Case study: good documentation reduces costs and increases sales
SDL International (www.sdl.com) is a medium-sized software house. One of its products is the SDLX translation memory system. (This is a tool for aiding human translators. Words and phrases are translated and saved in a database. When those words and phrases re-appear the previous translation is automatically offered to the translator.) SDLX has been on the market for many years, and is a tried and tested product.
Background
Much documentation was available for SDLX. There were user guides (one for each software module), frequently asked question (FAQ) sheets, online help, self-paced training guides, 'how to' guides, and various other items of help. SDL realised, however, that the documentation was not presenting the right image. Although much of the needed information was available, users couldn't find it easily. It was fragmented, it made the product look difficult to use, and it did not really help new users of the software.
TechScribe won the contract to re-design the documentation. This new documentation has cut support costs and directly lead to new sales.
What we did
First there was an initial briefing session in which SDL personnel explained the purpose and functions of the SDLX software. Then TechScribe investigated user requirements. Who were the typical users? What were the most common tasks that they performed and with which software modules? What were the most common problems? In which order were tasks performed?
Based on this, we designed a single 'Getting Started' guide which explained the essential tasks that users performed. An introductory chapter explained typical scenarios in which users might work, and the software modules were related to these working patterns. Diagrams and real, but simple, examples helped users to see the overall picture.
This 'Getting Started' guide was just under half the size of the original manuals (35 sides compared to approximately 80 sides).
We also produced online help (WinHelp). This contained a mix of task-based material and reference material. Information that was available in the 'Getting Started' guide was generally not repeated in the online help, but users were told exactly where in the 'Getting Started' guide they could find any information that they needed (the guide was also available in electronic format, so users were guaranteed to have a copy).
The online help included the separate items of help that had been previously available, so that now it contained FAQs, trouble-shooting information and so on. Instead of many documents to search, users now only had to look in two places ('Getting Started' or online help) to find answers to their questions.
Would you like to see what TechScribe did? Then download the user guide and online help that we created.
Results
Reduce support costs
The new documentation was shipped with a new release of the software. An immediate effect was to reduce the number of support calls to the help desk, particularly from new users.
"One noticeable affect of the new documentation from TechScribe was to significantly reduce the number of telephone calls and email requests to our support desk."
Denise Baldwin, SDLX Software Support Manager.
Generate new sales
The new documentation was instrumental in generating new sales.
"This customer says his decision to buy is not just because of the great product but also because of the clear and concise instructions in the 'Getting Started' manual making it easy to get to grips with SDLX.
I would like to convey my thanks to all the team for their efforts in improving the manuals to such an extent that they become instrumental in procuring orders.
This initial order has been made for a specific project and there will be more orders to follow."
Steve Westover, Product Technology Program Manager.
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