Structured authoring isn't just about cutting costs, but also a way to increase revenue. Using Adobe FrameMaker 12 correctly means you can improve the support documentation you create, target your reader, deliver it to multiple audiences, and ensure content is viewable on whatever device they happen to use. The great news is that this can be done without significant increases in spending. We've all heard the talk about 'cut/cut/cut/cut/cut'. Let's talk about growing business, increasing profits, and providing a great return on investment. A mix of 'how to' and 'here is what others have done'—this session explores ways to create documentation that puts your products and services on the map, and front-of-mind for users.

1. Suggestions to help doc teams stop
cutting budgets and start generating
profits
Bernard Aschwanden
www.publishingsmarter.com
for a print version, please email
bernard@publishingsmarter.com
Structure Your Way to
Revenue Growth
02:37
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@publishsmarter

2. About this session
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 Don’t overly focus on cutting costs; increase revenue
 Improve support docs and target your reader
 Deliver it to multiple audiences
 Ensure content is viewable on multiple devices
 This can be done without significant increases in spending
 Instead of cuts, let’s talk about
 Business growth
 Increased profits
 Great ROI
 A mix of 'how to' and 'here is what others have done'
 Explore ways to create documentation, put products and
services on the map and front-of-mind for customers

3. Thanks to Adobe
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 Delivered as part of Adobe Day at STC Summit 2014
 Adobe is a long-term sponsor of STC
 Has helped to shape the industry
 Tools like Technical Communications Suite,
including:
 FrameMaker
 RoboHelp
 Captivate
 Acrobat
 And more...

4. Housekeeping and note taking
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 Not all slides or topics are
equally weighted
 Use some, discard others
 Slides speed varies
(reference)
 Questions? Ask along the
way!
 I’d love to claim errors/typos
is on purpose… they isn’t,
ain’t, and weren’t never;
however, I’ll fix ‘em as I
can…

5. About your speaker
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 Publishing Smarter:
President
 Content strategist,
publishing technologies
expert, author, and geek-
enough
 Certified Technical Trainer
 DITA
 Content management
 Topic-based writing
 Society for Technical
Communications
 Vice President
 STC Associate Fellow

6. Solving business problems through communication
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 We help clients:
 Create great content
 Manage content as an asset
 Deliver content the right way
 Socialize the message
 Listen to the consumer
 Improve experiences by
helping
 Create great content
 Manage content as an asset
 Deliver content the right way
 …
 By helping clients:

7. Standard disclaimer
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 In the interest of brevity I
will make some blanket
statements to keep it
simple
 It’s not all 100% “the
truth”, but I’ll stay close
 Purists may complain
 And they are wrong!
 (except when they are
right)

8. Why cutting is the wrong way to make
docs look good on the bottom line
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Cutting vs Revenue Growth

9. Two ways to put money in the bank
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 Cutting expenses (okay, but weak to repeat)
 Like cutting your personal spending
 At some point, you don’t have anything left to cut
 Instead of Starbucks, it’s instant
 No longer a week in Europe, now a long weekend “stay-cation”
 Forget going to movies, it’s the local library puppet show
 Growing revenue (great approach, can be repeated)
 More like investing for the long term
 401K, mutual funds, stocks and bonds, treasury bills
 Interest is compounded, you get paid again and again

10. Exploring a 10% cut
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 To have a starting point, assume that there is a
percent cost of sales that relates to docs (I’ll pick
10%)
 Then assume a 10% cut is requested, and delivered
Revenue Docs Cut Y1 Cut Y2 Cut Y3 Cut Y5 Cut Y10
10M 1M 900K 810K 729K 590K 350K
25M 2.5M 2.25M 2.03M 1.82M 1.48K 872K
100M 10M 9M 8.1M 7.3M 5.9M 3.5M
500M 50M 45M 40.5M 36.5M 29.5 17.4M
1B 100M 90M 81M 73M 59M 35M

11. Exploring a 2% revenue growth
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 To have a starting point, assume that there is a
percent cost of sales that relates to docs (I’ll pick 2%)
 Assume a 2% boost is delivered via docs (more later)
Revenue Docs Boost Y1 Boost Y2 Boost Y3 Boost Y5 Y10
10M 1M 10.2M 10.4M 10.61M 11.04M 12.19M
25M 2.5M 25.5M 26M 26.5M 27.6M 30.47M
100M 10M 102M 104M 106.1M 110.4M 121.9M
500M 50M 510M 520.2M 530.6M 552M 609.5M
1B 100M 1.02B 1.04B 1.06B 110B 122B

12. Cutting at 10% vs growing at 2%
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 You can cut the costs of a department, but over time
there isn’t much left, OR you can grow revenue
 Let’s compare the compounded cut/growth
Rev Docs - / + in Y1 Y2 Y3 Y5 Y10
10M 1M 100K /
200
190K / 400 271K / 610 410K/
1.04M
650K /
2.19M
25M 2.5M 250K /
500
470K / 1M 780K/
1.5M
1M / 2.6M 1.63M / 5.5M
100M 10M 1M/ 2M 1.9M / 4M 2.7M/ 6.1 4.1M / 10.4 6.5M / 22M
500M 50M 5M / 10M 9.5M /
20.2
13.5M/30.
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20.5 / 52M 32.6 / 110M
1B 100M 10M / 20 19M / 40 27M / 61 41M / 104 65M / 219M

13. As you improve your documentation
processes you can reach out to more
potential customers
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Better docs: Broader audience

14. Benefits of better docs
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 Easier to use in the sales cycle
 Quicker to get to market
 Fewer hours on review
 Translation is consistent
 Deliver on multiple platforms
 Writers are less stressed, more productive

15. Larger audience via custom content
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 Reuse of content means you can reach a larger group
 The same base content with new product info
 Instead of “Saving Word files” and “Saving Excel files”
 Create “Saving <productname> files”
 Plan, write, review, edit, approve, publish, translate once
 Reuse for multiple products
 Same idea for multiple platforms
 Replace “Windows Shortcuts” and “Macintosh Shortcuts”
 Use “<platform> Shortcuts”
 And even for audience specific, job function, and
more

16. Let people consume content as they
wish, rather than as you demand
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Publish to multiple devices

17. Publishing options
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18. HTML 5 (default, on tablet)
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19. HTML 5 (default, on phone)
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20. Let’s explore how companies actually
use documentation to generate
revenue
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Deliver docs in new ways

21. Let’s look at a sample from Lowes
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 QR code to www.snipp.us/jh/home.aspx

22. Use documentation to build revenue
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 If you ever have had to work with tiles, glue, and grout

23. Compare what you need to do
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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-i0S_6oVSE
 https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=151613841
697764&set=vb.128898747292260&type=2&theater
 BTW: Special > Generate QR Code

24. Stop creating PDF or Help or Web
materials and use structure to deliver
better documentation
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Let’s explore structure

25. Take advantage of structure
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 Using an XML standard (like DITA) means several
things
 Others have done the heavy lifting
 Thanks IBM/OASIS for creating (and maintaining) a standard
 Thanks Adobe and other vendors for coming up with ways to make
it work with your authoring tool, your publishing tool, your CCMS,
your translation tool, and much, much more
 The standard already supports reuse of content
 Easy to create for specific audience, platform, product, or even
version, release, and modification (or others)
 It is (generally) easy to get started, far easier then
even as little as 5 years ago

26. Structure requirements
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 Has to follow a strategic plan and be well
implemented
 Content needs to be analysed
 The RIGHT content needs to be converted
 Need to use the right tools, and use them correctly

27. Identify the true costs
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 Costs vary and depend on many factors
 How good is the source content (well tagged?)
 How organized is the source content (well written?)
 How open are executives, managers, writers, co-workers?
 We have done this for clients for under USD$10,000
and for close to USD$1,000,000
 It’s broad ranging
 Page count between 500 pages for a team of 2 or 3
writers, including templates, training, and a CCMS
 Page count of about 200,000 for a core team of 75

28. Calculating the ROI
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 Many ways to do it
 In some cases as little as 9 to 10 MONTHS
 In some cases as long as 4 to 7 years
 Depends on many factors
 Reuse (in some cases up to 90%, average about 70%)
 Translation (about 4 or 5 languages, and ROI is FAST)
 Regulatory (in cases like ATA, pharma, and others, it reduces
ground time, speeds up approval, etc)

29. Summing up the discussion,
and options to continue it
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Conclusion and contact

30. About this session
02:37@publishsmarter
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 Don’t overly focus on cutting costs; increase revenue
 Improve support docs and target your reader
 Deliver it to multiple audiences
 Ensure content is viewable on multiple devices
 This can be done without significant increases in spending
 Instead of cuts, let’s talk about
 Business growth
 Increased profits
 Great ROI
 A mix of 'how to' and 'here is what others have done'
 Explore ways to create documentation, put products and
services on the map and front-of-mind for customers

31. Final request
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 Please suggest these slides to others
 If there are any problems with them, please let me
know
 Remember my disclaimer at the beginning
 Not all slides are equal: Use some, discard others
 In the interest of brevity I make some blanket statements
 It’s not all 100% “the truth”, but I’ll stay close
 Purists may complain
 And they are wrong!
 (except when they are right)

32. Follow up contact information
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905 833 8448 (Eastern Time)
bernard@publishingsmarter.com
www.linkedin.com/in/bernardaschwanden
@publishsmarter
www.publishingsmarter.com