Presenter: Joe Gelb, President, Suite Solutions More and more, content strategists in organizations want to break the “content silos” that each content-producing team has created. But each team is more comfortable using its own customized technology and workflow. Joe Gelb, President of Suite Solutions, will show you how to join the silos, not break them. Learn the fundamentals of creating a living knowledge foundation that communicates with existing systems, giving easy information access to both content creators and content consumers without wresting control from the owners. With this knowledge foundation you can provide a single point of entry for finding content, regardless of where in the organization this content has been created.

1. If You Can‟t Break „Em, Join „Em
A New Approach to Content Silos
Joe Gelb, Suite Solutions
February 24, 2014

2. Who is this guy?
Joe Gelb
• Founder and President of Suite Solutions
Suite Solutions
Our Vision: Enable you to engage your customers by providing quick access to
relevant information
• Help companies get it right the first time
• XML-based Authoring/Publishing Solutions
• Enterprise Intelligent Dynamic Content: SuiteShare Social KB
• Consulting, System Integration
• Cross-Industry Expertise
• High Tech, Aerospace & Defense, Discrete Manufacturing
• Healthcare, Government
• Blue Chip Customer Base

3. Main Topics
•
•
•
•
•
What are content silos and why are they good?
What is wrong with silos?
• Why are folks trying to break them?
• What is the alternative?
Why can‟t we just break the silos?
Is there value in joining the silos?
OK, so how do we join the silos?

4. What is a content silo?
Content types that are produced by different groups in an organization that
are authored, managed and accessed with their own tools, processes and
content model
• Technical Publications
• Learning & Training
• Technical Support
• Marketing
• Communities
• Downloads
• Videos
• Domain KnowledgeBase
• Social platforms

5. Content Silos
Technical Publications
• Tasks, feature descriptions, release notes, licensing information
• Contributions from SMEs, engineers that need to be edited and
reviewed
• More likely to be complex, structured, modular
• Traditionally use desktop publishing or help authoring tools, strong
tendency now towards XML-based documentation
• Often use source-control, CMS or Component CMS to manage
content
• Publish content to PDF, online help, mobile formats
CMS
Tech Docs

6. Content Silos
Learning & Training
• Instructor-lead and online e-learning
• Likely to be modular
• Likely to be structured, modular, interactive
• Traditionally use desktop publishing, Powerpoint;
tendency now towards HTML- or XML-based content
• Often use file system, LMS or Component CMS to manage and
publish content to PDF, e-Learning, Powerpoint
• Push towards mobile, video
LMS
Learning & Training

7. Content Silos
Technical Support
• Support and knowledgebase articles
• Likely to be relatively short and discrete
• Use web-based case-management or knowledge management
tools
• Often integrated with CRM
• Publish content to internal and external KB sites
CRM
Tech Support
KM

8. Content Silos
Marketing
• Web content, brochures, data sheets
• Output to high-fidelity print, online and mobile
• Concerned with consistent branding and message, analytics
• Traditionally use desktop publishing tools: InDesign, Quark
• Content generally not complex or structured
• Wide (and growing!) use of social media tools
• Interested in collecting metrics and analytics
• Resistance to XML-based tools because not user-friendly
Web
CMS
Marketing
DAM

9. Content Silos
Who needs access to this info?
•
•
•
•
•
•
Customers
Partners
Service technicians
Technical support staff
Marketing and sales people
Prospective customers
Customers
Sales
Partners
Tech Support
Service Engineers

10. What is wrong with silos?
Overlap of information
• Similar content is developed by multiple people
• Examples:
• Tech support uses documentation to help understand the product,
but then write separate troubleshooting and how-to articles
• Learning/Training users documentation as source for building
courseware
• Tech writers look to support to get real feedback from the field
about problems encountered and how they are solved, how the
products are actually used
• Marketing creates data sheets with feature information drawn from
tech docs
• Tech writers look to engineering and PLM for source material
• QA/QC look to documentation to build test plans

11. What is wrong with silos?
Difficult to create and enforce a consistent message, branding and user
experience (CXM)
• Each silo has its own delivery method and format
• Similar content is developed by multiple people, with potentially
inconsistent messaging and branding
• Difficult for users to hone in on the relevant content they need
• Need to search over multiple sites, with varying navigation and search
methods, different keywords and categorization
• Jumping around through different search results
• Ambiguity over which source is the most updated and complete
[Illustration…]

12. What is wrong with silos?
Difficult accessibility to relevant, updated information
• Customers, partners, technicians and internal staff want one place to
easily and quickly find the most relevant information to accomplish their
immediate goal
Lack of easy access to information lowers customer satisfaction
• Multiple addresses for information wastes time: need to search in
multiple different sites: docs, training, support, KB, communities
• Customers need to call support (which also increases your support
costs); in any case most customers say they prefer self-serve
• Increases down-time for your customers when it takes longer to solve
problems
• Significantly increases chances of customer attrition and sharing
negative feedback with others online
Satisfied customers will buy more from you and recommend to colleagues
and friends

13. What is the alternative?
Break down or “normalize” the silos
• Move to a common XML-based content model, like DITA
• Migrate content groups to a single toolset which supports the
different content types:
CCMS, authoring tools, publishing, workflow, collaboration…
OR
Make sure all the tools are fully XML compliant, can implement
the common model, and are linked together for reuse
• Convert existing content to the common model
• Develop XML-based publishing for all the various formats
Sounds like a plan?

14. Why you can‟t just break the silos
Ever try taking candy from a baby?

15. Why you can‟t just break the silos
“Entrenched practices, processes, and tools used by different groups
within the organization”
• Each team has invested in tools and processes that are customized for
their own type of content
“Lack of tools that make information development straightforward and
simple by all individuals in the product-development life cycle”
• One size does not fit all…
“Lack of a high-level champion who is able to is able bring the organization
together to support a quality improvement that will reduce costs, improve
quality, and improve traceability”
• Most organizations have lots of
and not enough
Quotes from Dr. JoAnn Hackos
http://www.infomanagementcenter.com/enewsletter/2014/201402/feature.htm

16. Why you can‟t just break the silos
“I pity the fool who touches my silo”

17. Is there value in joining the silos?
Easy, single point of entry for accessing content
• For content consumers who want to easily find all the relevant
information to quickly achieve their immediate goal
• For content creators who want to locate, reuse and share content
• Even if they cannot easily point-click-reuse, at least they know it
exists and can reference to it!
• Builds awareness and business case for migrating closer to a
common XML-based framework
• Encourages groups to make sure their silos are structurally rich and
semantically aware, to be accessible and adaptable to others
• Communicates with existing and future systems
• Taxonomy is the glue that holds it all together

18. Joining the Silos
Foundation for Living Knowledge

19. Contextual Relevance
What they need, when they need it.
Targeting your customer
• Who is the reader? Audience profile, persona
• Type of user: end user, technician, field service engineer, solution
engineer, support professional, sales or marketing person
• Security profile, proficiency level
• What equipment are they operating? version? configuration?
• Goals: What are they trying to accomplish?
• Install? Configure? Use? Troubleshoot? Upgrade?
• Make a purchasing decision?
• What device are they viewing the information on? Will they have network
access?

20. Illustrations: Technical Support
Quick access to useful information: Examples
• I‟m a support professional at a call center.
How do I troubleshoot
a Samsung Galaxy S3 smart phone that
fails to synchronize on a Dell desktop
running Windows7 Home Edition?
•
I‟m on vacation and I want to…
Download maps
to my Garmin Nuvi 2350 GPS
using bluetooth
while I‟m on my trip to Europe

21. Social Engagement
You can‟t be everywhere at once
You know about your products; how they work, how to install and configure
them.
You can‟t know all the potential uses and problems that may arise.
Engage your customers
• Facilitate contributions from the field:
how-to articles, tips, videos
• Improve the quality and timeliness of the information by allowing users to
comment
• Let users build and share their own documents

22. Illustration: Domain Knowledge
I‟m a small business owner.
I want to pull together information relevant to me:
• Tax forms I need to file for my employees
• How health care reform applies to me
• Compliance guidelines for my industry
• Changes in governmental regulations
Let me:
• Compile my own set of quick links
• Set up an RSS feed to let me know when
updates become available
• Download to my smart phone so I can reference
them even when I‟m offline
• Automatically update the content on my smart
phone when I‟m online

23. Illustration: Field Service
I‟m a service engineer
I need to:
• Install a new 8300S Flow Meter via Profibus protocol
• Connect to the Device Manager
using a hand-held Field Communicator
• The plant has no internet access.
Let me:
• Pull together updated information
• Download to my tablet before I go onsite.
While onsite, I figured out how to solve a tricky problem.
I took some pictures with my smart phone and a short video to illustrate the
problem and solution. When I get online, let me:
• Write up a how-to article
• Upload the video so my colleagues can learn from my experience.

24. Illustration: Health Care
I am interviewing doctors to find the right one for me
I want to find relevant information:
• Articles that describe the medical condition
• Which treatments are available
• Which drugs are prescribed and the potential side
effects
• Typical insurance coverage
Let me:
• Pull together the relevant links
• Generate my own ebook
• Download to my smart phone so I can reference while at the doctor‟s
office
• Post an article sharing my experience and recommending health care
options to others in my situation

25. Approaches to categorizing content
Metadata
• audience
• category
• keywords
• product info
• versions
• product name, brand, component, feature, platform, series
Taxonomy and classification
• Build knowledge model of your domain
• Apply it to your content

26. What‟s wrong with metadata?
Metadata can categorize my content, but:
• Metadata is often embedded inside the content or lives in an accessory
proprietary format
• Requires you to have access to change the content
• There is generally a limited number of metadata elements available
• Difficult to relate the content to other contexts, relationships
• Even so, if the content becomes related to new contexts, it would require
constant updating of each content resource
• We may not know all the contexts where my content will be used
• Best practice: maintain the categorizations and relationships outside the
content

27. Taxonomy and Classification
Taxonomy (subject scheme)
• Defines sets of controlled values for classifying content
(subjects or facets)
• Organized in hierarchies
• Defines relationships between subjects
• Can be modular, so business units can develop, maintain and utilize parts of
the taxonomy that are relevant to them
• Evolves to adapt to new situations and contexts
Classification
• Categorizes the content using the subjects defined in the taxonomy
• Classification is maintained separately from the content
• SMEs and content developers can classify the content
• Does not require you to “own” or change the content

28. Taxonomy and Classification
Example
• A library is a set of information, in various media, classified by subject
matter
• A university library with many branches: would you call that multiple silos?
Would we move to break those silos by moving all the books to one
location so we can find them?
• Researchers and casual readers find information using a subject
classification system that exists outside the actual media resources
• Subject classification can be extended, using facets:
• Keyword search
• Author search
• Title search
• Automated search of large repositories

29. Reusing taxonomy / classification
Taxonomies can be drawn from other enterprise systems and databases
• Corporate ECM and taxonomies
• CRM – customer relationship information
• Customers > products they own
• Customers > Geographical location
• Users > degree of proficiency
• PDM / PLM – engineering data
• ERP – Parts catalogs and ordering systems

30. Automated Classification
Ingenia

31. Example: Classify using Taxonomy
Browser-based Authoring in SharePoint

32. Example: Classify using Taxonomy
Salesforce

33. Taking the Leap to a New Paradigm
Dynamic Enterprise Content
•
•
•
•
•
•
Variety of content: documentation, training, videos, how-to articles, safety
information, data sheets, marketing material, domain knowledge
Context filtering: quick, goal-oriented access to contextually relevant content
Personalized docs: allow readers to assemble content on demand and render
to PDF, ePUB and other formats for offline mobile access
Audience Participation: allow your audience to add new content, give
feedback, express approval, and easily share knowledge with others
Modern User Experience: smooth transition between mobile and desktop
• Activity often starts on mobile,
moves to desktop, returns to mobile
• Internet connection not always available
Analytics: understand who is accessing
what content, and how often

34. Let‟s see it in action…

35. Hmmm, this looks interesting…
For additional information, contact:
Joe Gelb
solutions@suite-sol.com
U.S. Office
609-360-0650
EMEA Office
+972-2-993-8054
www.suite-sol.com