Structured Content News & Articles

SDL (news, site) continues to make headlines in the content management industry. First, there was the announcement of the results from the 2009 Automated Translation Survey. Next, there was the announcement of the new head of North American web content management.

Now the hot news is about the combination of two of SDL's flagship products. A combination that SDL executives believe will revolutionize the way technical documentation is delivered to end users.

Companies that adopt structured content have consistently seen it accelerate the creation, simplify the maintenance and improve the quality of their content. They've seen structured content drive higher quality information, reduced publishing costs and faster times to market for their technical manuals, policy documents, financial information and other content and content-based products and services.

So how does an organization -- a department, division or an entire company -- get on the structured content bandwagon? Or, if it's already on the bandwagon, how does it expand the use of structured content within its operations? Here's a start.

Enterprise-wide structured content initiatives are most effective when they take into account the needs of some of their least technical, but most valuable content contributors -- the subject matter experts. Ignore the daily work habits and common tools of this group and your initiative is sure to suffer.

So you have a ton of information residing in one or more content repositories and you are having a heck of a time finding what you need to get your work done. Guess that Document Management system you invested in just isn't cutting it for you. Here's a product that will help you classify and categorize all that information -- and it supports over 30 languages to boot -- SAS Content Categorization.

Bruce Sharpe of JustSystems gave us some great examples on how some businesses are leading the way by using structured content to improve revenues, reduce costs and mitigate risks. Now, he continues that discussion with some approaches to structured content, ones he argues that can drive business efficiencies and profitability.

Companies create competitive advantage with technology by building on current practice in ways that others in their industries have yet to discover or implement. Structured content can support a wide range of business activities, from more common and well understood classic examples of structured content to emerging applications that help organizations become leaders in their fields.

The rewards those leaders realize can be significant, in terms of revenues, operational costs, or other business measures, as well as in terms of new skills, knowledge, and expertise that create true, lasting competitive advantage.