The business case for better tech comm

Sarah O’Keefe (@sarahokeefe)Scriptorium Publishing (@scriptorium)

background imageflickr: spierzchala

Sarah O’Keefe @sarahokeefe❖ Founder and president, Scriptorium

Publishing, www.scriptorium.com

❖ Based in North Carolina

❖ Coauthor with Alan Pringle of Content Strategy 101 (September 2012!)

❖ Interested in collision of content, publishing, and technology

Before we begin…

❖ Everyone is muted except for the presenter

❖ Please ask your questions through the Questions area in the webcast interface

❖ The presentation is being recorded; attendees do not appear in the recording

Agenda

❖ Business case components

❖ Typical tech comm business cases

❖ Address legal and regulatory issues

❖ Control cost of tech comm

❖ Improve marketing and product visibility

flickr: johnloo

“They’ll never pay for that.”

They don’t see the value.flickr: jamescronin

Justify your approach.flickr: bagsup

Business case components

❖ Current situation

❖ Recommendation

❖ Costs

❖ Benefits

❖ Risk assessment

Business case patterns

❖ Address legal and regulatory issues

❖ Control cost of tech comm

❖ Improve marketing and product visibility

flickr: jdickertLegal and regulatory

Legal and regulatory

❖ More efficient compliance

❖ Avoid legal complications

Control the cost of tech comm❖ Efficient content development

❖ Reduce the cost of technical support

❖ Content collaboration

Myth: Cheap documentationflickr: mjryall

Typical problems

❖ Content is available only in a single output format (usually PDF)

❖ Content is useless:

❖ “In the Name field, type the person’s name.”

❖ Content is hard to understand, not available in right languages

Cost of bad content

❖ High call volume to technical support

❖ Product returns; lost sales

❖ Regulatory submission delayed or rejected

❖ Contradicts marketing

❖ Huge globalization costs

❖ Content duplication

Efficient content development❖ Reuse

❖ Formatting and production

❖ Localization

flickr: mikecogh

Reuse

flickr: a_cooper

Formatting and production

flickr: ezioman

Localization

Scaling your content workflow

Reducing the cost of technical support

flickr: vitorcastillo

Call deflection

flickr: billrice

Some statistics on technical support❖ 6–20% of revenue (higher number for

smaller companies)

❖ $6–36 per transaction (lower number if outsourced)

Source: Softletter and the Association of Support Professionals, www.asponline.com/tscr.pdf

$0

$37,500

$75,000

$112,500

$150,000

under $5M $5–$10M $10M+ $100M+

Cos

t sa

ving

s (p

er y

ear)

Company revenues

1% call deflection2% call deflection

Obstacles to efficient phone support

flickr: pasukaru76

A troubling pattern

Conflict between tech comm and tech support flickr: jdhancock

flickr: smemon

Content collaboration

Tech comm plus…

❖ Technical support

❖ Product design and development

❖ Training and education

❖ Software

❖ Online help

❖ Product interface labels

Collaboration workflow

Marketing and product visibility❖ Supporting marketing with technical

content

❖ Increasing product visibility

❖ Building user community

flickr: shoppeolina

Reinforce the marketing message

flickr: bokchoi-snowpea

http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/wordpress-estore-plugin-complete-solution-to-sell-digital-products-from-your-wordpress-blog-securely-1059

flickr: frikitiki

Increase product visibility

Content requirements for product visibility❖ Searchable

❖ Findable

❖ Discoverable

flickr: roberto8080

Building user community

flickr: tadsonbussey

Align tech comm with business

flickr: mulmatsherm

Business cases

❖ The organization’s business goal is A.

❖ Tech comm needs to do B to support/accomplish/improve A.

❖ Doing B will cost X and increase revenue/save Y over n years.

❖ Y > X.

Sample business cases

❖ http://www.contentstrategy101.com/

❖ 8 case studies

❖ Sample cost calculations

❖ Available September 2012

❖ Currently in final proofreading/production/panic stages

❖ Print, EPUB, and Kindle

❖ Or FREE on www.contentstrategy101.com

Content Strategy 101Transform Technical Content into a Business Asset

Sarah S. O’Keefe and Alan S. Pringle

Scriptorium Publishing Services, Inc.P.O. Box 12761

Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 USAinfo@scriptorium.comwww.scriptorium.com

Foreword by Ann Rockley

Technical content should be a business asset. Not a liability.

Without a content strategy, you waste money creating useless technical information that doesn’t support your business goals. Content Strategy 101 explains how to develop a strategy that:

Streamlines ine!cient publishing processesDelivers engaging, helpful contentControls costs

Don’t let bad technical content damage your reputation, shrink sales, and cause legal problems. Content Strategy 101 is an invaluable re-source for transforming your technical content into a business asset.

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Upcoming events

❖ Content strategy for tech comm webcast with Alan Pringle

❖ To DITA or not to DITA webcast with Alyssa Fox and Toni Mantych

❖ Lavacon conference (Portland, OR)

❖ tekom/tcworld (Germany)

❖ Register/more information at www.scriptorium.com/events

Questions?