I was recently sent some information regarding The Center for Information-Development Management that you may find of interest if you are a publications manager. If you’re interested in information about communicating with senior management, building business cases for new initiatives, understanding customer information needs, or confronting the myriad issues and problems faced every day you may wish to consider CIDM membership.
CIDM is an organization of information-development, training, and support managers from around the world who facilitate collaboration regarding information development among skilled managers in the industry. Members include managers, senior managers, directors, and vice presidents of information development and training who are remarkably skilled and happy to share their experiences.
New members join CIDM as a department, which means that all staff members and managers are invited to participate in CIDM activities.
There are two membership types–regular departments and small departments. Member organizations receive one or two complimentary registrations to attend the flagship CIDM conference, Best Practices, each September.
Benefits of membership also include discounted rates for attendance at the Content Management Strategies/DITA North America and the DITA Europe conferences, as well as workshops and seminars held throughout the year. Members receive a subscription to the bimonthly Best Practices journal. They receive the monthly Information Management e-newsletter and a subscription to the management listserv as well as participation in the scheduled teleconferences to share current issues and experiences.
If you are interested in learning more about CIDM or becoming a member, please call to arrange a discussion with Director JoAnn Hackos at +1
(303) 232-7586 or visit the website.
While you’re there, sign up for the monthly e-newsletter for continuing news about the management of information development.

Posted by Kathy Howes, Marketing Manager, Author-it Software Corporation.

Cross the Solent to the Isle of Wight and you may feel as if you have stepped back in time! The Isle of Wight is one of the best kept secrets in the UK when it comes to areas of outstanding natural beauty. If you like sailing, walking and cycling as much as we do then the Isle of Wight is definitely one to put on your list of places to visit. I also have it on good authority that the golf is pretty good too, but I haven’t been bitten by that particular bug just yet!

Martin and I have fallen so much in love with the Island that last summer we bought a property in Cowes, gave it a complete make over and we are now letting it out for sailing regattas and family holidays. For more information have a look at our Regatta Cottage website (created using Author-it of course!).

Posted by Amanda Caley, Director, Content Chameleon, Author-it Certified Consultant”

With a background in education I’ve been interested in a number of blogs and articles that have come up over the past few months regarding ‘open source collaboration’ for instructional material.  Anyone who has used a wiki knows the general idea: ubiquitous, collaborative authoring by motivated experts un-encumbered by geographic location or commercial constraints.  In some areas, though, a wiki is a very poor choice.  Its egalitarian nature, informality and generally more limited formatting becomes the other edge of the sword.  The ‘heat/light’ ratio changes and users lose confidence in the quality of information.
Beyond the hype of open source (Free software!  No vendors!) lies the real beauty – altruism and belief that information should be shared.  There are some amazing projects by universities to enable professors and industry experts to collaborate on curricula for a wide range of disciplines, from electrical engineering through to agriculture husbandry.  A baseline of material was provided and users can contribute, extend and filter to meet their needs.  Schools and universities are then free to incorporate this curricula into their own programmes.
Here at Author-it we have a large community of intelligent users that have taken the core Author-it software and solved some very complex problems.  We get to hear about it but the information often stays locked inside peoples’ heads or drifts around the user community as anecdotes and rumour.  So, in keeping with the spirit of open source we have made the (very purple) ‘Using Author-it’ guide available as an open source project.  Our own product Author-it Live provides the ubiquitous, collaborative authoring interface via a standard web browser, to anyone, anywhere.  With our long experience in the documentation and publishing industry we believe quality and accuracy are critical and shouldn’t be sacrificed just to get web-based collaboration.  Author-it Live’s controlled workflow ensures that all articles go through peer-review before being made ‘live’.
At this early stage a small group of users will be contributing articles, and this community will grow.  The evolving ‘Using Author-it’ guide will be made available online, and for the old school ‘curl up on the couch with a cup of tea’ people, a regular update to the hard copy will be found on Amazon. (update - the ‘Using Author-it’ guide has sold out already, sorry.  More copies on their way to Amazon’s warehouse early next week)

I’d be interested in feedback from readers about the strengths, weaknesses, joys and disappointments of your own open collaborative efforts…
Posted by Matt Armstrong, Sales Director Asia Pacific, Author-it Software Corporation

Are you interested in looking at the exhibitors at the upcoming WritersUA event at the Westin Seattle but haven’t registered for the event?

Did you know you can get Complimentary Admission for the Exhibition at the Conference for Software User Assistance  on Tuesday, March 31st from 3:45-5:15 pm however you must RSVP by 5:00 pm Friday 20th March. Details are:

Send an email to Shannonm@WritersUA.com with a Subject line of Exhibition. Include your name in the message body. You will receive an email confirmation or call them on 206 774 9294

And make sure you stop by the Author-it booth to say hi to the team!

Posted By Kathy Howes, Marketing Manager, Author-it Software Corporation

A really effective way of managing your review comments in Author-it is to create a number of standard review topics, using your usual ‘review’ style. These standard review topics should containing the questions that you are always asking of your reviewers and notes to yourself or other authors in your team. For example:

Please can you provide more information.
Is this correct?
Insert a screenshot here.

So that you can easily search for these topics the titles should have a prefix, for example RT: or if you work with a team of authors then you may want to prefix with your initials. For example:

AC: Please can you provide more information.
JH: Please can you provide more information.

When required these review topics can be inserted as an embedded topic.
Posted By Amanda Caley, Director, Content Chameleon, Author-it Certified Consultant

While we watch the unemployment rate surge, I think we also need to spare a thought for those who are ‘fortunate’ to keep their jobs. In many cases not only are they being asked to accept reduced hours and pay but also to work harder, produce greater results, find cost savings and most importantly generate additional revenue.

But with reduced resources and budget constraints how do you meet these challenges?

Over the past few months we have been addressing this very question with our clients and it has made us think really hard about the ways in which we can help. Over a decade in the market has given us the confidence and experience to know that we can literally double writer productivity, half costs and improve sales efficiency where Author-it is used for sales proposal management. It’s very satisfying to know that these kind of improvements make a large difference in a recessionary market. But having said all of that; even with real ROI evidence, it can be challenging to get budget approval where executive mandates demand large scale cuts.

To meet this challenge head on, we’ve developed two ‘Stimulus’ packages, the Author-it Enterprise Pack and the Author-it Starter Pack. These packages bundle software licenses, support/upgrades and implementation services, including training. They are designed to get companies up and running quickly so that you can start delivering ROI almost immediately. By bundling, we’ve been able to deliver a substantial discount and we are also offering payment plans and subscription pricing options to assist in driving an Author-it initiative through budget approval.

We believe these packages deliver exceptional value and will support your strategies for productivity, cost cutting and sales efficiency. Take a look at the packages here, let us know what you think.

Best,
Steve

Posted by Steve Davis, President, Author-it Software Corporation

Hello, I’m Kendra Carter, an Author-it consultant and trainer here at Author-it Software Corporation. I’ve been an Author-it user for the past nine years now, and I have to say, I am so proud to see how the product continues to grow and expand its content reuse and single sourcing strategies. With the release of 5.2 and structured authoring, clearly Author-it continues to keep up with what’s next in the content management industry.
Speaking of keeping up, how are your Author-it skills? Would you like to learn more about using Author-it . . . for free?!
Attend a free Author-it training at DocTrain West! We’re offering a one-day Author-it basic training post-conference, Friday, March 20, 2009 from 8:30-5:00. This two-part training begins with basic authoring techniques and single-source strategies that make Author-it the leading product for content reuse; it concludes with training on our new, highly anticipated structured authoring option. We’ll talk about best practices for implementing structured authoring on Author-it content. We’ll first put our designer hat on and look at implementing structured templates using the new Author-it Structure Builder. We’ll discuss how to write rules and how to give authors helpful examples and tips on following the rules. Then, we’ll put our author hat on and learn how to create content based on structure rules and what steps to take to verify that content “validates” against these rules. Existing Author-it users—in case you’re wondering, you can impose structure on previously structured content! We’ll talk about how you can implement structured authoring on existing content and helpful tips for doing so.
This training would also be helpful for any existing v4 customers who are wondering whether they should upgrade to Autohr-it 5. You’ll get to see the new interface and it’s many features.
I promise you won’t need to know much about using Author-it before training. Just sit back and watch as I explain and demo basic Author-it functionality. Take the complimentary student materials and exercises home with you to try on your own time. And, feel free to ask any product-related questions as we go.
So, join me for our DocTrain West post-conference training. Be sure to bring your laptop if you would like to follow along. Here’s some more information on the session.
Hope to see you there!
Posted by Kendra Carter, Author-it Senior Consultant, Author-it Software Corporation, kcarter@author-it.com

It has been an interesting start to 2009. It is clear that the financial crisis continues and the world awaits the outcome of President Obama’s stimulus package to see how this will affect the US and global markets. As many commentators have hypothesized; while access to credit is a real issue, it is the consumer coal face where change will start. Changes in consumer spending flow through the entire business ecosystem from B2C through to the B2B sector.

So in a market such as this, how do you drive forward?

I think the answer to this question lies in how businesses are affected and are subsequently seeking to deal with the crisis. The effects are first felt in a reduction in sales revenues. This is a natural market reaction to a crisis – ‘hunker down’ mentality. This leads to additional emphasis on sales execution and a review of costs.

At Author-it we have been heavily focused on these issues in our client and prospect discussions. That is; how can Author-it help our clients with sales execution and how can we cut their costs? Obviously there is an investment to be made in purchasing and implementing Author-it, so we have been ruthless in presenting our case for real dollar cost savings above other gains. Here’s some scenarios to illustrate this point:

Issue: Authoring teams (of all persuasions) are under significant pressure. Teams are being asked to do more with less people and still expected to complete projects on time.
Solution: Author-it allows 40% + gains in authoring efficiency through advanced reuse, single sourcing and multi-output publishing. More output from less.

Issue: Authoring teams are becoming a distributed mix of permanent employees and contractors. This makes collaboration, authoring, edit review and approval very difficult.
Solution: Author-it Live allows web based, ‘anywhere, anytime access’ to content for authoring, review and publishing. Huge time and efficiency gains.

Issue: Localization budgets are under pressure but there is still a requirement to sell in global markets and therefore deliver localized content.
Solution: Author-it Localization Manager can cut localization costs by more than 50%. This is a real cash saving.

Issue: Sales teams need to produce more revenue. This means more sales proposals and therefore more administrative load.
Solution: A number of clients (and us of course) use Author-it to generate custom sales proposals at a small fraction of the time and effort required using traditional methods. This means better quality, compliant proposals and an increased chance of sales success.

Issue: Authoring applications are siloed meaning it is difficult or impossible to leverage content assets across an enterprise.
Solution: Author-it is an enterprise authoring and content management application. Its ease of use and intuitive UI means it can be used by all business units allowing content to be shared and reused throughout an enterprise. Huge efficiency gains across the enterprise.

The above scenarios focus on addressing the core issues many companies are experiencing right now that is how to; cut costs and increase revenue. I believe it is by focussing on ROI and these key areas that both software purchasers and vendors can come together and mutually work through the worst effects of the current market.

Posted by Steve Davis, President, Author-it Software Corporation

The term ‘double-edged sword’ may have been created with content management systems (CMS) in mind. On one edge, they hold great promise for organisations in terms of their ability to create and manage content that is more accurate, less costly to produce, and more consistent in appearance. On the other, they can present a myriad of challenges in their implementation and acceptance by the people using them - and purchasing them. Let’s examine the challenges that a CMS presents, along with ways those challenges can be overcome…

Challenge #5: Fear of Obsolescence
Another people challenge is personality problems with individuals who’ve played crucial roles because of their expertise. The one person everyone comes to when they have a problem, for example.

Once a CMS has been implemented, that person is generally not relied upon so much anymore because work isn’t performed in the same fashion.  So there can be issues from people who feel a growing obsolescence as their power base erodes.

How is this obstacle overcome? The fact is, many times it’s not.  Often, these people must be left behind in order for a better system to take hold.  Other times, however, it is possible to make the person ‘indispensable’ in a different area.

Posted by Paul Trotter, CEO, Author-it Software Corporation