Financial ImpactUnderstanding and Communicating the Financial Impact of XML and DITA
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Transcript of Financial ImpactUnderstanding and Communicating the Financial Impact of XML and DITA
© 2008 JustSystems Inc.
Understanding and Communicatingthe Financial Impact of XML & DITA
Jeff DeskinsMay 7th, 2008
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
Introduction
• Jeff Deskins– Principal Consultant, JustSystems, Inc.– 20+ years of experience in the industry at multiple
companies of varying sizes and industries– Contributed international standards including DITA,
S1000D & ATA working groups, and OASIS PLCS– Author of numerous papers/presentations on
information development and information architecture
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
Agenda
• Introduction• The Ripple Effect• Building your case
– Step One: Choose and Evangelize Information Model
– Step Two: Translate Impact of Right Translation Workflow
– Step Three: Calculate Measurable ROI
– Step Four: Select Technology Partners Who Facilitate ROI
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
Polling
How many languages do you translate yourcontent into?• Only use 1 language• 2 – 5 languages• 6 – 10 languages• 11 – 20 languages• 21 – 30 languages• 31+ languages
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
The Ripple EffectHow Global Targets Inflate Content Volume
Market Expansion Scenario:BestBet DVD Players Expands Sales to Five European Countries
* 5 new countries requires 5 times the amount of work in creating,translating and delivering all the information necessary to supportsales, marketing and service activities
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
The Ripple EffectHow Global Targets Inflate Content Volume
• Adapting to a much larger mandate also requires the need tounderstand and communicate the implications, limitations andsuitability of:
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
Polling
How familiar are you with DITA?• First time learning about it• Somewhat familiar, heard about it• Familiar with it or researching• Very knowledgeable• Already implemented
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
Step One:Choose and Evangelize your Information Model
DITA: Darwin Information Typing Architecture
• XML-based technology foundation that controls andmanages creation, translation, workflow, and publishingof content
• Popular information model in today’s global, multi-channel environment
• Breaks down and structures info into reusable modules• Identifies relationships between info ‘topics’ and ‘maps’
Eliminates redundancy of effort
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
* Organizations save 40-70% or more in documentation and localization costs* Organizations save 40-70% or more in documentation and localization costs
Step One:Choose and Evangelize your Information Model
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
Example:
• A manufacturing company recently adopted DITA after a globalexpansion required translation to 14 new languages
• During pilot project (which encompassed just one set ofdocumentation), the company measured savings of more than$225,000 within the first three months
• Today the company produces dozens of documentation sets inmore than 20 languages
Step One:Choose and Evangelize your Information Model
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
Polling
How are you currently translating your documents?
• I currently translate by whole documents• I have adopted an XML strategy to translate
documents in parts• I’m not sure• Not applicable
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
• Traditionally, TM tools send entire documents throughtranslation process – including already translatedcontent
• Also need to find best point to translate along thecontent lifecycle– If too early: Waste– If too late: Jeopardize deadlines
• BUT – When topic-by-topic vs. whole documents:
DITA introduces Flexibility
Step Two:Determine Impact of the Right TranslationWorkflow
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
Step Two:Determine Impact of the Right TranslationWorkflow
Consider the following scenario:
Product Guide 125 pre-existing topics+ 75 new topics= 200 topics
Without DITA With DITA
200 topics for translation
Several thousand dollars toproof & match topics that have
not changed
75 topics for translation
Since 125 are easily reused,costs reduced by over 60%
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
Step Two:Translate Impact of the Right TranslationWorkflow
Savings at Every Step: Global Content Creation with DITA
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
Polling
What metrics do you currently track?• Number of hours authors actually write per week• Number of hours to write a topic or page• Number of hours to write a topic by type• Number of hours to review a topic• Number of hours to translate a topic• Number of test/review a deliverable• Number of days per language to translate
deliverables per product for a release
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
Step Three:Calculate Measurable ROI
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
Step Three:Calculate Measurable ROI
Also consider the following factors which impact explicit costs:
• Direct labor hours per page• Cost per art file• % of content rewritten before release of First Edition (revision / churn rate)• % of new content in future revisions / variants (carry-forward reuse rate)• Number of expected future product revisions / variants• % chance to reuse content from this document across other products• % chance to reuse content from this document across other documents for this
product• Current reuse rate achieved on iterations (before)• Number of output formats• Cost for file pre- and post-processing• DTP cost per translated document
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
Step Three:Calculate Measurable ROI
* The same document that cost $6,000 per language to translate with a whole-document, non-TM approach will cost approximately $1,000 per language using DITA
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
Step Three:Calculate Measurable ROI
Now consider:10 documents delivered in 10 languages
• Annual savings of $500,000 on just one documentation set
Under Old Method With DITA strategy and TM
Annual Translation costs$600,000
(10 documents x 10 languages x$6,000 per language)
Annual Translation costs$100,000
(10 documents x 10 languages x$1000 per language)
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
Step Four:Select Technology Partners Who Facilitate ROI
• Unified contentdevelopmentenvironment (UCDE)contains multipleapplications
• Applications mustintegrate to provideseamless workflow
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
Step Four:Content Authoring
• Provides intuitive GUI for authoring topics• Provides ability to organize topics with DITA
maps• Supports creating relationship tables• Validates DITA topics• Has a customizable GUI• Able to integrate with other applications in UCDE
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
Step Four:Content Storage
• CMS – workflow and metadata support (aids inreuse)
• Source Control – file integrity support
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
Step Four:Content Publishing
• Generates DITA topics into deliverables
• Server and desktop support
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
Step Four:Content Translation
• Manages translation workflow
• Manages translation memory (TM)
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
Summary
• Understand how translation affectscontent development and production
• Build your case for moving to DITA– Step One: Choose and Evangelize Information
Model– Step Two: Translate Impact of Right Translation
Workflow– Step Three: Calculate Measurable ROI– Step Four: Select Technology Partners Who
Facilitate ROI
© 2007 JustSystems Inc.
Resources
• http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/dita-users• http://dita.xml.org• http://na.justsystems.com
– White papers– Webinars– Flash demonstrations
• Visit us at Booth #6