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Web-based Annotation - Making Approval Simple and Easy to Track

SCENARIO

You have a file for a client to approve; you save it into PDF format and send them an email with the file attached. It bounces back as it is too big for their firewall limit; you reduce the size and resend it.

The client has two other colleagues who need to approve the file, so he forwards the email to them as well. One of his colleagues decides to annotate the PDF using Adobe Acrobat, she decides the background should be red. The second colleague is a bit technology shy and prefers to add comments in an email; he wants the text to be blue.

The client prefers the image to be bigger, the text to be smaller and in another font, he adds these comments in a separate Word document. When you get their emails, how do you know if they have been communicating with each other? If you are not careful you will misinterpret what they are trying to achieve. You then have to pick up the phone and start to get to the bottom of exactly what changes they want. This all takes time and can make you look disorganised.

This whole process is messy and very hard to track. Any conversations you have with the client can easily be misunderstood or the client can make a mistake. If the client comes back at a later date and says that you have done something they did not ask for, where do you start looking for who said what?

The Web-based annotation in Flowmation simplifies this approval process. All the person who is doing the approving needs is a web browser such as Internet Explorer or Safari. An automated email will take them straight to the appropriate asset. From there they can highlight the relevant area and a linked comment box is available to make your comments. Press save and you're done.

That's it, it really is simple to use. Flowmation will take over from here; it will email the project manager to advise them a comment has been made and the information will then be added into the history of the project. All of this saves valuable time, speeding up the approval cycle. Being fully web based, it eliminates the need to have the appropriate software to open the downloaded files.

All of this saves valuable time, reducing the approval cycle time dramatically. It also avoids sending large emails which can clog up your email system. Ultimately this adds to the efficiency of your workflow, freeing up more of you time to be creative.

Find out more about these Solutions and how they can help your business, by filling in our online information request form.