Vacon PlcFuture of multilingual content management in product documentation

Pasi Savola,

Documentation Manager

Vacon in a nutshell• Established 1993 in Vaasa, by a group of 13 persons• Listed in Helsinki Stock Exchange in December 2000• In 2012, the turnover was 388 MEUR• About 1600 persons working for Vacon globally• Production and R&D facilities in China, India, Italy and the USA. Sales offices in 29 countries • Vacon concentrates on one product only, AC drives for a large variety of industrial applications• AC drives are used for controlling the speed of electric motors, with different software for different applications, such as pumps, lifts, conveyors, paper machines, etc. -> Save energy, enhance processes -> Renewable energy sources

Vacon PPT 2

Product documentation and content management, current situation• Our products have installation and software manuals• The manuals are localized in about 25 different languages• Content is created and updated with Adobe Framemaker, some manuals still in MS Word format

Challenges: -> Vast amount of content

-> The information is not structured, same content in many books

-> Writing, update and localization processes challenging to manage, risk of errors

-> Vacon has specialized vocabulary-> Content is updated twice a year

Vacon PPT 3

Product documentation and content management, next steps

The production and localization of user and service documentation have been outsourced to two different partners

-> Main development steps being taken: XML, STE, specialized technical glossary in all Vacon Group languages

Vacon PPT 4

5

XMLAll product documentation content is being recreated in DITA-based modular environment

-> About 40-50% of Vacon manuals’ content can be reused in several different documents

-> Texts are being made more generic -> more reusable-> Publishing made automatic

+ Uniform look and feel-> Modules are updated in one location only

+ Improved accuracy and time-to-market+ Less writing resources needed+ Savings in localization process

Vacon PPT

6Vacon PPT

STEAll product documentation content is being recreated according to Simplified Technical English standard

-> General STE vocabulary restricted to about 1000 words-> Vacon-specific vocabulary imported to the system as a separate module-> Only STE-approved terms allowed in authoring, short sentences and bulleted lists preferred

+ Clear and understandable user manuals+ Improved accuracy and time-to-market+ Less writing resources needed+ Savings in localization process

Goal: Clear and uniform environment of Vacon technical product information!

7Vacon PPT

Vacon glossary in all languages

Along with XML and STE, a special glossary of challenging Vacon terminology is being created

-> Consists of about 800 terms at the moment-> Includes special terms considered especially challenging in

translations-> The glossary is being localized to all Vacon Group languages

+ Minimizing errors in language versions+ Reducing quality issues+ Savings in localization processes with

developed translation memories

Goal: Clear and uniform environment of Vacon technical product information in all languages!

• Whether inhouse, or outsourced, always use professionals• Train the writers in the area of the business • Consider carefully, which technology to use in content creation

-> MS Word is OK, but in a certain stage, the need of special tools increases.

-> When the amount of data and translations increase, have a business case made for implementing a Content Management System. A big task but brings benefits in the future

• Less is more!-> Reduce the amount of content where possible

• Less is more!-> Do not repeat yourself!

Vacon PPT 8

Points to be considered in content creation

Vacon PPT 9

Points to be considered in localizing your content

• Whether inhouse, or outsourced, always use professionals, invest in quality partnerships• Commit your international subsidiaries/sales offices to validating the translations

-> Quality is good and local cultural elements also considered • Create a precise language strategy• Keep the management informed about cost structure• Develop the partnerships continuously, challenge them!• If you have special terminology, make a glossary and have it translated• Less is more!

-> If you have a lot of content and language versions, every reduction in content pays off

10Vacon PPT