DOCUMENT Winter 2023

SPECIAL FEATURE

WHICH CCM/CXM SOLUTION PROVIDER IS RIGHT FOR YOU? PAGE 28

DOCUMENTmedia.com | Winter.23

GAIN A HOLISTIC VIEW OF YOUR CUSTOMERS Why eliminating communication silos matters

WHAT SIZE DIGITAL STRATEGY FITS YOUR BUSINESS?

TRANSFORMING ECM WITH INTUITIVE AI

O T E E R E IB H R K C C I CL SUBS

www.azuba.com

SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE!

TABLE OF CONTENTS volume 30 issue 4 | Winter.23 | DOCUMENTmedia.com

FEATURES 10

What Size Digital Strategy Fits Your Business?

The key is to understand your unique needs and tailor a strategy that aligns with your objectives, capabilities and resources

By Eric Riz

12

Keep Up with Customer Demands

10

Future-proof your customer communications by leveraging enterprise communications processing

By Ernie Crawford

14

Gain a Holistic View of Your Customers Eliminating systems silos will improve communications and lead to a better customer experience

By Richard Huff

18

Why Journey Management Matters The key to enabling impactful customer experiences and driving business outcomes

By Stephanie Pieruccini and Frank Steffen

20

14

Generative AI In Banking It’s doing more than enabling banking activities – it’s transforming them by creating novel ones

By John Harney

22

An Often-Overlooked Opportunity How automated accounts receivable communications create a happier customer

By Sarah-Jayne Martin

24

The Age of AI

20

Transforming enterprise content management with intuitive AI

By Bart Peluso

26

Archiving and Data Privacy 6 crucial strategies for compliance with emerging regulations

By Alex Morgan

30

24

Personalization 2.0…

Showing people that you really know them

By Paul Abdool

DEPARTMENTS 06

Letter from the Advisory Board

10

What the Analysts Say

SPONSORED CONTENT 07

Document Orchestration Simplified

09

How Does Your Communication Experience Stack Up?

16

The Impact of Technology on Forms

28

Which CCM/CXM Solution Is Right for You?

26

LETTER FROM THE ADVISORY BOARD

Change is upon us Your business will likely change in 2024. No matter what part of the communication supply chain you support, everything is changing all at once. Consumer expectations about how their insurance providers, financial institutions and the retail brands they interact with have shifted, not only because of the pandemic. It was already underway, with greater demands for more control of customization levels and communication channels.

Legislatures, state agencies and federal regulators have been busy, too. New rules, regulations, and laws are changing how we approach everything from data security to archiving, changing processes and workflows. Software tools are changing to keep up, and staff training is trying to keep up. Compliance isn’t just a concern for bill and statement printers because anyone who handles personal data, even purchased mailing lists, may be subject to new legislation in the next few years.

Along the way, the technology brought us new infrastructure options. We don’t talk about cloud computing as a far-off option. Finding an enterprise application and output channel based entirely on-premise is unusual today. Careful cost accounting and innovative approaches to leveraging the capabilities of cloud platforms made it possible for companies of any size to access the dynamic horsepower of Platforms as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS).

Another new tool in our communication tool kit comes from solutions using artificial intelligence and machine learning, as well as 6

winter.2023 DOCUMENTmedia.com

rules-based automation. A new slate of Generative AI tools was a significant addition to the tool kit in 2023. They are helping companies streamline operations, sometimes as part of a vendor solution and sometimes in do-it-yourself mode inside the IT team. These tools are streamlining communication platforms, interactive customer support applications and code development tools. This is a major shift in options to reformulate legacy code, create more customer-friendly communication, and bring more interactivity to the customer experience. It will have a long tail, impacting how we develop communication strategies, select communication channels and implement customer experience platforms for years to come.

We hope your takeaway from this issue is that there is an opportunity for you to grow and optimize, no matter where you sit in the Customer Communication supply chain. Vendors, end users and their customer constituents have stakes in every change we discuss in this edition. As always, if you have questions, reach out to us!

Pat McGrew helps companies perform better in the print hardware, software and printing services industries. An experienced professional speaker and co-author of 8 industry books, editor of A Guide to the Electronic Document Body of Knowledge, and regular writer in the industry trade press, Pat won the 2014 #GirlsWhoPrint Girlie Award for dedication to education and communication in the industry, and the 2016 Brian Platte Lifetime Achievement Award from Xplor International. She is certified as a Master Electronic Document Professional by Xplor International, with lifetime status, and as a Color Management Professional by IDEAlliance. Pat also serves on the DOCUMENT Strategy Advisory Board.

president Chad Griepentrog publisher Ken Waddell managing editor Erin Eagan [ erin@rbpub.com ] contributing editor Amanda Armendariz contributors Paul Abdool, Ernie Crawford, John Harney, Richard Huff, Alex Morgan, Bart Peluso, Stephanie Pieruccini, Eric Riz, Frank Steffen advertising Ken Waddell [ ken.w@rbpub.com ] 608.235.2212 audience development manager Rachel Chapman [ rachel@rbpub.com ] creative director Kelli Cooke

PO BOX 259098 Madison WI 53725-9098 p: 608-241-8777 f: 608-241-8666 email: customerservice@rbpub.com

DOCUMENT Strategy Media (ISSN 1081-4078) is published on a daily basis via its online portal and produces special print editions by Madmen3, PO BOX 259098, Madison, WI 53725-9098. All material in this magazine is copyrighted ©2023 by Madmen3 All rights reserved. Nothing may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. Any correspondence sent to DOCUMENT Strategy Media, Madmen3, or its staff becomes the property of Madmen3.

The articles in this magazine represent the views of the authors and not those of Madmen3 or DOCUMENT Strategy Media. Madmen3 and/or DOCUMENT Strategy Media expressly disclaim any liability for the products or services sold or otherwise endorsed by advertisers or authors included in this magazine.

SUBSCRIPTIONS: DOCUMENT Strategy Media is the essential publication for executives, directors, and managers involved in the core areas of Communications, Enterprise Content Management, and Information Management strategies. Free to qualified recipients; subscribe at documentmedia.com/subscribe.

REPRINTS: For high-quality reprints, please contact our exclusive reprint provider, ReprintPros, 949-702-5390, www.ReprintPros.com.

APPLICATION ARTICLE

Document Orchestration Simplified Digital technologies are transforming content creation and distribution, making it easier than ever to share information that’s compliant with regulatory standards. By integrating these technologies across the entire content value chain, businesses can deliver personalized content across various channels and platforms at lower costs.

With its innovative document orchestration solution, Symphio enables organizations to optimize their content for the future.

This cloud-based platform streamlines content management and delivers engaging, relevant content to end-users.

Developed by ViaTech, a company with more than 25 years of experience in connecting content creators and consumers, Symphio enables clients to create tailored content in a costeffective manner and stay ahead of the competition in an everevolving content distribution industry.

“At ViaTech, we understand the challenges and opportunities that content presents to our clients, and we provide solutions that enable them to succeed in the digital age,” says Mike Fields, President of ViaTech.

Symphio can be distinguished from other content management solutions by its unique design. Unlike traditional solutions that rely on predefined templates or layouts, it uses an open language model that dynamically constructs content snippets based on collected data. This groundbreaking approach challenges the norms of templating technology, offering flexibility and control over content without compromising quality or compliance.

Symphio also enables users to create compelling communications in a variety of formats, all from a singular arrangement. By offering freedom from rigid layouts and templates, the solution helps clients differentiate themselves from their competitors in highly competitive marketplaces such as healthcare and legal services.

Symphio not only facilitates document orchestration for clients spanning diverse industries, but it also delivers advantages including cost reduction, speed to market, improved customer satisfaction, enhanced scalability, and user empowerment.

What’s more, it offers an intuitive and enjoyable user experience.

The true power of Symphio becomes evident when examining its impact on a healthcare payor grappling with the need to modernize its content management system. By leveraging the solution, the client successfully migrated its existing data and content to the cloud and began creating personalized, compliant customer communications. With Symphio, the client achieved more than $5 million in annual savings, exceeding initial expectations.

In the content production and distribution landscape, organizations often confront the challenge of efficiently scaling their operations and meeting market demands while contending with limited resources and the need for swift automation. This is where ViaTech becomes a vital partner, providing a solution that adeptly manages the complexities of document orchestration behind the scenes.

What sets Symphio apart is its ability to match the requirements of each organization without the need for costly infrastructure overhauls or extensive IT involvement. Seamlessly integrating with any organization’s existing setup, the platform can be configured with ease, and its user-friendly design allows clients to adopt the solution with minimal guidance.

Thanks to this ability to integrate with existing systems and data sources, Symphio empowers collaboration and facilitates feedback among internal and external stakeholders within the tool. Users can review, approve, and monitor content changes, guaranteeing precision and compliance. Moreover, it offers complete transparency and accountability to fulfill governance requirements, meticulously documenting every action and workflow.

“Because we’re able to expose every action that’s taken within the tool, the compliance and oversight that’s required by a lot of our customers is readily available and quick to access when they need it,” said Brendon Bain, ViaTech’s Vice President of Technology.

ViaTech is also committed to providing assistance and support throughout the client journey, ensuring users experience the true benefits of its solution. From content creation to document delivery, Symphio streamlines the entire content management process via a single, cutting-edge platform.

Backed by ViaTech’s extensive expertise and legacy in the content distribution industry and an unwavering commitment to customer satisfaction and value creation, Symphio is revolutionizing the way organizations manage content and connect with their customers.

symph.io team@symph.io

WHAT THE ANALYSTS SAY…

Aspire: The State of Customer Communications and Experience Management Aspire recently published its latest annual study on the evolution of the communications market entitled, The State of Customer Communications and Experience Management. It reveals that businesses around the world remain focused on improving customer experience through superior digital interaction, but it has also shown that many are beginning to comprehend how the experience of the employees sending these communications is an equally essential element of a successful strategy. Furthermore, while consumer digital adoption has slowed somewhat since its surge in 2020, the outlook for digital growth remains strong, particularly among the most advanced and mature enterprises.

If you’d like to dive into these and a host of other intriguing findings, visit: blog.aspireccs.com/newresearch-ccmtocxm

8

winter.2023 DOCUMENTmedia.com

Madison Advisors Consent and Preference Management Emerging Trends Brief Enterprises are faced with an especially difficult challenge when it comes to data management, While customers increasingly expect communications to be tailored to their unique needs and preferences, businesses must also contend with a rapidly expanding array of data privacy regulations, in addition to growing concern from customers about how their data is collected, managed and used. In its latest research brief, Madison Advisors assesses a range of cloud-based consent and preference management (CPM) solutions currently available, focusing on the ways they assist enterprises in balancing hyper-personalized experiences with the security of sensitive personal data to ultimately foster consumer trust. madison-advisors.com/product/consent-and-preferencemanagement-brief-2023/

Aspire: The Future of Generative AI in Customer Engagement Aspire is excited to announce that the first phase of our groundbreaking research study, The Future of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Customer Engagement is now complete. Our survey has found that there is near universal interest in Generative AI investment and that digitally mature and CX-focused organizations are leading the way despite some initial hesitation in regulated industries. In the second phase, we’ll interview industry practitioners and combine their qualitative insights with our survey results to offer subscribers a deeper understanding of the transformative capabilities of generative AI and where it can have the greatest impact on their communications and digital experiences. If you’re interested in learning more, visit: blog.aspireccs.com/new-ai-research-from-aspire

APPLICATION ARTICLE

How Does Your Communication Experience Stack Up? The Customer Communications Management (CCM) environment has changed. It has transitioned from print to multichannel, multichannel is moving to omnichannel, and with that evolution, companies are starting to focus on the customer experience across every transactional touchpoint. The consumer is pivotal in how and when communications are sent with customer choice being at the center of every communication strategy. As a result, enterprises are looking to incorporate Customer Experience Management (CXM) as part of their CCM strategy.

Businesses are challenged to deliver a consistent experience across all touchpoints, with no ‘one source of truth’ for all communications in the enterprise. Getting this delicate balance right is easier said than done. Change management and on-demand communication processes are lengthy and usually have little to no integration with CCM systems or other systems of record.

There are a lot of moving parts and there aren’t any shortcuts.

Avoiding any changes or upgrades is also not the answer.

Creating a modern framework within which to upgrade or shift technology takes skill and the right partner.

Furthermore, FIS has an entire professional services team to help each step of the way, since we understand that technology alone won’t solve the issue. With more than 20 years of service, FIS is the partner that has the credentials, experience, and services to guide you through each change in your CCM journey, now and in the future.

We also provide extensive customization to ensure each module suits your needs, to ensure that you’re meeting any cost reduction goals and reducing the impact on your own resources.

Rounding out your CCM needs, we have services to elevate every interaction and system requirements you have including:  Payment – integration across systems and touchpoints  Security – every system, data process and environment has the highest security standards  Tracking – each touchpoint can be tracked from data to delivery giving you the insight you need  Disaster Recovery – robust DR systems are in place to ensure you’re always able to send out those essential communications  Consulting – our skilled and experienced consulting teams ensure you’re always on track to achieve your goals.

For this reason, FIS has built a CCM stack – Touch CX – that allows you to augment your CCM environment at your pace all while developing your CXM strategy.

Ask how you can consistently deliver a personalized CX by leveraging the power and breadth of the Touch-CX CCM stack and other great products from FIS.

You can add modules as you grow & transform and most importantly allows you to integrate to existing systems via APIs.

www.fisglobal.com/en/ getinfo@fisglobal.com

WHAT SIZE DIGITAL STRATEGY FITS YOUR

BUSINESS?

The key is to understand your unique needs and tailor a strategy that aligns with your objectives, capabilities and resources

C

By Eric Riz

reating a digital transformation strategy for your business is akin to tailoring a bespoke suit: it must fit your specific needs, goals and capabilities perfectly.

Many organizations believe that a digital strategy is simply upgrading your internet speed, while others better understand the magnitude of transformation and how making the correct, or incorrect, decision can have a dramatic impact on the capabilities of a business overall.

In a world where technology is rapidly evolving, businesses must adapt to stay competitive. Digital transformation offers opportunities for efficiency,

10

winter.2023 DOCUMENTmedia.com

customer engagement, and innovation, but a greater understanding is required to integrate digital technology into all business areas, fundamentally changing operations and delivering value to customers. It’s not just about technology; it’s about rethinking old operating models to create something new.

You don’t have to look far to see the significance of technology in today’s business world; a year ago, topics like ChatGPT and Generative AI were being heard for the first time while today they are at the forefront of strategic conversations around the globe. Today, ChatGPT stands at the forefront of digital strategic conversations by offering innovative

solutions for customer engagement, business intelligence, internal operations and risk management. Its capabilities in natural language processing and machine learning make it a valuable asset for businesses looking to leverage digital technology for strategic advantage.

Right-sizing your digital strategy begins with a proper assessment of your business needs and capabilities, identifying your core objectives to ensure you understand what you want to achieve.

Whether that includes increased efficiency, better customer experiences, new revenue streams or more effective decision-making, identifying these growth areas will allow for the ideation of target areas for your digital strategy.

Identifying your current state analysis begins with evaluating your current technology, processes and digital readiness, with a goal to understand the gaps between where you are and where you want to be. Of course, tailoring a digital business strategy is not a one-time activity but a dynamic process that requires ongoing attention and adaptation.

Digital strategy should evolve as the business and its environment change, ensuring that it remains relevant and effective in achieving the company’s objectives. For small scale transformation, those new to transformation or starting their digital journey, focus on specific areas like automating a single process or adopting a new digital tool. Larger organizations can focus their transformational shift towards comprehensive changes such as revamping entire business processes or digital infrastructure.

Considering the specific needs of your journey should also be a key focus for your digital strategy. Industry-specific considerations, such as a retail business focusing on e-commerce and customer data analytics, while a manufacturing company might prioritize automation and supply chain digitization should take center-stage for discussions.

Scaling a digital strategy effectively means expanding and adapting your digital initiatives to support larger operational volumes, reach a broader audience and achieve greater market impact while maintaining or improving efficiency and effectiveness. A thorough

SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE! review and assessment of your digital maturity begins with evaluating the current effectiveness of your digital initiatives to understand the digital tools and platforms in use.

Once your objectives are clear, focus on your strategic digital alignment with your broader business goals, as both internal and external factors can significantly impact your growth. Ensuring scalable and adaptable goals can pivot to changes in business size and market conditions will enable the agility required for digital success.

Phasing your implementation approach is an important factor to manage and mitigate risks and learnings from each step. Starting with small, achievable goals before expanding into larger areas of your business can assist in showing your stakeholders that digital transformation is as much about people as it is about technology, focusing on effective communication, training and support for your team.

The adage “if it’s not measured, it’s not done” is never more apparent than

scaling a business. Measuring and communicating success metrics from the outset, such as increased revenue, improved customer satisfaction or enhanced employee productivity will provide the values and vision required for corporate growth and more importantly, sustainability in a growing digital world.

Back in September, I wrote about future-proofing communications and the importance of looking ahead to safeguard your digital journey. Drawing from those conclusions are the lessons of continuous learning and adaptation. Digital transformation isn’t a one-time project but an ongoing journey. Regularly review and adjust your strategy based on new technologies, market trends, and business objectives.

There is no one-size-fits-all in digital transformation. The key is to understand your unique business needs and tailor a strategy that aligns with your objectives, capabilities and resources. By focusing on these areas, businesses can create

a digital transformation strategy that is not only effective today but also remains relevant and impactful in the future. In doing so, you can embark on a transformation journey that not only revolutionizes your business processes but also ensures sustained growth and competitiveness in the digital era.

An established leader focused on corporate efficiency, strategy and change, Eric founded data analytics firm VERIFIED and Microsoft consulting firm eMark Consulting Ltd. Over a 20-year career in the Microsoft space, Eric has worked extensively in the areas of document and records management, web content management, portals, digital business and process analysis, analytics, metadata, and data management. His outlook on Blockchain, WEB3, governance, and change management is welcomed internationally as a keynote speaker and author, offering thought leadership on data strategies and solutions, and shifting corporate focus to the organization’s specific needs.

DOCUMENTmedia.com winter.2023

11

KEEP UP WITH CUSTOMER

DEMANDS

FUTURE-PROOF YOUR CUSTOMER COMMUNICATIONS BY LEVERAGING ENTERPRISE COMMUNICATIONS PROCESSING

BY ERNIE CRAWFORD

C

ustomer expectations are undergoing a significant transformation because of advancing technologies, changing behaviors and evolving business practices. Today, customers want personalized communications tailored specifically to their needs. If those communications contain any marketing, then the product or service being marketed needs to match their preferences, too.

Important customer communications, like invoices, statements and confirmations, play a key role in maintaining strong customer relationships. To keep up with the demands of current customers, businesses need to adopt innovative strategies. A smart move for companies is to use enterprise communications processing (ECP) to future-proof their customer communications.

12

winter.2023 DOCUMENTmedia.com

UNDERSTANDING ENTERPRISE COMMUNICATIONS PROCESSING (ECP) ECP is a technology integration platform that bridges the gap between the design, output and delivery of communications as a way to ensure seamless and personalized interactions with customers. It is focused on the technical, post-composition aspects of creating, storing and delivering customer communications.

Modern ECP solutions have evolved significantly from their traditional use, which was previously a way to optimize print communications. They now use middleware web services and APIs to connect different software platforms, applications and devices intelligently and efficiently, so they can be integrated into a single system. The single ECP system then provides unified services to its users.

ECP uses technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to eliminate extensive programming efforts when integrating with existing customer communications management (CCM) software. It offers reengineering tools for enhancing existing high-volume print streams and uses a digital transformation engine to transform documents into print, electronic, mobile-ready and accessible formats.

ECP systems also have hyper-automated, no-code workflows and can integrate with preference management systems. This enables companies to suppress and deflect print and facilitate real-time communication delivery through mobile apps and other digital channels. Finally, ECP provides content services for retrieving, archiving and migrating customer communications between enterprise content

SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE! customers and retain existing ones, ultimately driving growth and success.

ECP also helps businesses gain a competitive advantage through innovation and differentiation. For example, businesses can use ECP to integrate with new and emerging communication channels, such as AI-powered chatbots, to deliver customer notices and confirmations or convert financial statements into personalized video messages. These innovations ensure that your customer communications remain relevant in a changing landscape, capture your customers’ attention and position your business as a forward-thinking industry leader.

management (ECM) systems and newer content services platforms (CSP).

WHY FUTURE-PROOFING TRANSACTIONAL CUSTOMER COMMUNICATIONS WITH ECP MATTERS Future-proofing customer communications with ECP is essential to maintain a competitive advantage, enhance customer satisfaction and ensure operational efficiency.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE Businesses that embrace future-proofing gain a competitive advantage by equipping themselves with tools and strategies to adapt more effectively to changing customer needs, industry trends and technological advancements. As a result, they are better positioned to attract new

Modern ECP solutions have evolved significantly from their traditional use, which was previously a way to optimize print communications.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION In an age with high customer expectations, businesses must focus on delivering exceptional experiences.

Transactional customer communications are key touchpoints where businesses can differentiate themselves. ECP allows for greater personalization and customization of these communications by dynamically populating content based on customer data. By utilizing transaction history, purchase behavior, demographics and communication channel preferences, you can tailor communications to resonate with individual customers.

This level of personalization enhances

engagement and fosters stronger customer relationships.

OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY Operational efficiency is all about achieving the highest level of productivity and effectiveness while using the least amount of resources, time and effort. Producing transactional customer communications efficiently means streamlining processes, reducing manual labor through automation and minimizing opportunities for human error. With an ECP hyper-automated, no-code workflow, you can normalize and automate your workflows into a single, standardized trunk-based workflow. This workflow can include small branches for specific tasks, such as outputting personalized credit card statements based on customers’ transaction history and communication channel preferences, without requiring you to design or compose new templates.

FINAL THOUGHTS In an era of rapid technological advancements and evolving customer preferences, businesses cannot afford to overlook the importance of transactional customer communications.

Future-proofing them using enterprise communications processing is a strategic imperative.

By leveraging the power of ECP, you can achieve dynamic content personalization, streamline workflows, deliver real-time communications and integrate seamlessly with your existing CCM systems. Collectively, these capabilities empower you not only to meet current customer communication demands, but also to adapt to future changes without disruption.

A digital document industry pioneer, ERNIE CRAWFORD is President/CEO and founder of Crawford Technologies. One of only a small number of people worldwide with M-EDP (Master Electronic Document Professional) designation, Ernie has more than 30 years of senior marketing and management experience in the high-volume digital printing market.

DOCUMENTmedia.com winter.2023

13

I

n today’s market, customers have more choices than ever.

Robust internet access has made it easier to find alternative providers. When organizations don’t align their customer communications to the customer’s expectations, customers may choose to take their business elsewhere.

Strong customer communications management (CCM) requires organizations to identify how their customers prefer to receive communications, manage the customer preferences effectively and deliver across multiple channels. In addition, organizations are challenged with balancing the use of digital channels with state and federal regulations supporting accessibility and privacy.

DATA SILOS

By Richard Huff

GAIN A HOLISTIC VIEW OF YOUR CUSTOMERS Eliminating systems silos will improve communications and lead to a better customer experience 14

winter.2023 DOCUMENTmedia.com

Data silos are software systems that do not communicate with each other, leading to inefficiency and the inability to communicate with customers in a consistent fashion. For an organization with multiple lines of business or departments, each of which manage customer data separately, the silos disrupt the holistic view of the customer.

Additionally, individual systems may contain expired or inconsistent customer data, leading to a fragmented customer experience.

To produce successful customer communications that engage the recipient, organizations need the ability to build a single view of the customer and each customer’s preferences. A number of technologies available today enable the collection of customer data from disparate corporate sources in order to deliver a consistent message across multiple channels and in accordance with customer preferences to create a better customer experience.

Digital marketing efforts, too, benefit from data integration by linking customer data and preferences, creating opportunities to cross-sell products and services and provide value for your

SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE!

customers. However, another challenge arises in the effort to balance the benefits of accessible customer data with data security and compliance.

MANAGING CUSTOMER PREFERENCES Customer preference management involves the collection, organization and utilization of customer preferences to enhance their experiences with the organization. By doing this, organizations gain an understanding of individual customer choices, whether they pertain to products, services or communication channels. Through this, it is possible to provide personalized and relevant experiences, leading to more targeted digital outreach and increased customer satisfaction.

However, to achieve these results, there is a need to centralize customer preferences across the enterprise.

Customer data can be held in several different systems and duplicated if the customer does business with multiple lines of business within the organization.

But each customer’s preferences for communications needs to be managed by a centralized system capable of collecting the preference data from the various back-office systems and using the data to personalize the communication types and channels used for each customer.

Effective customer preference management goes beyond basic personalization and actively involves customers in the decision-making process. By managing customer-provided preferences across all parts of an enterprise, it is possible to deliver tailored experiences, allowing businesses to build stronger relationships, drive customer loyalty and achieve better business outcomes.

Data mining tools enable the ability to extract customer data from multiple systems and use one or more key fields, such as phone numbers and email addresses, to connect customer records accordingly. In addition, some customer data management solutions

use artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze customer preferences to make connections where key field data is missing.

Success requires a broad CCM strategy consisting of the right tools and practices not only to retain existing customers, but to expand market share.

BUILDING TRUST An ever-expanding array of data privacy regulations have been introduced to cover more than 75% of the world’s population. The regulations define the customer’s data privacy rights and dictate how and when organizations provide notifications or respond to customer requests to explain how data is collected and where the information is stored.

An organization’s reputation for safe data handling elicits customer trust and increases the likelihood that customers will consent to having their data collected, balancing the data privacy requirements with an enhanced customer experience.

DIGITAL ADF Bridging the gap between physical and digital customer communications

becomes increasingly important as organizations add support for digital communications channels. A traditional automated document factory (ADF) manages the production and distribution of physical mailpieces with full tracking and audit capabilities.

A digital ADF consists of an integrated set of software systems capable of managing the production and distribution of customer communications across multiple channels. To be successful, the digital ADF relies on integration between the digital and physical production systems.

The ADF’s management and auditing capabilities require data from the various production systems in order to coordinate actions between all the production systems.

Customers may prefer to receive communications digitally, either by text or email; however, certain documents, such as bills or notices, require delivery verification. If a digital document fails to reach the customer, the organization’s systems should be able to fall back to an alternate digital channel or generate a physical mailpiece.

Effective customer communications are the key to providing a good customer experience. Leading organizations across all vertical markets are at some stage in their digital transformation, including the transformation of digital communications.

Success requires a broad CCM strategy consisting of the right tools and practices not only to retain existing customers, but to expand market share. Organizations must be ready to adopt the right technology in parallel with a robust strategy.

RICHARD HUFF is Senior Analyst at Madison Advisors, an independent analyst and market research firm that addresses the needs of the electronic and print customer communications management marketplace. Visit madison-advisors.com.

DOCUMENTmedia.com winter.2023

15

APPLICATION ARTICLE

THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON FORMS We don’t often spend much time thinking about forms and documents. We need forms and documents to capture, record, transfer, and process particular processes but outside of that we don’t give them much thought. They may not be glamorous or entertaining, but they are a fundamental piece of how our businesses are run and a critical touchpoint to engage with customers. Forms and documents have come a long way with the help of new technology, and we are on the cusp of seeing them change again.

The Industrial age brought typewriters which became an office staple in the mid 1880’s. Typewriters radically reduced the amount of time it took to create forms and documents as well as simplifying the process of standardizing documents.

The first and arguably the most important technological advancement to impact forms and documents was written language and having something to write this new language on.

This brings us to Sumer in around 2100 B.C., where having cuneiform tablets had massive impacts on society because we would now be able to create formal records.

The next big jump for forms was the information age and the birth of the computer. Computers and new software technologies allowed the creation to be standardized and introduced better user interfaces such as the idea of form components such as drop downs to help simplify the process for users completing the forms. Unfortunately, society at this point was not ready to escape the 8 x 11 trap that our beloved paper forms and documents were constrained to for so long. The idea of a form and document, whether digitized or printed, still needed to fit into what was recognized as a traditional 8 x 11 printed page.

In approximately 3000B.C., Egypt began leveraging papyrus plants to create papyrus paper but this was very costly and limited to where the papyrus plant grew. This meant that only the most important of Egyptian documents were created on papyrus paper and not used for mass consumption.

During 105 A.D., China was able to create what we know today as paper. This had a drastic effect on forms and documents because we were able to create light, easy to store and transport pieces of communication with a high durability. The cost was low and due to trade, paper spread across the globe.

Around the 1960’s photocopiers and fax machines became vital in offices. This is where forms really began to shine because we were finally able to quickly mass produce a framework that allowed for data capture.

With the recent pandemic there was another big advancement for forms and documents and that was fully digital, online solutions.

Due to government restrictions, businesses were pushed to remote work where people’s homes were not equipped to handle large printing. Customers didn’t want to touch paper and pens and the idea of physically moving a form around for processing just didn’t work anymore.

Luckily for us technology is often developed before it is widely adopted, so digital solutions already exist to handle our changing needs. For example, digital signatures were there to replace wet signatures, emails can replace light routing, but organizations are still far from being 100% digital even though the technology is there to be utilized. The work from home push is an important reminder that we need to be looking at what technologies are out there and how they can help improve our processes before we are forced to change.

Industry leaders have already started the process of modernizing their forms and documents and as these new experiences roll out to consumers this will become the new expected standard. People are already demanding to have personalized, flexible, streamlined digital options and they will go elsewhere to find them. Younger generations are not loyal to a brand for life, with 70% willing to leave after a single bad experience and because of this we need to ensure customer retention, especially when we worked so hard to attract them in the first place.

a human to do. For example, translating forms into multiple languages, having someone manually read and translate the text is far longer than having software run the translation for you.

All of this is completely feasible today. Yes, this digital transformation fundamentally changes how forms and documents are created but this is the next evolutionary step. There is effort and cost for this transformation, but with better user experiences, the faster time to market, faster updates, universal branding, and lower maintenance costs will outweigh the initial cost for converting your legacy forms. Organizations have already started moving in this direction and this will set the expectations for users regardless of industry and organizations that refuse to adapt will be left behind.

If you would like to learn more about how your organization should be leveraging these new technologies, or how to create a custom plan to get your organization on a path for success, reach out to me at angele.taylor@4point.com or on LinkedIn; where I regularly post and share new information.

Organizations need to be leveraging existing known information about the person by filling out the form to give the user a simplified, personalized, pre-filled form to reduce the amount of time and confusion that comes with filling out a form.

Organizations can reduce the time to create new documents and reduce the time to update existing content by creating a framework for digital documents so that the creation of documents is done in a modular fashion. This allows for the reuse of pieces of content from one place to another, lowering the time to create new documents as well as reduces the time to update existing content. Separate the branding, the content, the programmatic logic and the actual body of the form so that team members can manage their pieces on their own without forcing all of these tasks onto your form authors.

Leveraging automation lowers the error rate and helps complete complex tasks in a fraction of the time that it would have taken

by Angèle Taylor www.4point.com angele.taylor@4point.com 613.818.4704

THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY

WHY JOURNEY MANAGEMENT MATTERS The key to enabling impactful customer experiences and driving business outcomes

By Stephanie Pieruccini and Frank Steffen

C

ustomer experience is the heart of an organization’s relationship with its customers. Post-pandemic customer expectations are still higher than ever. Consumers want to be able to interact with organizations on their own terms, using and switching between channels as they prefer. They expect their experience with any organization to mimic those of customer experience leaders like Amazon or Google. Anything less can lead to dissatisfaction and a risk of churn.

To successfully manage this, most organizations must invest in solutions enabling experience teams to deliver a seamless and consistent customer experience across all touchpoints in every business unit, ultimately putting the customer at the center of their efforts. Software that focuses on journey mapping, journey management or campaigns are enticing solutions to consider for gaining visibility into customer interactions or driving digital transformation, but address and solve these objectives in very different ways.

To avoid getting caught up in the buzzword of the customer journey, it helps to understand what these solutions should help you accomplish.

18

winter.2023 DOCUMENTmedia.com

The Customer Journey is the end-to-end interaction path a customer takes to complete a transaction with an organization. Customer journeys include everything that happens before, during and after the interaction of acquiring products or accessing services.

Customer Journeys stretch across multiple channels and touchpoints, often lasting days or weeks. The customer journey is truly omnichannel, as customers may interact with communications, call center agents, in-person locations or other touchpoints like social media.

CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAPPING Since all business models lose strength over time, organizations should continuously review their everyday customer-facing processes to ensure they still improve and add value to their customer relationships. The ability to offer a suitable customer experience depends on up-to-date knowledge of customers’ desires, motivations and interests and how this information can be used to drive specific behaviors and desired business outcomes like increasing digital adoption.

As a visual representation of customer interactions with an organization, a customer journey map is a helpful tool for undertaking and sharing this review of processes: Every customer interaction can be analyzed — from the customer perspective. Thus, the Customer Journey Map provides valuable insights into customers’ needs, preferences and behaviors, which are then used to optimize customer experiences to foster loyalty and drive growth.

A typical Customer Journey Map includes the following elements:  Customer journey stages are the distinct phases customers go through when interacting with an organization, such as awareness, consideration, decision, retention and advocacy.  Touchpoints are how customers interact with an organization at each stage, such as website, mobile app, call center and social media.

Identifying all touchpoints helps

organizations understand how customers interact and where the opportunities for improving customer experience are.  Customer goals and objectives are different at each stage. Understanding these will help organizations to develop successful strategies for each stage.  Emotions and feelings customers experience at each stage of the journey. Organizations must ensure a positive and engaging customer experience at each stage.

BENEFITS, PITFALLS AND THE FUTURE STATE By mapping out the customer journey, organizations will better understand their customers’ needs and expectations and how they interact with their organization. This understanding can then be used to improve the customer experience and drive business growth.

However, several pitfalls exist. Often, organizations use outdated data or assumptions to map the journey. Working with credible data, such as present research and customer interviews, is critical to bringing the external perspective into the customer journey map.

In a new prioritization of improvements, the future state of the ideal customer journey can be mapped from the customers’ perspective. Mapping it separately, is the chance to dream up new experiences for customers that leverage (new) technology, create better outcomes and improve the customer experience across the whole journey.

SUCCESS? – NOT YET! The benefits of improved customer experience will include increased customer satisfaction, higher customer loyalty, more sales and enhanced brand reputation – all leading to increased sales or performance of the organization. Additional benefits would be:  Reduced costs due to churn being less likely – thus, saved customer acquisition cost.  Improved employee morale due to employees being motivated by positive customer contacts – which could lead to increased productivity and efficiency.

SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE! Modernization is not a destination.

As customer expectations constantly evolve, customer experience and digital transformation success are not guaranteed and might decrease over time. Thus, it is imperative to set up a process (as seen in Figure 1) that involves a continuous cycle of collecting and analyzing the data, delivering experiences, measuring results, and optimizing in areas that need improvement — the core of Customer Journey Management.

Figure 1

CUSTOMER JOURNEY MANAGEMENT Journey mapping is one part of a greater journey management solution.

It enables organizations to do more than model the ideal journey by allowing them the ability to learn from and act on customer behaviors. The main reason for implementing customer journey management is to increase an organization’s capacity to provide value to its customers, as satisfied customers return value to an organization.

Next to identifying and designing the customer journey interactions, Nielsen Norman Group identifies the understanding of customer needs through research and journey analytics and orchestrating interventions and personalization based on behavioral data as core competencies of Journey Management.

In summary (and as seen in Figure 2), successful journey management of an organization should include the following activities:  Journey mapping and design to visualize and communicate customer interactions for reaching a specific goal across all touchpoints.  Journey insights to understand the customer from behavioral data tracked across touchpoints and the impact on desired journey goals.  Journey orchestration to react to customers’ behavior to improve customer experience and foster progress towards the desired goals, respecting all insights.  Journey optimization to track journey success and use predictions and recommendations from AI to improve customer experience and reach goals.

Figure 2

By improving the customer experience and enabling better services, digital transformation drives customer satisfaction. Customer Journey Mapping is the basis for understanding how customers interact with an organization and detecting pain points within the journey. However, by investing in Journey Management solutions, Organizations can expand their scope of customer experience management by automating the measurement of data at every customer touchpoint, orchestrating the appropriate next event, and using insights over time to optimize and improve quickly.

While application modernization is a big undertaking, it rewards an organization with improved performance, security, scalability and the ease of adding functionality for customer success, such as responding faster and more targeted to customer requests and interactions. Organizations that invest in journey management are equipped to understand what customers expect, empowering them to provide personalized experiences and react immediately through journey orchestration to customer behavior. Thus further improving

customer satisfaction and loyalty with smarter Journeys that deliver on strategic business objectives such as accelerating digital adoption.

STEPHANIE PIERUCCINI is a Senior Manager of Product for OpenText CCM. In this role she is responsible for CCM Orchestration for OpenText Exstream as well as the StreamServe and Exstream platform solutions. Her experience comes from a strong knowledge of communication and production management from creation through delivery acquired from covering the print, marketing and CCM markets as an analyst and consultant with InfoTrends as well as serving as the channel development manager for CCM and digital transformation solutions at Neopost USA (Now Quadient).

FRANK STEFFEN serves Core Experience Insights as product manager, a product within OpenText Experience Cloud that allows marketers to plan, launch, and measure experiences across different touchpoints along the customer journey. Frank is passionate about helping clients to achieve their goals and improve their performance by leveraging AI and analytics in their customer experience projects.

DOCUMENTmedia.com winter.2023

19

GENERATIVE

AI IN BANKING

It’s doing more than enabling banking activities – it’s transforming them by creating novel ones

G

By John Harney

enerative AI is democratizing AI for the common man. For instance, in a Bing Search co-pane in a Microsoft 365 app like Word, you can use NL and other content forms to ask and get answers in those forms – text, imagery, speech, music, video, even code and synthetic data – to do informational research, create new images, spin out speech and video presentations and so on.

At its simplest, GenAI is a wonderful multimodal research and writing engine. To show its efficacy, I did simple research for this article by prompting Bing with this question: “How has Generative AI changed 20

winter.2023 DOCUMENTmedia.com

investment banking?” I got a well-written two-page summary as an answer and pulled one example about pitch books that’s included later on.

GenAI applied in verticals does not simply enable better capabilities in those verticals (though in the process this does happen). To enable means to act as an adjunct to a function. GenAI does much more — it transforms the function into a different, more powerful function.

For example, when workflow and imaging were internet-enabled, Netenabled workers could manage images of bank statements throughout a vastly greater process with more participants and beyond the walls of their banks.

New tech changed a process which

changed how workers interacted with the process. The work did not change — what changed was how the work was done.

With the advent of the cell phone, how banking was done changed again — customers could largely bank from anywhere. However, transformation began to creep in with the cell phone.

Customers could perform new activities — say, mark transactions in mobile banking apps on their phones as fraudulent, so their banks could investigate them. This capability changed how banking was done — but what tasks were possible for workers also changed.

Banking changed from being Net-enabled to being functionally-transformed. Tech-smart fintechs transformed banking again — you could perform even more new activities like transferring funds without going to your bank.

GenAI is transforming banking again — from the front-office through the mid-office to the back-office — and even into specialty banking. Accenture predicts that 90% of working hours in banks eventually will be impacted by GenAI’s use of LLMs and that by 2028 GenAI will deliver an across-the-board 30% productivity gain in the banking industry.

Front-Office — One of AI’s core strengths is automation. The more you automate, the more cost-efficient and productive you become.

Most banking customers have already encountered AI automating routine phone- or online-based tasks such as account balance inquiries and lists of recent transactions. For those of us running businesses, though, automated invoicing has especial value. Human invoicing is repetitive and error-prone, so it undermines our customer service and its inefficiency costs banks money.

We’ve all had our credit cards suspended because our bank has detected possible fraud. This capability is improving with GenAI. GenAI analyzes huge amounts of data trained on fraud patterns in LLMs to identify and flag anomalies and suspicious behavior in our accounts. To protect the security of customers’ data, GenAI even generates synthetic data on which to train and test fraud detection models.

SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE! With automation of repetitive tasks, bank staff are free to humanly augment more complex and high-value GenAI capabilities. This is particularly true of personalized marketing and sales.

These staff can now use GenAI to create and adapt text, imagery, video and music into such collateral as emails and newsletters by defining them per vast prospect and sales data LLMs and presenting them at apt points in the customer experience cycle for maximum effect. Segmenting customers by their similarities yields LLM data sets that are predictive of the types of products in which customers like these will be interested. Simply prompting the LLM with a video creates analogous clips that market and sell a service.

With intelligent, holistic views of customers’ business with a bank, officers using GenAI are also able to tender financial advice to help customers manage their finances, invest, save and buy products and services, all of which are personalized to their needs and preferences. GenAI also helps banks to do better-informed lending. It can comb through massive unstructured data for rich insights — say, extract relevant information from bank statements like transaction history and account balances — to develop nuanced credit scores upon which to base loans. Armed with empirical data, banks are less exposed to risk from defaulted loans.

Mid-Office — The mid-office is where productivity work like data entry, reporting, transaction processing and the like are carried out. With these automated and augmented with GenAI, staff are freed to perform more creative and customer care activities that put a face to the modern tech-intensive bank.

Here too is where staff interact with financial and enterprise workflows.

Deloitte has observed that GenAI offers contextual awareness and humanlike decision-making that eliminate touch points and streamline workflows. This extends to more efficient routing of email workflows as well.

Back-Office — Production processing of bank statements happens here.

Automating tasks and eliminating human errors in production work processes

vastly improves efficiency and translates to significant productivity gains.

Of course, as GenAI increases creativity and new data, banks will evolve heretofore unimagined products and services. Without productive programmers, these may take too long to get to market and negatively impact banks’ competitiveness. Early results for GenAI programming are impressive.

Investing — Banks doing investment business use GenAI for portfolio optimization, better investment decision-making, efficient trade execution and adaptive trading strategies. GenAI is powerful because it learns and adapts according to the data it processes.

An institutional investor might manage a portfolio of upwards of 60 asset classes. With GenAI they can quickly research all that data using extraction and summarization. At Morgan Stanley, for instance, financial advisors might have to access 100,000 reports and documents during a conversation with a client. Using historical data and external sources, they can generate possible scenarios, do simulations and make projections so they can better forecast financial performance, predict market movements and identify risk factors. Investment banks are using GenAI to research and develop pitch books to generate proposals for capital raises and merger and acquisition.

Differentiation — Unlike most other businesses, banks are largely differentiated based on one metric: customer service. Does your bank suggest how you can save, where to invest, give you good terms on loans like car, mortgage and education, are they excellent at fraud detection, and do they personalize their services to your unique requirements?

GenAI in banking helps customers in all these ways — but it also helps a bank grow. The greater a bank’s operating income, the more likely it has the wherewithal to provide you great customer service. We seem to identify banks with money, but without active customers a bank’s operating income suffers.

Accenture points to a key metric that supports this truth: in three years, it

claims a bank leveraging GenAI can expect to grow its operating income by two to three times. That sum is directly related to how much time a bank devotes to its customers. The consulting group predicts that due to the benefits of GenAI time spent with customers will increase by 17%. That’s significant for one reason: 80% of a bank’s revenues are directly tied to time spent with customers.

Transforming Other Apps — Most of the near-term benefits from GenAI in banking will be derived from GenAI-only apps like those previously discussed for doing research, summarizing, data extraction, and creation of content like text, visuals, voice and code as well as for banking-specific apps like loan processing. Longer-term, however, GenAI will transform apps banks use that are common across many industries.

For example, Salesforce now offers Einstein, a GenAI-augmented CRM assistant. Adobe’s Firefly is a GenAI image generator. Microsoft’s CoPilot GenAI offering is more ambitious. It spans Azure Cloud, Search, Chat, GitHub and all office apps in Microsoft 365.

Therefore, from pretty much anywhere in the Microsoft office platform and to extensive scale via Azure bank employees as well as customers can invoke GenAI to create, manage and analyze multiform content. In effect, CoPilot is a GenAI-transformed platform. Efforts like CoPilot, in fact, may lead IT in general to a new IT platform, one transformed by GenAI. Just as the Internet enabled and improved every app it touched, so too GenAI will have world-changing impact.

Indeed, going forward, any discussion of IT will be a discussion of GenAI IT. Look for banking to radically morph in keeping with that tectonic shift.

JOHN HARNEY is President of SaaSWatch, a SaaS consultancy and IT journalism service where for over 30 years he’s consulted and reported on SaaS business strategies, technology and use cases and intelligent information management across all markets. He’s particularly focused on technologies related to Cloud, SaaS, AI and Content Services. You can reach him at 240.877.5019 and jharney583@gmail.com.

DOCUMENTmedia.com winter.2023

21

AN OFTEN-OVERLOOKED

OPPORTUNITY

How automated accounts receivable communications create a happier customer | By Sarah-Jayne Martin

C

ustomer communications surrounding accounts receivable (AR), particularly those regarding overdue payments and the initiation of collections, are among the trickiest to craft given the critical balance of clarity, urgency and compassion.

However, AR communications are also some of the most frequent and consistent messages sent to customers, making AR an integral piece of your company’s customer communications portfolio. The increase of overdue payments during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a turning point for these communications

22

winter.2023 DOCUMENTmedia.com

by highlighting the power of AR to make or break a customer experience. Among other findings, it became clear during this period that factors such as account visibility and range of available payment options also have a powerful influence on customers’ ability — and willingness — to pay on time.

Automation provides a consistent communication sequence In a typical sequence, AR communications begin with an advance reminder before growing increasingly urgent during the first 30 to 60 days after a missed payment. In some cases, this

sequence is altered slightly to fit standard customers (often individuals with smaller accounts) versus white glove customers (often companies, larger accounts or customers who have indicated specific preferences regarding their communications). Regardless of segment, customer experience is negatively affected when a notice of collections isn’t preceded by gentle reminders, and the customer relationship can become strained when these urgent messages appear to arrive out of the blue. However, this aspect of customer experience can be greatly improved by automation, which

SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE!

By reducing the amount of time spent on tedious processes, automation frees your employees to focus on higher-order and strategic concerns.

whether and when a communication was received in the first place, in turn, increases the efficiency of the troubleshooting process, eliminating one potential reason why a payment wasn’t made on time.

ensures reminders are sent at regular, predictable intervals.

In a recent study of companies at the beginning stages of AR digitization, 96% said their primary reason for the investment was a desire to improve interactions and overall customer experience. Whereas manual processes may mean customers don’t learn of their past-due status until they receive a phone call from a team member, automated communications offer a more gradual course of action — all while using this important customer touchpoint as an opportunity to create a consistent image of your brand.

Introducing automation into your AR processes also has benefits for your workplace. By reducing the amount of time spent on tedious processes, such as drafting and tailoring communications or making phone calls, automation frees your employees to focus on higher-order and strategic concerns. Additionally, the ability to track the delivery of communications using a digital AR tool can make it easier to parse ignored communications from ones that have bounced due to an invalid email address. Determining

Finding the right tool to automate your AR operations Searching for the right tool to automate your AR communications begins with an assessment of your current process.

In addition to identifying any inefficiencies in your workflow, you’ll want to determine your days sales outstanding (DSO), the metric that measures how quickly your customers pay. A lower DSO frees up working capital, so it’s important to identify a solution that offers a reduced DSO as part of your ROI. Since many products offer a full suite of automated options — including everything from customer onboarding and credit risk to collections, payments and dispute resolutions — assessing your current processes is a critical step in identifying your highest priority must-haves to select a solution that fulfills at least 90% of that wish list.

Another important determination concerns the existing systems you plan to integrate with your AR solution, which need to be compatible with the solution you ultimately choose. The use of generative AI may also be an attractive feature of these tools, since these platforms can provide a strong starting point for email templates that reduce the amount of time human employes spend on drafting. Generative AI

models such as ChatGPT can also populate templates with relevant customer data, contributing to streamlined efficiency. However, it’s important to keep in mind that any communications drafted by generative AI are not error-proof and still need to go through a quality assurance check in advance of delivery.

We often hear that AR is more about collections than customers, but nothing could be further from the truth. AR communications are one of the most consistent touchpoints throughout the customer relationship, in addition to being a frequently overlooked opportunity to communicate a consistent brand identity and voice. Automation improves the customer experience by increasing consistency of communications and by offering a more gradual way to escalate concerns regarding an unpaid balance. While it may seem counterintuitive, automation enhances the human element of each transaction — prioritizing the satisfaction of white glove and standard customers alike.

SARAH-JAYNE MARTIN is Director of Financial Automation for Quadient. Martin has more than 20 years of experience in finance. Prior to Quadient, Martin served as Director of Order to Cash for several large firms, managing global teams. Martin is passionate and deeply committed to helping businesses improve the accuracy and efficiency of their financial processes and customer communications through industry best practices and the applications of financial technology.

DOCUMENTmedia.com winter.2023

23

THE AGE OF AI

Transforming enterprise content management with intuitive AI

A

By Bart Peluso rtificial intelligence’s (AI) emergence as a transformation catalyst has redefined the landscape of industries and processes. A remarkable advancement within the AI domain is intuitive AI — a branch granting machines the ability to generate content autonomously. This pioneering technology is revolutionizing content management practices, with a pronounced emphasis on extracting data from documents. It includes AI systems that can comprehend natural language, engage with humans and adapt to diverse contexts and situations.

INTUITIVE AI Powered by advanced deep learning algorithms, intuitive AI can summarize, query, confirm and answer 24

winter.2023 DOCUMENTmedia.com

questions during the content management process. Responses are often indistinguishable from human-generated content. The technology behind intuitive AI has achieved remarkable feats in understanding context, semantics and producing coherent and contextually relevant content.

Furthermore, it dramatically enhances the intelligent ‘extraction’ and ‘management’ of content.

TRANSFORMING OUR WORLD OF PAPER Document management is essential to many industries, from legal and healthcare to finance and education.

Traditionally, managing documents involved manual organization, categorization and archiving of actual paper documents — in many organizations it’s still a ‘paper process.’ Intuitive

AI has emerged as a game-changer in this realm, drastically altering the landscape of document management.

Consider some of the benefits: Expediting Workflow: Today, AI systems can read and comprehend lengthy documents, automatically summarizing their key points and generating concise abstracts. This capability streamlines information retrieval and aids decision-making by providing a quick overview of complex documents. For instance, AI-driven document summarization in legal contexts can significantly expedite case analysis and legal research.

Improving Quality: Intuitive AI can assist in improving the quality of documents. Analyzing the existing content can suggest enhancements, such as rephrasing sentences for clarity, suggesting relevant examples and adhering to specific style guidelines.

SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE!

instance, an AI system can extract key details like dates, amounts and parties involved from various invoices, reducing the need for manual data entry and minimizing errors.

Additionally, for global companies, intuitive AI can aid in localizing content, ensuring that documents are culturally sensitive and linguistically appropriate for different regions.

Better Management: Properly tagging documents with metadata is crucial for effective organization and searchability.

Intuitive AI can automatically assign relevant metadata tags to documents based on their content, keywords and context. This automation simplifies the categorization process and enhances the efficiency of document retrieval.

REVOLUTIONIZING DATA EXTRACTION Data extraction is a fundamental process for organizations that deal with large volumes of unstructured data. Traditionally, data extraction involved manual data entry or simplistic ‘rule-based’ systems.

The introduction of intuitive AI has brought about a paradigm shift in data extraction, rendering it faster, more accurate and highly adaptive.

Intelligent Data Extraction: AI models can be trained to extract specific data points from unstructured text, such as invoices, contracts or research papers. This is achieved through a combination of pattern recognition and contextual understanding. For

Intuitive AI is a groundbreaking advancement reshaping the landscape of content management, with profound implications for document management and data extraction.

Adaptable to Varied Formats: One of the remarkable aspects of intuitive AI in data extraction is its adaptability to different document formats and layouts. Unlike rule-based systems that struggle with variations in data presentation, intuitive AI can understand and extract data from diverse formats, enabling organizations to handle data from various sources effortlessly.

Continuous Learning and Improvement: When errors in data extraction are identified and rectified, the AI model integrates this feedback into its learning process.

Over time, this leads to improved accuracy and reduced extraction errors, making the process increasingly reliable.

CHALLENGES AND CONSIDERATIONS While the potential of intuitive AI in content management, document management and data extraction is immense, it’s essential to acknowledge the challenges and considerations associated with its adoption.

Data Privacy and Security: When dealing with sensitive documents and data,

ensuring data privacy and security is paramount. Organizations must carefully assess the mechanisms in place to protect confidential information from being accessed or misused by AI systems.

Don’t Forget the Humans: While AI can automate many aspects of content management, human oversight remains crucial. Human experts are needed to validate the accuracy of extracted data, review automated content, and ensure that the AI system aligns with the organization’s goals and values.

SUMMING IT ALL UP Intuitive AI is a groundbreaking advancement reshaping the landscape of content management, with profound implications for document management and data extraction. Its ability to autonomously generate content, comprehend context, and adapt to varied formats is transforming industries by enhancing efficiency, accuracy, and decision-making processes. As organizations continue to embrace and refine AI, they must carefully navigate the associated challenges and ethical considerations. In doing so, they can harness the full potential of Intuitive AI to revolutionize content management and elevate their operations into a new era of innovation and efficiency.

BART PELUSO is the VP President of KnowledgeLake, the only fully Cloud-native Enterprise Content Management (ECM) platform combining Intelligent Document Processing (IDP), Workflow Automation and Content Management in an easy-to-use, single UI. Powered by its Intuitive AITM, KnowledgeLake Adaptive IDPTM automates the data extraction, understanding and processing of documents.

Workflow Automation orchestrates complete business processes with an integrated RPA engine. The Content Management provides easy and secure access to content. KnowledgeLake StreamLine SolutionsTM add the ability to solve business-specific problems in various industries. With two million users, the company has earned numerous accolades, including five ‘Microsoft Partner of the Year’ awards.

DOCUMENTmedia.com winter.2023

25

ARCHIVING AND DATA PRIVACY 6 crucial strategies for compliance with emerging regulations

I

By Alex Morgan n today’s information age, data is a prized possession for companies in every sector. Still, strong archiving and data protection methods have been put into place due to the ever-increasing data volume and complexity.

Organizations must continually revise their procedures to be compliant with ever-changing legislation and to safeguard private data in the face of rapid technological development.

The following are six crucial strategies to help businesses adjust to the continuously evolving regulatory landscape, emphasizing the importance of archiving and data privacy.

Understanding Archiving and Data Privacy The term data archiving is used to describe the process of keeping data safe and available for future use. The

1

26

winter.2023 DOCUMENTmedia.com

information must be collected, stored and managed for compliance with laws, regulations and internal business needs. Organizations can use archiving to access historical data for analysis, research or reference purposes, in addition to meeting legal and regulatory duties.

On the other hand, the concept of data privacy refers to the safeguarding of private and sensitive information.

Concerns about data breaches and illegal access to personal data are on the rise, making it more important than ever for businesses to employ strong data protection measures. These measures include preventing data breaches, establishing procedures for managing consent, and giving users discretion over their own data.

2

The Effects of New Regulations The General Data Protection

Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) are just two of the laws that have drastically altered the existing framework for protecting personal information. Data transparency, consent management and data subject rights are all areas where these policies create heavy burdens on businesses.

For instance, GDPR requires enterprises to gain individuals’ opt-in consent before collecting and using their personal information. It also ensures that people can see their data, have it deleted if they so want, and be told how it is being used.

Serious financial fines and brand damage may follow from failing to comply with these rules. As a result, businesses must monitor changes in the regulatory environment and adjust their archiving and data privacy practices accordingly.

SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE!

Businesses need to assess the information they get to see if it’s really necessary. Excessive or inappropriate data storage raises the stakes of data loss or theft and adds administrative overhead.

Pseudonymization and anonymization are two methods that can be used to increase data privacy by making it more difficult for outsiders to recognize and exploit private information.

Creating an Inventory of Data An efficient method of data archiving and protection begins with a thorough data inventory. Data collected, stored and processed by an organization must be cataloged and categorized, with its path through the organization’s systems mapped out.

Use this inventory to better appreciate data dependencies, spot potentially vulnerable data, and set up secure safeguards.

Organizations may better understand their data landscape when they keep track of the data they collect, where it comes from and how it is used. They can then determine what sort of precautions to take in light of the hazards involved.

A data inventory also aids businesses in fulfilling the rights of data subjects who want access to their information and in passing audits as proof of compliance.

3

Implementing Data Minimization Techniques When it comes to data protection, it’s important to acquire and store only the minimum amount of personal data needed. Organizations can lessen the likelihood of data leaks and hacking by adopting this strategy.

4

The GDPR and the CCPA are just two of the laws that have drastically altered the existing framework for protecting personal information.

Enforcing Access Controls and Encryption Organizations should set up strict access controls and encryption techniques to preserve archived data and confidential information. Data retrieval and modification should be restricted to authorized persons only, and access controls do just that.

The principle of least privilege dictates that only the minimum set of access permissions necessary to carry out an individual’s job duties should be allowed. Because of this, the likelihood of data breaches and unauthorized access occurring within the organization is diminished.

To further protect sensitive information from prying eyes, it can be encrypted both while it is stored and while it is in transit. Data is encrypted using an algorithm to produce ciphertext, which can then be read back into its original form using a secret key.

5

By encrypting historical data, businesses can lessen their vulnerability to data breaches and illegal access and increase the likelihood that their data will stay secure and secret in the event of a breach.

Conducting Regular Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) DPIAs, or Data Protection Impact Assessments, help businesses find and fix privacy problems. Businesses can learn more about how their data processing activities affect the privacy rights of individuals by conducting DPIAs. A DPIA is a process of doing a thorough analysis of the data processing processes, locating any weak spots and fixing them. As a result, businesses can better assess the privacy threats posed by their own data activities and implement preventative actions to deal with them. DPIAs also show that you care about privacy regulations, which builds trust with customers and regulators.

Organizations need to prioritize the creation and implementation of efficient archiving and data privacy plans in light of the ever-changing nature of rules governing data privacy. They can deal with the challenges of new legislation only if they recognize the significance of archiving and data privacy.

Establishing compliance, protecting sensitive information and gaining consumers’ trust can be achieved through DPIAs, data inventories, access controls, encryption and frequent data security audits.

In today’s increasingly regulated digital economy, companies who take preventative measures in archiving and data privacy stand a much better chance of remaining competitive.

6

ALEX MORGAN is a passionate tech blogger, internet nerd and data enthusiast. He is interested in topics that cover data regulation, compliance, eDiscovery, information governance and business communication.

DOCUMENTmedia.com winter.2023

27

SPONSORED CONTENT

WHICH CCM/CXM SOLUTION IS RIGHT FOR YOU? What is the best choice for your company’s customer communications management and customer experience management? There is so much you need to consider: which solution has the features you need, works best for your customers and best fits into your overall business strategy. To help you find the answer, we have gathered a select group of companies, one of which might be the perfect fit for your business and your specific needs. Take a moment and give each company a good look, check out their websites and details, and then send an email or give them a call.

In 2003, the founding members of 4Point combined their expertise in software consulting, project management and sales to develop and support leading-edge solutions based on Adobe enterprise technology. As the company grew, 4Point added decades of experience in documents and forms. Today, 4Point employs many of the original architects of the Adobe forms technology used by major global organizations. 4Point’s expertise and focus in Adobe-based enterprise level document and form solutions help organizations meet modern business challenges through the transformation from paper to digital. 4Point gives organizations limitless opportunities to save money, increase efficiencies, and enhance end-user experiences. | www.4point.com | 613.818.4704 | angele.taylor@4point.com

Since our founding in 1986, Azuba has focused on helping businesses and governments improve customer communications in 80+ foreign languages by providing Customer Communications Management (CCM Platform) solutions built on innovative, new technology. We have assisted clients in various industries, including health insurance, the public sector, business services, financial services, and higher education. With over three decades in business, we have experience with many documents, from letters and correspondence to statements or explanations of benefits (EOBs). Azuba’s solutions benefit customers, including improved customer satisfaction, increased productivity, reduced IT support, reduced costs, and many more. | www.azuba.com | 630.420.1515 | info@azuba.com

Businesses are challenged to deliver a consistent experience across all touchpoints. Getting this delicate balance right is easier said than done. Change management and on-demand communication processes are lengthy and usually have little to no integration with CCM systems or other systems of record. Creating a modern framework within which to upgrade or shift technology takes skill and the right partner. For this reason, FIS has built a CCM stack – Touch CX – that allows you to augment your CCM environment at your pace. Add modules as you grow & transform and most importantly you can integrate to existing systems via APIs. | www.fisglobal.com/en | www.fisglobal.com/contact-us 28

spring.2023 DOCUMENTmedia.com winter.2023 DOCUMENTmedia.com

Messagepoint is an intelligent SaaS-based content hub for CCM. Our hallmark is providing game-changing, innovative solutions for the CCM space that focus on driving efficiency and speed through better control over your content. Messagepoint is the only CCM solution leveraging a modular approach to content management that enables content sharing across all communications and channels. Our users make a change once and it instantly updates both traditional touchpoints, and personalized, dynamic digital experiences via headless APIs. Our latest innovation, adding generative AI to Assisted Authoring, provides unparalleled speed and efficiency in content optimization and translation processes. www.messagepoint.com | info@messagepoint.com

Customer communication management is the face you show to the world, the language with which you speak to your customers, and the way an interaction with you makes them feel. But it’s easy for companies to overlook the importance of it. And in 2023, building the kind of personalized communications customers have come to expect may seem like a daunting task. Enter MHC EngageCX. Our full-stack CCM solution utilizes configurable templates to maintain a clear and consistent message to your customers while reducing operational costs. Prioritizing security and compliance, MHC EngageCX eliminates risk while providing the information your customers need. www.mhcautomation.com | 800.588.3676 x 1241 | brigette.miller@mhcautomation.com

Quadient’s end-to-end CCM solution, Inspire enables companies to create nimble, effective, and unified customer communications for all digital and print channels. Managed from a single, central platform, organizations of all sizes are able to rapidly deliver a complete omnichannel customer experience that spans the entire customer journey. Paired with the ability to deploy in any environment — on-prem, public/private cloud, hybrid, cloud SaaS, or as a hosted managed service—and flexibly to migrate to another deployment option as your needs change, Inspire is the most comprehensive CCM solution on the market. www.quadient.com/en/customer-communications/overview | 866.883.4260 | info@quadient.com

Smart Communications provides the platform that leading organizations trust to deliver personalized, consistent, and compliant conversations across all touchpoints and channels. The Conversation Cloud™ consists of SmartCOMM™ for enterprise-scale customer communications, SmartIQ™ for digital forms transformation, and SmartDX™ for trade documentation. Over 650 enterprise organizations across the globe rely on Smart Communications to simplify and automate complex processes and deliver highly secure, frictionless experiences across the customer lifecycle. www.smartcommunications.com | 800.986.6810

Symphio is the document orchestration tool that streamlines collaboration, provides agility, and enables enterprises to get their documents out the door quickly. With Symphio, the first tool of its kind, teams can build template free and remain focused on what is important. Symphio empowers users to put the pieces together.

symph.io | 330.604.7885 | team@symphio.com DOCUMENTmedia.com DOCUMENTmedia.com spring.2023 winter.2023

29

SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE!

PERSONALIZATION 2.0…

Showing people that you really know them

P

By Paul Abdool

ersonalizing things is not new. We have engraved items and composed personal letters and communications for centuries, but can we do this economically and efficiently? Can we automate it without sounding like a robot or dare I say like some semi-educated AI? In the CCM arena, personalization all started with upgrading from “Dear Valued Customer” to the more colloquial “Hi [first name]”. It then evolved into putting variable data in a few different spots in a communication and even on the outer envelope. Now, like everything, it has gone to the next level.

Usually once you have been authenticated, you will get endearing welcome messages and like “Hi [first name]” at the top of a login page, while they prepopulate your balances and points.

30

winter.2023 DOCUMENTmedia.com

They may even change the images based on your persona, where you live or the season. This personalization has not been easy or cheap. In fact, in many cases, they are not leveraging a central source of truth or even the same system. Until recently, the data and the systems / tech stack is being managed by multiple departments with overlapping tools and customers.

When you are on the receiving end of these touchpoints from the organization that you are doing business with or might do business with, you ask the question, “Do they really know me?”

The reality is that they know you, but they may only know a part of you.

They may know how you like to be communicated with and when. They may know you when you login, essentially, reintroducing yourself again and again.

The challenge has been the disconnect

between the systems and departments and the cost to get it all in sync… until now. With the emerging popularity of the MACH concept, an industry tech standard describing modern technology. Integration and leveraging the legacy apps have become easier. The elements of MACH are: Microservicesbased, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS and Headless.

The MACH Alliance (a not-for-profit industry body) states, “Customer expectations are disrupting every market, and traditional enterprise technology suites can’t keep up.” The Alliance and their ambassadors keep pushing for a technology kumbaya or a harmony of connecting best of breed software solutions to reduce the “glue code.” Glue code is computer code that unites programs or software components that would not be compatible otherwise. This is being solved today with Open APIs (Application Protocol Interfaces) and even some emerging gluelike platforms like Digital Experience Composition Platforms (DXCPs) that overlay all of the legacy apps and connect them to modern architectures.

Of course, the security-minded folks out there are saying, “What about privacy?” According to Gartner, “Organizations that combine identity data with behavioral data will outpace those that don’t.” There is a balance between privacy and personalization.

Regulations like GDPR are forcing companies to define strict regulations around their web applications, thus introducing complex feature implementation within vendor software.

For those that are putting in the work, working together across their organizations and with their technology partners, more and more companies will show you, that they know you, through their interactions with you.

PAUL ABDOOL is the Global Director of Partner-

ships at dotCMS, a web content management system platform. He uses his 20+ years of partnership development and communications industry experience, to help partners develop and optimize digital experiences for their customers.