SDL Announces New Version of Structured Content Suite for Aerospace and Defense Technical Documentation

MAIDENHEAD, England, Dec. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- SDL, (LSE: SDL) the leading provider of Global Information Management solutions, today announced the new release  of its award-winning structured content suite for S1000D, the XML standard for technical documentation, to help accelerate time-to-market for mission critical information in the aerospace and defense industries.

The new suite includes significant enhancements to both SDL Contenta®, SDL's common source database (CSDB) for  managing S1000D content, as well as SDL LiveContent™, SDL's application for managing Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals (IETM).  The enhancements were developed through interaction with focus groups made up of writers, project managers and publication managers who work with and support S1000D projects.  The result of this collaboration is an automated and streamlined user experience that delivers increased productivity and accuracy throughout the content creation, publication and delivery process.

The new release of SDL Contenta S1000D 5.0 puts unparalleled quality assurance tools directly in the hands of the authors and editors who work with the content at the earliest stages of the content lifecycle. These capabilities allow writers to identify and correct missing or invalid references, non-compliant Business Rules, and configuration information which is not correct. A new SDL application called Applicability Assistant reduces the complexity of creating and managing product configurations while empowering technical writers and managers to easily create, preview, and deploy both Data Module level and content level configurations.

The release also includes SDL's BREX Checker, the industry's first tool for validating multi-layered Business Rules. This new version of the BREX Checker is now available from within the SDL Contenta S1000D 5.0 editor application and has reporting features to help ensure compliance with contract Business Rules. 

Responding to market demands, SDL LiveContent S1000D 5.0 expands delivery capabilities for interactive electronic manuals (IETM) with:

• iPad® support to offer flexible, mobile access to critical content 
• The ability to suspend and resume an IETM session in context, providing an effective and convenient mechanism for system operators and maintainers to work in tandem on procedures, as well as suspend procedures while waiting for replacement parts

"The openness of the SDL LiveContent API and the unique tracking capabilities inherent in its audit trail functionality not only address our customer's needs for Type II S1000D IETMs, but also offer a flexible platform to integrate with other mission critical business information systems, providing the ability for us to automatically capture software quality assurance metrics," said Gloria Dennard, site manager, Upper Mohawk. "SDL LiveContent has opened up a world of possibilities that we hadn't even dreamed of previously."

Both SDL Contenta and SDL LiveContent offer a consistent and intuitive user interface that produces faster navigation, enhanced sorting and filtering, and labor saving one-click actions. These cross- platform interface enhancements assure a uniform user experience and include common functionality that decreases user training requirements.

For additional information about these product releases, or to learn how SDL can help you with your S1000D programs, please visit www.sdl.com/s1000dresources. 

About SDL
SDL is the leader in Global Information Management. Global Information Management enables companies to engage with their customers throughout the customer journey –from brand awareness, to sales and after-sales support– and across languages, cultures and channels.

SDL's best-of-breed Web Content Management, eCommerce, Structured Content and Language Technologies, combined with its Language Services drive down the cost of content creation, management, translation and publishing. SDL solutions increase conversion ratios and customer satisfaction through targeted information across all customer touch points.

Global industry leaders who rely on SDL include ABN-Amro, Bosch, Canon, CNH, FICO, GlaxoSmithKline, Hewlett-Packard, KLM, Microsoft, NetApp, Philips, SAP and Sony. SDL has over 1500 enterprise customers, has deployed over 170,000 software licenses and provides access to on-demand portals for 10 million customers per month. It has a global infrastructure of more than 60 offices in 35 countries. For more information, visit www.sdl.com.

SDL Europe and Corporate Headquarters - Amy Hall
+44 (0)1628 410120
[email protected]

SDL Americas - Mary Parsons    
+1 781 756 5454
[email protected]

SDL ASIA Pacific - Richard Delanty
+81 90 6695 5313
[email protected]

SOURCE SDL