As most of you probably already know, OpenText acquired a few customer communications management (CCM) solutions, such as HP Exstream, StreamServe, EMC xPression, and PowerDocs, and thereby catapulted itself to the forefront of the CCM market.
The company ended up having a lot of customers using different tools to do the same – generate documents – so they needed to come up with a long-term solution strategy.
As a result, OpenText released a customer experience management (CEM) suite, where most of the acquired solutions were branded as OpenText Exstream 16. It combines a lot of tools and applications for document generation, personalization, distribution, and analytics. Although some of the tools overlap each other, the new suite is very powerful and multifunctional.
As an OpenText service partner with a team of experienced professionals, we acknowledge that after big changes in software solutions, like this one, a lot of business and technical users are often confused, and don’t fully understand what to expect from their product after a potential upgrade. So we decided to dedicate a few blog articles to this topic, where we are going to explain what you, as a customer, need to take into consideration when upgrading to OpenText Exstream latest versions.
OpenText Exstream Interactive Communications
Companies use interactive communications to collect data, to communicate internally, and to market, sell, and communicate with customers. Typically, each type of interactive communications is handled by many point solutions and processes. Some point solutions are used to create letters or general correspondence, others for proposals, contracts, quotations, forms, enrollment, and other point-of-need documents.
Unlike other market solutions, or homegrown systems, the OpenText Exstream platform offers a comprehensive platform for managing batch, interactive, and personalized customer communications from one place.
In today’s article, we are going to talk about the interactive communication tools of OpenText Exstream: Retouch, Empower, Exstream for Salesforce (PowerDocs) and Live Editor. Below we will talk in detail about each of them.
Exstream ReTouch
OpenText Exstream ReTouch (formerly StreamServe Ad Hoc Correspondence) is a lightweight zero-install web application that allows authorized business users to edit individual documents on demand. ReTouch uses document templates created in StoryTeller. Documents created in ReTouch are managed and stored in the Message store. This provides state control and back-end support for long-lived documents with multiple versions and revisions, like legal documents.
ReTouch is designed to be flexible and easily integrated into other business applications and processes, such as ERP and CRM systems, as well as call center applications, workflow tools. Just like Ad Hoc, ReTouch is part of the Document Presentment Live for SAP Solutions, which means it integrates seamlessly into the SAP user interface.
ReTouch comes with a new and more modern interface and offers similar functionality and some new features. But ReTouch is slightly different in the sense of usability, and this needs to be taken into consideration during the upgrade process. We recommend companies that use Ad Hoc Correspondence in 5.6.2 to have a consultation with an authorized OpenText service provider before starting their upgrade project to avoid project complications and create a future-proof solution.
Please note: ReTouch is supported only in the OpenText Exstream server-based (on-premises) release. The OpenText Exstream (Cloud Native) release exclusively supports Empower Editor. If you are planning to upgrade your StreamServe 5.6.2 solution, and you have complex letter templates and/or are planning a major correspondence redesign project, we recommend transitioning to Empower Editor for a future-proof solution. Empower Editor represents the future of Exstream. Refer to the details below for more information.
Benefits
- Supports touchscreen interactions, allowing mobile workers to view or edit documents directly on a tablet device
- Allows users to edit text resources or assign predefined resources such as images, text, or rich design objects defined in the base template
- Supports permissions control on sections of a document that allow only specific user groups to edit specific parts of a document
- Provides handy previews in paginated (eg PDF for printing) or non-paginated formats (e.g. web)
Exstream Empower Editor
OpenText Exstream Empower Editor is a zero-install application, that helps customer-facing personnel form strong relationships with customers and prospects, with an easy-to-use thin-client interface that ensures compliance for different types of business documents, like letters, notices, emails, proposals, quotes, and invoices.
Empower is a smart application that responds to user input by automatically populating customer communications with pre-approved content, and can be easily deployed on a standard web browser, without any additional download or installation. Exstream Empower Editor allows users to focus only on areas they have permission to edit, or preview only.
By using Empower, companies can not only ensure the right message is delivered and communications stay compliant with company and legal guidelines, but also reduce typographical errors, human errors, and the document preparation time as users only work with editable sections and don’t need to review the whole document. Exstream Empower Editor is part of the Document Presentment Live for SAP Solutions, which means it integrates seamlessly into the SAP user interface.
Please note: Former StreamServe and HP Exstream customers all can move to Empower Editor. OpenText offers migration tools. Former EMC xPression customers, that use the automated migration tool that comes starting with Exstream version 16, and migrated from xDesign to Exstream Designer, will have the ability to also benefit from the interactive communications capabilities in Empower Editor. Empower Editor is supported by the OpenText Exstream server-based (on-prem) release and in the Exstream (cloud native) release.
Benefits
- Creates highly professional and consistent customer communications
- Quickly creates new on-demand communication projects and use them anywhere
- Enables business users to be more productive by navigating quickly to the required editable areas
- Ensures consistent branding, legal and regulatory compliance
- Creates ad hoc communications that are tailored to address both digital (e.g., email) and page-based communications
Exstream for Salesforce (formerly Powerdocs)
Exstream for Salesforce empowers line-of-business users by offering flexible deployment options as both SaaS and perpetual licenses. It includes a comprehensive suite of post-processing capabilities.
Organizations can seamlessly save correspondence to Salesforce, a standard file system repository, OpenText Extended ECM for Salesforce, backup servers, or other business systems. Additionally, correspondence can be sent via email or uploaded in batches to print shops using FTP. The OpenText solution is designed for versatility, supporting a wide range of delivery channels such as print, email, SMS, web, mobile, and social platforms.
Benefits
- Creates enterprise-class customer correspondence in ad hoc mode
- Generates as complex or as simple documents using data and information from Salesforce
- Seamless integration with Salesforce, MS Word, DocuSign
- Allows editing documents at the time of creation by leveraging familiar MS Word-based technology (no coding required)
- Supports guided document generation process with the Interview Mode, a.k.a generates documents based on questions and answers type dialogues that drive which content is included in the document through associated business rules.
- Allows to customize document templates to meet the company’s corporate design
- Gives administrators access to document templates via Content Manager menu
- Scalable and affordable pricing model (starting at $15 USD per user per month, source: Salesforce Appexchange).
Exstream Live (or Live Editor)
OpenText Exstream LiveEditor (or Live Viewer) was a desktop application, that was installed on the client side and could be used to edit documents from a Microsoft Windows platform. LiveEditor could be also used within a Microsoft Internet Explorer browser. Exstream Live Editor allowed users to use edited Live documents as input to the Exstream engine for data extraction, to trigger events, or to create other documents. Live Editor documents should migrate to Exstream Empower Editor.
Summary
While the creation of high-volume documents is controlled by automated systems and processes, interactive documents are completed and managed by different people within different departments across the enterprise.
OpenText Exstream offers a lot of applications for interactive communications, but it’s not that complicated to choose which of them suits each of the customers best. Our main goal while writing this article was to help future customers to understand which options they have, and what to choose based on their background and requirements.
If your company is planning to upgrade from StreamServe, EMC xPression or HP Exstream Dialogue to OpenText Exstream 16, and you would like to get a consultation on what to consider during the upgrade or migration process, or if you need some help from a professional service provider during one of your projects, or a custom OpenText Exstream training, feel free to contact us.
