Author-it helps Hewlett-Packard put content to good use - and re-use

When technology giant HP’s Industry Standard Servers division needed to get its document production processes under control, it settled on an all-inclusive tool...

For Hewlett-Packard’s Industry Standard Servers (ISS) division, the need for an effective content management system (CMS) was more than pressing – it was crushing.

At any given time, the 30 writers for ISS – encompassing eight product segments – were juggling a total of 50 projects running concurrently.

All of the projects were related to the group’s documentation, which includes various user documents, service guides, installations guides, and other materials that would ship with the product. Further, many of these could require localisation (translation) into eight or more different languages.

ISS was facing major challenges when trying to produce its documentation in a cost-effective and timely manner. Writers were producing a vast quantity of documents working with stand-alone desktop publishing software (the standard at the time was Microsoft Word).

“The main problem was that our writers couldn’t see each other’s work,” said Tom Erber, an ISS document project manager and the program manager for the Information Engineering Group.

“Each writer would have his or her own copy on their individual machines; if two writers were creating documents on essentially the same topic, they wouldn’t even know it,” he says.

“Consequently, we ended up with a lot of similar content being developed simultaneously. More importantly, there was no understanding as to which content was potentially shareable. Of course, the fact that we had writers in multiple locations exacerbated the problem.”

Erber also noted that many writers didn’t seem to mind writing things two or more times. “Rewriting each other’s work didn’t seem like a hassle to them,” he said. “They always thought they could improve upon the existing piece.”

Adopting the new tool
While Author-it has proven to be a potent tool in producing high-quality content while increasing reusability, it is the internal changes that ISS has adopted that allow the group to maximize Author-it’s efficiency.

The primary change has been in the approach of the writers at ISS. The writers’ perspective had to change from writing a deliverable to building the database, with a view that any piece of content may be subject to re-use by another writer for another project.

A second major change is how the documentation team functions. Single sourcing requires more communication between writers than ever before and often across various teams. Writers may need to negotiate responsibility for a certain piece of content or hand off responsibility to another team.

A third major change is that writers had to view themselves as information architects; that is, first searching the database for appropriate content that can be re-used as is. Only if nothing is in the database on the specific subject will the writer start from scratch.

“We had rules set up to see if something had been previously written,” said Erber.

“Our new focus was to search for content first, then pull the content into the deliverable.”

Finally, a fourth change is in the reviewing process of content. By concentrating on reviewing objects (individual pieces of content) rather than full deliverables, the document development process became much simpler.

The writer sends out a review of the entire product information set, eliminating multiple reviews of separate deliverables.

ISS developed a carefully orchestrated procedure for using the Author-it product using release states for topics, ensuring that approved copy would not be modified once released.

To heighten the efficiency of the process as well as identify any potential problem areas, weekly single sourcing meetings are held; at these meetings, everyone, not just project managers, has the power to raise any issues with how content is used.

Benefits increases efficiency
“We believe we have an extremely well-devised process for creating documentation in Author-it,” Erber said.

“Plus, we have the proper checks and balances in place to make sure the procedure is followed to the letter. I learned early on that our Author-it database is, at its core, a powerful tool. But in the end, it’s as good as the people who use it and maintain it.”

According to Erber, ISS has achieved outstanding productivity gains and cost-savings since implementing the Author-it tool.

These results are not anecdotal; rather, they are eminently measurable. For example, the time to develop secondary deliverables has been greatly reduced, because the content is already approved as part of the information set. In fact, ISS has seen a 52 percent reduction in word count, from approximately 38K to 18K words in a typical manual.

In addition, a 50-60 percent reduction in writing resources has been achieved (a medium-sized project that used to require 1.5 writers was reduced to 0.6 writers). Localisation (translation) is another area that has seen tremendous improvement, with a 76 percent re-use, based on the total number of words processed versus words localised.

To top it off, HP has experienced a 40 percent reduction in engineering review time, a benefit that the company considers as important as the re-use and localisation efficiencies.

It’s a long way to come for a group that, by Erber’s account, was in deeper water than anyone thought. “We were operating somewhat inefficiently for an extended period of time,” he said.

“And the worst part was we didn’t even know we had a problem. Things are completely different now. Authorit has given us a level of control we never could have imagined. And, because we’re also starting to take on work in additional geographic areas, it makes the product even more essential.”

For more information

Author-it Software Corporation
www.author-it.com
Ph: (Aus) 1 800 650 895
(NZ) +64 9 915 5070
sales@author-it.com

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