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manage data. Simply put, the typical business user will never be able to create a document template using these solutions. Rather, they will remain dependent upon the specialist skills of the IT department. Now, we all know that the relationship between business users and the IT department is not an easy going love affair. The different agendas, the disparity in objectives, the totally opposed ultimate responsibilities in the enterprise life undermines a healthy and productive relationship. The IT department have a responsibility to provide stable and reliable content, presentment, and delivery mechanisms. Often, change cycles require regression testing and changes take a significant amount of time to be effective. On the other hand, businesses expect ongoing changes in the market place. This dynamism and agility must be supported by interactive documents and, therefore, will not be available if the traditional document composition approach and methodology is applied to these documents. The document composition tools are perceived by the business users as what they are—something too complex for the task at hand. Interactive modules are a noble attempt at providing a simplification layer but the solution fails simply because it remains too complex to be usable by end users. Because business users need fast turnarounds, they end up either outsourcing their work or turning to what seems much easier and which they control—namely MS Word®—falling straight back into the problems described in the section on word processors. Interactive documents, by their very nature, support changing business conditions in a challenging market and must adapt to specific aspects of the relationship with individual customers. If the process is too complex and time consuming, it will not be followed. I have seen a lot of products where ease of use is at the heart of the demo. Going through the personalisation options is usually easy and straight forward. When I ask to see how the original template is created, I cannot imagine nontechnical business users embarking on the task without a solid programming background. This hurdle, although a major one, is alas not the only one. There are many other challenges left unresolved by the existing tools, particularly solution deployment. Even when the solution does not require a specific fat client license, thin client support often needs the thorough control of the user’s environment to install browser specific plugins—quite impractical for independent business federations (IFA’s or franchisees), or any end user falling outside the reach of IT infrastructure control. What about workflow issues? What about seamless integration—before and after—in the business processes? What about version control? What about reusability of user specific object repository content? Of common object repository content? Conclusion It is becoming increasingly clear that none of the current players will bring a desirable solution to interactive document challenge by tweaking existing tools. Rather, it is time for a paradigm shift! I believe that the winning proposition is the one that presents an end-to-end solution that can truly fall under the direct control of the business users— both from a template creation and personalisation perspective. A true interactive document solution needs to be simple, and one that business users can use by themselves for themselves with minimal IT or third party involvement. Features and functions must be kept simple, following the ‘good enough’ principle. Interactive document solutions cannot replace any of the existing tools, MS Word®, graphic arts, or document composition tools. Equally, a viable interactive document solution cannot come from any of these worlds. What now? Each group of solutions admittedly offers some benefits for the interactive document, but each has its shortcomings too. For more information on interactive documents, visit www.nirva-systems.com Jacques Mirodatos Technical Director and Chief Architect, Nirva Systems UK Ltd jacques.mirodatos@ nirva-systems.com “I believe that the winning proposition is the one that presents an end-to-end solution that can truly fall under the direct control of the business users.” 6 e• views Journal, Xplor UK & Ireland Edition Issue 7 January 2009 http://www.nirva-systems.com

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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