Have you got a documentation backlog that you really would like to make progress on? Perhaps the writing work never got completed when you did those Y2K and GST upgrades? Perhaps your staff have tried doing documentation with Microsoft Word, but it's all got too demanding and time was short? Do you have shelves of not-completely-correct manuals, that few people find and refer to anyway? Maybe you gave up on Word and tried to use Windows Help (CHM files) so that your documentation was genuinely online, but found this rather hard as well? Do you worry about downtime and other risks to your business, because the documentation isn't all there?
If some of these sound familiar, could we help to solve your problem? Wouldn't you really like to have documentation that:
If so, please read on to find out more about our solution.
The tool we use is The Manuals Machine, a new XML-based method for building online documentation. This highly productive approach:
And because The Manuals Machine uses open-standards XML technology, adopting it will not lock you into proprietary file formats - documentation pages can be viewed, edited and processed using dozens of products that are now available including the major web browsers. Unlike CHM files, documentation prepared with The Manuals Machine can be used on all major software platforms, by reading it under Mozilla.
Our approach is:
Our 'Getting Started' offer is available to businesses located in the Greater Sydney region. It's an inexpensive three-stage starter package, to show you the road to documentation success and to get you moving forward on your projects with real visible results.
The solution we offer is to set you up to use The Manuals Machine to develop an online documentation library that is available and instantly accessible on your network. The three stages are:
At the end of the second stage you'll have a Library structure online on your network, you'll have identified the initial Volumes to include in your Library. For each Volume we'll have worked with you to prepare a cover page that defines its business or application area, objectives and scope. You'll also have chosen the first Volume to work on in detail, and we'll have developed a draft Table-of-Contents, dimensioned the work and developed a project plan.
At the end of the third stage you'll have real results - a working online documentation Volume. This will have a complete contents structure, and many pages already prepared. If there are relevant existing documents we'll convert them to PDF and incorporate into the Volume. Most importantly, you'll have capability: a working set of tools and practices for adding pages and continuing the production of content, and you'll have staff trained and motivated - because they will already be getting visible results that they can share with their colleagues and be proud of.
We're not asking you to make financial commitments without knowing what you're getting into. You need to see the process in operation and test the outcomes on your users. We're confident you'll be convinced, so we'll carry the risk of putting our time into your project:
We say that you should not be expected to make significant outlays, before you see results. And we want you to see results within 2-3 weeks. You can expect our Getting Started programme to cost less than $8,000, with one-third of this for the second stage and two-thirds for the third. We'll work with you to set and agree a scope and deliverables to fit these budgets, and also to work within the very real constraint of your staffs' availability to make their contribution.
(Indicated prices are Australian dollars, exclusive of GST).
During the third stage we'll discuss what type and quantity of involvement you'd like from SMH Systems for the next few weeks or into the longer term. Depending on your staff skills and availability, this could be:
Interested? Call us today!
Possible Areas for documentation
More info on The Manuals Machine
'The Manuals Machine' is a registered trademark of SMH Systems & Networking Pty Ltd.