In The Press
Intentional Design Uses MadCap Flare to Complete Enterprise Health Management System Training Documentation Project in Six Weeks
MadCap Flare Chosen Over Content Management Systems for Project, Facilitated Delivery of 12 Print and Online Deliverables
La Jolla, CA, USA – SEPTEMBER 29, 2008 — MadCap Software, the leader in multi-channel content authoring and a showcase company for Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Visual Studio 2005 and Microsoft XPS, today announced that Intentional Design has completed a major health management training documentation project in six weeks using MadCap Flare. By taking advantage of Flare’s topic-based authoring and single-source, multi-channel publishing, three Intentional Design consultants produced 12 print and online deliverables in roughly half the time usually allocated for projects of similar scope.
Intentional Design, based in Vancouver, Canada, is a consulting firm that specializes in helping organizations to create and better manage their business-critical content. In Spring 2008, the firm was contracted by a regional health authority implementing a comprehensive enterprise health management system. The authority required a range of training materials to support the new system, which would be delivered as Word documents, PDF files and online content. Because of the tight project timeframe, Intentional Design needed a content solution that would enable rapid development and modification across all three channels.
“We looked at a number of authoring and content management system (CMS) options,” said Rahel Bailie, president of Intentional Design, former board member of the Society of Technical Communication (STC), and current chair of the Canada West Chapter of CM Pros. “I couldn’t imagine us building the content in a CMS and having to struggle with XSL style sheets. We couldn’t have developed the system in time, and ongoing changes would have been exorbitantly expensive.”
“In contrast,” Ms. Bailie noted, “Flare was the best fit for the project with its topic-based authoring and ability to publish to multiple channels from a single source file. It meant we could simply turn on or off the variance to deliver training materials and supporting documentation to different audiences in the appropriate format.”
The project included 12 deliverables from a single pool of content: 3 course instructor guides, 3 student guides, 2 user guides, 2 online tutorials for different groups of users, a print version of one online tutorial, and a topic-based knowledge base. Using Flare, a change in the source content would be reflected over any number of these deliverables, depending on the topic. Flare also generated the content in Word files, so Intentional Design’s customer could easily mark it up. At times, content was published in Word for the customer to revise two or three times a day, enabling a highly collaborative and efficient process of review.
“Flare allowed us to become heroes in the eyes of our client,” said Ms. Bailie. “Using Flare, we would put a placeholder in for a topic, so that once our customer gave us the topic, we could produce it in a day. And one time, when we were well into the project, our client asked how many extra months it would take to produce a knowledge base. I explained that, by generating it as online Help, we could complete it with the rest of the project. That’s the power of Flare.”
“Intentional Design is a leading authority on best practices for content authoring and delivery,” said Anthony Olivier, MadCap co-founder and CEO. “We are thrilled by the role our state-of-the-art Flare authoring tool played in applying those world-class practices to a large-scale content development project in record time. It’s a great example of how the combined power and ease of implementation with our products, versus more expensive CMS solutions, lets customers achieve rapid success.”
About Intentional Design
Intentional Design Inc., founded in 2002, is a consultancy that focuses on performance improvement for communication by helping to organizations create and better manage business-critical content. The firm focuses on its core competencies in the areas of content development, content management and user experience. Based in Vancouver, Canada, Intentional Design develops content solutions for leading businesses and government organizations throughout Canada, the United States, Europe, and Australia. For more information, visit, http://www.intentionaldesign.ca.
About MadCap Software
MadCap Software is a trusted resource for thousands of companies around the globe for single-source, multi-channel authoring and publishing solutions designed to streamline the process of developing and delivering training content, learning and development programs, technical documentation, online Help, knowledge bases, and more. From authoring, publishing and translation, to cloud-based content management system, to contribution and review in the cloud, you can streamline content delivery and manage the entire content development lifecycle with MadCap Software. MadCap Software’s services include product training, consulting services, translation and localization, and an advanced developer certification program. Headquartered in San Diego, California, with offices in Austin, TX, MadCap Software is home to some of the most experienced software architects and product experts in the content development industry.
