By: Chris Coello

As the wisest fool Michael Scott once said, “Real Business is done on paper.” While that quote is laughable in the world of Cloud ecosystems, the truth is that we’ve modeled nearly everything we do after the OG, paper. An updated (and less funny) version of the quote would be “Real business is done on virtual paper.”

Digital document transformation is no new business trend, but old habits die hard. While the digital document revolution continues to persevere, we find that the processes of document generation are still overwhelmingly manual.

So let’s evaluate in a kind of “choose your own adventure” kind of way (full of excitement and suspense!) and find out…where does your business stand in the Digital Documents Revolution?

First question:
Your team is currently using Salesforce products to manage an array of processes and data points, right?

  • If you answered, “Yes, my company uses Salesforce like the bunch of Champions that we are!” then you’re halfway there! keep reading!
  • If you answered, “No,” then first of all, let’s fix that right now! And then come back and keep reading!


Second question:
Do you or anyone you know create any of the following on a regular basis for any type of business?

    • Quotes & Proposals
    • Contracts and SOWs
    • Reports, Charts, & Presentations
    • Work Orders & Invoices
  • If you answered Yes to any of the above, then you’re on the right track. Keep reading!
  • If you answered No, then I highly recommend dropping everything and reading this, this, and this!

Okay, next question…
What are the key things that make any software solution attractive?
If your answer included any of the words below, then keep reading!

    • Easy to Use
    • Scalable
    • Budget Friendly

If your answer didn’t include any of the words, I’m just going to pretend I didn’t hear you, mkay? Mkay.
Okay, just one more question: Would you agree that your current document generation tool meets the criteria listed above?

  • If you answered “Yes, my doc gen tool is killing it” then Awesome! Please move on to the next blog here.
  • If you answered “No, I don’t have a document generation tool,“ then I insist, you will want to keep reading.

Okay…the great Zoltar is reading your fortune in 3, 2, 1, aaaaand….

I’m looking into my Crystal Ball and I see that you’re using some combination of MS Office tools to manage your data and or your document generation? Reports. Contracts. Invoices. The works.

Was I right?

  • If you answered, “Yes, you were right“ then I knew it! Keep reading!
  • If you answered “No, I have no idea what you’re on about,” then keep reading anyways, you might learn something! 😉

In the consulting world, we often hear of business problems that contain some variation these key words: “Well, we’ve been managing it in an Excel and/or Word document.” If there’s anything we know at Appluent it’s that, when it comes to managing data-driven documents, the usual Microsoft Office tools like Word and Excel induce groans for miles. It’s not that they’re bad products. They’re great products! In fact they do some of the most important work in the business world. But, when it comes to data integrity and consistency, those tools by themselves can be clunky, time consuming, and next to impossible to manage across multiple users. And getting your data out of your CRM and into those documents is a WHOLE lot of tricky.

So what about that is Easy to Use, Scalable, and Budget Friendly? Well, the only thing I can think of is that it doesn’t involve change. And we tend to see that avoiding change is expensive!

So now, one last question for you…
Do you or someone you know spend countless hours in Excel, PPT, or Word putting together reports, presentations, quotes, invoices, work orders, or contracts?

  • If you answered, “Yes” then you will definitely want to keep reading below.
  • If you answered “No. Actually, Appluent and Conga helped us revolutionize our document generation processes” then, on behalf of the entire Appluent team, we’d like say how much of a pleasure it was to work with you! Think about dropping us a review over here.

So, you answered “Yes” to spending countless hours in MS Office managing documents and my crystal ball tells me that you must have thought at some point “There’s gotta be a better way, right?”

“Right???”

“Seriously, guys, there’s a better way, right?”

“Hello???!!”

“Is there anyone out there??? There’s a better way, right?”

(we promised there would be excitement and suspense!)

Right! Very much right, indeed!

That better way is called Conga Composer.

“Why?” you say? Well, keep reading!

So What is Conga Composer, exactly?

Conga Composer is one of the best selling apps that sits on top of your Salesforce environment and allows users to create simple or advanced documents using any data in Salesforce with minimal clicks. If it’s in Salesforce, Conga Composer can pull it out and get it onto a document. Composer is an incredibly powerful and popular tool among the business world for generating clean, dynamic, and consistent documents . That’s just Composer by itself.

Then you add in the power and flexibility of Salesforce process automation capabilities and basically you’ve created the Jordan and Pippen of Documents Generation.

Let’s review some bullet points, shall we?

  • Composer can use data from any Salesforces’ Standard or Custom Objects or even pull from external data sources and put it right in your own company-branded documents.
  • Formats include Word, Excel, PDF, PPT, and Email (plain and HTML)
  • Composer can store documents practically wherever you need them to be kept—seriously. One click and it’s stored on a Salesforce record or to your Google Drive or emailed to a Contact in Salesforce .
  • Composer is Salesforce Lightning-Ready and installation is a breeze
  • There are some REALLY cool tricks that Composer can do to revolutionize your UX and adoption. Things like Dynamic Template selection and file naming, automated document generation and emailing, and even automated Salesforce data updates!
  • E-Signature integration is a breeze—especially with Conga Sign.
  • There are numerous Conga add-ons that easily work with Composer for Complex Quoting and Products configuration, Contract Management, Process Automation, and other productivity tools
  • It’s easy to use, scalable, and cost-friendly!

So, congratulations dear reader! You have come to the end of the story where we reveal the lesson: Digital documents drive business. And without good tools, your document generation process can leave your business vulnerable. If Salesforce is your CRM and document generation is a part of your business process, then Conga Composer is the right tool to allow your users to create sophisticated digital documents— repeatedly and error-free— with unparalleled efficiency and scalability.