Download - Finding Flexibility in a Rigid World: A Component Content Management Case Study featuring Medtronic

Finding Flexibility in a Rigid World

Suzanne Mescan, Vasont Systems

Nicole Zepper, Medtronic Neuromodulation

A common situation…

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One company: Many business units/divisions/departments

What do they all have in common?

LabelingClinical Trials

Education &

TrainingPatient

Services

Marketing

Parent Company

Division A

Division B

Division D

Division C

They all create (and need to manage) content.3

Today we will share:

• Brief overview of Medtronic’s BUs• General benefits of a CCMS• Medtronic’s CCMS solution and timeline• Common goals and unique needs from the BUs• Perspectives from each BU• Tips: What to do and what not to do when

preparing for a CCMS implementation• Questions

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Medtronic: A Tale of Four Business Units

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

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Medtronic’s Business Units• Neuromodulation

– Deep brain stimulation therapy, drug infusion systems, gastric stimulation systems, sacral neuromodulation systems, spinal cord stimulation systems

• Diabetes– Insulin pumps, continuous glucose monitoring systems, therapy

management software• Surgical Navigation Systems

– Advanced instrument tracking technologies, intra-operative imaging, surgical planning software

• Spinal– Artificial cervical discs, balloon kyphoplasty, biologic fusion systems,

interspinous spacer implants, minimal access spine technologies, reconstructive spinal systems

Each BU has its own Technical Communications department. 6

Medtronic’s Business Units

Different businesses with a common need: To produce labeling for regulatory approval and to produce content that supports the use of their therapies and medical devices.

Different businesses with a common wish:To implement a component content management system (CCMS)

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Why component content management?

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General Benefits of a CCMSFeature Benefit

Consolidation of content Content is portable, searchable, and sharable

Reusable content components [building blocks]

Message is consistentTranslation costs are drastically reduced

Organization of releases and translations Content is accurate and current

Automation of redundant processes Cycle times are reduced significantly

Tracking of everything A thorough audit trail is automatically generated

Once-and-done processing Duplicate writing, editing, review, and translation efforts are eliminated

Governance over structure and guidelines

Content is consistent

Controlled access and ownership of content

Content is secure

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Medtronic’s CCMS solution

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• Share Vasont software• Each BU has its own data collection

Surgical Navigation Systems Data Collection

Spinal Data Collection

Diabetes Data Collection

Neuromodulation Data Collection

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Vasont Adoption Timeline

Neuromodulation2003

Diabetes2005

Surgical Navigation Systems

2008

Spinal2013

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Common goals, unique needs

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Common Goals

• Implement an XML-based CCMS• Minimize IT overhead required to

implement and maintain the CCMS• Increase content consistency and reuse• Decrease translation costs• Publish a higher volume of content

more efficiently

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Unique Needs

• Authoring environment preferences• Output format and publishing channel

targets• Audiences and content types• Formatting and style requirements• Staff sizes and roles represented within

the Technical Communications department

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Business unit perspectives

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Neuromodulation (the guinea pig)“Our investment in information architecture would have been wasted without

the investment in Vasont to manage the content.”

• First adopter• Maintains shared Vasont software for all BUs• Implemented CCMS at same time as overall

information architecture strategy• Challenge: Business case for adoption• Benefits: Optimized content reuse, decreased

translation costs, greater disclosure content control, flexibility for 10 years of content evolution

• Future plans: Previews, new output formats

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Neuromodulation DiabetesSurgical

Navigation Systems

Spinal

Authoring Tools

Audience CliniciansPatients

Content Types

IFUsPatient Guides

Package InsertsInstructions

Publishing Output

Print PDFWeb PDF

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Diabetes (the trailblazer)“We maintain many different ‘flavors’ of content.”

• Primarily writes for a patient audience• PDF, software help files, web content• Effectivity tags and conditional extracts• Challenge: CCMS learning curve for new writers• Benefits: Faster content change rounds when

needed, increased style guide consistency, faster and less expensive translations

• Future plans: Oxygen, Acrolinx

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Navigation Systems

Spinal

Authoring Tools


PatientsClinicians

Content Types

IFUsPatient Guides


Patient GuidesSoftware Help

Publishing Output

Print PDFWeb PDF

Print PDFWeb PDF

HTML Help

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Surgical Navigation Systems (the traditionalist)“It’s an investment for the future.”

• Writes for a surgical staff audience• FrameMaker authoring, familiar tool for the

writers• Challenge: Learning to think in content

management terms (what to keep vs. rewrite)• Benefits: Software administration handled by

Neuro, reduced translation costs, minimal changes to authoring environment

• Future plans: Migrate more document types into Vasont

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Navigation Systems

Spinal

Authoring Tools


PatientsClinicians Surgical Staff

Content Types

IFUsPatient Guides



Package InsertsSoftware Guides

Publishing Output

Print PDFWeb PDF

Print PDFWeb PDF

HTML Help

Print PDFWeb PDF

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Spinal (the newbie)“There have been many ‘firsts’ with Vasont.”

• Adopted this past year• Limited space: 24" x 18" paper in product box• Need more author control of font sizes, spacing,

other formatting details• Challenge: Learning CCMS administrator setup and

new authoring environment at the same time• Benefits: Greater content consistency resulting in a

faster review process, translation savings, greater publishing control

• Future plans: Enjoy!23


Navigation Systems

Spinal

Authoring Tools


PatientsClinicians Surgical Staff Clinicians

Content Types

IFUsPatient Guides



Package InsertsSoftware Guides

IFUsPackage Inserts

Instructions

Publishing Output

Print PDFWeb PDF

Print PDFWeb PDF

HTML Help

Print PDFWeb PDF

Print PDFWeb PDF

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Bonus BU: Medtronic Translations“The Vasont groups are always ahead with tools and processes these days.”

• Internal translations group at Medtronic• As translation input requirements change, we’ve

been able to quickly change with them– graphic format changes, file name requirements,

modular xml delivery, full xml delivery, workflows• BUs have different translation languages,

publishing formats, style requirements, etc.• Yet we can create a standard English source

delivery process that works for all BUs, and ensures consistency for the translations group

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What to do, what not to do

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What to do when preparing for a CCMS implementation

• Build your requirements list• Prepare your content• Prepare your staff

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What not to do when preparing for a CCMS implementation

• Don’t stick with “the way you’ve always done it”

• Don’t train writers too far ahead • Don’t convert everything if you don’t need it• Don’t implement a CM strategy alone

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Medtronic’s partnership with Vasont Systems

“We bought more than just a tool.”

Neuromodulation2003

Diabetes2005

Surgical Navigation Systems

2008

Spinal2013

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Today we shared:

• Brief overview of Medtronic’s BUs• General benefits of a CCMS• Medtronic’s CCMS solution and timeline• Common goals and unique needs from the BUs• Perspectives from each BU• Tips: What to do and what not to do when

preparing for a CCMS implementation

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Questions?

Suzanne MescanVP Marketing, Vasont [email protected]

Nicole ZepperIT Business Systems [email protected]

Thank you!

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]