Financial ImpactUnderstanding and Communicating the Financial Impact of XML and DITA

Slide 2: 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.

Slide 3: 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.

Slide 4: Polling How many languages do you translate your content into? • Only use 1 language • 2 – 5 languages • 6 – 10 languages • 11 – 20 languages • 21 – 30 languages • 31+ languages © 2007 JustSystems Inc.

Slide 5: The Ripple Effect How 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 support sales, marketing and service activities © 2007 JustSystems Inc.

Slide 6: The Ripple Effect How Global Targets Inflate Content Volume • Adapting to a much larger mandate also requires the need to understand and communicate the implications, limitations and suitability of: © 2007 JustSystems Inc.

Slide 8: 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.

Slide 9: Step One: Choose and Evangelize your Information Model DITA: Darwin Information Typing Architecture • XML-based technology foundation that controls and manages creation, translation, workflow, and publishing of 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.

Slide 11: Step One: Choose and Evangelize your Information Model Example: • A manufacturing company recently adopted DITA after a global expansion required translation to 14 new languages • During pilot project (which encompassed just one set of documentation), the company measured savings of more than $225,000 within the first three months • Today the company produces dozens of documentation sets in more than 20 languages © 2007 JustSystems Inc.

Slide 13: 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.

Slide 14: Step Two: Determine Impact of the Right Translation Workflow • Traditionally, TM tools send entire documents through translation process – including already translated content • Also need to find best point to translate along the content lifecycle – If too early: Waste – If too late: Jeopardize deadlines • BUT – When topic-by-topic vs. whole documents: DITA introduces Flexibility © 2007 JustSystems Inc.

Slide 15: Step Two: Determine Impact of the Right Translation Workflow Consider the following scenario: Product Guide 125 pre-existing topics + 75 new topics = 200 topics Without DITA With DITA 200 topics for translation 75 topics for translation Several thousand dollars to Since 125 are easily reused, proof & match topics that have costs reduced by over 60% not changed © 2007 JustSystems Inc.

Slide 18: 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.

Slide 20: 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.

Slide 21: 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.

Slide 22: Step Three: Calculate Measurable ROI Now consider: 10 documents delivered in 10 languages Under Old Method With DITA strategy and TM Annual Translation costs Annual Translation costs $600,000 $100,000 (10 documents x 10 languages x (10 documents x 10 languages x $6,000 per language) $1000 per language) • Annual savings of $500,000 on just one documentation set © 2007 JustSystems Inc.

Slide 24: Step Four: Select Technology Partners Who Facilitate ROI • Unified content development environment (UCDE) contains multiple applications • Applications must integrate to provide seamless workflow © 2007 JustSystems Inc.

Slide 25: 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.

Slide 29: Summary • Understand how translation affects content 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.

Slide 30: 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 © 2007 JustSystems Inc.

Slideshare.net (beta)