In Our Customer Era: Make your documents work for you, not against you

Satya Nadella has spoken about the ‘death of SaaS’ as we currently know it - and I tend to agree. The notion that software will always be sold on a subscription basis is outdated. What matters is understanding why people keep buying software, not just when they buy it. 

We’ve conducted extensive research into why customers choose the Lasernet Platform, and the answer has been clear: it delivers real value to them. But we didn’t stop there. Along the way, we uncovered a few interesting insights worth sharing. 

Documents are very expensive - and its hard to find ways to cut those costs 

That’s a powerful statement, because documents are everywhere. They’re not just the old PDFs with product instructions or invoices to be paid. They’ve evolved into vital tools for sharing data that informs and engages the people who need it. In our business, some customers must produce highly regulated documents featuring customised images and text crucial to product performance - like key safety information for o-rings used in aerospace equipment.

Others produce data-rich quotes for field services supporting traffic safety equipment that protects motorists, construction workers, and government employees on site. Given how critical these documents are, their quality should enhance the customer experience, not be a costly burden on the business. 

Yet, with outdated documentation tools and most bespoke documents still created manually, employees can spend between 30 and 50 per cent of their working day finding, compiling, or editing documents. 

One common challenge customers face is they often don’t realise they have a documentation problem until they examine the actual costs in each part of their business. Typically, one or two IT professionals are tasked with fixing ‘something’ in their documentation process - whether that’s creation, storage, or delivery of documents linked to core IT systems.

Large organisations rely on ERPs, CRMs, core platforms and a handful of DIY solutions (everyone’s favourite Excel spreadsheet, wink wink) that aren’t robust enough to meet the specific demands of each team. As a result, staff end up doing half their work in these systems and the rest manually, which wastes time and introduces errors. 

Most organisations face the same fundamental issue - they use multiple software systems, each holding part of the data needed to build a final document for its intended recipient. For example, one recent customer needed to send CAD drawings, building permit information, and sales quotes to people commissioning homes. That meant at least three very different systems had to work together.

Traditionally, the salesperson would build a document in each system, manually combine them, check everything multiple times, then send it by email - hoping the attachment wasn’t blocked. When we showed this customer how Lasernet can pull data from each system, compile it into a single, personalised, sequential document, and deliver it within the same programme, it immediately freed up hours for their sales team - allowing them to focus on selling more homes. 

So, how do we solve this? Traditional document management software tends to be bulky, expensive, and complicated to use. We found a simpler solution: create a tool that fits into your existing IT environment, complementing and combining your current technology to work for you. 

That’s exactly where we’ve focused the Lasernet Platform’s development - building an easy-to-use platform that integrates seamlessly with your IT landscape. While we’ve mainly tackled documentation challenges in banking, manufacturing, and retail, our solution has the potential to simplify document workflows across many other sectors. 

If this sounds familiar, or you’d like advice on how to take your documentation to the next level, we’re always happy to help.