Content Reuse With SmartDocs
Bryan Lynn is the founder of ThirtySix Software in Indianapolis, makers of SmartDocs.
A content reuse strategy need to be well planned, otherwise it may not succeed. You need a need technology that effectively supports the strategy, as well as sufficient training and deployment time.
Picking a Tool
There are many content reuse tools to choose from, so you need to carefully analyze the current state of your documentation system. To narrow down the field of tools you need to ask what capabilities your reuse strategy needs. These can include conditional text, text chunking, variables, document types, change notification, and XML authoring. Of course, your budget is also a large factor. Some solutions have an low initial cost and can then grow organically, others have a high upfront cost right away.
The tool you choose must make reuse easy, ideally integrating directly into main authoring tool. The reuse function must always be accessible. There should be a single point of entry to access reusable content. The content should be intelligent and not force user to do manual. Also, the tool should not force you to change your DMS (document management system). You want to make it easy on your IT dept, so the tool should work with your existing file infrastructure.
Growing the Tool
The tool should support organic growth. The problem with large (big bang) implementations is that if they fail, you have wasted much time and resources. You need to pilot a reuse strategy and technology with a team to demonstrate ROI. Start with a small product that has a small documentation set. Apply what you've learned, get buy in from management and expand the tool only when you are ready.
The solution should also support legacy content. If it does not, you can either not use older content or convert it to the new format.
Summing up, implementing a successful content reuse strategy requires careful planning and analyses of your reuse needs. When you finally do select a tool, you need to carefully monitor its implementation, to verify that it has actually done what you had expected.
(After the presentation, Bryan gave a demonstration of SmartDocs, a content reuse tool for Microsoft Word. Jacques Fauteux from Front Runner provided the hands on training for participants to try the software.)
