Celant's Document Automation Engine ("DAE") is designed with following design goals:
From the very first project you work on, you will be able to immediately tell that this app was designed for professionals because the features of the application are geared towards professionals who draft or negotiate legal documents for a living. The app is densely packed with useful information and powerful features yet navigating within the app is seamless and fluid, allowing users to draft multiple documents at once while easily navigating between project documents and key issues, draft custom language that deviates from the templates anywhere in the document, or automate document generation workflows, such as facilitating the approval chain, or sending text alerts when certain events are triggered, to name a few.
Many of the document automation solutions available on the market will hide the underlying document from the Users to prevent overwhelming them with legalese. Although it may work for consumer facing apps, professionals demand to see how the underlying document changed and precise control over the language. We fulfill that requirement by (i) always showing the underlying document in real-time (without the need to press "submit" or "preview" buttons), while displaying the changes in the toggleable redline format, and (ii) allowing users to add or delete any portion of the document, allowing users to override the template's language. It is also easy to perform redline comparisons against different versions of the document. The application is even able to automatically generate issues list to topically compare the differences between versions, as well as taking in information from Excel document to massively create multiple project documents.
Our app is designed to be fun to use. It is highly intuitive, and its fulfillment of implicit expectations leads to reduction of training time and costs, because most users are able to simply start using it with minimal training. What are some examples of powerful features that are fun and satisfying to use? Using the application, the user is able to generate only the signature pages relating to the project. Once signed, the user can upload scanned signature pages (in the same order it was produced) to automatically compile closing binders, which will be a zipped file, containing the executed PDFs in a sequential order. Another example is that any user project after creation can be assigned to a different template, which allows easy transplantation of saved variable data. For example, you may have started a credit agreement project, but a change in deal structure requires you to draft an indenture. With our application, it is simple to change the underlying template, which allows you to easily utilize existing customer data, a feature that becomes even more powerful with the app's ability to copy projects.
The Celant's Document Automation Engine delivers the following key benefits to its users:
Document Automation historically have had trouble allowing users to make changes that were not contemplated by the template authors. So if there's a comma that is misplaced in the form, the user either had to live with it, change the template, or convert to DOCX and then modify it. With the Freestyle Editing mode, our users are given the power to override the template text at will, thereby benefiting from productivity gains of document automation and while maintaining the ability to fine-tune and put "finishing touches" with the character-by-character editing that is available in word processing software. Only the most modern document automation solutions have this feature.
Very few of the Document Automation solutions available today provide the ability to create separate versions of the author's Templates and user's Documents. Many forms and templates are updated on a regular basis to account for changes in law and regulatory practices. Therefore, it is important to keep track of the changes that are being injected into an institution's forms, and our versioning feature is well equipped to encourage users to use the latest templates for the new project, while keeping the template "as is" or "upgrade template" for existing or completed transactions (useful for refinancing, etc. type of deals). With respect to the user Documents, keeping track of multiple versions is perfect when there is negotiation involved because practitioners must keep track of which version was distributed. With this infrastructure in place, it is easy to report the differences between the version, so both topical comparison (issues list) and textual comparison (redlines) are possible.
Our platform is able to reach the finishing line of document production by allowing users to easily create closing sets. The user can download "just the signature pages" of a project, and have that signed by the authorized signatories. The user can upload the PDF containing the signature pages, and the application can automatically place those signature pages in the right places, convert the entire project into appropriately numbered and named PDFs, insert the signed pages appropriately and send a zip file containing the closing set. It works perfect with scanners (Fujitsu recommended).
Document production entails many ancillary tasks, such as scheduling a meeting/call to discuss or negotiate the document, distribution/email of the document to a list of persons, sending out text or email reminders, assigning colleagues tasks based on the status of the document, and moving the document through an approval chain. These ancillary activities can be automated and further improve the efficiency gains provided by the document automation solution alone.
When you make any choices or input any data into our fields, such changes are immediately reflected in the actual document (center column) and the ramifications are reflected in remaining choices and fields (left column), such as fields that have become irrelevant due to the choices made. Compare to other existing document assembly solutions, which either never show you the underlying document (such as Legal Zoom) or require you to press "Submit" (Hotdocs or Rocket Lawyer), such simple streamlining results in a satisfying and flowing user experience.
Not only is the change immediate, but the resulting change is easy to detect because it shows up as a redline, via our proprietary process. Deletions are displayed as a red strike-through, and additions are displayed as blue underlined text. The purpose of this process is to easily show the deviations from the 'default' form or the 'original' document, and such redlined document can be printed or converted to PDF or Microsoft Word for closer review. There is an added layer of differentiation, which is between the blackline (non-selected item, shown in black & white) vs. redline (currently selected item, shown in blue & red). This redline mode can be disabled so that the document is displayed in clean format only. Our proprietary document automation engine is the only application with this real-time redlining feature.
The data input field on the left column does not always match up with view of the actual document, the portion of which is being modified. Therefore, our application has an automatic "smart scroll" feature, so when a choice is made or data is inputted in the left column, the center column automatically scrolls smoothly to the appropriate place in the document. Likewise, if you click on any field in the center document, the left column scrolls smoothly automatically so that you can see the help text related to it and other relevant input fields. This linked view can be disabled if the user want to focus on certain portion of the document, without the scroll getting in the way.
Experienced professionals know that complex documents come in sets. It might be because different parties are expected to draft them, or because they are governed by different laws. Our templates are organized under a "Project" and an unlimited number of "Documents" can be made as part of the Project. Therefore, when you start to work on a Document, it will automatically and concurrently fill out data and make choices in other related Documents in the same Project. For example, if you put in the name of the Company once, you will find that the information is already filled out for all related documents - and similarly, once you finish a Document, you will find frequently that you just need to fill out just a few other fields in other documents to complete all of the related documents. In other document assembly solutions, because they are a Microsoft Word Add-on application, it takes advanced skills to link two documents under a common umbrella. In our solution, this is the default and expected solution and greatly enhances the speed in which the documents are assembled and reduces the 'data inputting' and 'decision fatigue' that occurs when working with document assembly solutions.
When working on any transaction, it is common to be in a situation where some level of uncertainty exists. It is frustrating if this uncertainty blocks the progress of document creation, or slips through and a blank makes it to the execution document. For example, if the Company's name is unknown (because it has not been created yet), and it is a required field, some document assembly solutions will prevent you from going to the next page. The user has to makeup something, and the burden is on the user to remember that uncertainty state. Our application has a handy feature where each of the input and decision can be designated as "certain", "uncertain" or "neutral". If it is certain, then the field cannot be changed. If it is uncertain, brackets are inserted automatically. And the items can be organized so that only uncertain or neutral items are displayed, greatly reducing the need for repeatedly reading the same field to determine whether this has been decided or not. Our proprietary document automation engine is the only application with this feature.
Drafting professional documents is a very detail oriented process. Have you ever had a form that had a field for an entity's form of organization as "a _________"? If it is "a Delaware Corporation", that works, but what about "a Ohio LLC"? Doesn't the "a" have to change to "an"? Our application has a feature called "{{articles}}" which will accurately determine the "a" vs. "an" issue. This is demonstrative of the attention to detail that our team has put in to make our application the best document automation tool for the professionals. It also can handle math functions that apply to numbers (for formulas) and dates (for calculating maturity dates, due dates, etc.). It can also handle different casing (for creating signature blocks, for instance).
Many entry level document assembly engines are limited in ways in which you can incorporate advanced logic, such as nested logic. Part of this limitation is by design, because the focus of many entry-level document assembly products is to make it easy for users to draft the template, and part of it is the meta data necessary to make it work within the Microsoft Word add-on framework. We have developed a markup style that easily conveys the logic while allowing complexity to truly unleash the power of smart templates. The result is an intuitive open-source based markup that anyone can pick up within a few training sessions. A simplified example syntax is: {{#if ((person_is_over_21 AND person_has_valid_ID) OR person_appears_over_40)}} Welcome to the bar {{else}} You need to age a bit more {{/if}}.
Our application is innately made for the web, not a ported version of a Microsoft Word add-on. And as an innate web application, it benefits from being able to incorporate what the internet has to offer. You can work on your project anywhere there is an internet, not just at your desktop, and it is easy for colleagues to contribute to the work-product. Other benefits are numerous, such as being able to receive updates continuously, easy integration with other internet technologies (such as email, text, video) and platforms.
All of the advances would be naught, if the application was not backwards compatible with existing processes. As such, our application supports easy conversion to PDF or Microsoft Word, with pristine formatting, not a simple conversion of HTML into DOCX. Since all of the input fields and other data are innately stored in a document based database, analysis on them, such as creating topical differences, is trivial in our platform. We can also export out the data to XLS, CSV, JSON or other formats, as appropriate. Exporting in XLS format essentially creates a save file that the user can load later onto the app, or use or archive it as a summary of the material terms of the transaction.