In The Press
SalesPage Uses MadCap Flare and Analyzer to Produce Documentation 25 Percent Faster
MadCap Flare Multi-Channel Authoring Software Lets Award-Winning CRM Provider Publish Online Help and Print Product Manuals from the Same Project
La Jolla, CA, USA – August 4, 2009 – MadCap Software, the leader in multi-channel content authoring and a showcase company for Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Visual Studio and Microsoft XPS, today announced that SalesPage Technologies, LLC has successfully implemented MadCap Flare multi-channel authoring software and MadCap Analyzer. MadCap’s state-of-the-art, native XML products are enabling SalesPage to produce online Help and print product documentation up to 25 percent faster than was previously possible using a traditional Help authoring tool.
Since 1983, SalesPage, which is headquartered in Kalamazoo, MI, has provided customers with highly customized customer relationship management (CRM) solutions based on its award-winning SalesPage foundation. Because every implementation is tailored to the individual business and technical needs of each customer, the online Help and documentation for SalesPage CRM solutions have to be customized as well.
“We are constantly updating documentation to reflect enhancements. We maintain and update at least 12 core product documentation projects, each of which is published as online Help and often in print as well. Then, for any given customer, we typically need to customize three or more of those projects,” explains Nancy Hutson Hale, director of SalesPage Education Services. “With MadCap Flare, we have the single-source publishing and content reuse that enables us to deliver the documentation and online Help our customers need, when they need it.”
For nearly a decade, SalesPage relied on a traditional proprietary Help authoring tool to create its online Help and documentation. However, the Education Services team began to run into increasing roadblocks. The previous tool only supported the Internet Explorer browser, and SalesPage customers wanted the flexibility to use different Web browsers. Additionally, the older Help authoring tool was designed for delivering online content, but it lacked the functionality the team needed to automatically generate print documentation. SalesPage authors created macros to automate part of the process. However, they still needed to spend several hours manually cleaning up the print documents.
“We looked at several products, but the decision to use Flare was an easy one,” said Ms. Hutson Hale. “Flare provided much cleaner input and output in multiple formats; we could import our existing projects and immediately take advantage of Flare’s features, and Flare was more affordable than other solutions on the market.”
Print output has seen the most dramatic benefits of using MadCap Flare. Using the previous authoring solution, it would take up to 12 hours to edit and format a 300- to 400-page print document. By contrast, Ms. Hutson Hale notes, generating the print version with Flare takes just a few minutes, and then team members need only spend a couple of hours editing it.
“With Flare, we are able to complete our print documentation and online Help projects at least 25 percent faster, and our online Help is a great deal more responsive, with a much more robust and reliable search component,” says Ms. Hutson Hale.
Other efficiencies have included easier handling of nested steps and the use of conditional text. In the past, creating documentation that included nested levels of steps required a great deal of manual resetting. By contrast, Flare’s deep support for cascading style sheets allows authors to automate the numbering and levels for nested steps, saving time and reducing errors. The use of variables and conditional tags with Flare has also helped to cut project time.
“We use conditional text heavily, since we customize our Help for the tailored applications we provide each client,” Ms. Hutson Hale explains. “Each client’s SalesPage application includes some of our standard feature sets and often includes custom ones as well. With Flare, we can create content that is tailored to each of our clients, but it is all from the same source.”
Since 2008, SalesPage has taken advantage of the comprehensive features in Flare 4.0 for publishing long, complex print documents. The SalesPage team has also appreciated and made use of the extensive analysis and reporting capabilities of MadCap Analyzer.
“We really like the additional print support in Flare, especially being able to create extremely clean output directly from Flare and to define the format for standard print-only elements, such as the title page. We also appreciate being able to generate an accurate index and table of contents,” says Ms. Hutson Hale. “At the same time, Analyzer has been invaluable in allowing us to make sure that our source files are as clean as possible. Using Analyzer, we can see where that’s not the case and fix the content before it is ever published.”
Ms. Hutson Hale adds, “Since we first began using Flare in 2008, MadCap’s responsive support and continued product enhancements have enabled us to provide a first-class experience for our customers through attractive, customized Help content and print documents that complement our award-winning software.”
“As a leading provider of customized CRM solutions, SalesPage recognizes that online Help and documentation contribute to the customer’s success in taking full advantage of a product,” said Anthony Olivier, MadCap co-founder and CEO. “We are excited by the roles of our groundbreaking MadCap Flare and Analyzer products in empowering SalesPage to deliver best-in-class online Help and print manuals to complement its market-leading solutions. We look forward to working with SalesPage to extend its use of our software in further enhancing the experience of its customers.”
About SalesPage Technologies, LLC
Founded in 1983, SalesPage (www.salespage.com) is committed to providing companies with effective CRM applications and related technical services. SalesPage collaborates with each client to plan, build and implement a tailored, browser-based CRM solution. Each client’s solution starts with the award-winning SalesPage foundation, then integrates the client’s own best strategies, leveraging their technology investments and readily adapting as the client’s needs change and grow. The company’s growing list of global business partners for SalesPage solutions includes Allianz, BlackRock, Cambridge Investment Research, Eaton Vance, Entergy, Federated Investors, Friday Ad, ING Funds, Scottish and Southern Energy, and Twinings.
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.
