Case Study - Developing procedures for a rapidly expanding company
A large US software company had purchased a very successful UK start up company. As a consequence, there was an explosion of growth for the business around the world. This also lead to a large and rapid expansion in the number of people working for the company. These new people needed to understand key information, such as the project management procedures, the departmental and reporting structures and where key information and systems were located.
The directors wanted to move on from a simple staff induction process (that was described as "heroic tales" told around the camp fire) because the rapid growth in staff numbers made this approach no longer practical. The Development Director had used Cherryleaf at a previous company he worked for and invited us in to discuss this problem. We agreed a plan where we would work with a process improvement expert and the company's staff to document and present the company's corporate and departmental processes and procedures. The resulting information was presented online on the company's intranet, and it contained a series of portals or navigation routes for the different audiences that needed the information (new starters, project managers, team members etc) and clickable "swim lane" process flowcharts that explained the responsibilities of different team members. The information design could be developed further should the company wish to gain an external quality system certification.
The project is still on-going as new procedures are established and exisiting processes are improved. The company has successfully recruited a large number of staff who are now working efficiently.
Developing online versions of training courses
A copywriting company had been delivering low cost workshops. It wanted create online versions of these in order to be able to offer these around the world and reduce the amount of time tied up in delivering these workshops on a regular basis. Cherryleaf recorded the presentation using screencasting software and developed a series of online training modules.
You can see a 2 minute extract below:
Improving efficiency and productivity by single-sourcing for a travel industry client
A travel industry client of ours looked to increase efficiency, productivity and achieve associated cost savings by implementing single sourcing for its user information - approximately 12,000 product Help files, 8,000 pages of printed information and 700 elearning elements. Failure of this project could cause delays in the release of products, and additional costs to retrieve/recreate information.
Cherryleaf worked with them to determine the requirements for a in-house single sourcing tool they will develop. We developed a single sourcing style guide for print and online documents.
Resolving inconsistencies in loan application decisions for a finance company
Cherryleaf has been helping a finance company to reduce inconsistencies in the way that their staff approved or disapproved £100K+ loan applications. The policies and procedures existed but were inconsistent in style, in lots of different locations, created in different formats (such as emails and memos) and were not structured in a way that enabled staff to find them easily. Cherryleaf developed a solution that put all this information into a single "house style", structured the documents to aid usability, and produced an online version that provided a single point of access and central "home". The result will be a more consistent approach to loan approvals.
Flexible authoring resource for a Systems Integrator installing a large building control system
A large systems integrator had a project to develop and install an innovative building control system for a new UK airport terminal. It was required under its contract to document what the system did (its functionality), how to set up and administer the system, as well as provide user documentation. The user documentation needed to explain to the operators what the warning lights on the control board meant - whether they needed to send out a repair man or evacuate the public from the terminal.
The company's in-house technical authors were committed to other projects at the time and were not available to write this documentation. The in-house authors recommended Cherryleaf to the project manager, who engaged us on this project.
Cherryleaf agreed a project plan with the project manager establishing when the documentation would be delivered and the time they'd need to commit. Cherryleaf worked mostly off-site, with some pre-arranged days on site for information gathering and review meetings. The documentation project team included a project manager and a team of authors.
The company had requested the documents be provided as printable PDF documents and online Help, which were delivered by Cherryleaf on time and to budget. The result was the project manager had the resource and expertise he needed to complete that element of overall project.
Appraising and improving the Web site for a government body
Cherryleaf has been working with a government body to complete, appraise and improve their Web site. We found, along with many other problems, that some key content did not exist and that certain content was inconsistent with other information. We've provided resource to fix these and develop a measurement framework for assessing the effectiveness of their Web communications. In a recent assessment of over 400 similiar bodies, this organisation's Web site came out top.
Developing online Help and user documentation for a small software company
A small software company had developed an application to enable businesses evaluate different strategies, which it wanted to bring to market. It wanted to include online Help with the application to reduce the number of support calls and make the product more credible.
They approached Cherryleaf to develop online Help, as they did not have the time or the level of expertise to develop high quality user documentation themselves. Cherryleaf's project team developed Web based Help that could be integrated with the screens of the application.
What was it like working with us?
"I had some basic instructions for my new online application, Opportunity Matrix™, but absolutely no idea how to turn them into a proper Help system. Carol was able to take my rough notes and turn them into a professional Help file. She worked through the application, suggesting appropriate changes where I was making assumptions that would have left users confused.
Once we were all happy with the file, she liaised very effectively with the programmer to make sure that the Help system worked perfectly right from the start.
The information and guidance from Cherryleaf was always top notch, so I always knew exactly where the project was, and what the (quite reasonable) budget needed to be. I shall have no hesitation in using Cherryleaf again, and in recommending them." Andrew Horder, CEO, Opportunity Matrix™
What was the result? The software was launched on time and soon established itself as a credible product in the marketplace.
Finding training courseware providers for the defence sector
A training provider in the Defence sector had won a project to develop online blended learning for a large defence system. It had had many problems in finding contract e-learning developers with the right skills and who were available to do the project. So it approached Cherryleaf to see if we could assist them.
Our contract and recruitment service found them four contractors who could work on site and who had a combination of courseware development, information design and technical writing skills. This was because the team came from a technical author rather than a courseware developer background.
The team were initially engaged for 6 months, which was then extended to 12 and then to 18 months. The project was paused at one stage for a month, with the team returning once there was more work available. The project was completed successfully, with the client writing glowing testimonials for each of the contractors.
