Have questions? We've got answers.

Yes. SmartDocuments supports the multilingual creation of documents and communication content. This enables organizations to create and manage documents in multiple languages based on a central template and a standardized process. The desired language can be selected automatically based on available data or predefined business rules. This ensures that recipients always receive communication in their preferred language without the need to maintain separate document processes or templates. By managing all language versions centrally, content, design standards, and legal requirements remain consistent across all languages. This simplifies document maintenance, reduces administrative effort, and ensures that messages are communicated consistently and professionally worldwide.

For internationally operating companies and organizations with multilingual audiences, SmartDocuments provides an effective way to standardize communication processes while still delivering personalized, language-specific communication.

SmartDocuments is a powerful document automation platform that enables organizations to create, manage, and deliver documents efficiently, consistently, and in compliance with regulatory requirements. By intelligently connecting templates, data sources, business rules, and workflows, SmartDocuments automates complex document processes, minimizes manual effort, and ensures the highest levels of quality and consistency across all communications. With SmartDocuments, businesses and public sector organizations can automate a wide range of document and communication processes, from letters, contracts, and reports to forms and personalized customer correspondence. The result is faster processes, fewer errors, and more time for value-adding activities.

SmartDocuments FOUR is the latest generation of the SmartDocuments platform. Based on a workflow-driven approach, FOUR helps organizations create, manage, and deliver business-critical communications more efficiently while maintaining full control over quality, consistency, and compliance. Designed to support the entire communication lifecycle, FOUR provides a modern foundation for document automation. It enables businesses and public sector organizations to respond flexibly to changing business requirements, technological developments, and increasing customer expectations.

As a result, organizations can establish future-proof processes while ensuring efficient, professional, and scalable communication.

Many organizations face challenges such as time-consuming document processes, inconsistent content, increasing compliance requirements, and the need to coordinate communication across multiple teams, departments, and channels. SmartDocuments helps organizations overcome these challenges by automating document creation, centralizing template management, and standardizing communication processes end-to-end. As a result, organizations maintain control over content and workflows, ensure consistent and compliant communication, and simultaneously improve efficiency and productivity.

By automating repetitive tasks, SmartDocuments reduces errors, shortens processing times, and relieves employees of manual work. The result is professionally designed, up-to-date, and personalized documents that can be created and delivered quickly, accurately, and reliably.

SmartDocuments automates the creation of documents and business communications by intelligently connecting templates, data sources, business rules, and workflows. Information from integrated business applications and systems is automatically inserted into centrally managed templates, enabling documents to be created quickly, accurately, and consistently. Through the centralized management of content and templates, SmartDocuments ensures that all documents comply with current business, legal, and design requirements. At the same time, repetitive tasks are automated, reducing manual effort and accelerating processes.

In this way, SmartDocuments helps organizations increase efficiency, improve the quality of their communications, and maintain full control over content, processes, and compliance requirements at all times. The result is professional, consistent, and personalized documents produced with significantly less effort and a greatly reduced risk of errors.

SmartDocuments enables organizations to create and manage a wide range of documents, communication processes, and digital interactions. These include documents, templates, emails, forms, as well as workflow-driven processes for the creation, review, approval, and delivery of content. Whether the goal is to create contracts, send customer communications, collect information through forms, or manage complex communication workflows, SmartDocuments brings together content, data, and workflows on a single platform. This allows document and communication processes to be designed, standardized, and automated efficiently.

With SmartDocuments, organizations can produce consistent, personalized, and compliant content that can be delivered quickly and reliably. As a result, businesses and public sector organizations benefit from increased productivity, an improved user experience, and complete control over their communications.

Templates in SmartDocuments are centrally managed and maintained on a single platform. This creates a reliable single source of truth for content, corporate design, and business rules. Organizations benefit from consistent communication, simplified governance, and the ability to implement changes quickly, often without requiring support from the IT department. With centralized template management, business users can independently maintain and update content while ensuring that all documents comply with current business, legal, and design requirements. This increases flexibility and reduces the time needed to introduce new or updated documents.

Integrated features for version control, auditability, and compliance help organizations transparently document changes and maintain full visibility over approvals and modifications at all times. As a result, templates remain up to date, consistent, and easy to manage over the long term, even in complex organizations with numerous document types and stakeholders involved.

Absolutely. We would be delighted to show you SmartDocuments in a personal live demonstration tailored to your specific requirements. During the session, our experts will demonstrate how SmartDocuments can help you efficiently automate, standardize, and optimize your document and communication processes. The demonstration is customized to the needs, challenges, and use cases of your organization, providing a practical insight into the platform’s capabilities and showing how SmartDocuments can support and enhance your existing processes. Throughout the demo, our specialists will also answer your questions and present concrete solutions for your specific requirements. This gives you a comprehensive understanding of how SmartDocuments can help increase efficiency, reduce errors, and ensure consistent, professional communication.

Simply schedule an appointment for a personal demonstration. We look forward to introducing SmartDocuments to you live.

The SmartDocuments licensing model is based on a package-based approach, designed around how organizations use the platform. Packages vary according to the number of users, expected document volume, and the selected deployment model (SaaS or On-Premises). Each package includes a core set of features, with additional services and integrations available as optional add-ons. Our team works closely with you to identify the package that best fits your current requirements while providing the flexibility to support future growth.

Browser vs. local installation...

"Yes and no!"

No software installation is required to use the SmartDocuments platform, including template usage, document generation, administration, and management. The platform is entirely web-based. The only component that needs to be installed locally is SmartEditor, which is used for template creation and maintenance.

SaaS vs. On-Premises ...?

Both options are available.

The choice between SaaS (Software as a Service) and on-premises hosting depends on the specific requirements and priorities of a company or organization. SaaS solutions offer cost efficiency, ease of implementation, and flexibility, while on-premises solutions provide greater control, customization options, and security. Which option is best suited for your organization is ultimately your decision. SmartDocuments can be provided either as a SaaS solution or installed on-site within your own environment.

More information can be found here.

"Who is allowed to edit, approve, or use what? Or does everyone automatically have access to everything?"

SmartDocuments FOUR provides a comprehensive and highly granular user and permissions management system, allowing organizations to precisely control access to functions and content.

Different roles and permissions can be defined, for example for administrators, template designers, and end users. This makes it possible to determine exactly who is allowed to view, edit, approve, or publish specific templates. To simplify user administration, SmartDocuments can also be connected to an existing Active Directory (AD) environment. This enables the automatic synchronization of user accounts, groups, and permissions, including Single Sign-On (SSO) if required.

Key Features of the Permission System

• Granular permissions for different user roles
• Clear separation of administrative and user-level access rights
• Integration with Active Directory (AD)
• Centralized administration and full traceability of permissions and access rights

The integrated permission management system enhances data security, transparency, and ease of administration, making it suitable for both small organizations and complex enterprise IT environments.

“Are we buying a pig in a poke?”

Absolutely not.

We offer you the opportunity to thoroughly evaluate SmartDocuments in advance and gain first-hand experience of its functionality, ease of use, and technical processes. Upon request, we can provide access to a fully functional test environment where you can explore all core features and independently create or modify templates. Alternatively, we also offer a Proof of Concept (PoC) within your own IT environment. This allows the template management system to be extensively tested in conjunction with your existing infrastructure. The details, scope, and any potential costs of such a test environment or PoC are defined individually during consultation, depending on your specific requirements, scope, and objectives.

Your Testing Options at a Glance

• Access to a fully functional test environment
• Optional Proof of Concept (PoC) within your own environment
• Individual customization of scope, duration, and objectives
• Dedicated support and guidance throughout the evaluation phase from our experienced team

Yes. SmartDocuments supports Single Sign-On (SSO) through Keycloak, enabling centralized and secure user authentication. Users can sign in with their existing corporate credentials, eliminating the need to manage separate usernames and passwords for SmartDocuments. By integrating with centralized identity and access management solutions, organizations benefit from simplified user administration and enhanced security. User permissions, authentication policies, and access rights can be centrally managed and controlled, significantly reducing administrative effort.

SSO also improves the user experience by allowing employees to access SmartDocuments seamlessly without having to log in separately to multiple systems. This increases user adoption, streamlines daily workflows, and supports the secure and efficient use of the platform. Thanks to its integration via Keycloak, SmartDocuments can be flexibly incorporated into existing authentication and identity management environments, helping organizations meet the requirements of modern IT and security architectures.

Yes. SmartDocuments supports Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) for both template management and document generation. Organizations can precisely define which users are authorized to create, edit, approve, and manage templates, as well as which templates, functions, or content are available to specific user groups. As a result, employees only have access to the information and functionality that are relevant to their role and responsibilities. This approach simplifies usability, enhances security, and ensures that sensitive content and documents can only be accessed or modified by authorized individuals. In addition, role-based permission management helps organizations meet compliance, governance, and security requirements by clearly defining responsibilities and providing controlled, traceable access to information.

As a result, organizations maintain full control over their document processes while ensuring adherence to internal policies and regulatory requirements. Particularly in larger enterprises and public sector organizations with multiple departments and user groups, SmartDocuments enables a structured, secure, and efficient approach to permission management without compromising flexibility or user experience.

SmartDocuments employs comprehensive end-to-end encryption to protect data both in transit and at rest. This ensures that sensitive information, such as personal data, financial information, contractual documents, and HR records, remains securely protected throughout the entire document lifecycle. For secure data transmission, SmartDocuments uses the latest TLS 1.3 encryption technology. Data stored within the platform is protected with AES-256 encryption, which is widely recognized as an industry-standard security measure for safeguarding confidential information. Depending on organizational requirements, encryption keys can either be managed directly by the organization or provided and managed by the platform.

This enables businesses and public sector organizations to maintain control over their security strategy while meeting stringent requirements for data protection, compliance, and information security. In this way, SmartDocuments ensures that confidential information is protected at every stage, from document creation and processing through to long-term archiving.

SmartDocuments is hosted on Microsoft Azure within the European Union. Data is stored and processed in data centers located in the West Europe region, ensuring a secure, high-performance, and GDPR-compliant service delivery.

Yes. SmartDocuments offers professional consulting services for the design, creation, and optimization of templates and workflows. Our experienced consultants help organizations unlock the full potential of document automation and build efficient, future-ready processes. Our consulting services cover, among other things, the development and structuring of templates, the optimization of document and communication processes, the definition of governance guidelines, and the implementation of best practices for sustainable document automation. The goal is to design documents and processes that are efficient, consistent, scalable, and easy to manage. Working closely with your organization, our specialists analyze existing processes, identify opportunities for improvement, and develop solutions tailored to your specific requirements. This creates a solid foundation for the successful implementation and long-term expansion of your SmartDocuments environment.

Whether you need support with implementing new templates, designing complex approval workflows, or strategically evolving your document landscape, our consulting services help you establish a powerful and sustainable document automation solution.

Professionalize your template management with SmartDocuments

A template management system offers numerous advantages, especially for organizations that regularly create, manage, and distribute documents.

Time savings

By using predefined templates, employees can work faster and more efficiently, as they no longer need to create every document from scratch. With SmartDocuments, template designers also benefit from significant time savings. Our templates are built using reusable content building blocks, making updates and modifications quick and effortless. Changes only need to be made once and can then be applied across multiple templates automatically.

Consistency and Corporate Design Management

A template management system ensures that all documents maintain a consistent and professional appearance, strengthening your brand identity and avoiding inconsistencies across communications. SmartDocuments plays a key role in enforcing corporate design standards. The platform ensures that all documents and materials comply with approved design guidelines, including colors, fonts, logos, and layouts. Corporate design changes can be managed centrally and, most importantly, only by authorized users. Updates are then automatically applied across all relevant templates, preventing outdated or inconsistent designs from being used. As a result, employees always have access to the latest approved templates and can create documents without inadvertently deviating from corporate design standards.

In short:

• Standardization
• Centralized control
• Easy accessibility
• Error reduction

Quality assurance

Smart templates are designed to include all required information, such as standard text modules, placeholders for specific data, and usage instructions. This helps ensure that important information is never overlooked. In addition, SmartDocuments provides automatic content validation. For example, date formats, phone numbers, and other data fields can be validated automatically to ensure correct data entry. Templates can also include built-in prompts and error messages that alert users when information is missing or entered incorrectly. This helps identify and correct errors early or prevent them altogether. Furthermore, version control and approval workflows ensure that template changes are reviewed and approved before being released. This guarantees that only verified and approved templates are available for use.

In short:

• Predefined content
• Formatting guidelines
• Automatic validation
• Error messages and user guidance
• Version control and approval workflows
• User permissions and access controls

Easy updates

Template changes can be made centrally and made available immediately to all users, ensuring that documents always remain current and relevant.

Access control

A template management system makes it possible to control access to specific templates and ensure that only authorized users are allowed to make modifications.

Efficient collaboration

Teams can collaborate more effectively by working with shared templates, improving communication and coordination across departments. SmartDocuments also supports approval processes and workflows. Team members can access the latest templates from a central location, ensuring that everyone works with the same up-to-date documents and eliminating confusion caused by outdated versions. Templates can also be made available directly within line-of-business applications, CRM systems, ERP platforms, and other business solutions.

Document automation through integration with existing systems

SmartDocuments integrates seamlessly into existing IT environments, connecting easily to third-party applications and databases. Through these integrations, many document processes can be fully or partially automated. This reduces manual effort and minimizes errors caused by human intervention. An effective template management system thrives on data from other business systems.

Thanks to these integrations, organizations can:

• Automatically generate documents using data from third-party applications
• Pre-populate templates with information from external systems
• Launch templates directly from connected applications
• Store generated documents automatically in third-party systems or cloud storage solutions

Implementation timelines depend on the scope of the project, the complexity of the required integrations, and the number of templates and workflows to be introduced. A focused implementation can typically be completed within a few weeks, while broader multi-template rollouts with deeper system integrations may take several months. Our team works closely with you during the planning phase to define a realistic timeline and implementation approach based on your goals, requirements, and technical environment.

SmartDocuments offers a comprehensive training program designed to help users, administrators, and subject matter experts use the platform efficiently and confidently. The training courses provide the knowledge and practical skills required to make the most of SmartDocuments and successfully manage document processes. Training is tailored to different experience levels and roles, ranging from introductory courses for new users to advanced topics for experienced users and technical specialists. This allows participants to expand their expertise in a targeted way and leverage the full capabilities of SmartDocuments according to their individual requirements. Through hands-on content and practical exercises, participants gain valuable insights into document creation, management, and automation, as well as the effective use of templates, data sources, and workflows.

More information about our training programs can be found here.

Getting started with SmartDocuments begins with a conversation about your goals, current document processes, and technical environment. From there, our team helps define the project scope, identify the systems to be integrated, and create a clear implementation plan.

Most organizations start with a small selection of high-impact templates and processes and then scale gradually as adoption grows. No specialized technical expertise is required from your team, as our consultants provide the guidance and support needed throughout the entire implementation process.

Why does a template management system have a place alongside a DMS?

As part of digital transformation, companies and organizations are faced with the challenge of creating, managing, and archiving documents efficiently and in a legally compliant manner. In this context, traditional Document Management Systems (DMS) often come into play.

But how does a template management system differ from a DMS, and do companies and organizations really need both? At first glance, many people mistake our template management system for a DMS. At trade fairs and conferences, we often hear comments such as, "Oh, another DMS!" But that is not correct.

Focus and core functions: Template management system vs. DMSDMS

A template management system is a specialized solution that focuses exclusively on the management and structuring of document templates. It is designed to store, maintain, and reuse standardized templates, content building blocks, designs, and layouts. Its main purpose is to optimize document creation, minimize errors, and ensure a consistent appearance across all documents. In addition, template maintenance efforts are significantly reduced through the use of variable data fields and content building blocks (standard content that is reused across multiple templates).

Traditional document management systems, on the other hand, provide a comprehensive platform for managing the entire lifecycle of content. They enable the capture, management, storage, and distribution of all types of information and documents throughout the company or organization. While document creation is often only a small part of the overall solution, DMS platforms typically offer capabilities such as document storage, version control, workflow management, archiving, compliance management, and much more.

Does having a DMS make a template management system unnecessary?

For companies and organizations with a high volume of documents, the answer is a definite no.

While SmartDocuments specializes in optimizing template management and document generation, DMS solutions focus on the comprehensive management of content and documents throughout their lifecycle. However, the two systems complement each other perfectly. SmartDocuments can be integrated into a DMS as a specialized component, combining powerful document generation and template management with enterprise-wide document management capabilities.

The contract is signed. What happens next?

What happens next?

The implementation process may vary depending on the scope of the project and the services commissioned. However, a typical SmartDocuments implementation follows these steps:

1. Kick-off meeting

We will contact you to schedule a kick-off meeting. During this session, the following topics will be discussed:

• Overview of the software components
• Infrastructure and architecture overview, including system interactions
• Project objectives and agreed deliverables
• Planning of the technical implementation

2. What are your tasks before the installation date?

• Obtain an HTTPS certificate for the web application
• If required, coordinate with relevant vendors regarding the provision or development of integrations
• If required, provide an Active Directory service account for configuring the AD4Web module
• If required, provide an ADFS server
• Provision the application server and database server

3. Installation

• Installation of SmartDocuments
• ggf.Configuration of additional modules, if required
• Configuration of integrations and interfaces, if required

4. Softwaretraining

Basic Training Course

5. Go Live!

• Testing
• Production launch
• Template implementation and rollout

6. Project closure meeting

• Project review and follow-up discussion
• Feedback session

This structured approach ensures a smooth implementation process and helps your organization get the most value from SmartDocuments right from the start.

Customers benefit from comprehensive support services designed to help them use SmartDocuments efficiently and reliably. Through the SmartDocuments Support Portal, users can easily submit and track support requests, access relevant documentation, and make use of additional resources and tools. In addition, technical support is also available by phone, ensuring that urgent questions or challenges can be addressed quickly by experienced specialists.

The Support Portal serves as a central hub for managing support cases and provides transparent tracking of request statuses. At the same time, customers have access to helpful information, user guides, and documentation that support their day-to-day work with SmartDocuments. Response times and service levels are determined by the agreed support contract and any additional services that may have been purchased. This allows organizations to choose the level of support that best meets their requirements while benefiting from reliable and professional assistance.

Entirely without external assistance?

Yes. With SmartDocuments, you can create and manage templates completely independently. 

As part of the implementation process, you will receive comprehensive two-day training, during which you will gain an in-depth understanding of the platform's key features and capabilities. The goal is to ensure that, upon completion of the training, you are able to create, update, and adapt templates independently to meet new requirements. When developing our template management system, special emphasis was placed on providing an intuitive and user-friendly interface. Features such as drag-and-drop placement of question elements simplify template design and enable a structured and transparent approach to creating templates without complex procedures or technical barriers. Should any questions arise or if you require assistance with template creation, our support team is always available to provide guidance and assistance. In addition, professional template development services can be utilized at any time whenever additional support is required.

IT experts required?

No. Creating templates with SmartDocuments does not require programming skills or advanced IT expertise. 

Template creation takes place in SmartEditor, which provides an intuitive, user-friendly interface and is directly integrated with Microsoft Word. The interface has been deliberately designed so that users without a technical background can quickly become productive. Question elements, such as text fields, selection questions, and date fields, can simply be inserted into a template document using drag-and-drop and positioned wherever needed. In addition, a range of intelligent features allows users to define business rules and logic, enabling the creation of smart and dynamic templates. As a result, even complex templates and document processes can be implemented easily, without requiring technical knowledge or programming expertise.

Microsoft Office Word Macros?

No. SmartDocuments does not use Microsoft Office Word macros for template creation. Instead, it utilizes the specially developed SmartEditor, which works seamlessly with Microsoft Word while operating independently of traditional macro technology.

What are Microsoft Word Macros?

Microsoft Word macros are small programs or scripts that can be created in Word to automate repetitive tasks. They are written in VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) and can perform a variety of functions, such as: 

• Formatting text by automatically applying predefined styles and formatting rules
• Editing documents by inserting, deleting, or modifying content
• Processing data by performing calculations or importing information from external sources
• Handling user interactions by displaying dialog boxes or processing user input

Why doesn't SmartDocuments use Macros?

The decision not to rely on macros was made deliberately, as their use can present several challenges in certain environments.

• Security risks: Macros can contain potentially harmful code and may be exploited to distribute malware. Although modern versions of Microsoft Office include security controls, the risk remains, especially when macros originate from untrusted sources.
• Limited flexibility: Macros are often difficult to adapt to changing business requirements or different deployment scenarios.
• Error handling limitations: VBA macros provide only limited mechanisms for robust error handling. As a result, unexpected issues can cause macros to fail or behave unpredictably.
• Compatibility concerns: Macros created in one version of Word may not function consistently across other versions, environments, or platforms.
• Maintenance effort: Developing and maintaining macros can be time-consuming, particularly when requirements or system environments change frequently.

In addition, it is widely expected that Microsoft will continue to restrict macro usage in many scenarios and may further reduce support for traditional macro-based solutions over time. With SmartEditor, SmartDocuments provides a future-proof, low-maintenance, and stable alternative that meets modern requirements for security, compatibility, and usability. At the same time, the platform delivers full template design flexibility without relying on legacy macro technologies. This architecture enables organizations to work with SmartDocuments even in highly regulated or security-conscious IT environments, without requiring additional approvals, workarounds, or special intervention from IT departments.

SmartDocuments offers complete flexibility in how template management is organized.

Depending on an organization's requirements, SmartDocuments can support a centralized, decentralized, or hybrid approach to template management. 

This flexibility is enabled by the integrated user and permissions management system, which allows access rights to be controlled in a highly granular manner. For example, specific departments, business units, or locations can be granted responsibility for managing and maintaining their own templates independently, while other users may only access centrally provided content. Likewise, a central function, such as IT or a dedicated template management team, can retain overall control of all templates and selectively grant editing permissions to designated groups or individuals. This flexibility is particularly beneficial in larger organizations and public sector environments with multi-level responsibilities, as it supports both autonomy and consistency, while also ensuring quality assurance. Different roles, such as administrators, editors, and end users within SmartWizard, can be clearly separated and managed according to their responsibilities. As a result, SmartDocuments provides an ideal foundation for structured, transparent, and efficient template management, which can be tailored precisely to an organization's specific requirements.

Version control?

Yes. All changes made to templates are comprehensively logged within SmartDocuments. 

Each template includes integrated version control, which records every modification, including timestamps, change history, and the user responsible for the change. This allows organizations to maintain full visibility into what was changed, when it was changed, and by whom. This level of transparency is valuable not only for traceability and internal quality assurance, but also for meeting compliance and audit requirements, particularly in public sector organizations and highly regulated industries.

A major advantage is that previous versions are retained and can be restored whenever needed. This minimizes the risk of data loss, enables rollback to earlier versions, and supports secure and controlled collaboration, even during extensive revisions or when multiple stakeholders are involved. Automatic versioning eliminates the need for manual tracking processes or local backup copies and ensures that all changes are fully traceable, auditable, and revision-proof at all times.

“LEGO” for template creation ...

Yes, absolutely. The use of text modules (building blocks) is not only possible with SmartDocuments, it is a core feature of the platform.

Text modules simplify template maintenance, accelerate document creation, and ensure consistent content across all relevant documents.

What is a SmartDocuments building block?

A building block is a standardized element that can be reused across multiple, or even all, document templates. These are typically elements that are used frequently, may change over time, and should not have to be maintained manually in every template.

Examples of building blocks include:

• Standard clauses
• Signatures
• Logos
• Company addresses
• Bank account details
• Informational texts
• Terms and Conditions (T&Cs)
• And much more, there are virtually no limits to their use

A SmartDocuments building block is created only once and then linked to all relevant templates. This significantly increases efficiency and reduces maintenance effort. If a standard element changes, it only needs to be updated once. All newly generated documents will automatically use the latest version of that building block, without requiring any modifications to the underlying templates.

Typical use cases

Building blocks can be centrally managed and reused across an unlimited number of templates. They are ideal for:

• Standard text content (e.g., introductions, closing paragraphs, legal notices)
• Images and graphics (e.g., logos or signatures)
• Entire pages (e.g., Terms and Conditions, privacy notices, or attachments)
• And many other reusable content elements

In addition, SmartDocuments provides reporting and overview functions that allow organizations to track which building blocks are being used and how frequently they are referenced across templates.

Novel or just bullet points ...

Yes. SmartDocuments templates can, of course, include free-text input fields. 

These provide users with the flexibility to enter individual content, for example for justifications, descriptions, comments, or additional information. During template design, it can be defined how much text users are allowed to enter, either through a predefined number of lines or with no character limit at all. In addition, template designers can specify in advance how the entered text should be formatted, including aspects such as font type, font size, and styling. If the template designer prefers to leave these choices open, formatting options can also be made available to end users through additional prompts during document generation. This makes it possible to integrate free-text content into document creation in a controlled and structured manner, while still providing users with the flexibility they need to create individualized documents.

“Can our existing Word templates be migrated to SmartDocuments?”

This is one of the questions we are asked most frequently. The answer is yes: existing Word templates in DOCX format can be easily imported into SmartDocuments. For this purpose, SmartDocuments provides an import function within the administrative interface of the template management system. After import, templates can be opened in SmartEditor and gradually transformed into fully featured SmartDocuments templates. Existing layouts and content are retained throughout the process, eliminating the need to rebuild templates from scratch.

Key Benefits at a Glance

• Time savings: Templates do not need to be recreated from the ground up.
• Seamless reuse of existing content, including text, formatting, and layouts.
• Easy enhancement with dynamic functionality, such as questions, conditions, and reusable content blocks.
• Streamlined migration process, making the transition from Microsoft Word to SmartDocuments straightforward and efficient.
• Intuitive editing of imported templates within SmartEditor, which is integrated into the familiar Microsoft Word environment.

The import functionality is particularly beneficial for larger organizations, as it significantly reduces the time and effort required to migrate existing document templates into SmartDocuments.

Math genius?

In short: yes, and it is a real game changer for document creation!

In many organizations, quotations, contracts, decisions, and other documents are created every day, often based on structured data from line-of-business applications, databases, or forms. But what happens when this data not only needs to be inserted into a document, but also calculated automatically? This is exactly where an intelligent template management system comes into play. Modern template solutions allow templates to be linked to XML-based questions and data fields. These can access external data sources, such as prices, quantities, tax rates, and much more, and perform mathematical operations directly within the template, including:

• Calculating totals and sums
• Calculating percentages
• Performing conditional calculations
• Dynamically adapting text blocks based on calculated values
• And much more

The result is clear: no more manual calculations, no more copy-and-paste errors, and fully automated, accurate documents.

Templates that can perform calculations are much more than just a technical feature. They are a powerful efficiency booster. They save time, reduce errors, and make complex documents easier and safer to create. So yes, you can teach templates how to calculate, and the benefits are significant.

Stylish documents with custom fonts?

No problem.

Your marketing team will be pleased to hear that SmartDocuments fully supports the use of custom and corporate fonts. There are generally two ways to make custom fonts available within SmartDocuments: Install the font directly on the SmartDocuments server, or Integrate the font through SmartCenter. 

How it works with SmartControl

1. Embed the desired font(s) into a .dotx file within Microsoft Word. (Multiple fonts can be embedded if required.)
2. Open the SmartControl System Settings.
3. Navigate to the “DocEngine” tab, select the checkbox “Use DOTX with embedded resources”, and upload the .dotx file.
4. Confirm by clicking “OK”. Done!

Publish templates and content at exactly the right time, without any manual effort. With SmartDocuments, organizations can define when templates, content, or modifications should be automatically published and made available to users. This ensures that new document versions, updated content, or regulatory changes are released on schedule. Publication rules and schedules are centrally configured and automatically executed by the workflow engine. As a result, changes can be planned in advance and become effective at a predefined date and time without requiring any manual intervention. This increases planning reliability, reduces administrative effort, and ensures that employees always work with the latest approved content.

Especially in the case of regulatory changes, product updates, or time-sensitive campaigns, automated publication provides a reliable and controlled way to deliver content at the right moment.

With the Template Hub, SmartDocuments provides a central library for managing, organizing, and governing all templates across an organization. All document templates are stored, categorized, and maintained in a single location, ensuring consistent and controlled document creation. The Template Hub is particularly valuable for organizations with a large number of templates, such as those operating in regulated industries, public sector environments, or enterprises with multiple departments. Through centralized governance, template owners and administrators maintain full control over content, approvals, and changes while ensuring compliance with organizational policies and regulatory requirements. Templates are organized within a clear folder structure and can also be enriched with metadata for improved classification and management. Powerful search capabilities enable users to quickly locate the templates they need. At the same time, an inheritable permissions model ensures that access rights and authorizations can be managed efficiently and consistently across the template landscape.

As a result, the Template Hub increases transparency, reduces administrative effort, and ensures that employees always work with the latest approved templates.

With the Document Comparison feature, different versions of a template can be compared directly with one another.

This allows changes to be thoroughly reviewed before publication and helps identify unintended modifications at an early stage. SmartDocuments clearly displays additions, deletions, and formatting changes in a side-by-side comparison of two template versions. This enables users to quickly understand which content has been modified and assess the impact of those changes on the final document output. This functionality is particularly valuable in regulated industries, public sector organizations, and environments with strict compliance requirements, where every template modification must be documented, traceable, and reviewed. By providing a transparent view of all changes, SmartDocuments supports quality assurance and approval processes, reduces the risk of errors, and ensures that only reviewed and approved templates are released into production use.

Yes. SmartDocuments automatically generates a preview for every saved version of a template, allowing changes to be reviewed immediately. Template authors can see the results of their modifications right away without having to wait for time-consuming rebuilds or run separate test processes. After each save operation, a document preview is automatically created and can be accessed directly from the version history. This makes it easy to see how changes affect the final document output. This functionality significantly accelerates the development and maintenance of templates, as users can verify their changes in real time and identify potential issues at an early stage. At the same time, it enhances quality assurance by enabling every version to be reviewed and validated before publication.

Organizations working with complex documents and frequent template updates particularly benefit from faster testing cycles, greater transparency, and a considerably more efficient template management process.

What do you get at the end?

SmartDocuments supports document generation in a variety of formats, depending on the intended use case:

• PDF – for legally compliant document distribution and archiving
  • PDF 1.5 / 1.7 – standard formats for general use
  • PDF/A-1a / 1b – long-term archiving formats compliant with legal retention requirements
  • PDF/A-2a / 2u – modern archival formats with enhanced compatibility
  • PDF/UA-1 – accessible PDF format optimized for use with screen readers
• DOCX – for further editing in Microsoft Word
• ODT – for users of OpenOffice or LibreOffice
• HTML – for display in web applications or email templates
• XML (when used with system integrations) – for the structured transfer of all data collected in the SmartWizard to connected third-party systems

You can decide which output format, or combination of formats, should be generated. This flexibility allows documents to be used exactly as needed, whether for further editing, compliant archiving, digital delivery, or integration with third-party applications.

Personalized mass documents ...

Yes, the SmartDocuments template management system fully supports the creation of mail merge documents, both as individual documents (one document per recipient) and as a combined document that merges all individual letters into a single file.

Various formats can be used as data sources, including:

• Excel files
• SQL databases
• XML or JSON data structures.

Let’s go workflow ...

Yes, absolutely. SmartDocuments makes it easy to implement digital approval and collaboration processes without requiring additional tools or programming skills. This functionality is particularly useful for cross-departmental collaboration and approval workflows, for example when multiple people contribute to a document or when a manager's approval is required before a document can be finalized. Any number of participants can be involved in the process. Specific content blocks within a template can be assigned to individual users for editing. These tasks can be configured conveniently through the template settings. Following a workflow-based approach, the involved users are automatically notified by email as soon as it is their turn to take action. Each notification includes a direct link to the document, allowing users to review, edit, or approve their assigned content quickly and efficiently.

Does SmartDocuments offer an anonymization feature?

Absolutely!

Easily anonymize personal data in SmartDocuments documents

With SmartDocuments' intelligent document templates, you can create smart, data-driven documents in no time. Using the built-in anonymization feature, personal data can also be redacted at a later stage, even after the document has been generated. You can simply select specific document sections that contain confidential information and anonymize them. Alternatively, you can choose the "All Variables" option to automatically identify and anonymize all variable data contained within the template. This makes it easy to protect sensitive information, comply with data protection requirements, and securely share documents whenever necessary.

With its Smart Metadata feature, SmartDocuments automatically enriches every generated document with structured and searchable metadata. This enables documents to be located quickly, clearly identified, and traced throughout their entire lifecycle. The metadata is stored directly with the document and may include information such as case reference numbers, customer IDs, process types, processing statuses, or creation dates. This significantly simplifies document retrieval, archiving, and management. Particularly in public administrations, financial institutions, legal departments, and other regulated industries, Smart Metadata ensures that documents remain easily accessible and audit-proof at all times. This helps organizations meet compliance requirements, support audits, and fulfill legal retention and record-keeping obligations. The required metadata fields are defined centrally for each template and are automatically populated during document generation using data from connected systems or user input.

As a result, every document is correctly classified and efficiently searchable immediately after it is created. By doing so, SmartDocuments provides a solid foundation for structured document management, fast information retrieval, and transparent traceability of all relevant documents.

With its Brand Control feature, SmartDocuments ensures that all generated documents consistently comply with your organization's corporate design standards. This guarantees that citizen correspondence, customer communications, reports, contracts, and legal documents are always presented in a uniform, professional, and brand-compliant manner.

Central design guidelines for fonts, colors, logos, page layouts, and spacing are defined and managed across the organization. These standards are automatically applied to all templates and documents, allowing business departments to maintain content independently without affecting the approved design specifications. This prevents the use of outdated logos, inconsistent formatting, or unapproved designs. At the same time, a consistent visual identity enhances your organization's recognizability and helps build trust among citizens, customers, and business partners. Especially in larger organizations with multiple departments and a high volume of document templates, SmartDocuments helps protect and strengthen your brand identity while ensuring consistent communication across all document types.

Yes. SmartDocuments can automatically integrate tables, images, charts, and other content building blocks into documents. During document generation, the relevant content is dynamically retrieved from connected data sources and inserted into the appropriate location within the document. This makes it possible to enrich approvals, contracts, loan documents, quotations, reports, and other business documents with up-to-date data, analyses, and visual elements, without requiring any manual formatting or post-processing. Dynamic content building blocks are directly linked to the underlying data sources. SmartDocuments automatically generates tables, charts, and images at the time of document creation and intelligently adapts layouts, page breaks, and formatting to the specific content. The result is professionally designed documents with a consistent look and feel, supported by current and accurate data. At the same time, manual effort is reduced, errors are minimized, and the efficiency of creating complex documents is significantly increased.

Reusable content building blocks allow frequently used content to be managed centrally and reused across any number of document templates. Typical examples include legal clauses, privacy notices, corporate policies, standard text modules, and disclaimers. Instead of maintaining identical content separately in each template, these elements are created and managed once in a central content library. Document templates then reference the relevant building blocks as needed. This significantly simplifies template maintenance while ensuring consistency across all documents. When a content building block is updated, the latest version automatically becomes available in all linked templates. This enables organizations to make changes to legal wording, compliance requirements, or corporate policies centrally and roll them out organization-wide without having to modify each template individually.

As a result, maintenance effort is significantly reduced, potential sources of error are minimized, and employees can always work with up-to-date and approved content. Organizations with a large number of document templates particularly benefit from increased efficiency, stronger governance, and reliable compliance with regulatory requirements.

Yes. With SmartDocuments' live preview feature, users can see a preview of the final document while entering data. This allows them to immediately visualize how the finished document will look, even before it is actually generated. The preview is updated dynamically whenever data is entered or selection options are changed. As a result, content, formatting, and document structure can be reviewed at an early stage, and potential errors can be identified right away. Especially in environments with high document volumes, such as public administration, financial institutions, insurance companies, or legal departments, the live preview helps reduce rework and significantly increases the efficiency of document creation. By providing immediate visual feedback, users gain greater confidence throughout the document creation process. Errors can be detected before generation, saving time and improving the quality of the final documents.

Smartly connected?

Yes.

SmartDocuments can be seamlessly integrated into your existing IT infrastructure, connecting easily to third-party applications and databases. A template management system enables organizations to manage and standardize document and template processes efficiently. Through integration, many document processes can be automated, either fully or partially. This reduces manual effort and minimizes errors caused by human intervention. An effective template management system thrives on data from other business applications. By connecting SmartDocuments to existing systems, organizations can, for example:

• Automatically generate documents using data from third-party applications
• Pre-populate templates with information from external systems
• Launch templates directly from third-party applications
• Store generated documents automatically in business applications or cloud storage solutions

Further information, as well as a selection of our currently available integrations, can be found here.

Our integration options

Integrating SmartDocuments into existing IT infrastructures offers numerous benefits and is an essential component of successful document automation. To support different integration scenarios, we provide a variety of technical options:

• SmartDocuments Launch from a third-party application
• Shared Directory
• Re-direct Integration
• Webservice (REST / SOAP)

Further information, along with a small selection of our currently available integrations, can be found here.

SmartDocuments follows an open integration strategy and can be flexibly integrated into existing application landscapes. Thanks to open interfaces and modern integration capabilities, data, processes, and document automation can be seamlessly connected to the systems your organization already uses. Over the years, numerous integrations have been implemented with line-of-business applications, CRM, ERP, DMS, and workflow systems, as well as many other solutions used in both private and public sector organizations. Rather than focusing on a fixed number of standardized integrations, SmartDocuments is designed to integrate flexibly into virtually any IT environment. This open approach to integration means that we are generally open to any integration requirement and support organizations in connecting their existing systems and processes with SmartDocuments in the most effective way possible.

A selection of our partners, integrations, and successfully connected systems can be found on our Partner Page.

Integrations enable SmartDocuments to work seamlessly with your organization's existing systems and applications. By connecting line-of-business applications, CRM and ERP systems, as well as other third-party and specialized solutions, data, processes, and document automation are combined into a single, end-to-end workflow.

As a result, documents can be automatically populated with current and accurate information without the need for manual data transfer or duplicate data entry. This reduces administrative effort, minimizes potential errors, and improves both data quality and process efficiency. At the same time, employees can continue working within their familiar applications and environments while benefiting from the powerful document automation capabilities of SmartDocuments. This increases user adoption, simplifies workflows, and accelerates both document creation and delivery. By tightly integrating data, systems, and communication processes, SmartDocuments helps organizations increase efficiency, standardize processes, and ensure consistent, professional communication across the entire organization.

Yes. SmartDocuments provides comprehensive Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to support integrations, automation, and custom business processes. These interfaces enable SmartDocuments to connect seamlessly with existing applications and systems, allowing data to be exchanged securely and document processes to be fully integrated into established workflows. Using the APIs, organizations can automate document generation, data transfer, and communication processes, reducing manual effort and improving operational efficiency. At the same time, SmartDocuments can be flexibly integrated into existing IT environments to meet specific business requirements.

The API capabilities allow document automation to become an integral part of broader business processes and make it possible to centrally leverage data from various sources. This creates seamless, end-to-end workflows that ensure high process quality, consistency, and scalability. As a result, SmartDocuments provides the flexibility needed to support both standard integrations and tailor-made solutions for individual business needs.

Yes. The integration of SmartDocuments with Microsoft SharePoint enables seamless, automated, and brand-compliant document generation directly within the SharePoint environment. This integration is particularly well suited for organizations that want to manage their document processes centrally, efficiently, and collaboratively.

Through the integration, a "SmartDocuments" button is available within Microsoft SharePoint, allowing users to launch the smartWizard for document creation. No separate login to SmartDocuments is required, as authentication is handled automatically in the background. Once the document has been generated, it is automatically stored in the SharePoint library from which the document creation process was initiated. The document is transferred together with all associated metadata.

Yes. The integration of SmartDocuments with Microsoft Teams creates a seamless connection between document generation and collaborative teamwork.

Documents can be opened, edited, and stored directly from within Teams without leaving the familiar working environment. Through the integration, a "SmartDocuments" button is available in Microsoft Teams, which opens the smartWizard for document creation. No separate login to SmartDocuments is required, as authentication takes place automatically in the background. Once the document has been completed, it is automatically posted or stored in the respective Teams channel from which the document creation process was initiated. The document, including all associated metadata, is transferred as part of the process.

Yes. SmartDocuments can be seamlessly integrated with existing Document Management Systems (DMS) and supports bidirectional data exchange. This allows documents to be transferred automatically between SmartDocuments and your existing DMS without requiring changes to established archiving and document management processes. Generated documents are transferred directly to the connected DMS and stored according to the existing filing structures. Important metadata, document properties, and folder structures are preserved, ensuring consistent document management and organization. SmartDocuments already provides predefined connectors for various DMS solutions, including Microsoft SharePoint, OpenText, and other systems. Integrations are implemented using established standards and interfaces such as CMIS and REST, enabling flexible integration into existing IT environments.

As a result, organizations benefit from end-to-end document processing, centralized archiving, and quick access to relevant information while preserving existing processes and protecting investments already made in their DMS infrastructure.