e views - January 2009 - (Page 3)

Interactive documents have recently received a lot of attention. In the pursuit of automation and business efficiency, the spotlight is now on what is probably the last—but certainly not the least—remaining area where document software vendors can bring value. The relationship with customers is often supported through letters, personalised offers, and other types of ad-hoc documentation. While transactional documents are fundamental to the customer relationship, they address events and a relationship from the past—i.e. they list transactions which have taken place in the past. With the exception of addressing issues or errors around individual transactions, all transactional documents materialise transactions and provide evidence for record keeping. TransPromo documents help improve the customer relationship value of transactional documents, but as we know adoption in Europe at least, have been slow. Thus, the primary support used by the business to manage the present and future of the customer relationship is the interactive document. This document is created by business users such as sales and marketing teams, customer relationship staff, call centres, and complaints handling departments, and many more. The interactive document is highly tailored and personalised, very targeted, and in particular, requires a rapid turnaround from the time its need is first identified to delivery. Document categories Documents have been classified in three main categories. Although there is some form of overlap between these categories, experts usually agree that these include: • Batch documents • On-demand documents • Interactive documents The batch document is created by an automated, robust, and tested process where all components, from content to format to delivery, have been predefined, developed, and thoroughly tested. Such documents are usually produced in vast numbers through background runs. Batch documents often materialise multiple business transactions such as financial statements, invoices, utility and telephony bills, etc. They can also cater for mass production of textual documents (think letters) or graphical applications (think marketing documents). The interactive document The interactive document—as the name suggests—cannot be generated solely by an automated process and needs the human touch to be completed and produced. 3 Issue 7 January 2009 e• views Journal, Xplor UK & Ireland Edition

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of e views - January 2009

e views - January 2009 Contents Technology Management Creating a Print Intelligent Enterprise The Future of Broadband Connectivity: @ 320 kph? TPE Master Class Cover Story TransPromo and the Credit Crunch Xplor Europe News Service Directory

e views - January 2009

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