Any business that produces and manages large volumes of content on a regular basis will agree: without the right tools, content mismanagement can quickly spiral out of control, hurting overall user experience and your bottom line.
This ever-growing problem is why more and more organizations rely on authoring management platforms: the Swiss Army knives of content creation, organization and dissemination.
Author-it
One of the most robust authoring platforms is Author-it, which features component-based content which is easily accessible and reusable based on structurally rich content. Features include:
Multi-channel publishing: Create content once and deliver it anywhere in a variety of document types and web formats, without manually adjusting or formatting content for individual outputs. Author-it uses your source content and simplifies the publishing process for you at the click of a button. Author-it provides Magellan, ProCSS, XHTML, HTML and various other powerful forms of output.
Variant management: With variables you can easily customize documentation by creating variants for different teams, roles and locations. Variant capabilities also allow you to easily make any necessary changes, simply by updating the affected object.
Review and approval workflows: Review content and changes as and when they happen. Your team can interact, comment, and suggest content changes simultaneously with third-party experts. You have the power to accept or reject suggestions and give it your stamp of approval.
Authoring assistance: Author-it dramatically increases your ability to reuse content by incorporating triggered suggestions of previously reviewed content at the point of authoring. With Author-it, every single word is indexed within the CCMS and is consistent to the way the content was written, so you can discover and reuse content as you type – saving you time, money, and hassles.
What are authoring management platforms
Authoring management platforms are software systems used to facilitate the creation, editing and publishing of technical documentation. These platforms typically provide a wide range of tools and features that make these tasks easier, especially in the management of very large volumes of documentation.
Some common features of authoring management platforms include:
- Collaboration tools, such as version control and workflow management, to help teams of technical and non-technical writers work together on documentation projects
- Templates and style guides to help technical writers create consistent, professional-looking documents
- Integration with other software tools, such as component content management systems (CCMS) and translation management systems (TMS), to help automate and streamline the documentation process
- Search and navigation tools to help users find the information they need within large, unwieldy volumes
- Analytics and reporting tools to help writers track the performance and effectiveness of their documentation
Overall, authoring management platforms are designed to relieve technical writers of particularly tedious and repetitive tasks through automation, thereby freeing them up to create higher-quality documentation more efficiently and effectively.
Who uses authoring management platforms
Professional technical writers are typically the primary users of authoring management platforms, but these tools are by no means exclusive to them. It’s not uncommon for collaborators to use these platforms, such as subject matter experts (SMEs), editors and other stakeholders involved in the documentation process.
These platforms may also be used by professionals who work with technical documentation only occasionally, such as project managers, translators and IT professionals.
Many industries use authoring management platforms to streamline their documentation and content delivery processes, from mid-size businesses to government agencies to multinational enterprises. Some of the most common industries include:
- Consumer goods and retail
- Government services
- eLearning and academic institutions
- Finance and banking
- Aerospace and defense
- Energy, manufacturing and mining
- Pharmaceuticals and healthcare
What are the benefits of using authoring management platforms
There are many benefits to using authoring management platforms, for both technical writers’ daily activities and businesses’ bottom lines. Some of the key benefits include:
1. Improved collaboration
Authoring management platforms typically include collaboration tools, such as version control and workflow management, that make it easier for teams of writers to work together on documentation projects. This can help improve communication and coordination among team members, leading to better-quality documentation.
2. Greater consistency and professionalism
Authoring management platforms often include templates and style guides that help writers create consistent, professional-looking documentation. This can improve the overall quality and appearance of the documentation while making it easier for users to find the information they need in a familiar environment.
3. Increased efficiency and productivity
Authoring management platforms automate and streamline much of the documentation management process, saving technical writers both time and effort. Business shouldn’t discount the potential gains from cutting back on even the smallest-seeming of tasks, such as reformatting fonts and page layouts.
4. Easier multimedia tools
Multimedia content is an absolute necessity for most modern users, increasing user engagement and understanding regardless of industry. An advanced authoring management platform, such as Author-it, allows writers to add videos, audio and images to their technical documents without futzing around with code.
5. Improved user experience
In addition to providing familiar templates for users to navigate, authoring management platforms typically include automated search tools such as tables of contents and keyword search functions. These allow users to get the most out of a product or service’s documentation without much effort on the users’ part.
6. Better decision-making
Some advanced authoring management platforms include analytics tools that provide valuable insights into how users are interacting with the documentation, which can help writers make informed decisions for updates and improvements.
7. More output options
The distribution of modern technical content takes many forms, from digital eLearning courses to searchable knowledge bases to printed PDF handouts. Businesses can use authoring management platforms to quickly and easily format their content to suit as many outputs as needed. Platforms that use component authoring, such as Author-it, can even make updates to existing content across multiple channels at once.
Master your content management strategy with Author-it CCMS
Author-it is an authoring management platform tailored to the needs of collaborative teams and designed for ease of use and scalability. Whether you’re meeting the needs of dozens of local users or thousands of people within a global enterprise, our suite of world-class management tools enables cost-effective translations, content reuse and adaptive multichannel outputs.
To learn more about how Author-it can help your organization implement a more effective content management strategy, contact Author-it’s team of experts or request a demo.
