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Vacon Plc

Vacon Plc. Future of multilingual content management in product documentation. Pasi Savola, Documentation Manager. Vacon in a nutshell. Established 1993 in Vaasa, by a group of 13 persons Listed in Helsinki Stock Exchange in December 2000 In 2012, the turnover was 388 MEUR

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Vacon Plc

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  1. VaconPlc Future of multilingual content management in product documentation Pasi Savola,Documentation Manager

  2. Vacon in a nutshell Established 1993 in Vaasa, by a group of 13 persons Listed in Helsinki Stock Exchange in December 2000 In 2012, the turnover was 388 MEUR About 1600 persons working for Vacon globally Production and R&D facilities in China, India, Italy and the USA. Sales offices in 29 countries Vacon concentrates on one product only, AC drives for a large variety of industrial applications AC drives are used for controlling the speed of electric motors, with different software for different applications, such as pumps, lifts, conveyors, paper machines, etc. -> Save energy, enhance processes -> Renewable energy sources Vacon PPT

  3. Product documentation and content management, current situation •Our products have installation and software manuals • The manuals are localized in about 25 different languages • Content is created and updated with Adobe Framemaker, some manuals still in MS Word format Challenges: -> Vast amount of content -> The information is not structured, same content in many books -> Writing, update and localization processes challenging to manage, risk of errors -> Vacon has specialized vocabulary -> Content is updated twice a year Vacon PPT

  4. Product documentation and content management, next steps The production and localization of user and service documentation have been outsourced to two different partners -> Main development steps being taken: XML, STE, specialized technical glossary in all Vacon Group languages Vacon PPT

  5. XML All product documentation content is being recreated in DITA-based modular environment -> About 40-50% of Vacon manuals’ content can be reused in several different documents -> Texts are being made more generic -> more reusable -> Publishing made automatic + Uniform look and feel -> Modules are updated in one location only + Improved accuracy and time-to-market + Less writing resources needed + Savings in localization process Vacon PPT

  6. STE All product documentation content is being recreated according to Simplified Technical English standard -> General STE vocabulary restricted to about 1000 words -> Vacon-specific vocabulary imported to the system as a separate module -> Only STE-approved terms allowed in authoring, short sentences and bulleted lists preferred + Clear and understandable user manuals + Improved accuracy and time-to-market + Less writing resources needed + Savings in localization process Goal: Clear and uniform environment of Vacon technical product information! Vacon PPT

  7. Vacon glossary in all languages Along with XML and STE, a special glossary of challenging Vacon terminology is being created -> Consists of about 800 terms at the moment -> Includes special terms considered especially challenging in translations -> The glossary is being localized to all Vacon Group languages + Minimizing errors in language versions + Reducing quality issues + Savings in localization processes with developed translation memories Goal: Clear and uniform environment of Vacon technical product information in all languages! Vacon PPT

  8. Points to be considered in content creation • Whether inhouse, or outsourced, always use professionals • Train the writers in the area of the business • Consider carefully, which technology to use in content creation -> MS Word is OK, but in a certain stage, the need of special tools increases. -> When the amount of data and translations increase, have a business case made for implementing a Content Management System. A big task but brings benefits in the future • Less is more! -> Reduce the amount of content where possible • Less is more! -> Do not repeat yourself! Vacon PPT

  9. Points to be considered in localizing your content • Whether inhouse, or outsourced, always use professionals, invest in quality partnerships • Commit your international subsidiaries/sales offices to validating the translations -> Quality is good and local cultural elements also considered • Create a precise language strategy • Keep the management informed about cost structure • Develop the partnerships continuously, challenge them! • If you have special terminology, make a glossary and have it translated • Less is more! -> If you have a lot of content and language versions, every reduction in content pays off Vacon PPT

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