The document discusses four case studies of companies that were able to free up budget for new initiatives by first making adjustments to improve existing processes. In Case Study 1, a company decreased localization expenses by 50% by supplying structured content files instead of binary files. In Case Study 2, a company reduced programming costs by migrating to DITA and uploading directly to their content management system. Case Study 3 details how asking for one month to standardize style usage resulted in long-term consistency. Case Study 4 discusses taking a long view of documentation to address holes in the system and improve formatting over 1.5 years. The takeaways are to look for largest budget items to target for improvements and ensure initial projects aimed at fixing leaks have

1. @mattrsullivan | matt@mattrsullivan.com
F O U N D E R , T E C H C O M M T O O L S
Matt Sullivan
Bootstrapping
your initiatives

2. Question:
What’s the easiest way
to get budget for your
initiatives

3. It’s always easier to play with
“house money”

4. Case Study 1:
I want what he’s got!

5. GOAL:
Create enough space in
localization budget to fund
improvements in structured
documentation model

6. Nonconforming content
Inline formatting resulting in:
Localization of binary files,
instead of XML, resulting in
- 4x increase in content to localize
What they had

7. Made adjustments to content model
and related controls in the
environment
Educated authors on proper editing
technique
Started supplying structured files
(content only) for localization
What we did

8. About 30% increase in productivity
About 50% decrease in localization
expense
And…
What they got
after pilot

9. Enough street cred to further improve
system and drive down expenses

10. Case Study 2:
The whole enchilada

11. GOAL:
Proof of concept for migration
to DITA and upload of DITA to
Adobe Experience Manager

12. Unstructured content in CMS
Exported to generic XML
Painfully transformed to compliant XML
Mired in custom programming and post
processing of content
- Processing of graphic icons alone was
killing production cycle
Loaded to ECM
(Enterprise content management system)
What they had

13. Proposed blueprint project
- Start conversion
- Start templates
- Train on structured authoring
BONUS:
Recognized duplication of
programming effort
Technique

14. Retention of current CMS for version
control
Direct editing of XML (DITA)
Direct upload to AEM ECM
(Enterprise content
management system)
- Web content
- Localization (machine translation)
- PDF
What they got
after pilot

15. Case Study 3:
Winning the jackpot

16. What they had

17. Followed
by this

18. And this…

19. GOAL:
Employee retention and
workflow simplification

20. Asked for 1 month to produce results
Whittled style usage from 350+ tags
to 30-ish tags
Imposed corporate branding
procedures across all divisions
Result: A dozen years later, the same
base template is still in place, with
consistency across documentation
Technique

21. Case Study #4
To spin,
or not to spin

22. Background

23. What they had

24. And this guy

25. Until they didn’t

26. GOAL:
Maintain updates to book and
improve branding, consistency,
and organization

27. Took the long view of their docs, and
addressed the holes in the system
Worked weekly with manager to
- Create consistency
- Convert docs to new format
Technique

28. 1.5 years later

29. Total project cost was equivalent to
previous editor’s salary
Director of education was editing all
16 manuals simultaneously
Formatting and organization greatly
improved
Upon completion of project,
45 hours for editor
+ 10 hours for director
5 hours for director
Net gains

30. Look at your largest budget items to identify
candidates for
Identify the leaks in the current system
Pitch (smaller) projects to fix the leaks, where
savings will serve to fund larger initiatives
Make sure that both the initial and the
follow-up projects have clear and defined goals
that align with management objectives
Takeaways

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