tekom-Jahrestagung 2012 - ActiveDoc

Content Strategies
Note: There are also cost
savings associated with
increasing reuse, which
decreases the amount
of content sent for
localization, but those
are not calculated here.
There are additional possibilities for cost savings, including the
following:
−−
Sharing content across the organization (rather than just within technical
communication content)
−−
Decreasing time to market
−−
Opening new markets (by increasing the number of supported languages)
−−
Eliminating manual conversion from one format to another
−−
Efficiently creating customized information products
Estimating implementation costs
With a reasonable estimate of cost savings, you can turn your attention
to the implementation side. The proposed system must be scaled appropriately.
For example, if you estimate savings of €100,000 per year,
a system that costs €1 million is not going to work. Ideally, you want to
show a positive return within three years. 12–18 months is better. Thus,
a reasonable cost for your system would be in the range of €100,000 to
€250,000. But what if a less expensive system (€50,000) can deliver most
of the cost savings (€75,000 per year)?
The system you choose will affect the cost savings realized, so there is a
process of weighing both sides of the business case to identify the best
possible investment.
The implementation cost estimate needs to consider the following components
(not all will be present in all solutions)
−−
Software and tools licensing, including content management system,
authoring tools, and publishing tools
−−
Content conversion
−−
Training
−−
Consulting
−−
Follow-on support
A spreadsheet to help with the business case calculation is available
online at bit.ly/TFPSLa
Portions excerpted from Content Strategy 101: Transform Technical Content
into a Business Asset by Sarah S. O’Keefe and Alan S. Pringle, ISBN
978-0-9828118-4-9. The full text of the book is available online at
www.contentstrategy101.com.
okeefe@scriptorium.com
tekom-Jahrestagung 2012
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