Document Generation & Management Software

Discover IT has created a Document Management System (DMS) which manages and uses a library of document templates to generate specific data-bound documents that are relevant to the different stages of a business application.

Users develop their own document templates for a range of purposes. These templates are document layouts, styled and with content that can be bound to data generated from a database or application. In addition, the templates can themselves be modified by the application based on the data available, thereby changing the content of a document.

For our DMS, we created an add-in program which is used with Microsoft Word 2007 or Word 2003 with Service Pack 2, to allow the users to create their own document templates. The template is laid-out and styled using Word in the normal way. To insert a placeholder where data will be bound, they use the add-in tool which lists, in a tree-view, all the available data nodes in the Data Object Model (on the right-hand side below). They navigate to the correct node and double-click on it to add the placeholder.

The solution is able to deal with more complex data binding than just adding fields. It is also possible to bind collections, including nested collections, and create conditional blocks.

The templates are then uploaded to the Web server and administered via an administration screen. Each template can be set to apply to one or more stages of the application.

When a customer reaches the specific stage in the application, the available documents are determined automatically from the templates library. When the customer selects a document to view, print or email, the data binder automatically binds the Data Object to the corresponding document template. The resulting Word document is then converted into a PDF (using the XML2PDF conversion utility), which the customer can then download, and view, store, print or email.

This solution is currently deployed in the Insurance industry. It can be easily applied to many other industries, for example:

• Financial
• Profit and loss accounts
• Balance sheets
• Cash flow analyses . . .
• Insurance
• Statements of fact
• Insurance quotations
• Certificates of insurance
• New business schedules
• Adjustment schedules
• Renewal schedules
• Cancellation schedules . . .
• Sales order processing
• Direct debit mandates
• Delivery notes
• Invoices
• Statements of account
• Warranty cards . . .
• Manufacturing
• Bills of material
• Production reports
• Machinery breakdown reports
• Maintenance plans
• Quality assurance plans
• Inspection reports . . .
• Utilities
• Monthly invoices
• Monthly invoice breakdowns
• Payment overdue reminders . . .
• Government administration
• Rating valuations
• Taxation summaries . . .

If you have an application that requires the dynamic generation of Word or PDF documents, our Documents Management System with its Document Template Generator may be just what you need. Please call us on 0118-971-3975 to find out more.