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Content Manufacturing: Understanding the Role of Technical Communication in Enterprise Efficiency
It's a fact! The content creation process is riddled with inefficiency. So much so that a careful examination of the way we create, manage, and deliver content most often yields embarrassing—and seldom defensible—waste.
For far too long, the processes followed by writers, editors, illustrators, and other content creators have been overlooked. Until recently, no one questioned how we did things. But those days are over. Organizations that value their content as a business asset have discovered that by applying manufacturing principles to the content life cycle, they can eliminate unnecessary steps, automate historically manual tasks, and reap tremendous savings.
Join Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler, for a talk aimed at examining how technical communication departments can help enterprises overcome operational inefficiencies and leverage the time savings to create innovative, user-centered communication products.
Preparing for Tomorrow: Multi-Channel, Multi-Device Publishing in Technical Communication as the New Mainstream
When today's consumers have questions about the products and services they have purchased, they demand more ways to find answers than did past consumers. Information needs to be ubiquitously available, easily searchable, quickly retrievable, easily consumable, and immediately actionable. For example, yesterday's purchaser of consumer electronics was content with calling a customer service number or referring to a text-heavy product manual. However, today's electronics consumer also demands information from an online search and a company's website while on the move. And consider the last decade's explosion in the variety of mobile devices (smartphones, eBook readers, tablets, etc.) that consumers use online, each potentially having special requirements for displaying the desired information. The trend for information curators and disseminators is clear: to keep your customers happy, you need to supply both traditional and online information, including interactive videos and rich graphics.
Today's diverse range of information sources and mobile devices requires technical content in a variety of formats and specifications, which in turn requires versatile technical communication tools. However, tools used five years ago are inadequate for today's needs. In this session, we will examine the optimal requirements for new-generation tools that can best handle traditional and online technical communication assets.
Deriving the Highest ROI from Your Migration to Structured Authoring
Content development managers today are realizing the benefits of structured, topic-based authoring. Migrating from unstructured content to topic-based structured content can result in significant cost savings and return on investment (ROI). However, there are several factors managers should consider that, depending on the decisions made, can significantly dilute or further enhance the ROI of the move to structured authoring.
In this session, we will discuss the key factors to consider as you decide on which tool/solution to use for structured authoring. We will also examine how an Adobe FrameMaker® based solution can help you derive the highest ROI from your transition to structured authoring.
"Foolproof" DITA via FrameMaker Automates Structure/Formatting in 27 Languages
FrameMaker's painless approach to DITA publishing made it the natural choice for a major medical device manufacturer who faced challenges with temporary contractors' learning curves, inconsistent document structure, and post-translation format inconsistencies.
In this session, GPI will share how they created a customized DITA-based publishing solution that met several key performance indicators: (a) allowed docs to be saved directly in native XML format, (b) rules-based formatting wipes away any unapproved format overrides, (c) highly constrained choices for document structure and style changes limit document damage by transient contractors, and (d) new staff can be up and running in less than two hours. One template and concise rules control paragraph prefixes, indents, and more for 27 languages.
Rethinking Documentation Development: Leveraging Adobe Technical Communication Suite 3.5
Many organizations still continue to use Microsoft® Word® as their primary documentation development tool without giving it a second thought. Is it a sustainable model, as the demands in documentation rapidly grow (single-sourcing, localization, rich media integration, multiscreen publishing, etc.)?
In this presentation, we will explore a better way that presents compelling efficiencies on large-scale documentation development efforts. The approach that Accenture and Adobe are working on with a large government agency completely rethinks the way end-user documentation and training materials are developed, delivered, and maintained. Utilizing the all-new Adobe Technical Communication Suite 3.5, this project is soon to deploy one of the most advanced training solutions in the US.
Key Trends in Today's Technical Communication
The very way in which technical content is created, reviewed, published, disseminated, and maintained/repurposed by content developers is rapidly changing in today's dynamic world. So is the way in which technical content is searched for, referenced, assimilated, and consumed by end users.
In this session, we will discuss key trends in today's technical communication space. We will go over key changes happening in the industry, what factors are driving these changes, and what it means for practitioners.
How to Develop an Enterprise Social Collaboration Strategy: Managing Documentation and Building Product Communities in a Collaborative World
In today's collaborative world of social media, end-user generated content, and search, your documentation can become the base for building product communities and improving customer experience.
In this session, we will look at the key ingredients of a comprehensive enterprise collaboration strategy from the technical communication perspective. We will discuss the importance of technical communicators engaging with end users and subject matter experts, soliciting and incorporating their feedback to ensure delivery of the most useful and usable documentation. We will also review how today's advanced technology can enable this process.
Scott Abel
Founder and CEO, The Content Wrangler, Inc.
Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler, is an internationally recognized content strategist and social networking choreographer whose strengths lie in helping organizations streamline and optimize the way they create, manage, and deliver content. Scott writes regularly for a variety of content industry publications, is a frequent keynote presenter at content industry events, and manages global social networking communities.
Tom Aldous
Manager, Product Evangelism and Business Development, Adobe Systems Incorporated
Tom is the Product Evangelist for Adobe's technical communication tools.
Before joining Adobe in January 2011, he worked for over 20 years as a managing partner and consultant at an Adobe business partner company called Integrated Technologies, Inc. (InTech).
While at InTech, Tom successfully implemented large-scale XML solutions at several Fortune 500 companies.
Kapil Verma
Senior Product Manager, Adobe Systems Incorporated
Kapil Verma is a Sr. Product Manager at Adobe Systems, India where he manages the FrameMaker line of products (which includes FrameMaker and FrameMaker Server). He is responsible for the overall FrameMaker product strategy and roadmap, partner ecosystem management, and customer relationship. Prior to Adobe, he worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Co., where he served Fortune 500 technology and telecomm corporations on a variety of strategic topics. Earlier, he worked at Capital One in Virginia, where he developed and shaped marketing strategy.
Maxwell Burke Hoffmann
Director, Document Globalization Practice, Globalization Partners International, Inc.
Maxwell has over 14 years of experience in localization and leads GPI's Documentation Globalization Practice, helping clients produce and publish multilingual content in a cost-effective, consistent, and culturally correct manner. Designated an Adobe Community Expert in 2007 and a 2011 inductee to the Adobe Community Professional program as a recognized expert in FrameMaker, Maxwell is a former product marketing manager for FrameMaker. He has extensive experience as a practitioner and instructor in Adobe FrameMaker and DITA/XML and has trained over 1,200 people. He was also designated one of the top 25 Most Influential Content Strategists for 2010 by MindTouch and Lavacon.
Rick Thompson
Senior Manager, Accenture, Inc.
Rick Thompson is a Senior Manager with Accenture's Health and Public Service industry group and has been with the company for over 23 years. He is a member of Accenture's Talent and Organizational Performance service line and is focused on working with government agencies to help them implement large-scale change initiatives. Over his career, Rick has led the development and implementation of large-scale training programs for agencies in Florida, Georgia, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Wyoming.
Pawan Goyal
Director of Products, Adobe Systems Incorporated
Pawan is responsible for Technical Communication Software products at Adobe, leading the business's engineering, development, product management, product marketing, and sales. He is an avid innovator and has more than 15 patents and 30 publications. His technology experience spans networking, operating systems, storage systems, and application software. He has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin and B.Tech from IIT Kanpur.
Ankur Jain
Product Manager, Adobe Systems Incorporated
Ankur Jain is a Product Manager at Adobe Systems and manages Adobe Technical Communication Suite, RoboHelp, and RoboHelp Server. He is responsible for Adobe's business strategy, product roadmap, and partner and customer relationships for his Technical Communications products. He is a popular speaker at technical communication conferences around the globe. Prior to Adobe, Ankur worked as a Senior Product Manager at Trilogy, where he specialized in solving industry's toughest problems and delivering business value through relentless innovation and technology-powered business services. Earlier in his consulting role, he served over a half dozen clients in the US and the UK on various strategic initiatives. Ankur holds an MBA and enjoys traveling.