This section deals with the things you should know before you spend a serious amount of money on document assembly.  It is not a "cut and dried" affair where you install a program and are good to go.  It is not exactly what it is sold as (but the sales pitches are not untrue either) and it may not be as simple as you may be thinking.

This Page - Introduction to Document Assembly

This page contains four primary articles: Why you should invest in document assembly, why you shouldn't invest in document assembly, general things to consider and document assembly specific questions to ask.  The "should" article refers to good reasons to invest and likely benefits - things you should achieve from a document assembly undertaking.  The "shouldn't" article covers beliefs and misunderstandings that we have seen come back to haunt companies; simply by misunderstanding what they were getting into or not fully grapsing the ramifications of document assembly generally.  The general things to consider covers software investment generally - not just document assembly.  The document assembly specific questions are exactly that.

Why So Much Focus on Questions to Ask?

You don't know what you don't know and you cannot evaluate a product unless you know what questions to ask. You need to know the questions that will tell you one thing: What makes this product better for me than other products like it?

If you had never heard of a "car" before and someone tells you that they have this amazing car - it is so amazing in fact, it has four wheels, a boot and a steering wheel.  Not only that, but there are heaps of guys around that can maintain it for you and it is 20 times faster than a horse! You'd be impressed...if you had no idea about cars.  If you know cars of course, your response would be something like, "Great - most cars have and do that. What makes your car better than the next car?".

What Do You Want From It

'What do you want from it' menu item covers three basic approaches you might take with document assembly.  Before deciding on anything, you should identify what you wish to achieve.  Are you after consistent looking documents? Then perhaps you really want to look into doing a style audit, with a view to standardising formatting across the board.  Are precedents hard to find? Then maybe you just need some basic organisation that you can do with products you probably already own.  This section is about understanding your goals and requirements before spending time on something that may not be relevant.

If I'm going to discuss reasons why you should invest in document assembly, it follows that I should discuss some less valid motives and approaches when investing in document assembly...

First step...make sure it IS document assembly you wish to invest in...This is a long article that covers many points.

So what document assembly approach is best for ME? It all depends - on your needs, your documents, your staff, your pleading styles - document assembly is all about you and your firm. As well ask "What is the best car on the market?" - 10 different dealers will give 10 different answers for each of the 10 people that asked them. From simple precedent libraries to complex document producing systems, it all depends on what you firm needs and how willing you are to invest. Before making this sort of decision, do the research! In respect of HotDocs (or any other document assembly product), I suggest the following: