This article will discuss the document generation flows and the choices made when defining them, going beyond reference for how they work, and into reasoning behind Omnidocs Create. We base our decisions on our 20 years of experience with documents, countless user stories and extensive market research.

The core values of our product are simplicity, flexibility and precision. We want to make it more efficient and flexible to create a large volume of documents. We adapt into existing flows and improve them.

Example workflow

Let's consider a case management workflow without Omnidocs Create:

A caseworker needs to update a case and generate a document with the new case data.

1. User opens the system where data is stored.
2. User enters new data, such as corrections or updates.
3. User opens Microsoft Word or a document library.
4. User finds a template, an old document, or starts a new document from blank.
5. User makes the necessary changes to the document from 4. and saves the document.
6. User places the document in the library, often the same case management system.

This flow is rather generic, and we witness different variants of this flow very often. This is the center of what we work toward, while maintaining a high degree of flexibility. Here are some of the standard approaches that work best for most of our clients.

Silent and active flows

Document generation typically relies on some sort of input from the user: they'll have to enter the recipient, add some data manually or tick a few checkboxes to create a document. This is what we refer to as the active flow.

However, Create also supports the silent flow, where there is no user input required. This reduces unnecessary load on the user and allows mass document creation, since supply of data is completely automated.

For example, one of our clients in the manufacturing industry keeps all their product data in a database. When they change the design of their product sheets, they generate hundreds of thousands of product sheets, covering all the combinations of options that they offer for their products, and make them available for download. This could never be done manually - the silent flow gives them a unique advantage.

Document creation from a third-party app

This is the most common integration use case for Omnidocs Create. Very often, it's convenient to add a button to the client's case management system. This usually fits well into the flow and enables us to use the silent flow to return a document immediately, or open a window with a form interface where the user can provide the necessary input.

Document creation from 365

It's also very natural to start document generation from the app where documents are most often created. Some clients prefer this flow, especially when creation of new documents is not related to using a system for case management or similar.

Document creation from Create

Documents can also be created directly from the Create user app. That offers the same type of overview as the Create plugins, but it requires to visit a page that is not normally a part of user flows. More often, it's convenient for admins that are used to visiting the admin site, or are testing newly created documents.

Microsoft 365 online vs. desktop

Omnidocs Create fully supports both online and on-premise versions of Microsoft 365, providing the same functionality from the add-in for each of them. However, the experience can differ for exterior reasons:

• The online version of 365 has a bit less functionality, but the licenses are cheaper.
• The online version usually takes longer to implement, but tends to be more stable in the long run.