CCM in transition: from document production to communication performance
- Olivier Lebleu
- Oct 22
- 5 min read
Introduction: a profession in full transformation
For more than twenty years, DOM — or management of customer communication documents — has undergone profound changes.
Long focused on mass production, it is now reinventing itself to become a strategic pillar of customer relations, internal communication and commercial performance .
At NAELAN , we have been supporting this transformation for over 30 years, working with more than 1,700 clients from sectors as diverse as banking, insurance, public services, hospitals or utilities.
This article does not claim to be revolutionary.
It offers a lucid and concrete reading of current trends - a synthesis of the NAELAN vision and our experience in the field, at the heart of hundreds of CCM projects.
1. From document to communication vector
The document is no longer a simple administrative deliverable.
It becomes a vector of communication, trust and lasting relationships.
Companies are no longer asking themselves “how to produce a document”, but “how to communicate better, faster, and on the right channel”.
Two trends dominate:
A continued decline in postal mail volumes.
A gradual reduction in the number of documents produced, linked to the generalization of EDI for invoices, payments or inter-company flows.
Value is no longer measured in pages produced, but in relevance delivered.
2. Economic models under pressure
Faced with falling volumes, major publishers of CCM solutions are trying to preserve their revenues .
Two strategies are emerging:
An increase in maintenance costs.
A transformation of the billing model, with pricing based on usage or volume of documents generated.
At the same time, customers are looking for stability, predictability and a relationship of trust.
With many vendors being listed on the stock exchange or funded by VCs, short-term pressure is high.
Conversely, NAELAN is an independent vendor , owned by its CEO and employees.
We are not subject to any pressure from external shareholders , and we favor a long-term vision, focused on customer satisfaction.
This independence creates a replacement market favorable to players like NAELAN: Today, companies are looking for sovereign, stable and predictable solutions , with a partner who makes a long-term commitment.
3. New expectations of businesses
The projects we support highlight three major priorities:
1. Smart Personalization
End customers want communications that are contextualised, consistent and adapted to their situation.
2. The growing involvement of the professions
Marketing, communications, customer relations and legal departments want to gain autonomy in the creation and management of models.
3. Compliance and traceability
With Factur-X , GDPR and electronic invoicing , companies are looking for complete control of the document cycle.
4. Problems encountered in the field
In the past few months, our prospects have voiced a number of recurring issues:
1. Difficulties related to electronic communication
Many companies still struggle to produce truly responsive HTML emails that can be read on all devices.
NAELAN solutions allow you to send adaptive emails , with or without personalised attachments, guaranteeing a consistent and professional experience.
2. Regulatory requirements
Between Factur-X , the generalization of EDI and the transition to mandatory electronic invoicing , compliance is becoming an essential dimension.
NAELAN integrates these standards into its solutions to guarantee security, traceability and compliance .
3. The need for autonomy of business users
Business users now want to manage their models and content without depending exclusively on the IT department.
NAELAN platforms offer a centralized content repository, allowing businesses to contribute directly while respecting IT governance rules.
4. The need for documentary self-service
This is a strong trend, comparable to what happened in healthcare with Doctolib in France.
Today, more and more patients are leaving their primary doctors simply because they are not available online.
In CCM, the same expectation emerges: users — whether they are clients, partners or collaborators — want to generate their own documents (quotes, certificates, contracts, etc.), instantly, securely and at any time.
This requires vendors to offer solutions capable of combining simplicity, autonomy and security, without compromising on personalisation or compliance.
5. SaaS and On-Premise: a balanced reality
While in other sectors SaaS is becoming a given (up to 100% of adoption in some cases), the world of DOM remains more nuanced.
At NAELAN, we give the customer the complete choice between sovereign SaaS , On-Premise AND document management from Salesforce .
Despite secure cloud hosting that complies with European requirements, only about a third of our customers opt for SaaS.
The remaining two-thirds still favor On-Premise, often for reasons of:
Data governance.
Integration with their internal systems.
IT culture.
The transition to the cloud in CCM is not a tidal wave: it is moving at the pace of trust, sovereignty and control.
6. The repositioning of CCM players
Service providers and internal CCM units must also rethink their role.
Until now focused on mass production , they can now position themselves on documents with high added value : commercial proposals, quotes, contracts, calls for tender, etc.
With our NAELAN Proposal Manager solution, available in standalone mode or via Salesforce , we have been supporting this strategic shift for more than ten years.
The observed benefits are considerable:
Reduced proposal creation time by 50-80%.
20-30% increase in conversion rate.
Content security, thanks to content validated on legal, commercial, marketing and project levels.
CCM thus becomes a direct lever for business performance.
7. Artificial intelligence: between reality and perspective
AI impacts all professions, but its effect in CCM will be more gradual than in other fields such as medicine, software development or graphic design.
At NAELAN , we see three concrete axes of transformation:
Content improvement and generation: AI assist in the creation of texts, images and blocks used in templates, strengthening the consistency and editorial quality of the content repository. AI is aslo used to automatically suggest responses to RFIs or RFPs for example.
Model creation assistance: The “holy grail” of automatic model generation remains complex. Productivity gains will be limited—a few percent at most.
Support for functional and technical specifications: This is the most promising potential in the medium term . AI will be able to help formulate needs, write specifications, and detect inconsistencies between documents and systems. This is not an immediate revolution, but a gradual evolution that will transform working methods over the coming years.
8. The NAELAN vision: industrialisation, agility and intelligence
At NAELAN , we believe that the future of CCM/DOM rests on three pillars:
Industrialisation : robustness, compliance and security.
Agility : collaboration and autonomy of professions.
Intelligence : simplification, optimization and innovation.
Our solutions aim to unify the communication chain — from mass production to high-value documents by integrating regulatory and technological developments, from SaaS to AI , including EDI.
Conclusion: a profession in change, not in decline
Volumes are down, but value is up.
Business models are changing, but trust remains essential.
SaaS is progressing, without erasing the need for sovereignty.
And AI, far from replacing everything, will become a reasoned accelerator of productivity and quality.
Desktop publishing is not a profession of the past: it is a profession in flux, at the heart of digital transformation, customer communication and business performance.
About NAELAN
An independent French publisher for over 30 years, NAELAN is a major player in Customer Communication Management , Proposal Management and Contract Management .
With more than 1,700 customers in 30 countries , NAELAN helps companies and institutions to industrialize, personalize and secure their document communications ,
in SaaS or On-Premise mode.
To learn more, schedule a discussion on Olivier Lebleu's Calendar
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