In case you missed the presentation at PTC/User 2010 (#ptcuser2010) or Content Management Strategies/DITA North America 2010 (#CMSDITANA2010), here’s your chance to see a great presentation by someone deep in the thick of it.

Pushpinder Toor, a Product Manager at PTC, is responsible for the design and development of PTC University’s new Arbortext Training Solution. This solution is a melding of PTC technologies, best practices and industry standards. The resulting solution helps PTC customers build, manage and deliver their own training quickly and efficiently. Pushpinder has been a part of PTC (and previously Arbortext Inc.) for 11 years, in that time she’s worked in a number of roles such as a Course Trainer, Curriculum Developer and Project Manager.

Join us as Pushpinder describes how they leverage their content to provide world-class training materials. Discover how the implementation of a Reusable Content Strategy. Arbortext and Windchill technology can help you build training content that allows for:

• Innovative learning methodology — Role based, tailored to the individual needs, and measurable.
• Global Coverage — When you want it, where you need it, in the language you prefer
• Flexibility — Continuous blended material

Join Single-Sourcing Solutions and PTC for this one hour FREE websession.

We will show you how to develop a solution that can deliver faster, high-quality, standards-compliant training and eLearning.

We’ve posted the recording of the interactive web session held on February 24, 2010. In that session, Liz Fraley from Single-Sourcing Solutions and Dan Dial from Sequoia Etc showed how using Arbortext Content Manager helps resolve business needs. It all starts with managing content. Synchronizing your product information with your product development enables you to:

• Minimize risks by reducing errors and implementing fail safe controls
• Maintain control of valuable IP
• Create a fully audit-able records trail that meets the tightest of compliance requirements
• Reduce customer service costs
• Quickly adapt to market changes or enter new markets quickly
• Take advantage of global development centers through a single-source
• Drive revenue

Learn how to establish the best in class business practice of managing, controlling, and distributing the information used every day by your company and clients. Understand the difference between content management and document management. By the end of the video, you will have the information you need to take the next step to:

• minimize the risks that could impact your company’s profitability, and
• recognize potential new revenue opportunities for your company.

Please fill out the following form to see the video:

Here at Single-Sourcing Solutions, we’re optimistic about the year ahead.

Even with the downturn in the economy, we fared very well last year. We showed a 20% increase in profit from the previous year. We also took the opportunity to expand in 2009, tripling our headcount, in preparation of what we hope will be an even more demanding 2010.

We are now starting to see more movement in our customers’ projects. Last year many of their projects were delayed as their companies braced themselves for one of the worst economic downturns in a century. There is a noticeable difference in calls with our customers this year as the projects that were on hold are now being funded.

While it is still early in the year, we are starting to see more demand for tools, training, and services for product information development and delivery.

So far, it looks like we are off to a great start for 2010 and we are ready to meet the demands head on with our increased staff size and ever broadening solutions for our customers.

We’ve got a lot of exciting and interesting new things coming for our customers and the greater Arbortext community this year as well:

• Professional Development Seminars: One-day intensive training sessions on a piece of Arbortext technology
• Members-only area with video, troubleshooting, and AE tips
• more web sessions
• even more support for the Arbortext PTC/User group
• and some very special, innovative, new services that we hope makes life even easier for everyone doing single-sourcing projects… stay tuned.

Contest

Don’t forget to enter the contest we’re running through the end of June!

Or, It’s not just about the technology

A techpubs department is a techpubs department and one is not so unlike another. At a certain level that’s true, but the devil’s in the details as we all know.

I’ve found, over the years, after watching countless techpubs departments implement single-sourcing solutions of all kinds and using products from nearly every vendor: Those who go through a true, enterprise-wide discovery process have a far higher probability of, not simply succeeding, but realizing their return on investment. Not only do they realize ROI on the technology, buy they see that return in their staff costs, their implementation costs, and everything related to getting a project like this done. In addition, we’ve found that those who don’t go through this process, end up spending a far greater amount of time and money in the end than those who do.

Choosing an end-to-end system like Arbortext, discovery is critical for us and for you. To assure your successful implementation over the long haul, you want to understand three things:

1. The technology
2. Your existing processes and business goals
3. Your people, skill sets, and their interests

We all know that when you implement Arbortext, it’s not just about the technology. In fact, the technology is only one of the three major legs supporting an implementation like this which has lasting, process-level change effects on the entire enterprise. You’ve got to look at the processes you have in place today, your organizational culture, and your people—the skill levels, what you have, what you need. It’s not just the technology you’re looking at: You’ve got to look at all these different things, together.

Asking for a demonstration before you understand exactly what it will take, from an organizational perspective, to implement single sourcing in your enterprise is no different than watching a video or reading a white paper (both of which take less time and cost less in terms of your resources).

Rushing into a demo reduces the conversation to the technology, internally and externally. Management will give you less resources, reducing the chance of successful implementation because your business case is weak. It’s technology-focused rather than business focused. (And, let’s face it: business-focus is what drives budget allocation.)

In addition, a generic demo doesn’t serve you very well. Vendors show generic features and maybe they hit on the one thing you’re looking for and maybe they don’t. You and your team sit through an hour (or two or three) of features and functions of a very complex system and set of applications. (If you’ve got 8 people sitting in a 1-hour demo, you’ve just wasted 8 hours.) Looking at generic features, you can’t possibly know what ripple effects the technology that you didn’t see will have? You also don’t know what will help bolster your case because a feature you didn’t see helps someone else in the organization.

In all the work we’ve done with customers, we’ve often found that while other parts of the organization currently don’t use the documentation in it’s present form there is a desire to do so if the documentation could be easily customized or configured for their purposes.

Don’t get me started on the ripple effects of seemingly simple process changes.

The goal of any vendor evaluation is not to see whether the product works. Software always has bugs; there’s always a learning curve; and, unless you’re dealing with an out-of-the-gate startup and haven’t spoken to the vendor’s references, then you know it’ll “work.”

What you’re really looking to understand, in the most efficient way possible is this: What will let you advance the sales process or end it. What will get you what you need or get the sales person to stop calling.

What tells you that?

A clear and precise understanding of exactly why Arbortext applies to your unique situation, processes, people, and business needs. Without that, a demo doesn’t add value to your conversation.

…is really more of a pyramid

Side #1 – The Theory Side: The Information Management Consulting Companies Side #2 – The Technology Side: Programming Nuts and Bolts Side #3 – The Product Side: Vendors and Application-Specific Specialists

This month the implementation date for MDD directive (2007/47/EC) comes due. There are a number of issues that require action by manufacturers (changes to the Essential Requirements, clearer requirements for clinical evaluation, changes to the QA of third parties) and the Notified Bodies ( higher requirements for auditing Technical Files).

After seeing how well positioned Medtronic is, we started wondering how well the other device manufacturers were doing. Interestingly enough, none of them have really started the discussion about the benefits of dynamic information delivery in their business.

I might have expected it. The first step is always: let’s meet the requirements and be done with it. But when translation costs are $50/page when they could be less than $5/page, it makes me wonder when the life sciences companies are going to really join the discussion.

We had a customer in the manufacturing space — not life sciences — and their translation vendor offered them a steep discount if they got out of FrameMaker. Their translation costs went from $20,000 to $6,000.  Just getting out of proprietary systems and into a standard XML publishing system got their costs down by 2/3.  (Reuse is the second driver of cost reduction.)

Is there something about this I’m missing? Medical Devices have a huge margin, why wouldn’t any medical device manufacturer want to maximize it as much as they could while improving their odds against failing an FDA audit due to product information development processes?

Recently, I was privileged to talk with a customer that implemented Arbortext in 1999: Greg Johnson at Medtronic. Greg heads up what his executives have told him is “the most successful project Medtronic had ever done.” We’ve already talked about how dynamic information delivery systems can really drive down translation costs. This time we’re talking about what reuse brings to the table.

It’s important to remember that this is the value that Medtronic has come to after 10 years of investment in the dynamic information delivery system. They continued to develop it over time and to focus on the things that drive those numbers down.

What drives it down?

According to Greg, it’s reuse. Their reuse is at 90%. Their writers are reusing written, translated, validated translations that they can prove are untouched and reused as is.  In their system, they can certify, based on the validity of the system, that they are using exactly the same content. They haven’t touched it; there are no changes: they haven’t created a revision that triggers other processes and other costs.

They’ve seen the translation savings numbers trend downward for for years. However, even if you’re investing more for the authoring side, you still see the win in each language. You still see it even if you’re only producing documentation in English. You still get the win because you’re still reusing modules rather than rewriting, validating, and producing large amounts of content.

At Medtronic, just on the authoring side, the data is equally impressive:

* Before: the first manual for a new model would see 95k new words.
* After: new models have 55K new words; all the rest of the content comes from reusable modules.

Writers and management collaborate to plan documentation for new models taking care to look ahead to other models, so they keep getting win after win for follow-on products.

Today, Medtronic has over 100 models, with variations on features and things that are all over in terms of price points.  Greg’s team can crank out the manuals for new models right and left. All the features have been netted out to all 100 models and beyond.

Over the last 7 years, they’ve been tracking what it would have cost if they hadn’t had a dynamic information delivery system. They’re keeping a running total. It’s a long process to see the return on the up front costs, but the return is utterly dependent on the scope of the problem.

Greg doesn’t sugar coat it. He admits that it’s a painful process, a long fight, but there are awesome returns. “Reuse is king,” he says, “and you should push for it; don’t start on authoring side thinking you will band-aid in localization later, understand up front, partner with localization partners to do this right.”

See previous article: Dynamic information delivery systems reduce translation costs

Recently, I was privileged to talk with a customer that implemented Arbortext in 1999: Greg Johnson at Medtronic. Greg heads up what his executives have told him is “the most successful project Medtronic had ever done.”

Greg was responsible for bringing a dynamic information delivery system into Medtronic.  When you talk to him, he’ll say that “you don’t want to do how/what we did. It’s 10 yrs later. But I want to encourage you. There are vast savings and vast reductions in cycle time and vast improvements to do in this field, if you do it smart, build your vision, and go be passionate about it.”

He says that believing the stories is hard, but he’s the first to tell you not to be faint of heart. “There are a lot of people finding their own way and finding their own wins.” He wants more companies to join the conversation. “Spend a day, tour, spend time with management teams. See the exotic things [that other people have done]. They will encourage you along the way. Keep slogging ahead, and you can get there.”

Greg knows that talking with others can really informed the decisions you make.  He shared with me some of the amazing results they’ve seen the last 10 years.

Here are the trends they’re seeing:

• increasing product complexity
• increasing # languages
• increasing volume of documentation
• increasing product overlap
• shorter product life cycle

They’ve seen these trends the last 10 years and he doesn’t see these trends changing. In the face of these trends, his group has shown dramatic changes and savings in a very visible project.

All the divisions at Medtronic use the same internal translation center based in the Netherlands. About 7 years ago, the director there hit on a way to collect and track cost data across all the projects that come through. In the last 7 hears, he has done it the same way every time. The data is broken down by business unit, then by content translated within a business unit. He’s got inside and outside real world data on what it costs, per page, to generate these results.

Medtronic is now publishing this as a trend line internally. The data is so staggeringly better within the dynamic information delivery system when they compare it to other BUs that are using traditional publishing tools.

Here are the stats.

The average cost per page to translate a 200 word page (including QA and everything):

- Other BUs: $47
- Their BU, groups not using the system: $38
- Their BU, using the system: $5

Over the last 7 years all the trends are downward but the 10:1 cost reduction is monumental. $47 can trend down, but $5 will trend down, and it’s a lot harder for $47 to catch $5.

This is the kind of cost savings and time-to-market driver that cuts across industries and geographies.  They’re global drivers.

Next: The benefits that reuse brings.

Greening your product – what about your product information?

We see it all the time and I’m sure you do as well. Companies are on the move with initiatives to “green” their operations and their products. It’s not just the big fortune 500 companies either, the push for green is being driven—and even led—by the small to medium business (SMB) sector.

By now, almost every company has adopted a recycle program. Many implement telecommuting or ride sharing programs to reduce their carbon footprint. They are packaging products in containers that are made, at least in part, from post consumer recycled material. They are reexamining their raw materials to develop surfaces that provide less wind resistance, are more compact, are made from less hazardous materials.  They’re creating innovative designs that use less power or regenerate their own.  These eco-friendly practices are touching every part of the product development process. Just yesterday, I saw that Coca Cola is turning to bioplastics for their packaging of consumer goods and UPS is introducing carbon-neutral shipping.

But what about the product information development and delivery?

Your product information is your potential customer’s first glimpse of who you are. Product documentation can be a cost center or a revenue generator. It can improve your customer service and your speed to market which equals higher customer retention and increased sales.

And it’s an area where every company can make an immediate impact on green initiatives that often gets overlooked. Done right, it can even make your company more environmentally friendly.

Here are five steps to help you green your product information:

1. Examine your product information’s “raw materials”. Create your product information in non-proprietary XML. Using XML will ensure that your product information is developed in a way to make it ready for leading edge technological delivery methods rather than the old print (“not green”) methods. Better still, the information will always be accessible and not locked away in old, unsupported, proprietary formats so there is no need to worry about keeping a legacy data system around.
2. Move to 21st century  technology: Associativity.  Modern tools allow you to start the product information design earlier in the process of product design. You can rapidly respond to design changes and automate the incorporation of that information.  It gives you the edge in staying on top of changes that happen with the product from concept through to final release. We call this “associativity”. With associativity, when a design change happens, all of the corresponding product information is alerted for updates. You can eliminate the worry that everyone is “in the loop” when the inter-dependencies are tied together which, in turn, reduces waste. Use tools that allow for associatively associativity to all phases of development.
3. Design outside of the print box. These days, there are so many advancements in electronic tools, you need to design product information that can be accessed and searched electronically. Hand held mobile electronic devices are taking the field by storm. These devices allow for even the most remote customer or field person to get the right information at the right time. Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals (IETM) or On-Line Help files are an excellent way for you to make certain your end users and customers get detailed up to date product information at their finger tips without ever having to hit the print button.
4. Pictures are worth a thousand words. It’s true! Use of detailed technical illustrations can replace lengthy text and do a much better job of demonstrating a product for use or for service. It also bridges the language barrier and can drastically minimize the need for translating words and phrases. Better still, are illustrations that allow for hot spotting content.
5. Use tools that work well out of the box and provide end to end solutions.I will never forget my first auto repair shop in high school. I had a great teacher who’s first words of wisdom he imparted to us was “use the right tool for the job!” Well, he more like shouted them at us as we eagerly attacked his car to “fix” it. How is this a “green” initiative? The wisdom of Mr. Ziegler’s advice is very true when you are looking at ways to build efficiencies and streamline for optimization. We see people trying to struggle with Frankensteining a solution together for information design and delivery, never taking into account the heavy drain on resources to get the different products to work together.

At Single-Sourcing Solutions, we help companies improve their design and delivery of product information. We stand behind the Arbortext suite of products because they are the only out of the box end to end solution that allows you to create information using XML and deliver the information to the end user in whatever format they require, seamlessly.

To date we have not had a customer come to us with the main business driver of “greening” the product information, but perhaps someday we will. For now, it’s an added bonus for the other main reasons people choose Arbortext.

This is the fourth post in a 4-post series reporting on an interview I did with Greg Johnson from Medtronic. Over the years, Medtronic has increased their investment in their dynamic information delivery system. They have continued to develop it and they have seen their ROI returned again and again.

The Cost Savings Factor

Even after proving to management that he would increase quality, address the audit issue, and reduce cycle time, management said, ‘yeah, but how much money can you save me in this project.’

So he told them about the benefits of reuse, automating composition, and source control.

Greg and one of the MBAs at Medtronic did formal business case model together to show how much money would be saved. The results they predicted were unbelievable. They were too stellar.  So they put in two lines:

1. the numbers they believed in were labeled “optimistic” and
2. numbers they made up and labeled “conservative”

The 2nd line were numbers they thought that management would believe. For example, although they believed the could get 90% reuse, they scaled it down to 50%.

And, for the record, they did reach 90% reuse. They reached every single one of the “optimistic” goals. In 2005, they had exceeded optimistic line and met or exceeded all other commitments. Greg’s team received the Star of Excellence for their business unit as well as the Medtronic Star of Excellence. A executive told Greg that they got a higher ROI than if they had put the money into another product and that his project was the “most successful project ever seen at Medtronic”.

All thanks to a dynamic information delivery system that solved the audit problem, the cycle time problem, and saved money.

And it all started when Arbortext took them to see what Caterpillar had done (starting 10 years earlier still). Greg said when they came away, he didn’t know whether they were more exhilarated or exausted at the proposition and how far they had to go.

Now they’re the inspiration for others.

Greg says, “You don’t want to do how/what we did. It’s 10 yrs later. But I want to encourage you. There are vast savings and vast reductions in cycle time and vast improvements to do in this field, if you do it smart, build your vision, and go be passionate about it.”

Previous: The Time to Market Driver and The Quality Driver

First in the series: Benefits of dynamic information delivery for life sciences