Modernizing Your Data Capture – Regulated documents are not the reason for bad experiences

What is a document? It sounds like a simple question but now that I have children and I am spending more time than ever trying to define everyday words and ideas it really got me thinking – what is a document?

To ensure that we are all on the same page let's look at the actual definition of a document. “A document is a piece of written, printed, or electronic matter that provides information or evidence that servers as an official record.” If we explore this more closely a document houses information for reference at some other point in time. With this definition in mind let’s explore some examples of documents.

The first and probably the most commonly envisioned example when I first asked the question: what is a document, it is a printed 8 by 11 piece of paper. Maybe this came from the bank as a record after signing up for a new account, opening a new loan or making some changes to your accounts. This could also be a bill that you received from an energy provider. In both cases information that is specific to you is merged into the final document that is sent out to you. Gathering the data happened elsewhere. In the case of the new account you likely filled out an application where information about the specific account you wanted were asked. While your energy provider looked up how much you used and calculated your bill all without any interaction from you.

The key take away that I want you to leave with today is this: A document is static, non-interactive and used for informational purposes. Documents are not responsible for the collection of information but rather for displaying.