Parse content and metadata and compare documents.

Document Automation Suite enhances the base Oracle UCM (Stellent) Content Server functionality to tightly integrate content authoring with Content Server. Document Automation assists in ensuring content is up-to-date, accurate and in synch, while reducing the manual work required by end users. Common applications include work instructions, operating procedures, statements of work, product specifications, and sales proposals, among others. In these applications, it is critical that the metadata in the Content Server and the file match. For instance, Document ID, Author, Reviewer, Approver, and Release Date are all metadata information and might also need to appear in the content. Without Document Automation Suite, authors have to manually update both the native file and metadata in the Content Server, a process that is tedious and error-prone. When content is being modified or approved, users must manually compare the differences between two versions, a process that is so labor-intensive, it simply does not occur.

With Document Automation, you can:

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The Document Automation Suite features the following tools:

Metadata Parser – Parse documents and automatically extract information to populate Oracle UCM Metadata, such as Author, Title, etc. Metadata parser does this automatically, ensuring the consistency of your systems metadata without hoping users remember to do it manually.

Native File Updater – Pull metadata from Oracle UCM, like Revision Date, Author, Revision Level, Document Type, etc. and update information in a native file (e.g. populate a header or footer with this information) to ensure the content in your native files is in synch with Oracle UCM Content Server – automatically.

Document Compare – Deliver users an easy way to compare two revisions of content (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) so they know what changed from one revision to the next, or in the case of a workflow, know what they are approving.

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Document Automation Suite Use Cases

Ensuring ISO Compliance :: Eliminating Errors by Automating Repetitive Work

Ensuring ISO Compliance 

A manufacturer of components for national defense systems was migrating from a variety of Business Collaboration Tools, including Lotus Notes and Domino, to Oracle Universal Content Management (UCM) to reduce their number of repositories. During their UCM implementation, the organization began to look for add-on components to extend UCM’s core functionality to meet the needs of several business units. Fishbowl Solutions had a prevailing presence in the Oracle UCM component marketplace, with a number of different solutions the organization was interested in. “It was like being a kid in a candy store with all of Fishbowl’s components,” said a Lead Systems Engineer.   One of the many components purchased from Fishbowl was Document Automation Suite.

The firm was concerned with ISO 9000 Certification – a group of standards for quality management systems that includes documenting processes, monitoring processes for accuracy, continually improving processes, and maintaining adequate records of processes. When auditors come in, the firm needs to demonstrate that all printed process documents match their online versions and that both versions have been updated within the required timeframe. To prove their compliance, the organization needs to show that metadata matches on both the printed and online versions of the document. Examples of this metadata include: Revision Number, Date, and Process Owner.  If the printed and online versions do not match, the organization is not re-certified as ISO 9000 compliant and risks losing business.

Fishbowl’s Document Automation Suite solution helps the company prove its compliance by taking key information from document metadata and updating native documents with this information. For instance, the cover sheet for a procedural document is automatically populated based on the content's check-in date, author, revision number, and more. Auditors are able to see that users are working off the correct version and that those versions not only meet standards but are in synch with electronic copies. This automated process eliminates the opportunity for human error and reduces the need to enter the same information in both the native file and UCM system. The Lead Systems Engineer thought “automatically assigning metadata came out of the box.” He was shocked when he learned it didn’t. “I knew we would need [Document Automation] as soon as I saw it.”

Currently six to eight departments within the organization are using Document Automation Suite. Without it, proving ISO compliance and keeping native and online processes up-to-date would require hours of manual updates all subject to human error, threatening ISO 9000 compliance. The Lead Systems Engineer thinks “[Fishbowl’s components] are a great toolkit to have because they allow for a lot of flexibility and automation within the Enterprise. Being a customer of Oracle and Fishbowl, allows us to have staff who doesn’t need to be developers and [we] can just plug in these solutions.”

The company also uses PDF forms extensively for several of its line of business applications. They wanted a way to create a record that would be saved in UCM at the end of a transaction that would be both searchable and become permanent. Fishbowl's Document Automation Suite was used to update the forms with information from the process or workflow, like reviewer, approval date and so forth. Enterprise Batchloader was then used to automatically check the forms, once converted to “flat”, uneditable PDF files, into UCM with the appropriate metadata from the system. The forms were now records in the system that could not be edited; they were fully searchable because the proper metadata was assigned; all occurring without user intervention. Using Fishbowl’s solutions, including Document Automation Suite and Enterprise Batchloader, the company was able to fully automate this process, delivering business units the functionality they required.

Ensuring ISO Compliance Use Case

Eliminating Errors by Automating Repetitive Work 

Setting clear expectations with a customer is critical to a project’s success. At Fishbowl Solutions, Statements of Work play a vital role in setting those expectations for all of our projects. These documents detail the solution that will be delivered during a customer engagement. As a project is being scoped and defined, a Statement of Work can go through several revisions until the customer is satisfied they will have the solution that they need.  

Fishbowl Solutions’ consulting team creates a Statement of Work for every project we work on, requiring several statements of work to be created each week. Because Statements of Work are specific to a project, there is always custom information in each document.  However that same custom information exists on every Statement of Work, in this case: Author, Release Date, Document ID, Created For, and Document Title. This same information is entered as metadata for the document when it is checked into Oracle UCM. Entering duplicate information is not only time consuming but also leaves room for error. Fishbowl saw an opportunity to automate the replication of this content so users can save time by entering content only once and ensuring information on the native file and in UCM match. 

Fishbowl Solutions leveraged the open UCM architecture to develop Document Automation Suite, a suite of UCM custom components. The three components are: Metadata Parser, Native File Updater, and Document Compare. The combination of these three utilities allow users to automatically extract information from a Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or PDF document to populate Oracle UCM metadata; pull Oracle UCM metadata into a native document; and compare changes in two revisions of content leveraging the Track Changes technology to specify each difference.  

Created For, Prepared For, Prepared By, Date of Preparation, Proposal Expiration, Work Order, Revision Number, Company Name, Document Title, and Status from the Statement of Work Word document and using this information to automatically populate the UCM metadata fields upon check-in. Fishbowl then uses Native File Updater to populate footer information in the native Statement of Work Word document to include: Revision, Company Name, Document Title, and Work Number, all taken from the metadata fields updated by Metadata Parser when the Statement of Work is checked into UCM. Document Compare is leveraged during the Statement of Work workflow process. Reviewers are able to compare changes from different revisions of the same document just as they would if they were using “track changes” in Word in order to focus efforts on reviewing only the parts of a document that have changed.

The combination of utilities in Document Automation Suite saves the Fishbowl Solutions’ consulting team many hours each week from entering duplicate information in multiple places and has eliminated the opportunity for UCM and the native file to have out-of-synch information, reducing confusion and ensuring consultants and customers are always working off the latest and same iteration of the Statement of Work. Document Automation has also improved the Statement of Work workflow process by allowing reviewers to view and compare all versions of the document and what specific changes were made. With a more efficient Statement of Work process, our consultants can more quickly understand customer expectations and focus more time on delivering outstanding solutions in a timely manner, allowing us to continually exceed our customers’ expectation.

Eliminating Errors by Automating Repetitive Work

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