Helpdesk Performance Metrics

Whenever a business or organization is working with a great many documents, it's important to have a means of ensuring that changes in those documents are identified and logged.  When multiple changes are made in a working copy during the course of negotiations, or legal settlements, it's important that all changes are tracked so that the most current form of the document is the one which is being used and contains the agreed upon terms, conditions and wording.  Changes may be made in an online document by the owner, by the reviewer, or by other contributors to the end product.

To do the document comparison process manually is both time-consuming and difficult. It can require a staggering amount of time and energy to review and document each change.  First the changes must be determined by looking at a printed document.  Then the modifications in the original document on line must be cut and pasted from the modifications copy. Sometimes there is a process of merging two documents which must be done with further comparison and possibly further editing. 

Comparing documents is a needed process but manual comparison is not an effective use of staff time.  A missed change in a document can cause potentially serious and costly repercussions later.

A solution which makes comparing documents simpler and provides a detailed portrayal of the changes that have taken place provides professionals with the ability to focus on clients rather than paperwork.  

A number of software solutions have been developed to work on various types of documents which use different formats and platforms.  At the low end of the document comparison scale is simply a line by line comparator which relies on human intervention to determine whether it is a true change or simply a movement within he document. High end software can detect movements as opposed to changed text which eliminates the incidence of false positive readings.  This type of software can determine changes at the word and character level.  It will also find changes which flow across many lines and even paragraphs of text.  This sophisticated software works regardless of the length of the document or the complexity of the work.

Current software applications usually have the capability not only to compare documents, but to perform complicated merge processes so that the finished product reflects perfection in composition and agreement on content.

The software which can work in multiple working environments with various operating systems and types of proprietary software is a valuable office tool. Although the initial investment in such software may be significant, it will return its value in saved staff time and potential errors which can be missed during a manual document comparison.

Even more importantly, such software works quickly and with little or no need for human intervention. 

For any business which is looking for 100% accuracy in documents, agreements, negotiations and other sensitive information, the choice of quality software rather than manual comparison to accomplish the task is a savings in time, money and other resources.