SDL Announces Product Content Maturity Model for Increased Online Customer Engagement

MAIDENHEAD, United Kingdom, Oct. 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- SDL (LSE: SDL), the leading provider of Global Information Management solutions, today announced  a Product Content Maturity Model that helps customers assess how they can leverage structured product content, typically used in technical manuals and guides, wider in the organization, from support and training to sales and marketing. Moving from traditional technical documentation to live product content helps improve customer engagement in an interactive world and helps drive down support calls.

To support customers on this journey, SDL is also announcing new releases of SDL Trisoft™ and SDL LiveContent™ , two award-winning products in SDL's suite of structured content technologies and part of SDL's Global Information Management solutions. The releases target the growing SDL customer base that is looking to meet the demands of online viewers who expect to find specifically the relevant technical information they need on any device, whether they are about to buy a product or whether they need support for it.  The new customer demands require that companies can efficiently share information across their organizational silos and ultimately create tailored, dynamically built "documents" that are always up-to-date and ready for consumption.  

SDL has developed the Product Content Maturity Model as a way to guide customers that are looking to reap the benefits of structured information.  "We have found that moving into structured content has been a journey," said Emily Mydlowski, Manager, User Experience and Information Design (UXID), HACH company. "We have already gained tremendous improvements in time-to-market from structured content and we are now exploring how we can expand content sharing more broadly in the company."

Tim Martin, documentation team lead at OSIsoft continues, "Business pressures to be more agile and responsive to Internet-savvy customers have made the traditional 'big book' approach to technical documentation obsolete. Organizations that take these changes seriously must embrace structured content that can be reused across the organization and that becomes the foundation for a transformed customer experience."

The Product Content Maturity Model outlines the typical steps that companies adopt as:

• They move from traditional technical documentation to structured content
• They break down content silos within their organizations and collaborate with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), Field Service, Support and Training personnel
• They engage customers with tailored information and drive down support costs by delivering dynamic, relevant content

The new releases of SDL Trisoft and SDL LiveContent extend the SDL technology foundation that supports organizations in this maturity model. The new SDL Trisoft release extends adoption in the enterprise by including:

• An integration of SDL Trisoft with SDL Xopus, SDL's easy to use online XML Editor, enabling broader collaboration in the review and writing of structured information by individuals who do not know XML
• A publishing load balancing capability that enables agile companies to republish their entire documentation set on a daily basis to meet demands for information that is always fresh and up-to-date
• Industry standard Single SignOn  (LDAP and Active Directory) that enables enterprise IT organizations to extend usage beyond technical writers to hundreds of casual contributors within and outside the enterprise
• A new authoring bridge for advanced users that connects SDL Trisoft to Adobe FrameMaker®10

To optimize customer engagement, the new SDL LiveContent 5.1 release:

• Enhances the feedback loops between the customer who wants to provide feedback and the writers who produce the content, enabling the global organization to rapidly improve content that customers need
• Supports easier filtering of content for customers by leveraging the capabilities of DITA 1.2, the newest release of the XML standard for the technical writing community

For the benefits of DITA and structured content, visit the SDL Channel on YouTube.

For additional information about the Product Content Maturity Model and the new releases of SDL Trisoft and SDL LiveContent, visit www.sdl.com/maturitymodel  

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