3. Introduction
This paper presents the value of and need for quality TWB – Leading Technical Documentation
Technical Publications in the Marketing and
Advertising Industry.
Outsourcing Company
TWB is a leading technical publisher with an excellent
Technical publications include a wide variety of
record of providing unmatched technical documentation
material such as web content, brochures, catalogues,
to many major companies.
pre-sale literature, newsletters, technical reports, white
papers, case studies, flyers, product demos, user
guides, online help, classroom training materials, TWB is the ideal choice for leading vendors of software
reference guides, administration guides, standard and hardware products. TWB helps customers with all
operating procedures, installation manuals and web- their technical documentation needs such as web
based training materials. content, brochures, catalogues, white papers, technical
reports, case studies, user guides, product demos, etc.
How a software or hardware product is marketed is the
deciding factor in the success or failure of its TWB works closely with client teams located globally,
developers. The benefits and features of an and assists them in meeting their worldwide product
application alone are not enough to ensure success. announcements and launch deadlines. TWB works
Without a quality marketing strategy, a product will not round-the-clock with client teams and help them with
reach its target audience. quick responses that facilitate timely distribution of
documents around the globe.
Since hardware and software marketing does not
typically involve traditional media, generating product
“Knowledge is people, money, learning, flexibility
knowledge and interest becomes a challenge.
and competitive advantage. Knowledge is more
Conveying a product to an audience, in a manner that
relevant to sustained business than capital or labor.
will get them interested, involves a quality website, the
And yet knowledge remains the most neglected
method of advertising itself, and the way in which
asset of a business. TWB helps you unlock and
information is written and presented to the audience.
share your technical knowledge with the world.”
A simple product manual or a well-written and well-
designed web-site is used by customers to form
opinions of products. It is essential, therefore, that
experts, skilled in general and commercial
communication, with technical knowledge about
creating persuasive messages be involved in the
process of developing a marketing campaign.
In this paper we will discuss the importance of
technical publications to the marketing and advertising
industry, to facilitate creation of awareness and
successful sale of software and hardware products.
“TWB believes that technology cannot exist
without being communicated effectively.”
The Writers Block www.twb.in 1 1
4. Marketing and Advertising Industry – Technical Publications
Growth of the Marketing and Challenges and Solutions
Advertising Industry in India
Internet advertising is slated to touch Rs.1100 crore by Some of the greatest documentation challenges that
2012. In 2007, revenue increased to Rs.270 crore from most companies face today include:
Rs.160 crore the previous year. This was the highest
growth of any segment in the media and advertising Timely availability of quality documents during
industry. The image below shows a global growth chart product release
based on advertising expenditure, projected for 2010. Cost cutting in a multi-vendor business
environment
Managing large volumes of documentation for new
products releases
Knowledge is power and in marketing, product
knowledge translates to increased sales. Well-written,
eye-catching documentation can make the difference
between customer uncertainty and a sale. It is difficult
to measure the degree to which documentation affects
In India, the advertising expenditure dropped to 2% from the decision to buy a product. However, generally,
17% in 2009. However, digital ad expenditure, which products that receive favorable documentation reviews
accounts for 1.7% of the total industry, saw a growth of are also products that receive overall positive ratings.
45% in internet spending alone.
Poor documentation cuts into profits, even if a product
has sold well. If the documentation quality is low,
massive costs are incurred in post-sales support. This
Growth of the Marketing and is especially true for hardware and software products.
Advertising Industry Globally Statistics show that the number of callers on support
lines reduces drastically if the documentation that
accompanies a product is clear and easy to
Overall advertising expenditure dropped by 12.3% in
understand. TWB provides documentation with
2009. However, digital advertising expenditure grew by
professional quality.
7.3%. In the fourth quarter of 2009 alone, global online
advertising revenues reached USD 17.2 billion, an
increase of 8.5% from the USD 15.9 billion revenue in in Improvements to existing hardware and software
2008. The Q4 increase of 2009 was 12.8% more than products, and creation of new ones, are regular
Q3 2009’s revenue of USD 15.2 billion. occurrences. The release of new products requires a
variety of documentation, from web content and data
sheets, to white papers and user guides. Quality
Online advertising expenditure is expected to surpass
documentation, created by skilled professionals, is
print advertising expenditure in 2010. Companies are
easy to update to reflect changes or modify for new
expected to spend USD 119.6 billion on online and
products and releases.
digital strategies, like search engine keywords and
webinars.
Benefits
For leading vendors of software and hardware
products, association with TWB has benefited them by
saving costs and producing professional
documentation along with services such as:
Transferring complex technical data into easily
understandable language
Protecting technical and commercial data of newly
developed products
Creating, editing, reviewing, and maintaining
content
The Writers Block www.twb.in 2
5. Value of Technical Publications
Technical Publication for Transferring Publications for Different Levels of
Product Knowledge Technical and Product Knowledge
The purpose of technical publications is to transfer
When marketing a software or hardware product, it is
product knowledge to the end user, in a comprehensible
necessary to create a wide variety of documentation.
format. The strategies of communication and levels of
Web content is meant to be simple, interesting and
information vary depending on the type of product.
persuasive, to draw customers. User manuals have to
be clear, concise and precise in their content to make
When delivering a product, whether a hardware product the products easy to use and understand. Each of
or a software application, it is equally important to give these documents addresses a different audience, each
the users information about the product’s operation and of whom has a direct relation to sales and the overall
maintenance. profits of the company. It is important that documents
be created keeping in mind the role of the person who
In the real world scenario, technical publications are will use the documentation.
often developed as an afterthought. This usually results
in inaccurate and hard-to-understand material. As a For example, a technical analyst, who is accustomed
result, the users dislike these materials and avoid using to reviewing satellite images on a workstation, needs
them. to learn how to use the system and software to
magnify the image, but not how to analyze the image.
Inaccurate and hard-to-understand material also results
in the user’s inability to understand and implement high- For users who start without technical or product
end technologies. The users might reject the product. knowledge, you need to provide instructions to use the
product as well as information they need to look for as
a result of using the product. This presents a more
difficult problem.
Different needs of the end users and the gap between
Faulty Assumptions that Result in their technical and product knowledge determines the
Problems in Documentation amount of information that goes into technical
publications.
These faulty assumptions result in incomprehensible
documents:
The developers know the product better than anyone Attractive Publications as Useful
else: With time constraints and limited resources, Marketing Tool
many companies are tempted to let the programmers
do the documentation. The engineers and developers Providing useful and accurate documents is critical to
know the product very well. However, the developer ensure that the user can easily find the required
is likely to provide technology-centered information; information. If the end users cannot find the answers
where as the end user requires task-centered to their problems, they assume that the documentation
information. is useless.
For engineers and developers it is almost
impossible to step back and look at the To be useful, the documentation must be clear,
application from the end users point of view. concise, and well designed. The documentation that is
accurate and complete also needs to be well
designed.
The application is complicated; having a writer learn
about it will take too long: Learning the product Accurate and easy-to-understand technical
should not be a major obstacle for the writers with the documentation is the only way to provide information
right technical background. to the end user, and it is also cost-effective.
The Writers Block www.twb.in 3 3
6. Conclusion
The Importance of Marketing and Advertising: Marketing and Advertising are the tools used to attract
prospective customers to a business and the products or services it offers. The number of customers drawn
depends directly on the effectiveness and success of the marketing campaign. Advertising is a part of a
business’ overall marketing strategy, including public relations, promotions, incentives, and newsletters among
others. The aim of a marketing strategy is to use advertising and all its available tools to maximum effect.
Value of Technical Publications: Technical Publications are essential in transferring product knowledge to end
users. The provision of proper material to use technology and products allows a user to accept and efficiently
use a product. Faulty assumptions about documentation lead to inaccurate and hard-to-understand material.
This also decreases the chances of marketing those products in the global market.
Role of Documentation Outsourcing: The importance of marketing and advertising to the success of a product
requires that vendors and purchasers look at outsourcing their documentation needs to well-established
Technical Publications Solutions providers. This helps the company cut costs and at the same time deliver their
products with quality documents.
The Writers Block www.twb.in 4
7. TWB Services
TWB is India’s leader in technical communication outsourcing and education. TWB offers a complete suite of services that allow
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
Administrator’s Guide
Datasheets Copy Editing and Proof Reading
API Document
Cheat sheets Managing Writing
Configuration Guide
Solution Briefs/Solution Brochures Editing Services
Functional Specifications Document
Presentations – Products/Corporate Layout and Design
Profile Installation Manual
Creating SLAs
Brochures and marketing collateral Interface Document
Web content Interactive Electronic Technical Manual
(IETM)
Business Documentation
Audio and video scripts
Maintenance Manual Business Proposals
Press releases
Online Help Legal Disclaimers
Direct mail
Operation Manual Policy Manuals
Newsletter design copy
Product Demo Style Guide Design
Sales catalogues
Product Specifications Document Template Design
Sales sheets
Product Overview Document
Quick Reference Guide
Business Communication Content Management
Release Notes
Short Reports Requirement Analysis Document
Single Sourcing
Proposals SDK Document
File Version Control
Case Studies Troubleshooting Manual
Document Naming Conventions
Lab Reports User Manual
Consistent Document Formatting
Memos Open Source Documentation
Data Transformation
Progress/Interim Reports Programmers Guides
Writing for Electronic Media Functional Specifications Document
Use Cases Web site Development
Illustrations Online Help /Context Sensitive Help
Web 2.0 development
Troubleshooting Guides
Graphic Designing Web content
Info graphics Web applications
Qualitative Analytics for
2D & 3D animation
Decision Support Translation and Localization
Line drawings and illustrations
Services
Economic Business Research
Process Documentation 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 Records Management
Deployment and Support Status and Potential of Technologies
Document Management Solutions
Benchmarking of Strategies Vs
Competition Record Management Storage and
Installation and Configuration Guides
Retrieval
Operations Manual Forecasting
Sales Force Effectiveness
Market Assessments
Competitive Intelligence
Opinion Leadership
Emerging Markets - evaluation and
research
The Writers Block www.twb.in 5 5
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 Online Help Adobe AIR®
Microsoft-Expression Graphic 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
XML
Adobe Photoshop® 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
The Writers Block www.twb.in 6
9. Industries Served
TWB services a wide range of technology and knowledge driven industries, helping them meet their markets better, these include:
Banking, Insurance and Financial Services ITES/ KPO/ BPO
Consulting and Business Services Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology
Defense, Aerospace and Hi-Tech Manufacturing Process Manufacturing and Allied Industries
Education and Learning Steel, Ship Building, Construction and Aviation
IT, ITES Telecom and Digital Communications
TWB has been the preferred technical documentation outsourcing company for:
The TWB Building US Office:
No: 4062, 19th Main Road, TWB
HAL 2nd Stage, 11701 Norwegian Wood Drive
Bangalore – 560008 Austin, TX 78758
India.
Landmark: Behind Carlton Towers
Telephone: Telephone:
+91.80.40741400 / +91.80.41256367 +1.512.586.8357
Corporate Enquiries: corp@twb.in
The Writers Block www.twb.in 7 7