Creating a Hybrid Approach to Legacy Conversion
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DCL provides document conversion services using a hybrid approach. They blend years of experience with cutting-edge technology and infrastructure to make the conversion process easy and efficient for clients in various industries. DCL summarized several case studies of their work, including converting a large scientific journal collection, converting training materials for a technology company, and auditing converted documents for an engineering company supplying the US Air Force. They recommend clients consider which parts of the conversion process are their core business and which risks they want to take on to determine the best option of outsourcing, insourcing, or partnering for document conversion needs.
Creating a Hybrid Approach to Legacy Conversion
- 1. Mark Gross, Founder and CEO, Data Conversion Laboratory Creating a Hybrid Approach to Legacy Conversion 16 May, 2014
- 2. Valuable Content Transformed • Document Digitization • XML and HTML Conversion • eBook Production • Hosted Solutions • Big Data Automation • Conversion Management • Editorial Services • Harmonizer
- 3. Experience the DCL Difference DCL blends years of conversion experience with cutting-edge technology and the infrastructure to make the process easy and efficient. • World-Class Services • Leading-Edge Technology • Unparalleled Infrastructure • US-Based Management • Complex-Content Expertise • 24/7 Online Project Tracking • Automated Quality Control • Global Capabilities
- 4. We Serve a Very Broad Client Base . . .
- 5. . . . Spanning All Industries • Aerospace • Associations • Defense • Distribution • Education • Financial • Government • Libraries • Life Sciences • Manufacturing • Medical • Museums • Periodicals • Professional • Publishing • Reference • Research • Societies • Software • STM • Technology • Telecommunications • Universities • Utilities
- 6. Conversion Setup Components Conversion Production Components Inventory & Assessment Reuse Analysis Document Analysis Conversion Specification Architecture Design & Configuration Design & Develop Conversion SW Design & Develop Automation & Workflow SW Conversion SW Testing Training Organizing Content for Conversion Hosting & Running Conversion SW Hosting & Running Automation & Workflow SW Scanning & OCR Image Processing Proofreading Pre-Conversion Document Preparation Conversion Parse/View Quality Control Reporting, Audit & Reconciliation What Does a Conversion Project Look Like?
- 7. • Identify materials that are candidates for conversion • Assess the material’s importance, how it might be used • Classify and prioritize Conversion Setup Components in Detail Inventory & Assessment Reuse Analysis Document Analysis • Analyze documents to identify potentially redundant materials • Normalize documents to maximize reusability • Evaluate document sources to determine the relative ease & accuracy of content extraction • Identify metadata sources • Identify the types of information in the documents and the appropriate level of tagging • Identify processes for various materials • Identify a suitable DTD or Schema
- 8. • Detailed analysis of documents by type • Review enough documents to understand the potential variations • Develop tagging instructions • Prepare specification Conversion Setup Components in Detail (cont’d) Conversion Specification Architecture Design & Configuration Design & Develop Conversion SW • Load balancing • Capacity requirements • Hardware requirements • Identify conversion SW requirement • Evaluate tools • Identify manual conversion needs • Develop or modify conversion software per conversion specification
- 9. • Identify the various steps and plan a workflow • Evaluate control and QA mechanisms that will be needed • Design workflow process to route documents appropriately Conversion Setup Components in Detail (cont’d) Design & Develop Automation & Workflow SW Conversion Software Testing Training • Prepare a test plan • Develop a document test baseline • Create process to test documents coming through conversion flow • Create process for: − random testing − testing new material types − software changes • XML training • Company standards training • How to write for XML
- 10. • Pulling content together from the various locations • Delivering to the processing group • Logging content into the workflow system Conversion Production Components in Detail Organizing Content for Conversion Hosting & Running Conversion SW Hosting & Running Automation & Workflow SW • Maintaining facility to run software and keep it updated • Monitor performance and operations • Sample materials on a continual basis • Maintain facility to route materials between software and manual operations • Monitor performance and keep software and process updated
- 11. • Paper preparation • Scanning & zoning • OCR processing Conversion Production Components in Detail (cont’d) Scanning & OCR Image Processing Proofreading • Image extraction • Resizing and image correction • Image conversion • Proofread to required level of accuracy • How much can automation do?
- 12. • Export text to normalized form • Automated & Manual pre-tagging • Pre-conversion review • Styling QC • SME (subject matter expert) support Conversion Production Components in Detail (cont’d) Pre-Conversion Document Preparation Conversion Parse/View • Automated conversion • Tagged output • Parse document • Review error logs and correct until validated • Render document for viewing with images • View document and correct errors • Image review
- 13. • Execute test plans • Automated and Manual QC • Fix errors or provide feedback • Random sampling • Continuous improvement Conversion Production Components in Detail (cont’d) Quality Control Reporting, Audit and Reconciliation • Management reporting • Process monitoring • Exception reporting • Audit and reconciliation of production throughput
- 14. • Consultant/Strategist • Architecture Developer/Specialization Expert • Trainers • XML/Content Experts • Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) • Project/Program Management • Conversion Operators • Production Tracking • Software Developers • Filter Developers • IT • QA Experts • Editors/Writers/Authors Various Skills You May Need on Board
- 15. Consider Your Options … • Outsource it all • Convert in-house • Partner with an expert • All of the above
- 16. Case Study 1: Converting a Large Content Repository • Client Situation - Build a database of scientific journals – 750,000 pages spanning almost 100 years - Complex materials with lots of math, tables, and images - Multiple formats and types needed to be normalized to a manageable database to produce new products, and support future products not yet conceived - The organization wanted to keep its limited personnel resources focused on their expertise • Approach - Flexibility - The size and breadth of the collection made it impractical to develop full specifications in advance. - Develop an overall specification, with allowance for change as new scenarios are discovered − Software development sprints to incorporate changes − Close collaboration between vendor and client to manage new situations − The organization leveraged it’s knowledge of its materials to identify potential problems in advance, sequence the materials, actively review materials as they got produced − Frequent review meetings to assess nuances in new materials as they came up • Results − This was a three year project to be completed this summer − On schedule and on budget, with several new products already developed and out on the market − The close collaboration and involvement of the client shaved 6-8 months off the project schedule, and created a product that all goals.
- 17. Case Study 1: Project Components Breakdown Conversion Production ComponentsConversion Setup Components Inventory & Assessment Reuse Analysis Document Analysis Conversion Specification Architecture Design & Configuration Design & Develop Conversion SW Design & Develop Automation & Workflow SW Conversion SW Testing Training Organizing Content for Conversion Hosting & Running Conversion SW Hosting & Running Automation & Workflow SW Scanning & OCR Image Processing Proofreading Pre-Conversion Document Preparation Conversion Parse/View Quality Control Reporting, Audit & Reconciliation Client DCL Specialty Provider Shared Responsibility
- 18. Case Study 2: International Technology Hardware and Software Company • Client Situation - Company has developed many thousands of hours of instructional materials it wants to centralize and convert to XML using a SCORM-based Schema - Materials included slides, video and taped lectures, written materials in various forms - Goal was to identify the re-usable assets and to normalize these materials so that this library of reusable assets can be reused for training its own engineers and other personnel - Some materials would be offered for external training - The materials were very specialized and subject matter expertise (SME) input was needed to review all materials • Approach - DCL integrated as part of the client’s team - DCL prepared transcripts of all oral materials with timings keyed to PowerPoint Slides - DCL copyedited transcripts and PowerPoint slides and normalized style for both - Client provided SME and legal review of transcripts - Client re-recorded any needed voice-overs - Client created Flash format for web publishing - DCL created integrated XML products for loading into the client educational database • Results - Full integration of client and DCL teams allowed for a rapid ramp to produce pilot and move into larger production - Client was able to use it’s own personnel who knew the product well for SME support - The client also contracted with another engineering company to provide additional SME support for those products that could be supported by outside engineers
- 19. Conversion Production ComponentsConversion Setup Components Inventory & Assessment Reuse Analysis Document Analysis Conversion Specification Architecture Design & Configuration Design & Develop Conversion SW Design & Develop Automation & Workflow SW Conversion SW Testing Training Organizing Content for Conversion Hosting & Running Conversion SW Hosting & Running Automation & Workflow SW Scanning & OCR Image Processing Proofreading Pre-Conversion Document Preparation Conversion Parse/View Quality Control Reporting, Audit & Reconciliation Client DCL Specialty Provider Case Study 2: Project Components Breakdown Shared Responsibility
- 20. Case Study 3: Engineering Company Supplying the US Air Force • Client Situation - Material were to be converted from SGML and delivered in S1000D - Company had created a fully automated conversion; Air Force wanted an independent audit of the converted documents • Approach - Client had developed the conversion specified, and converted the documents to S1000D - DCL to validated that the final XML met S1000D requirements - DCL developed a conversion plan and tools to perform the audit - DCL performed both automated and manual analysis and review of the conversion processes and converted documents checking for inventory accuracy, tagging accuracy, and text accuracy of tags and tag values - DCL performed 100% audit of all materials and reported results, along with suggestions to the client and to the Air Force • Results - Client was able to utilize DCL’s S1000D expertise and take advantage of DCL’s automated audit and QA tools - The client produced a better product as a result of feedback DCL was able to provide - Air Force received a fully audited document set that satisfied their independent review requirement
- 21. Case Study 3: Project Components Breakdown Conversion Production ComponentsConversion Setup Components Inventory & Assessment Reuse Analysis Document Analysis Conversion Specification Architecture Design & Configuration Design & Develop Conversion SW Design & Develop Automation & Workflow SW Conversion SW Testing Training Organizing Content for Conversion Hosting & Running Conversion SW Hosting & Running Automation & Workflow SW Scanning & OCR Image Processing Proofreading Pre-Conversion Document Preparation Conversion Parse/View Quality Control Reporting, Audit & Reconciliation Client DCL Specialty Provider Shared Responsibility
- 22. Case Study 4: Large Journal Publisher with Facilities in China and India • Client Situation - Ongoing publishing operations with good understanding of its work flow and requirements - Growing very quickly and needing to ramp up its capacity to convert author-written articles from Word and PDF into XML - Has in-place facilities in China to handle process management and labor-intensive tasks - Had been building its own software capability, but it was taking longer than expected - Wanted to take advantage of DCL’s infrastructure for conversion and workflow while maintaining it’s own facilities for the human processing tasks • Approach - DCL configured it’s workflow and conversion software to the client’s requirements - But instead of using DCL’s facilities, all preliminary work, and all manual work was routed by the workflow system directly to the clients facility. • Results - Process made use of DCL’s existing infrastructure and software which were quickly reconfigured to the client’s specification, and able to improve the automation of its process quickly and at lower cost - Client was able to take advantage of the efficient facilities and infrastructure it had put into place - DCL would monitor software and provide enhancements and updates as needed - DCL would provide backup capability for overflow surges
- 23. Case Study 4: Project Components Breakdown Conversion Production ComponentsConversion Setup Components Inventory & Assessment Reuse Analysis Document Analysis Conversion Specification Architecture Design & Configuration Design & Develop Conversion SW Design & Develop Automation & Workflow SW Conversion SW Testing Training Organizing Content for Conversion Hosting & Running Conversion SW Hosting & Running Automation & Workflow SW Scanning & OCR Image Processing Proofreading Pre-Conversion Document Preparation Conversion Parse/View Quality Control Reporting, Audit & Reconciliation Client DCL Specialty Provider Shared Responsibility
- 24. The Model That Maximizes Results and Minimizes Risk is Best for Your Organization • Which parts of the process are your core business? • Will this be a permanent process, or a limited time project? • Do you have the needed in-house expertise? • Do you want to build the staff and infrastructure? • What are the risks? • What combination will be best for your business? Ask yourself these questions to help make the determination ... … the good news – it’s not “one size fits all” anymore “You don’t have to go it alone.”
- 25. Q&A Mark Gross Founder and CEO, Data Conversion Laboratory (718) 307-5711 Mgross@dclab.com