Digital Keystone Slashes Speed to Market with Windward

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"Speed to market: that is the crux of it for me. Windward is very easy to get up and running, and we go from A to Z without the headaches." — Graeme Gets, CEO, Digital Keystone Limited

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Summary

A systems integration company switched from deploying a template-editing tool that claimed to be WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) but wasn’t—and users now create document templates in one tenth the time. The Company

Systems integrator Digital Keystone Ltd. is an in-house team of financial software specialists with extensive experience in tailoring end-to end solutions for the wealth management and investment sector. Founded by CEO Graeme Gets, the 15-person firm integrates and develops applications for clients primarily in the United Kingdom.

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The Challenge

Roughly six years ago, a client approached Digital Keystone about developing a new document generation (docgen) system. Digital Keystone considered using a self-described WYSIWYG editor that the company had experience with previously, but the systems integrator had found the tool to be buggy and “clunky.” For instance, a single line in the template would appear as a double line in the output. Tweaking the template to achieve the desired output was extremely time-consuming.

A process that should have taken one day would take up to four days,” Gets said. Around the same time, another client approached Digital Keystone about improving its docgen template editor, a different tool that Gets called “an absolute nightmare.” The client would work on the templates but “within 20 minutes they were throwing up their arms in despair.” An Australian company recommended Gets explore Windward—and he did. He downloaded the trial and began testing.

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The Solution

Digital Keystone quickly integrated Windward into one of its client solutions, and since then, the firm has reused the Windward component, expanding its use to about 40% of the system integrator’s customer base.

In these situations, the skilled in-house team sets up a client’s system, which includes coding the Windward tool for the docgen portion. Digital Keystone also provides customers with template assistance if needed, although many customers create and modify the templates themselves.

Digital Keystone uses the AutoTag add-in for Microsoft® Word in three main use cases:

1. Real-time online docgen. For example, a client creates a financial portfolio and then needs a document with standard reporting information. Digital Keystone provides the customer with the initial template as a Word document and the client then modifies the template (e.g., adding branding) to suit their own needs.
2. Batch generation. End users generate PDFs for contracts, welcome packets, and other types of documentation.
3. Text vouchers and half-yearly statements. Digital Keystone customers need to generate extremely large numbers of client policies and then batch send them to a print house.

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The Results

Since implementing Windward, Digital Keystone has seen numerous benefits, including:

• Speed to market. The speed with which Digital Keystone can implement Windward is a huge benefit. Gets said that Windward is very easy to get up and running—just a few lines of code— and that it works well with a variety of setups, including both Java and .NET. Also, integrating the Engine is incredibly simple.

“That really is the crux for me; it is the first system I’ve worked with where we can go from A to Z without the headaches,” Gets said. “It does exactly what it says. It’s simple, and it works.”

• An easy-to-use docgen component. Gets said he appreciates that the engine is invisible while the editor is visible for the customer. This allows his customers to create their own templates, and AutoTag makes it possible for even non-technical users to design templates.
• Substantial customer time savings. Gets notes that with other docgen tools, end users are constantly correcting their work and wasting valuable time. With AutoTag, the same individuals can create and edit their own templates in less time and without the hassle.

“It gets down to the amount of frustration we can save,” Gets said. “It literally takes a tenth of the time to use the editor. Windward has gotten the editor exactly right.

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