CIDM Matters

Anuradha Shukla
April 15, 2021 (updated 5/25/21)

Adobe Technical Communication delivers best-in-class solutions and services that help businesses streamline end-to-end content workflows. With our cutting-edge solutions, teams can effortlessly collaborate on content creation, manage, and reuse assets efficiently, and seamlessly publish it across multiple channels and devices. Published content can be tailored to audiences, increasing relevance and consumption. All this, and more, while offering the highest return on investment. […]

Kathy Madison, Comtech Services
April 1, 2021

It’s widely known that when employees are satisfied with their jobs, they’re much more likely to be happy, more engaged, and more productive. In other words, they are having fun. But how do we know if our team members are satisfied with their job and what are we doing to keep them motivated and engaged?  Several CIDM members discussed this topic in a recent manager roundtable, and here are some of the best practices shared during the session. […]

Kathy Madison, Comtech Services
March 15, 2021

Want to learn the newest information-development trends — how to make your team and documentation more inclusive — what are the best practices in the “new normal” — what’s new in DITA 2.0? Join us for ConVEx, April 26-28, 2021!  See all the details.

ConVEx has something for everyone, with topics like content strategy, DITA, localization, management issues, media, metrics, publishing, searchability, technology, user experience, writing standards, and more! Sessions are offered during standard working hours in North America, Europe, and Asia. If you are a night owl or early bird, you are welcome to join any and all sessions regardless of your time zone. […]

Vishal George Palliyathu, Manju Joseph, and Bijo Jessy Francis, Cisco
March 15, 2021

The Git-Markdown-HTML ecosystem has had many early adopters in the Technical Communication discipline and is often a big boon for the nimble-footed start-ups who need to get their mandatory documentation through the door, with fewer hassles. The trio has the appeal of being open-sourced and setting up the ecosystem is adventurous enough in its own right. […]

Christina Brunk, Extreme Networks
March 1, 2021

Remember the days of working in offices, meeting face-to-face, and in-person conferences with travel, hotels, and free meals? While the global pandemic has put a stop to all types of personal interactions, this only means we are forced to get creative and do things virtually that we would normally do face-to-face. This year, I decided to use this to my advantage and plan a Virtual Global Summit.

As the leader of the Information Development team at Extreme Networks, I have held global meetings in the past; however, budgetary constraints have kept me from planning one recently. This year, I didn’t have to obtain approvals for travel expenses, so I took my cue from Nike and Just Did It. […]

February 15, 2021

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Shubham Singhal, Fiserv
February 15, 2021

While people say, ‘Content is the King’, technical writers know the pain that people rarely read their work. Despite the tremendous efforts, there is no or little success in motivating people to read. So, where is the gap? What is the thing that writers miss?

I am not sure that the problem persists with the writers. If they are doing so much hard work, they must have considered all the variables to improve the readability. I mean look at the conferences, papers, and interactions that are happening at the global level. With so much information and thought exchange, it is virtually impossible that something was not tried. […]

Anu Singh, Fiserv
February 1, 2021

Let’s begin with the Industrial Revolution that started off with the manufacturing industry and the heart of the revolution was laid around productivity, scale, automation, and use of technology. With the advent of time, this industrial revolution transformed into a technology revolution that fosters personalized experiences with more on-demand supply at a reduced cost.

The focus of Industry 4.0 expanded itself to include optimization of resources for enhanced efficiency, product distribution using multiple platforms while emphasizing localization and turning the overall experience to be the One-Stop solution using a single window approach. As we are ever-evolving, this One-Stop solution has manifested itself beyond manufacturing and is relevant to almost every industry now including the technical content industry. […]

Dana Aubin
January 15, 2021

At the same time that the product documentation team at Allscripts was changing vendors for our product documentation portal, the IT team was changing platforms for the customer hub where customers access the documentation portal, download software, get support, pay bills, and so on. Also, the federated search tool in the old customer portal was being retired by Google, so a new tool was implemented. These changes occurring concurrently gave us a unique opportunity to integrate the portals before rolling them out to improve customer experience with both portals.

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Arun Chandran, Dell EMC
January 15, 2021

Every document written is reviewed to ensure it represents accurate information. The review and approval process can make a document or break a document. To get the best possible result, every stakeholder should efficiently and clearly provide their feedback. […]