Understanding and Communicating the Financial Impact of XML & DITA
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The document discusses the financial implications of using XML and DITA for managing content in a global market. It outlines a four-step approach to building a case for adopting DITA, focusing on choosing the right information model, understanding translation workflows, calculating ROI, and selecting technology partners. Case studies illustrate significant cost savings and efficiency improvements through DITA's modular content structure and translation strategies.
Understanding and Communicating the Financial Impact of XML & DITA
- 1. Understanding and Communicating the Financial Impact of XML & DITA Amber Swope October 19, 2007
- 2. Introduction Amber Swope Principal Consultant, JustSystems, Inc. 18+ years of experience in the industry at multiple companies of varying sizes and industries Supported information developers producing DITA content in Rational group at IBM Author of numerous papers/presentations on information development and information architecture
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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:
- 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
- 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
- 10. * Organizations save 40-70% or more in documentation and localization costs Step One: Choose and Evangelize your Information Model
- 11. 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 Step One: Choose and Evangelize your Information Model
- 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
- 14. 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 Step Two: Translate Impact of the Right Translation Workflow
- 15. Step Two: Translate 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 Several thousand dollars to proof & match topics that have not changed 75 topics for translation Since 125 are easily reused, costs reduced by over 60%
- 16. Step Two: Translate Impact of the Right Translation Workflow Savings at Every Step: Global Content Creation with DITA
- 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
- 19. Step Three: Calculate Measurable ROI
- 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
- 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
- 22. Step Three: Calculate Measurable ROI Now consider: 10 documents delivered in 10 languages Annual savings of $500,000 on just one documentation set Under Old Method With DITA strategy and TM Annual Translation costs $600,000 (10 documents x 10 languages x $6,000 per language) Annual Translation costs $100,000 (10 documents x 10 languages x $1000 per language)
- 24. Step Four: Select Technology Partners Who Facilitate ROI Unified content development environment (UCDE) contains multiple applications Applications must integrate to provide seamless workflow
- 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
- 26. Step Four: Content Storage CMS – workflow and metadata support (aids in reuse) Source Control – file integrity support
- 27. Step Four: Content Publishing Generates DITA topics into deliverables Server and desktop support
- 28. Step Four: Content Translation Manages translation workflow Manages translation memory (TM)
- 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
- 30. Resources http:// tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/dita -users http:// dita.xml.org http:// na.justsystems.com White papers Webinars Flash demonstrations