1-98 (March 1998) Consulting by Wolfram Pichler Germany

In 1997 two developments in the area of networking have become evident:

1. Equipment manufacturers are no longer content with instruction manuals printed on paper. They are beginning to ask for online documentation as well - partly for distribution on CD ROM and partly for web presentation. So classical DTP documentation has to be prepared for interactive network use in addition to the usual form.
2. The method of documentation production - as far as other than in-house documentation is concerned - is changing from the freelancer workshop to a service network of 10 to 20 participants, which acts like a communication convoy, virtually cooperating via a network. This development enables large equipment manufacturers to outsource extensive and complex documentation jobs, negotiating with only one service organization.

 

Documentation for Network Use

Common publishing tools have developed in a way that has gradually enabled the output of not only offset films but also html and pdf files. Suddenly new distribution channels for our publications have appeared. As a publishing team, we can use Adobe Acrobat files for cross-platform cooperation.

Equipment manufacturers have started to use Acrobat files for distribution on CD ROM. They have discovered that Acrobat files readily serve as a technical database on which one can set up an interactive navigation interface.

The next step followed almost automatically. By using multimedia authoring tools one can add a presentation of corporate and product philosophy or even a catalogue to offer final customers the possibility of online ordering. For web purposes, the pdf files can be used in combination with html pages as a user interface for navigation.

 

TC Consultants Cooperating via Network

These multimedia jobs often require more than one expert. A photographer may be needed to take professional shots of devices or machines in a factory. A TC consultant will have to design the instruction manuals from scratch to pdf file. And a screen designer will have to organize the interactive user interface. If, for example, you have to design the online help for tomorrow's type of refrigerator, you will need a software programming expert. To draw up contracts between TC consultants and their corporate clients, you may need a lawyer (also to avoid product liability or copyright violations).

To gather these skills means assembling a team of experts who come together differently for each job. As a TC consultant, you might remember all the professionals that have successfully worked with you in the past and invite them to establish a small enterprise syndicate. The participants should know each other directly, or through other participants who know each other well enough to ensure mutual trust and that they can rely on a high quality contribution from each member.

As contributing professionals you might consider the following for your team or syndicate:

• Technical Writer
• Graphic Designer
• Technical Photographer
• Screen and Multimedia Designer
• Webmaster
• High-End Scan and Print Service provider
• Software Programmer
• Product Manager
• Technical Mother Tongue Translators
• Training Consultant
• Management Consultant
• Lawyer
• Overall Production Editor

All these individual professionals should be able to contribute complementary skills, thus avoiding competition between the participants. They need not reside in the same region since they will arrange their cooperation by electronic networking. To begin with, the participants may be spread over a whole country, although really they will be limited only by the "borders" of the internet.

 

Internet Based Cooperation

As soon as the mini-syndicate has constituted itself, it should established a WWW, FTP and mail server. There should be a common presentation of the services of the complete team, containing links to a presentation of each individual participant. The presentations should contain the scope of the services offered as well as a spotlight page displaying recent examples of job experiences and/or developments of new TC products and services, thus maintaining the web presentation up to date and regularly offering fresh information. The syndicate should establish a mailing list for internal communication and cooperation. This will keep all participants informed, even though they may not be involved in a current project. They will also require an ftp account for quick and comfortable distribution of multiple-megabyte multimedia files between participants and clients.

 

Commuconvoy - a Model for a Virtual Consulting Group

To meet the above-mentioned objectives, in 1997 several people established Commuconvoy to carry out highly efficient work-group publishing. It comprises a group of experts, each a specialist in a particular field, who can offer all services in technical documentation, consulting, and advertising. We can assemble both human resources and high-tech equipment for all kinds of projects. The greatest advantage, for our customers, is that there is only one interface between client and Commuconvoy. And Commuconvoy can communicate between partners in an extremely flexible way, even if its members are not located in a single office building, or within the same town.  

"transline Deutschland - Übersetzungsdienst für technische Übersetzung"