The problem
Three separate processes still ran on Word documents and mail merge: onboarding a new distributor, issuing the distributor agreement, and circulating internal memos. Each one produced files that lived on somebody’s machine, with approval happening over chat and signatures added by hand. Nothing connected the document to the approval that authorised it.
Approach
One system covering all three, each keeping its own flow.
- Partner onboarding. The master data form became a record with a multi-level approval chain, and the partner is created from the approved form rather than typed in again afterwards.
- Agreements. Contracts are generated as PDFs from templates, so the terms come from the record instead of from whichever copy of the document someone started from.
- Memos. Generated per recipient and stamped with the approval signatures that authorised them, replacing the mail-merge step entirely.
Outcome
The document and the approval that produced it are now the same record. Reprinting is deterministic, and there is no version of a contract circulating that the system does not know about.