banking and Finance
Loans and Statements
Insurance
Policy and Endorsement Documents
Procurement and Fulfillment
Sales Ready Marketing and Order Fulfilment
Sales and HR
Proposals, RFI responses and HR Contracts
Regulatory and Government
Legal Titles, Rates, Public Notices, Regulation Changes
We have offices providing pre- and post- sales support in:
North America (Kansas City USA)
EMEA (London UK)
Asia-Pacific (Brisbane AUS and Auckland NZ)
80% of our business is in the Northern Hemisphere
Most installs take less than a day and can be done remotely
On average we get only two support emails per day
We can offer service level agreements
What makes ActiveDocs the right company to deal with?
We are dedicated to one product line
Our development team have been involved in the product since its inception
We’re a highly profitable, privately owned company
We have many Fortune 500 customers
We are a trusted part of the core infrastructure of our clients
Can ActiveDocs supply references?
Yes. We have complete confidence in our product and so do our customers
References are available so please contact us directly
What about the cost and ROI?
ActiveDocs provides value through enterprise-wide efficiency
Price versus features we believe we offer the best solution available
Our customers could tell you about their ROI
A large multinational has saved US$1.3m in the first year
A major bank has reduced overtime to nil in one department and isn’t replacing staff who leave
One major corporate client cut the time required to create a complex legal contract from 4 days to under 1 hour
Creating documents takes time. Fixing problems in documents takes time. If you could save just one hour in creation or rework per document using ActiveDocs Opus, across 100,000 documents in a year, that one hundred thousand hours saved could mean over Five Million Dollars in annual savings.
Couldn’t we build something like ActiveDocs Opus ourselves?
We have spent 16 years developing the ActiveDocs product line
You need to consider:
Time
Money
Resources
Long term user support
Evolution
Support for new and changing technologies - such as operating systems, databases, word processing, and document formats
We issue on average 6 feature upgrades per annum
Isn’t this what Microsoft’s Open XML SDK is used for?
Microsoft’s Open XML SDK is an excellent toolkit - for developers!
For business users, a higher level solution is required.
Software development is required to make that happen...
... and you might ask yourself why you couldn't build a solution.
And we might refer you to the question (and answers) above.
Couldn’t we harness the capabilities of other Microsoft 2007 or 2010 technologies?
See ”Couldn’t we build something like ActiveDocs Opus ourselves?” (above)
See ”Isn’t this what Microsoft’s Open XML SDK is used for?” (above)
There is an ActiveDocs White Paper on this subject here.
ActiveDocs and its respective components are all trademarks or registered trademarks of ActiveDocs Ltd.
All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective trademark holders.
