I'm part of a company that manages several brands, and we're currently using a digital "bookshelf" system where each brand has its own collection of policy PDFs. Each PDF is pretty similar, just with different branded covers and links. However, some policies vary significantly between brands. Right now, I create these PDFs in Adobe InDesign using a feature called "Conditional Text," which helps me toggle different bits for each brand while keeping everything in one document.
We're looking to transition to a mobile-friendly version that's not PDF-based, as we believe it will be more user-friendly and easier to access. We're a bit stuck on how to make this work while allowing non-technical staff to edit the policies themselves to save us some workload. I'm curious if anyone has suggestions for existing solutions that we could possibly customize or adapt? We do have front-end and back-end skills on the team. Thanks in advance for any help!
3 Answers
Consider using a CMS like hosted WordPress or a headless CMS such as Sanity or Strapi. This setup can help you create web-based, mobile-friendly policies while allowing for brand-specific visibility. Non-technical staff can easily edit the content, and the developers can manage the backend to ensure the right policies are displayed for each brand.
You might want to check out iDrop.com. They offer "Smart Folders" that can display PDFs in a format that feels more like a mini-webpage, giving a cleaner look. Another option is to create mini profile pages on something like LinkVines.com, which could also represent your policies better without being bogged down by PDFs.
While this isn't a technical solution, I've seen larger companies handle this by organizing their policies by scope instead of duplicating them. They label common policies clearly and only brand according to corporate style guides. This way, you can cross-link to specific local policies, ensuring clarity about what's applicable. This helps avoid the mess of duplication, especially for audits or legal reasons.
I see where you're coming from, but the challenge we face is that management doesn't want brands to know what policies others have. So, visibility across brands is a problem.
Thanks for the suggestion! I’ll definitely take a look at that.