Global Innovator in Actionable Intelligence Solutions, Verint, Relies on Single-source Publishing of MadCap Flare to Deliver Responsive HTML5 Help and PDF Documentation

Verint^® Systems Inc. provides actionable intelligence solutions for optimizing customer engagement; improving security intelligence; and addressing fraud, risk, and compliance. More than 10,000 organizations in 180 countries, including over 80% of the Fortune 100, use Verint’s solutions.

Customers and partners alike use Verint solutions to capture, distill, and analyze complex information sources to enrich customer interactions, improve business processes, and optimize their workforces. Today, Verint relies on the single-source, multi-channel publishing functionality of MadCap Flare to deliver content for these users.

The Move to Single-source

For years, Verint relied on a two-step process to produce PDFs and help, using one tool to create PDFs for its solution guides. Then, using a separate tool, the company converted these guides into online documentation. The process required multiple manual steps, which were complicated and time-consuming. Moreover, it made managing quality difficult.

“We really pushed our content development tool to the limit in terms of text insets, conditions, and variables. And then we had to convert the content with another tool to produce help. It got to the point where we couldn’t count on some of our online Help to generate exactly the same way twice,” recalled Barb Einarsen, manager of content development at Verint. “Basic maintenance was so difficult with our previous tools. They weren’t flexible enough to keep up with all of the layers we had.”

Realizing the need for a more efficient approach to developing and delivering content, the company began looking at alternative solutions on the market, including XML and content management tools. The search led to the decision to migrate to a true single-source multi-channel publishing solution with MadCap Flare.

“Flare’s XML support aligned with our desire to move to a more open XML system. And we were immediately attracted to Flare’s comprehensive functionality, such as the multiple outputs and targets supported by single-source publishing,” recalled Einarsen. “When we evaluated XML tools, we found they weren’t intuitive enough or packaged together as a product. Flare allows for the simplicity and openness that come with XML tools without the complexity of having our global writers become XML editor experts.”

Smooth Migration to Flare

The migration began in November 2015. To facilitate the conversion process, Verint hired a Flare consultant through MadSkills, created a Flare initiative team, and created an instructional “Flare: Getting Started Guide.” This guide provided the global team with the steps for migrating to Flare and generating outputs, along with usage and troubleshooting tips.

“We felt a great sense of accomplishment that we could get such a variety of people to learn how to use Flare, given the different levels of experience we have,” Einarsen said. “Very few of our writers had any prior Flare experience.”

Streamlined Delivery via Single-source Publishing

Among all the features of MadCap Flare, single-source publishing has had the most significant impact on how the Verint writing team develops and publishes content.

In the past, the team had a thick publishing checklist with steps that needed to be completed in the content authoring tool to prepare the files for completing the Help build in the second tool. Then, they’d have to manually tweak conditions and variables for each update, which sometimes resulted in user errors. Now, the writing team can develop and edit content within a single MadCap Flare project, and use targets to publish numerous PDF deliverables and multiple online Help systems Verint provides with each product release.

“Flare’s single-source publishing functionality is the biggest win for us. Whether we’re creating PDFs or Help, we can now just build different targets with the conditions and variable definitions already defined for each target, ensuring consistency,” Einarsen explained. “Not only has it simplified the process of creating content, it’s also saved us a tremendous amount of time.”

Einarsen added, “Using Flare is a night and day difference compared to our previous tools. Flare lets us publish simply and instantly; now, it takes just seconds versus the hours required in the past. That’s a huge benefit for us, since we have to maintain both our new and existing documentation. We’re able to do so much more now, as things are far more efficient.”

Fostering Content Reuse

Verint has also gained significant efficiencies through the extensive use of topics, conditions, variables, and snippets in MadCap Flare.

“In the past, changes had to be made manually across the different files, which was labor-intensive for each product release,” Einarsen recalled. “With Flare, we can pick up topics and reuse them in a flexible and easy manner, and the ability to automate changes across all files via snippets and variables has drastically simplified the process and reduced user error. It gives us so much freedom to produce all these different outputs with minimal effort.”

Verint also relies on a combination of conditions, snippets, page layouts, CSS files, and skins created in MadCap Flare to easily customize different versions of its PDF guides for the company’s partners.

“We have partners for which we rebrand, so our whole suite of content has to be tailored and republished for them,” explained Einarsen. “With Flare, we can customize and automate changes for each version using table of contents and target definitions. This saves a lot of trouble and effort.”

Enhanced User Experience

Beyond improving the writers’ efficiency, Verint takes advantage of MadCap Flare’s HTML5 responsive design functionality to provide a modern, intuitive Web experience for users. This enables Verint’s online Help content to adjust automatically to users’ different screens–from desktops, to notebooks, smartphones, and tablets.

“The HTML5 responsive design feature in Flare is terrific,” said Einarsen. “Being able to deliver a properly proportioned view of our online Help, whether it’s on a tablet screen or a monitor, can provide our customers and partners a whole new level of flexibility to access content however they want.”

Verint works to enhance the experience of customers and partners in two other ways. To help users of its online Help understand key concepts, Verint provides a glossary using MadCap Flare, which gives readers the definitions of terms found in the topics. Additionally, the team utilizes the feedback button feature in Flare.

“Before, users would have to manually go to their email and type in our email address to send feedback,” Einarsen recalled. “With Flare’s feedback button functionality, users can easily send feedback from within whichever Help topic window they are in. This encourages feedback and provides some context automatically by recording the topic name as part of the communication.”

Cost-Effective Collaboration

Collectively, Verint has a team of technical writers across North America and Europe. To foster collaboration among the different writers, Verint takes advantage of MadCap Flare’s support for integration with Microsoft^® Team Foundation Server^® (TFS) for version control. Using TFS, every writer has access to everyone else’s material and can directly check files in and out of Flare to create or update content in a central location.

“Flare’s seamless integration with TFS is huge,” Einarsen explained. “Because Flare and TFS can do everything we need, we don’t have to spend the money and resources to implement a traditional content management system. This is a testament to the power and flexibility of Flare, and also to the usability it gives our writers to produce content.”

Collaboration also extends to the Verint team’s experiences working with MadCap technical support.

“MadCap support has been great,” Einarsen said. “The support team has been consistent throughout our migration process and has made it a lot easier at every stage, from purchasing until now. We are looking forward to working with Flare and the MadCap team to see where we can take our documentation next.”