Virtual recipes

Why virtual recipes?

Omnidocs Create has immense automation power. A single recipe can replace many standard templates by incorporating data from external systems and user choices into the document generation process. However, sometimes, it's easier for the user to choose one out of a few templates, than to make extra choices in a long form.

Scenario

Consider the following situation:

A department of a municipality just started using Omnidocs Create. Most of their document production comes from approvals or rejections of requests for building permits. They use a different template based on:

  • whether the building request pertains to private or business use,
  • whether the request is about a house, apartment, or other,
  • whether the request has been approved or denied.

Now that they onboarded Create, all of these can be replaced by a single recipe, Resolution of building permit request. All the administrator has to do is to add three dropdown choices to choose between, and the solution is much easier to maintain, because everything is in one place.

However, the users are not satisfied. In this municipality, most requests are by private individuals, about a house, and the requests are routinely approved. All the administrator did, from the users' perspective, is added three dropdowns that most of the time, they don't need.

Luckily, virtual recipes are here to save the users. The admin creates a virtual recipe Private house building permit approval where the choices in the dropdowns are already made: Private, House, and Approved. Both the users' and the administrators' experiences are improved with Create.

Conclusion

This example is simplified, but shows the potential benefits that virtual recipes can provide when automation potential of Create is used to the fullest. The problem can be even more significant in complex documents, where the user needs to make many choices to generate the document. If there are some standard paths through the decision tree of document creation, they can be supported by virtual recipes.