Position Paper on Value of Technical Publication in the Business Intelligence Industry

1. Position Paper on
Value of Technical Publications in
the Business Intelligence Industry
1
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2. 2
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3. Introduction
This paper presents the value and need for TWB - Leading Technical Documentation
quality Technical Publications in the growing
Business Intelligence (BI) industry, to market BI Outsourcing Company
products with a higher value proposition.
TWB is a leading technical communication
Technical publications created in BI industry outsourcing company that provides services in
include a wide variety of materials such as user technical documentation.
guides, white papers, datasheets, cheat
sheets, reference guides, installation manuals, TWB is the ideal choice for leading BI vendors. TWB
and product demos. helps customers with all their technical
documentation needs such as user guides,
These materials transfer information on administration guides, installation manuals, process
processes and procedures involved in using and workflow documentation, configuration
the latest BI applications and tools. documents and training materials.
In today’s business scenario, there is an TWB works closely with client teams located globally,
increased need for quick and decentralized and assists them in meeting their worldwide product
decision-making, and automation of business announcements and launch deadlines. TWB’s
processes to reduce costs and risks. With a documentation services enable customers launch
plethora of BI tools available today, the their products with world-class documentation.
company that uses most effective and
integrated BI tools will outdo its competitors in
“Knowledge is people, money, learning, flexibility
the market. It does not stop there. Accurate
and competitive advantage. Knowledge is more
and readily understandable documentation of
relevant to sustained business than capital or
such applications is critical to the effective and
labor. And yet knowledge remains the most
faster use of the products.
neglected asset of a business. TWB helps you
unlock and share your technical knowledge with
Almost all businesses, be it small or large; the world.”
depend heavily on BI for their business
success. Many BI vendors, both industry
leaders and new entrants, compete with one
another to bring new BI tools and applications
to market. These products require effective
documentation process in place for quick
release and for successful market
performance. Hence, outsourcing the
documentation needs will help these vendors in
reducing resource overhead and cost.
“TWB believes that the technology cannot exist
without being communicated effectively.”
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4. Business Intelligence Industry – Technical Publications
BI industry is one of the versatile industries catering
Challenges and Solutions
to almost all business sectors such as healthcare,
financials, retails, IT, etc. BI tools range from query
reporting and analysis and data mining to data
warehousing. Interestingly, today, 80% of an Some of the greatest documentation challenges
organization uses BI tools. most companies in the industry face today include:
 Timely availability of quality documents during
Use of BI Tools in an organization
product release
 Accurate, readily understandable
documentation
14% 4%  Documentation for global audience
Marketing
5% 18% Finance  Cost cutting in a multi-vendor business
Management environment
9%
Manufacturing
 Managing large volumes of documentation for
Supply Chain
7% HR & Quality
new product releases
21%
IT & CRM
22% Others
To address these challenges, TWB, with its long-
standing, impeccable record in handling Technical
Publication, provides the following solutions:
According to Gartner, Inc., in 2008, despite the
economic downturn, the global BI witnessed a
 Cost-effective knowledge documentation and
significant growth of 21.7% in the sales of BI
knowledge management
applications and performance management software.
The market value increased from $7.2 billion in 2007  Documentation in simple, plain, readily
to $8.8 billion in 2008. BI market is expected to be understandable English
$15 billion annually by 2010.  Simplified, multi-staged documentation and
review processes
 Goal-driven approach to ensure quality and
Gartner predicts: accuracy
 Single point of contact for all documentation
"Because of lack of information, processes, and needs
tools, through 2012, more than 35 percent of the
top 5,000 global companies will regularly fail to
make insightful decisions about significant Benefits
changes in their business and markets."
A leading BI vendor has drawn the following
"By 2012, business units will control at least 40 benefits through its association with TWB:
per cent of the total budget for business
intelligence."  Significant dollar savings
 High-quality, error-free documentation
"By 2012, one-third of analytic applications
 Maximized usability of documentation
applied to business processes will be delivered
 Quick product release
through coarse-grained application mashups."
This expected market scenario will pave way for
increased number of BI software and applications,
bringing about a fierce competition among BI
vendors. Effective, accurate, and readily-
understandable documentation of the BI tools will
determine the market performance of as the Indian
This spending will further increaseBI vendors.
Defence Industry is determined to increase tOnline
Help
tion of private investors.
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Presently more than 5,000 Indian
companies are suGraphics/Animation

5. Value of Technical Publications
Technical Communication for Communication for Different Levels of
Transferring Product Knowledge Technical and Product Knowledge
The purpose of technical communication is to transfer In technical publications, audience is the focal
product knowledge to end users in a comprehensible point. Hence, the style, language, and content must
manner. The strategies of communication and levels vary depending on the type of audience being
of information vary depending on the type of product addressed. It is because every user has a specific
and audience. role in the implementation and usage of the
technology. Therefore, it is important that
documents be created keeping in mind the role of
Providing end users with information about a
the person who will use the document.
product’s operation and maintenance is critical to the
market performance of the product. Hence, the need
for quality documentation is imperative. For example, when you document a software
application designed for highly technical users, it is
sufficient to provide the users with quick reference
In today’s business scenario, technical publications
information to use the application.
are often developed as an afterthought. This usually
results in inaccurate and incomprehensible
documentation, which, in turn, renders the users For users who start without technical or product
incapable of using the products. knowledge, it is important to provide detailed
product information along with instructions on how
to use the product.
Accurate, readily understandable, and quality
documents determine how a product sells in the
market and result in increased customer satisfaction. Attractive Publications as Useful
Marketing Tools
Faulty Assumptions that Result in
Problems in Documentation Besides transferring knowledge, technical
publications are also used for marketing a product.
Before a product is released in the market,
The faulty assumptions listed below result in information about the product needs to be
incomprehensible documents: effectively communicated to the customers.
 Developers know their products better than Well-designed, accurately presented, and attractive
anyone else – due to time constraints and limited marketing collaterals increase the market prospects
resources, many companies assign their of a product and reduce support costs.
documentation tasks to the programmers. This
more often results in the creation of technology-
centered information, while end users require
task-oriented information.
 Documentation of complex applications requires a
longer learning curve for the writer - learning the
product will not be a major obstacle for writers
with the right technical background.
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6. Conclusion
Technical Publication for transferring
 Price Competitive Growth in the BI Industry: Growth of BI vendor relies heavily on the accurate, timely,
Product knowledge
and cost-effective documentation process. The BI vendors portray a global presence and need technical
ra publications that can be used in different geographies. Marketing BI products require supportive business
collaterals and product documentation for global audience.
 Value of Technical Publications: Technical Publications are very essential for transferring product
knowledge to the end users. Provisioning of proper material to use the technology and products enables the
user to accept and efficiently use the product. Faulty assumptions about documentation lead to inaccurate
and hard-to-understand material. This also decreases the chances of marketing the products in the global
markets.
 Role of Documentation Outsourcing: The complexity involved in implementing BI applications requires that
BI vendors consider outsourcing the documentation needs to well-established Technical Publications
Solutions providers. This helps the companies cut costs and at the same time deliver their products with
quality documents.
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7. TWB Services
TWB is India’s leader in technical communication outsourcing and education. TWB offers a complete suite of services that allows
our customers to effectively publish their technical knowledge with their people and processes. TWB’s customers range from
Global 500 – including Cisco, Accenture, McAfee, LG, Samsung, Citrix, SAP, Siemens, AOL, Intel; Indian technology majors –
including Infosys, Wipro; Global defense majors - Pratt & Whitney, Honeywell, DRDO, HAL; and exciting technology startups.
TWB's expertise in technical communication ranges from IT Products and Outsourcing, ITES, Banking, Financial, Aerospace,
Defense, Ship Building to Hi-tech Manufacturing, and Discrete and Process Manufacturing.
TWB’s services include:
Technical Marketing Technical Product Documentation Quality
Solutions Documentation Management
 Datasheets
 Datasheets  Administrator’s Guide
 API Document  Copy Editing and Proof Reading
 Cheat sheets
 Configuration Guide  Managing Writing
 Solution Briefs/Solution Brochures
 Functional Specifications Document  Editing Services
 Presentations –
Products/Corporate Profile  Installation Manual  Layout and Design
 Brochures and marketing collateral  Interface Document  Creating SLAs
 Web content  Interactive Electronic Technical
 Audio and video scripts Manual (IETM) Business Documentation
 Press releases  Maintenance Manual
 Business Proposals
 Direct mail  Online Help
 Legal Disclaimers
 Newsletter design copy  Operation Manual
 Policy Manuals
 Sales catalogues  Product Demo
 Style Guide Design
 Sales sheets  Product Specifications Document
 Template Design
 Product Overview Document
Business Communication  Quick Reference Guide
 Release Notes Content Management
 Short Reports  Requirement Analysis Document
 Proposals  SDK Document  Single Sourcing
 Case Studies  Troubleshooting Manual  File Version Control
 Lab Reports  User Manual  Document Naming Conventions
 Memos  Open Source Documentation  Consistent Document Formatting
 Progress/Interim Reports  Programmers Guides  Data Transformation
 Writing for Electronic Media  Functional Specifications Document
 Use Cases Web site Development
Illustrations  Online Help /Context Sensitive Help
 Troubleshooting Guides  Web 2.0 development
 Graphic Designing  Web content

 Info graphics  Web applications
 2D & 3D animation Qualitative Analytics for
 Line drawings and illustrations Decision Support Translation and Localization
Services
Process Documentation  Economic Business Research
 Industry Analysis  Software Translation Services
 Workflows  Market Opportunity Analysis  Document Translation Services
 Standard Operating Procedures  Competitive Business Analysis  Localization (L10N) Testing
 ISO Documentation  Company & Prospect Profiling  Internationalization (I18N) Testing
 CMM Documentation  Reporting Solutions
 Assessment of Unmet Market Needs
Deployment and Support  Status and Potential of Technologies
 Benchmarking of Strategies Vs  Document Management Solutions
 Installation and Configuration Competition  Record Management Storage and
Guides  Forecasting Retrieval
 Operations Manual  Sales Force Effectiveness
 Market Assessments
 Competitive Intelligence
 Opinion Leadership
 Emerging Markets - evaluation and
research
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8. TWB Software Tools Expertise
Our technical proficiency in software and authoring tools includes:
Unstructured Content XML Structured Editors Multimedia/Authoring
Development
 Epic  Adobe Flash®
 Microsoft Word®  FrameMaker+SGML  Adobe Dreamweaver®
 Adobe FrameMaker®  X-Metal®  Microsoft FrontPage®
 Adobe InDesign®  Adobe Captivate®
 QuarkXPress® Macromedia Captivate
 Adobe PageMaker® Graphics/Animations
 Multimedia/Authoring/
Illustrations  Adobe Flash® Supporting tools
 Adobe Photoshop®
 Adobe Flash CS4 Professional  Adobe Fireworks®  Adobe Flash®
 Adobe Illustrator CS3  Adobe Flex®
 CorelDRAW  Adobe AIR®
 Microsoft-Expression Graphic Online Help  Adobe Dreamweaver®
Designer  Adobe Acrobat®
 Xara Xtreme (Windows & Linux)  JavaHelp  Microsoft Silverlight®
 CuteDraw  Adobe RoboHelp 7.0  Adobe Authorware®
 Publisher3D(for animation)  HelpScribble  Adobe Director®
 Sketsa SVG Editor (for vector  WebWorks Publisher  Adobe Captivate®
graphics)  PowerCHM  Trivantis Lectora®
 Techsmith Camtasia  Doc-To-Help  ASP.NET
 Adobe Flash CS4 Professional  WinCHM  JSP
 Arbortext IsoDraw (technical  HelpSmith 2.1.1(Windows)  JAVA
illustrations for 2D and 3D)  Fast-Help
 MadCap Flare Standards
Graphics/Animation  Help-Server
 NVU Help  SCORM 1.2 / 2004
 Adobe Flash®  AICC
 Adobe Photoshop®
XML
 W3C
 Adobe Illustrator®  Section 508
 Adobe Fireworks®  XMetal®  QTI XML
 Microsoft Silverlight®  Microsoft Word 2003®,
 Microsoft Word 2007®
Databases Development and Publishing
tools
CMS/ LMS
 Microsoft Access  XSLT/XSL
 Microsoft SQL Server  EDD
 Sharepoint®
 Moodle
Flowcharting  Joomla,
 WordPress
 Microsoft Visio  Media Wiki
 iGrafx  CMS Builder
 EDraw  Author-it (formerly AuthorIT)
 RFFlow  Alfresco
 Flowbreeze
 Smart Draw
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9. Business
 Datasheets
Communic
Administra
ation
tor’s
Industries Served
GuideSoft
waSingle
SourcSCop
y Editing
Datasheets services a wide range of technology and knowledge driven industries, helping them meet their markets better, these include:
TWB
Cheat
sheets  Banking, Insurance and Financial Services  ITES/ KPO/ BPO
Solution  Consulting and Business Services  Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology
 Defense, Aerospace and Hi-Tech Manufacturing  Process Manufacturing and Allied Industries
Briefs/Solu
 Education and Learning  Steel, Ship Building, Construction and Aviation
tion  IT, ITES  Telecom and Digital Communications
Brochures
Presentatio has been the preferred technical documentation outsourcing company for:
TWB
ns –
Products/C
orporate
Profile
Brochures
and
marketing
collateral
Web
content
Audio and
video
scripts
Press
releases
Direct mail
Newsletter
design
copy
Sales
catalogues
Sales
sheets
ct
Specificati
ons The TWB Building US Office:
No: 4062, 19th Main Road, TWB
Document
HAL 2nd Stage, 11701 Norwegian Wood Drive
Product Bangalore – 560008 Austin, TX 78758
Overview India.
Document Landmark: Behind Carlton Towers
Quick
Reference Telephone: Telephone:
Guide +91.80.40741400 / +1.512.586.8357
Release +91.80.41256367
Notes
Corporate Enquiries:
Requireme corp@twb.in
nt Analysis
Document
SDK
Document
Troublesho
oting
ManualThe Writers Block www.twb.in 7 7
User
Manual