Static Documents: Where Data Goes to Die

Anand Narasimhan, the Chief Technology Officer at S-Docs, explains why static documents are bad for your company’s data and how automation can help. This article originally appeared in Insight Jam, an enterprise IT community that enables human conversation on AI.

Data is table stakes for an organization, and how it’s managed is equally, if not more, important. This process should be dynamic, timely, and consistent. If you wouldn’t use those words to describe how your organization manages, shares, and stores your data, it’s a big sign that you need to revisit the process. This is where static documents can hurt, and automation can help.

Static documents are critical to business operations and are a familiar, easy-to-use format for managing data. Instead of learning a new data management system, people can more easily create a document, fill it out with the correct data, and store it. Just because static documents are easy and familiar doesn’t mean they are reliable or dependable.

Static Documents Lead to Fragmented Data, Which Leads to Risk.

There’s a right time and place for static documents. When used incorrectly, they can unknowingly expose your organization to avoidable risks.

Compliance and security breaches

Let’s use a business contract as an example. Contracts contain sensitive Personally Identifiable Information (PII), such as email addresses, social security numbers, names, and more, all of which must be protected.

For the sake of our example, say someone generates a contract, attaches it to an email, and sends it to a client. There are a few significant risks in doing this:

1. Email breaches: If you lose access to your email or someone gains access, they can see this sensitive data.

2. No encryption: Housing data in documents sent via email without encryption, redaction, or security measures can open the door for security breaches and compliance issues.

3. Local machine downloads: If team members download documents with sensitive data onto their local machine, the machine could be stolen or infected with a virus.

4. Human error: It is also possible to accidentally send a contract to the wrong person or give someone’s data to the wrong person.

5. Compliance issues: Static documents don’t allow data to be updated and handled by team members consistently and securely. This creates problems in complying with industry regulations and getting the latest data from original data sources.

Compliance issues and security breaches can be costly in terms of fines and fees — not to mention the reputational damage that can take years to overcome.

Frustration and friction

Word, Google Docs, spreadsheets, and PDFs are static in nature (which has benefits and drawbacks). As soon as you create these documents, they (along with the data you’re collecting with them) are outside of your system. This leads to data silos, adding more fuel to the fire.

Here’s an example of how this can be an issue for your team: When you’re actively negotiating a contract, you need the contract to stay up to speed with your system — and if this is done manually, it requires a lot of time and effort. If, for instance, a contract’s start and end date change, you will need to go back and update every document to ensure that it reflects the change, or make a new one and risk your team using the wrong version.

Document versions also can be an unnecessary hurdle. While it’s ideal that everyone will work off the same document, this isn’t always the case. People often create their own version of a document to avoid confusion, which can cause a big issue when it’s time to make a consolidated, accurate contract version and send it to the signer.

Moreover, no one wants to sift through spreadsheets, paperwork, contracts, and other documents to realize that the one they found had the wrong, outdated information and have to start from square one.

Automation’s Role in Risk Mitigation

Static documents and data are somewhat at odds with each other, whereas data and automation systems are more secure and synergistic—they work for you and are harder to use against you. Automation makes it easy to stay compliant and reduce risk.

• Improved data accuracy: Going back to the contract example, contracts are usually treated as static documents. However, they have many dynamic data points that allow them to be used as living, breathing documents. This has many benefits, including streamlined operations, better customer service, and consistent data management processes across teams.

• Version history and tracking: A good document automation tool will give you a centralized place for multiple people to work on a document and allow for version tracking, making it much easier to get a contract to the finish line.

• Higher security: Some document automation tools utilize cloud storage and can encrypt, redact, and mask sensitive data, which can help you rest assured in terms of security and compliance. This data can be shown to those authorized to access it, and it will be hidden from others.

• Tying your documents to your CRM: Updating data directly in your CRM and having that data dynamically pulled into an updated document saves significant time, makes it easy, and ensures everyone has the latest information. Some document automation solutions also have write-back capabilities, meaning that data entered into a field is automatically mapped back to your CRM.

Document automation platforms work wonders in terms of saving time and ensuring accuracy, organization, and security. They ensure your data is dynamic, timely, and consistent. Static documents are where data goes to die.