1. LavaCon 2012
Mark Lewis
Quark

2. Content Strategist, DITA Educator at Quark
STC Summit 2012 – 2013 Track Manager
– Content Strategy and Design
Past Co-Chair:
Oasis DITA for the Web SC
Manager:
DITA Metrics group on Linked In

3. DITA 101 2nd edition
“Fundamentals of DITA for
Authors and Managers”
By the Rockley Group
with Mark Lewis
 For sale at LuLu.com

4. Managing Enterprise Content: A
Unified Content Strategy
2nd edition
By Ann Rockley
& Charles Cooper
 For sale at Amazon.com

5. DITA Metrics 101
Published by
The Rockley Group
 DITAMetrics101.com

6. Do you have
a strategy?
LavaCon 2012
Mark Lewis
Quark

7. Details

8. Agenda Emphasis on
XML
 Reasons to move to XML
 Quark’s content goals
content
 Brief definition of content strategy reuse
 Prove support corporate goals
Aligning CS
& CG

9. Reasons for moving to XML
 Translate
 No formatting
 Multiple formats
 No proprietary word proc or page layout
 Duplicate content

10. Quark – In.vision Research –
Quark Xpress XML Author
 Reduce cost  Reduce cost
 Formatting  Reuse content
 Translation  Increase quality
 Increase quality  Showcase / Dogfood / Kool-Aid
 Streamline the process
Different content goals ,
but same corp goal reduce cost

11. Kristina Halvorson and Melissa Rach
Content Strategy for the Web 2ed
Content strategy "Defines how you’re going to
use content to meet your business (or project)
goals and satisfy your users’ needs.“
"In summary: Content strategy guides your plans
for the creation, delivery, and governance of
content.“
"This defines how an organization (or project)
will use content to achieve its objectives and
meet its user needs." Halvorson, Kristina; Rach, Melissa (2012-02-10). Content
Strategy for the Web, 2nd Edition (Kindle Locations 524-
525). Pearson Education (US). Kindle Edition.

12. Handout
Main categories:
Increase revenue
Reduce costs
Process improvement and automation
Risk mitigation

13. Reduce costs
Reduce development cost Shown CS to
Reduce translation cost Exec
Reduce call center cost
Reduce product returns
Process improvement and automation
Reuse of honed processes Did you
know corp
Risk mitigation goals?
Increase quality
Improve governance
Stories?
Minimize branding damage
Resistance?

14. Increase revenue
Sales team
Improve prospect engagement
More accurate information
Faster and easier access to information
Reduce learning time
Shorten sales cycles Smartphone
catchup
Reduce time to market
For local products
For translated products All
Improve branding

15. Increase revenue
Product enhancement Product line expansion
Reuse processes
Increase customer satisfaction Reuse existing content
Increase quality More languages and cultures
Better access to content
Call center improvement
Improved resources
Reduced response time
Reduced volume
Increase customer retention
More up-to-date information
Prospects read content when:
buying, learning, installing, using

16. Do “user needs” map to corporate
goals?
Make sure you and the executive agree
what “user’s needs” mean.

17. Kristina Halvorson
Content Strategy for the Web 2ed
Content strategy "Defines how you’re going to
use content to meet your business (or project)
goals and satisfy your users’ needs.“
"In summary: Content strategy guides your plans
for the creation, delivery, and governance of
content.“
"This defines how an organization (or project)
will use content to achieve its objectives and
meet its user needs." Halvorson, Kristina; Rach, Melissa (2012-02-10). Content
Strategy for the Web, 2nd Edition (Kindle Locations 524-
525). Pearson Education (US). Kindle Edition.

18. Increase revenue
Product enhancement Product line expansion
Reuse processes
Increase customer satisfaction Reuse existing content
Increase quality More languages and cultures
Better access to content Emphasis on
More up-to-date information
Call center improvement Mobile,
Improved resources My Content
Reduced response time
Reduced volume
Increase customer retention User Needs
Prospects read content when: maps, but
buying, learning, installing, using show exec
which u
satisfy

19. Message to Exec was not in terms of
executive goals, which resulted in…
“Why would I want to spend a bunch of
money, just to make my tech writers’
lives easier?”

20.  Does exec know what you are
doing?
 Does exec know you are supporting
corporate goals?
 You must speak the executive
language
 Know the exec’s goals so you can
present the right metrics
 Quote: Run your
projects/department like a
business

21. My savings trends and ROI data that I could use to
communicate with an executive and prove that I
am supporting corporate goals.

22. Quark – In.vision Research –
Quark Xpress XML Author
 Reduce cost  Reduce cost
 Formatting  Reuse content
 Translation  Increase quality
 Increase quality  Showcase / Dogfood / Kool-Aid
 Streamline the process

23. Corporate Goal
Supporting Metric
reduce development cost
reuse content
eliminate formatting costs
eliminate desktop publishing costs
reduced translation cost
reuse (already translated) content
reduced time to market
topic level
project level
reduced time to market for translated products
project level

24. Reduce development cost
Reuse content

25. Reduce development cost
Eliminate formatting costs

26. Reduce development cost
Eliminate desktop publishing costs

27. Reduce development cost
Reduced translation costs
TMS
Already XLAT
sentences

28. Reduce development cost
Reduced time to market –
topic level
Family of
similar
products

29. Project-level Reduced time to market
Without
Reuse
With
Reuse

30. Translated
Products Reduced time to market
Without
Reuse
With
Reuse

31. Where are you in the content
lifecycle?
Thinking about XML?
Implementing XML?
Doing XML?

32. Prediction Actual
Development
Requirements Maintenance
Design
Implementation
Time

33. Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: The
Transformation from Technical Publications
to Information Experience
by
Paul Perrotta
Ben Jackson
Juniper Networks

34. Summary
 “Run your business like a business”
 What are the corporate goals
 What content metrics prove your
support of those corporate goals
 Synthesize the metrics you need to
prove your support of the business
plan
 Summarize: Of your executive list,
here’s what we CAN do with
current resources

35. Thank You
Mark Lewis
mlewis@quark.com