You can create your business-critical documents from within Salesforce, using ActiveDocs document automation – the integration is seamless.
With a simple Salesforce.com setup, your business users can create documents from within the environment they are familiar with – they are taken though a questionnaire at a click of a button.
The document is created, pulling in the relevant data, then it is passed seamlessly back to Salesforce.com. More than simply merging data into a document, the template can contain business logic controlling the required content. Got a customer from California? The correct clause can be included dynamically. ActiveDocs users can set up and produce a variety of documents using the same Salesforce.com record and web service without IT involvement.
Our open API allows easy integration. It can be used to set up document creation from Salesforce and document storage into Salesforce in any combination. An end-to-end solution utilizes three simple steps shown in the Sales Proposal example below:
To invoke document creation, the business user clicks the Create Proposal button. This is a custom button, and can be anything you need.
The Document Wizard forms are generated automatically from your ActiveDocs template. All data, input, calculations, and business logic are assessed in real time – this way, the user is presented only with questions that are relevant to the documents being generated.
ActiveDocs' out-of-the-box Salesforce data connector enables business users to connect directly to data sources, or create custom web services that take advantage of standard web services provided by other systems such as Salesforce.com.
Data Views will pull relevant data, from Salesforce or elsewhere, and insert it into required documents like contracts, agreements, and sales proposals. This also means multiple data sources, both internal and external to the company, can be used for a single document.
Data that you have already captured in Salesforce – like Accounts, Opportunities, and Contracts – is made available to automatically populate your documents with the right details. ActiveDocs can perform powerful validation and cross-checking to ensure that your business rules are followed to the letter.
The powerful workflow features of ActiveDocs allow documents to be drafted, approved, and finalized under precise control and according to your business rules.
ActiveDocs workflows are highly flexible and can work dynamically with document data and metadata to adapt to each and every document. For example: some combinations of users, discount levels, and total proposal values might mean that different approvers and approver pathways may be required, and different document formats might be appropriate. ActiveDocs gives you that flexibility, and it really is capable of handling every document in a different way if your business processes require it.
Every item of information that you use to build a document, and metadata like user, site, date, and time, can be saved and used in ActiveDocs' powerful and customizable reporting engine, giving sales managers unparalleled breadth and depth of oversight in real-time.
Depending on your requirements, the business user can be returned to the Salesforce window, where the newly created Sales Proposal is listed with the Notes and Attachments.
Your generated documents can also be stored to repositories that are external to Salesforce.com. For example, the generated documents can be saved into a SharePoint Document Library, a document management system, a file system, or delivered by one of the many delivery channels supported by ActiveDocs.
Our Queensland Building and Construction Commission case study offers a real-life example of an automated document production system that utilizes Salesforce.
You can find out more about how you could make the most of ActiveDocs document automation within your Salesforce environment – just let us know!
