Scenario

Our customer was a government environmental agency based in Queensland who had a very time-consuming and manually-driven document management process. Due to the nature of the business, they were required to generate, pre-populate and file permit documents for compliance purposes. These processes were very standardised, frequent and critical for the business.

The solution had to produce the required documents with the relevant data and had to be delivered using specific technologies, including working with on-premise data sources for security purposes. With this in mind, this process was a good candidate for automation, as it was a very standard compliance process that could be easily automated using the desired technologies, and would give staff back valuable time to focus on more important tasks.

Solution

Studying the processes closely, we designed an automated process whereby documents could be precisely filled-out with data retrieved from a SQL database. Furthermore, this automation would also check a file directory for any related supporting documents, and upload these documents to the correct location in SharePoint. This process was triggered automatically when a new record was created in the database, and then performed entirely independently meaning that there was no longer any human cost associated with the process – a significant efficiency benefit for the business.

Outcome

After carefully reviewing the process requirements, we developed a process automation that could reliably retrieve specific record data from a database, correctly pre-populate the Word templates using that data, locate documents from a file directory, and file all of these documents appropriately in SharePoint.

By automating this process, the business was able to automate their crucial compliance process without disrupting existing business systems. Documents were generated in real-time and without any human errors. This resulted in more efficient and accurate outputs, which was beneficial for compliance and risk purposes, but also freed up staff to focus on more valuable tasks.

Technology