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Free guide for Project Managers on planning documentation projects

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Aligning documentation with your business

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Systems for producing and maintaining better documents in less time: Single Sourcing, CMS, XML and DITA

Everybody expects more:

You and your bosses want you to streamline and automate your publishing process in order to reduce costs and improve the quality of what you produce.
You're expected to deliver documents to tighter deadlines.
Your customers want better quality and/or more relevant technical information that meets the needs of today.

Poor and inefficient management of content is expensive. Your staff can spend hours dealing with content that's unstructured, disorganised and unable to be reused. Your company can waste money on unnecessary translation costs. Even if you have a well-established Content Management System, it may not be delivering the results you expected.

We can help you be flexible and adaptable in what you create, and be in control of it - all at the same time. Call +44 (0)208 13 31 301 or send us an email. Tell us your situation, and let's see if we can help you.

Reasons for moving to a Content Management System

User documentation is changing - and the old ways don't work any more

Your customers don't want to search and scan through lots of information that's irrelevant to their situation. They often need specific documentation supplied in the way they like - instead of a standard one-size-fits-all document.

It means you need to produce lots of information pieces only slightly different from each other - for different contexts, situations and users. When many versions of the same core document exist, they have a habit of becoming increasingly different to each other, unless you have the right system.

Keeping translation costs down

Internationalisation intensifies the burden even more, with the need to provide translated versions of documents. It also means that same information can be written and translated more than once. Translation costs, even when "translation memory" software is used, can be very very expensive. So it makes sense to re-use existing translated content as much as possible.

Other information for you

Cherryleaf can help you implement a Content Management System

As information design consultants, not product vendors, we use a simple step by step approach to focus on your actual needs and provide impartial advice on the range of possible solutions.

We do not resell software, which means you're recommended the best solution for your situation. We work closely with you to make sure the solution fits your requirements and budget.

What's more, our membership of TechComm Alliance means you can also call draw upon international expertise of large and complex single sourcing, DITA and Content Management solutions.

Project examples

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.

Our previous relevant work includes the development of a single sourcing methodology for Hewlett Packard UK.

We're ready to help as and when you need it

Here's where you might need Cherryleaf's input:

Assessing the effectiveness of your current business content delivery systems
Developing the right strategy
- Business case preparation (needs analysis and ROI)
- Project scoping and planning
- Content modelling workshops
Developing a proof of concept and prototypes
- Statement of Requirements - covering content and technology
- Selecting the right Content Management software (including authoring tools and hosted solutions)
- Configuring the system to your needs (such as XSLT development for publishing; variants and specialisations)
Implementing a document delivery solution that meets your needs
- Setting up your information architecture
- Setting up your publishing system/publishing systems implementation
- Integration with corporate CMS or publishing systems
- Streamlining HTML, PDF and the production of other media
- Automating the process for publishing
Legacy content conversion
- Where required, assisting you in converting either some or all of your content.
Training your team - We've trained over 100 people in DITA, and run special workshops on DITA topics.

Call +44 (0)208 13 31 301 or send us an email. Tell us your situation, and let's see if we can help you.

Free tips on implementing a single sourcing solution

We asked the consultants at Cherryleaf for tips on implementing a single sourcing solution. You can get these tips free.

Already have a Content Management System?

Leave the technical aspects to us and let your writers do what they are good at - writing. We can help you with:

Customisations
Publishing output configurations
XML and DITA specialisations
Look and Feel for different media
Streamlining HTML, PDF and the production of other media
Automated the process for publishing
Importing or legacy content - both structured and unstructured

Call +44 (0)208 13 31 301 or send us an email. Tell us your situation, and let's see if we can help you.

Need technical authors experienced in writing in an XML environment?

Find out more about our our recruitment services for hiring technical authors.

Further information

Contact us if you would like to know more about how we can help you. If you can, please state the issues you are interested in fixing. We'll respond by email or phone.