Snapshot Publishing: a new way to manage and distribute essential documents

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Overview:

• Strengthen your document management processes by creating “Collections” for required documents - which all authorized reviewers can access easily.

• Create and update document versions to ensure documents are kept current; access previous versions when needed.

• Integrate with Comala Document management to automatically deliver approved and finalized documents to predefined and named Collections.

• “Freeze” Confluence content for better data reliability.

• Publish and organize pages from multiple spaces within a Collection.

The Scenario

Picture this: your organization is preparing for its ISO 9001 certification audit and you’re pouring over the results of the first internal audit. Auditors identified your documents contain “live Confluence macros” referencing information from other sources. But, what’s troubling is that the macros’ data is reflected in previous versions of the documentation. That means auditors are unable to verify if documents are drafts awaiting review or finalized versions. At the same time, they can’t determine how or when information is modified. Furthermore, auditors expressed concerns that it took far too long to find documents and verify all those who could access them. 

The outcome is clear. Certification is off the table without a consistent and transparent understanding of version management. And you certainly don’t want to have to tell the Chief Compliance Officer that your department’s processes are a barrier to achieving certification.  

If this sounds familiar, you can take some initial comfort in knowing you’re not alone.  According to a study by Coveo, IT professionals spend over 4 hours a day searching for relevant information, and 60% of these employees search across four or more platforms. This highlights the need for a tool to help organize document versions so they can be found easily without disrupting teams’ work processes.

The Path Forward

Now, your team loves using Confluence for collaboration and security capabilities. But if there’s no way to “freeze” the information, you’ll forever be guessing whether the information you have is accurate, complete, or current.

Enter “Snapshot Publishing”, the newest functionality in Comala Publishing for Data Center. In short, Snapshot Publishing builds on your Confluence document management capabilities with a new way to capture live macros, organize documents, and deliver essential content to those who need it. 

Let’s dig into how Comala Publishing helps you achieve these goals. By the way, your compliance officers will be thrilled.

Introducing “Collections”

Snapshot Publishing introduces a new way to distribute and organize up-to-date information with purpose-built document repositories called Collections. Located in the Confluence menu bar, Collections can be organized by document type and permissions are granted by users or groups, so they can quickly access their relevant documents. 

A designated location for essential documents, coupled with effective version control makes it easy for employees to trust they are viewing accurate, up-to-date information. Snapshot Publishing will create a new version every time a page is published to a Collection. In addition, all previous versions are stored for easy access when needed, providing traceability. 

Additionally, Collections can be updated automatically by integrating Comala Publishing with Comala Document Management workflows.

Add an automated workflow with Comala Document Management 

Our market-leading app Comala Document Management lets you build and automate processes to manage the lifecycle of critical documents such as knowledge base articles, policies, and documentation required to meet compliance standards.

These two powerful apps can be integrated and configured so that workflows automatically publish snapshots to specific Collections. With automation, newly approved documents will reach those with Collections permissions, even if they are unable to access the document source space.

Organize pages from multiple spaces in an easy-to-find Collection

Snapshot Publishing enables you to publish pages to multiple Collections if the same information needs to be distributed to several user groups. 

Let's say your company has several warehouse locations, and you maintain the technical documentation they use for their day-to-day responsibilities. Each warehouse has access to a Collection that contains essential documents such as HR policies and emergency response plans specific to the location. Whenever you update the documentation, you can publish it to all Collections so that the warehouses see it in their designated Collections. You no longer need to feel limited by the Confluence space and page hierarchy, and you don't have to move or copy documents manually. 

Put an end to manual reporting and make your data reliable

The Snapshot Publishing feature takes “snapshots” of pages, freezing all content -including dynamic content, then publishes it to a Collection. As a result, document snapshots remain static, even when source content changes. This reduces the burden of having to create dynamic data reports manually. 

Freezing dynamic content is particularly useful in scenarios when:

• Reporting content status at a specific point in time, like Jira issues

• Content is sourced from referenced pages

• Using live macros (List of macros supported by Snapshot Publishing)

After adding a snapshot to a Collection, you can easily view it in either HTML or PDF format. What's more, visible metadata accompanies the snapshot, so your auditors can track the lifecycle of your documents. This added layer of transparency ensures that your records remain secure and easily traceable, no matter what changes they may undergo over time.

 Conclusion

Let’s circle back to the all-too-real example of the initial ISO internal audit findings at the start. Clearly, there was a gap in how key information was gathered, accessed, and managed. With Snapshot Publishing, you can do the following to ensure that your in-house or third-party auditors have access to all approved/finalized documents:  

• “Freeze” content in Confluence so you can avoid the time and expense of adopting a different collaboration platform.

• Strengthen your document management processes by creating “Collections” for required documents - which all authorized reviewers can access easily.

• Ensure documents are kept current.

• Configure workflows to automatically deliver approved and finalized documents to a predefined and named Collection (e.g., titled “ISO Audit 202X”). 

At the same time, you can confidently report to those within your organization responsible for compliance that document management is nailed down.

Next Steps

Now that you can overcome the obstacles to common document management challenges, it’s time to get started. 

Start your 30-day trial today