LeaseTeam Uses MadCap Flare, MadCap Analyzer, and MadCap Capture for Agile Delivery of Software Documentation Platform, WebHelp and Integrated Application Help

LeaseTeam is a leading provider of software and business solutions to more than 250 companies in the equipment finance and leasing industry throughout North America. For 25 years, the company has empowered these businesses with complete, configurable solutions for managing their transaction workflows.

With a focus on continually enhancing customers’ productivity, LeaseTeam supports its innovative solutions through a combination of documentation, WebHelp, and integrated application Help. Since 2008, the company’s solutions of choice for delivering this content have been three products from the MadPak technical communications suite: MadCap Flare, MadCap Analyzer, and MadCap Capture.

A Complete Rewrite: Software and Documentation

A few years ago, LeaseTeam embarked on an overall technology update in which the company began rewriting its software. At the same time, the company saw an opportunity to modernize its software documentation and Help assets.

“We wanted to evolve our system and improve our user experience simultaneously,” recalled Pat Frodyma, LeaseTeam vice president of technical writing. “There wasn't a lot of documentation to support our products, so we knew that if we were going to completely rewrite our software, we would also have to revamp the way we delivered the documentation to support it.”

LeaseTeam began evaluating products on the market that would help the company develop the documentation and Help assets for its products. Among those offerings was the MadCap Flare native XML software for topic-based authoring and single-source publishing. A trial use of MadCap Flare helped LeaseTeam to quickly make its choice.

“We didn't have anything in-house, so it was my call to decide what tools we were going to use,” recalled Pat. “After two weeks of working with a Flare demo, we bought the MadPak Suite.”

Quick Ramp-up with MadCap Software

LeaseTeam soon began using MadCap Flare to rewrite its documentation, develop a Web-based Help system, and integrate Help features within its applications, providing intuitive, context-sensitive content to answer their questions.

“Flare is very intuitive and easy to use, and MadCap support is phenomenal,” Pat noted. “They have always been quick to help with any issues we've encountered, and always provide excellent feedback for our solution.”

In addition to MadCap support, video tutorials, the user forum, and samples also helped to get LeaseTeam writers up and running on Flare quickly.

“The user forum is what really turned us on,” Pat recalled. “We could throw anything out there and have a host of peers share their answers and experiences. More times than not, we could fix our problem and find new solutions.”

Single-source Publishing of Multiple Help Outputs

As LeaseTeam continues to rewrite its software, Help assets are being developed in parallel. Significantly, single-source publishing capabilities within MadCap Flare ensure that as updates, rewrites and changes are made daily, the edits are reflected across all of the company’s Help assets—both online and within its applications.

Additionally, LeaseTeam maintains a couple versions of its software, and Flare's conditional tagging functionality makes it easy to generate content for new product builds accurately across different systems.

“It's a no brainer. With Flare, we don't have to duplicate the majority of our content because everything is identified correctly with conditional tags,” Pat explains. “This helps me minimize the footprint of the Flare project itself.”

He adds, “A critical part of our application build process is the integrated Help being built within. With the single-source and conditional tagging features in Flare, I know that I've got the right Help going for each version.”

Ensuring Content Quality

Once LeaseTeam builds content using MadCap Flare, the company’s writers then use MadCap Analyzer to thoroughly check the Flare project for any misnomers, such as broken hyperlinks and unused images.

“We conduct continuous builds of our applications and Flare project every night,” Pat notes. “MadCap Analyzer not only lets me find things I can get rid of; it also gives me a gauge of growth.”

Integrated Graphics

LeaseTeam also adds Help graphics to MadCap Flare content using the MadCap Capture tool for screen capture and image editing. The graphics provide an intuitive, visual way to help to users learn LeaseTeam’s software.

At the same time, because MadCap Capture and MadCap Flare are integrated, it is easy to embed graphics in the system. In fact, conditional tags in MadCap Flare are also reflected in images embedded using MadCap Capture.

“Our application is huge, and you are working with lots of screens, pop-ups and tabs,” Pat explains. “Having all of those graphic items available as screenshots for reference is really wonderful. The ability to seamlessly get this going with Capture and Flare together makes it even better.”

Engaging New Possibilities

Looking ahead, LeaseTeam plans to continue optimizing its user experience through the software documentation platform and Help assets.

“Our primary focus is making sure our users get the most up-to-date software and support for it,” Pat explains.

With a growing roster of international clients, LeaseTeam is considering the possibility of adopting MadCap Lingo to translate its documentation and Help assets into other languages. Additionally, LeaseTeam is looking into MadCap Feedback for added community engagement and an enhanced user experience.

Pat continues, “It's a really exciting road ahead that we look forward to exploring with MadCap Software.”