publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/143561
DOCUMENT FACTORIES: BUILDING DOCUMENT AUTOMATION TOOLS •Sending data and documents. The ability to send answer files or completed documents via an integrated email or sharing function may be helpful when there is more than one person involved in the document creation process. •Exporting data. The ability to export data entered into the questionnaire can be helpful for data analysis, deal tracking, etc. software will likely necessitate a review of existing templates to ensure they work as intended in the new version. The quality assurance process can be a time-consuming, manual process of checking each possible permutation — with branched logic, there can be thousands of permutations in a particular document (depending on the complexity of View your relationship with your vendor as a partnership and select one accordingly. Assess a vendor's commitment to responding to particular problems as well as its willingness to make improvements to the product in response to your needs. Also assess the long-term stability and viability of the vendor's business. A switch to a new vendor would require familiarizing yourself with a the automation in that document). If version changes create problems with existing templates (i.e., the quality assurance process must be replicated with each update), you could find yourself overwhelmed just trying to keep your document automation tools current. new development environment and re-automating your existing library of documents. •Workflow automation. Vendors offer varying degrees of workflow automation, which can be helpful when the end users infrequently use the tool or do not have substantive expertise regarding the underlying documents. •Testing. The availability of any built-in testing or quality assurance capabilities can expedite the process of developing and releasing document automation tools significantly. •Administrative tools. Assess the ease of use of the administrative tools for managing automated forms and libraries of those forms. •Software updates and transitions. A potentially underappreciated issue is the work associated with software updates. In addition to the installation of software upgrades and testing, new versions of the development EXERCISE CARE IN SELECTING PROJECTS Since most firms or in-house legal departments will have limited resources to devote to document