Document Templates Analysis Guide

Overview

This guide outlines a structured approach for performing the initial analysis on the document templates to be imported into ShareDo. It accompanies the template configuration guide, which focuses on the specifics related to configuring an individual document.

Given that you may have many hundreds or even thousands of document templates, we recommend an initial planning phase is undertaken to:

• Assist you in cataloguing your document templates.
• Identify duplicates in your templates and help you rationalise the overall number.
• Identify common elements across your templates and design your master templates.
• Identify your data requirement for documents.
• Streamline the initial load of your templates.

This guide describes the steps necessary to complete your document template planning phase.

What is a Document Template?

In ShareDo, the term “Document Template” denotes the production of dynamic emails or Word documents.

In either of these cases a single “Document Template” in ShareDo can contain several different documents. Think of it as a “pack” that could comprise, for example:

• Word documents that will present data extracted from the current matter. E.g.:
  • Client Care Letter
  • Attendance Note
  • Application to Court
• Attachments: Attachments are physical documents (Word, PDF files, etc.) that can be attached to the Document Template pack. No data is inserted into them when generated. Typically, these documents may be Guides to legal processes, pro-forma Terms and Conditions documents or perhaps Directions to Court or Maps.
• Enclosures: Enclosures are placeholder documents containing instructions to the person delivering the Document (typically the Print Room) on what pre-printed documents also need to be included. These are typically items such as a Pre-Paid Stamped Addressed envelopes or Brochures. Enclosures cannot be emails or other electronic delivery methods.

Further, Document Templates themselves can have a number of actions undertaken from their context. E.g. Recording Time; approving a document for sending; creating related Tasks, etc.

Cataloguing your Templates

We recommend that you take the time to catalog your document templates prior to the initial creation in ShareDo. In creating a catalogue you should take the time to

1. Rationalise your document templates by removing duplicates or similar documents. For example it is often the case when importing legacy document templatesthat you may have several templates that conceptually achieve the same aims. These could be merged into a single template with specific display rules added.
2. Identify the meta data surrounding the templates. ShareDo allows you to configure a rich set of attributes around your document templates to enable specific behaviour or targeting of your templates. Effort expended in the upfront analysis of these templates will yield dividends for the usability of the system.
3. Identify the optimum folder structure for the storage of your templates. ShareDo stores your document templates in a folder structure within a document repository. Like any other document stored in this way the templates are then version controlled. The naming of this folder structure will greatly assist you in finding the correct template at a later stage.

Designing your Master Templates and Content Blocks

In the course of cataloguing your document templates we suggest you review the content of each template. This will naturally yield common elements that are repeated across all templates. ShareDo calls these common elements “content blocks”.

Examples of content blocks include

1. Headers and Footers – it is common to include consistent branding and legal information in the headers and footers of documents. Extracting these into content blocks will make the change of these sections “on mass” significantly easier in the future.
2. Address and signature blocks – like headers and footers, address and signature blocks will most likely be common across a variety of documents and should be abstracted.
3. Common paragraphs –whilst the identification of common headers, footers, address and signature blocks tends to be straight forward; this is typically less true of common paragraphs. Nevertheless abstracting these into content blocks can assist you in maintaining content moving forwards.

In the course of defining your content blocks it is also often an opportune moment to define a common set of styles for your documents. This should be done using Word Templates .dot. Since there is nothing unique to ShareDo in this undertaking this is not covered further in this guide – further information can be found on-line.

We recommend setting aside 1 day from the project days to create the initial “core” letter template for your implementation. Following the successful test and print of this template this should be signed off prior to any formal Template training taking place. This template is then used as the base for all letter templates going forward.

Identifying your Template Data Requirements

For document templates to be dynamic they will require data to be inserted into tags within the documents. This data is sourced

1. From data entry within the application – in the course of processing a case your users will capture key data items which can then be used across multiple documents.
2. From questionnaires that are associated with specific document templates. Questionnaires prompt users for information as part of generating an individual document.

If you are embarking on your initial ShareDo implementation we recommend the production of a data dictionary as part of the definition phase. If this data dictionary is in place you should, in the course of reviewing your documents, check that the required data items are present in this dictionary.

If a data item is not present you have then have the choice; to add the data item to the case dictionary or to add it to a document specific questionnaire. This decision should be driven by the following points:

1. If data is to be used across many documents and is commonly captured it should be captured as part of your case data dictionary.
2. If data is only captured for a few documents or is not commonly used then it should be captured as part of a document questionnaire .

This Guide

This guide aims to assist you in the completion of your initial catalogue of your templates; the output of which is

1. A completed document template catalogue excel sheet
2. A folder containing your templates and content blocks

To assist in completing this the guide is broken down into the following sections.

Cataloguing your Templates

Defining a Folder Structure

ShareDo keeps all of your document templates within your document management system (SharePoint, O365, iManage, etc.), hence, they are stored in a pseudo file structure.

The first step to consolidating your templates should be to define a file structure that works for you. When defining this structure consider the following points

1. Organisation Ownership - are all of your templates owned by a central team or is this broken down by business/unit or department?
2. Common Templates – do you have common templates or do these tend to be by department?
3. Lots of templates – if you have a large number of templates consider further breaking these down by phase

With reference to the above here is an example folder structure:-

1. Common– holds common templates across all work types
   1. Document Templates – holds common document templates
   2. Email templates – holds common email templates
   3. Content Blocks – holds common content blocks
2. {Business unit e.g. Private Client / Claimant Disputes}– create a folder per department
   1. Document Templates – holds common document templates
   2. Email templates – holds common email templates
   3. Content Blocks – holds common content blocks
   4. {Phase e.g.Investigation}– put the document templates for a specific phase in this folder.
3. For large implementations you may wish to introduce an additional sub folder level for work type or even Recipient
   1. g.Dept / Case Type/ Phase / Recipient /<documents>

You should create a structure that works for you. The above is just a guide based on various client implementations.

Completing the Document Excel Sheets

Your implementation team will typically provide you with a sheet in which you can enter your document templates.

This sheet is structured so that the records can be loaded into ShareDo automatically; saving you the effort of “keying” in your templates.

If you are intending to key your document templates in manually then there is no need for you to follow the structure in the Excel sheet however we would still recommend some upfront planning.

The sheet is broken down by the following tabs

• Template Configuration –describes the templates that are to be loaded into the system.
• Template Source – describes the source of the templates to be used.
• Parameters – this sheet relies on various data validation for dropdown lists. Your implementation team should have completed this sheet for you.

Template Configuration Sheet

When completing the config configuration sheet please note the following guidance on each of the columns.

Refining the initial load of Templates

The Template Excel upload facility is designed to be a “quick start” for you to create your templates; it does not however allow you to upload all ofthe specific settings you may need. Instead these should be performed through the configuration screens.

The table below describes the setting that should be performed through the admin configuration screens.

We suggest you add an additional column to the configuration sheet such as “Configuration Notes” to detail any additional configuration you need to perform manually.

Defining your Data Requirements

Introduction

Most “old style” case management systems have very flat data structures; that is to say the “case” record typically has lots of fields. Whilst this approach is very simple to analyse it suffers from a number of shortfalls including data duplication, data quality consistency and poor reporting.

ShareDo takes a different approach with data being

• Hierarchical – a typical case is composed from a number of related entities such as Participant Roles, Matters, Proceedings, Offers, Tasks and so on
• Aspect driven – your data model can be further extended through the configuration of out of the box features e.g. liability
• Client Extendable – you can extend your data model via the additional form definitions which can be added to various parts of the application.

Template Data Modelling Approach

We suggest you start your analysis by performing a tag audit on your documents; identifying all of the attributes that are required. For each attribute you should then determine which type it is from the following list:-

Your document specific questionnaires are defined via form builder - like any other attribute - but instead of that form being assigned to the Matter it is assigned to the specific template.