Case study: Forget tech pubs. Think custom sales contracts
In the B2B world, where businesses buy and sale custom sets of products and services, contracts must also be customized. When contracts come with presentation letters, product/service descriptions, different sets of legal clauses and different pricing schemes, dealing with them can be long, costly and tedious. The ability to assemble contracts on the fly, as soon as the client information and product selection is complete means that contracts are better standardized and faster to create. Plus, responsiveness and efficiency in the sales process might actually convince a few more clients to buy in.
This case study presents how DITA was implemented by POST Telecom in Luxembourg and how it was integrated to the Sales Toolbox, a software product used by the sell team. Reps never have to know that a standard called DITA or that a technology called XML is used to create the PDF documents: they click a button, they get PDFs.
We’ll discuss business needs, the approach and the tools used as well as future challenges.
Who is presenting?
David Laroche has a background as a web and application developer and over 20 years of experience in Internet technologies, including 15 years of experience as a system and network administrator. David joined POST Telecom’s Product Development & Innovation Department back in 2012. With his broad and deep technical knowledge, but most importantly his real passion for IT, he now manages online applications within the Business Solutions division of the Enterprise Sales Department. As a visionary and strategist, his purpose is to improve the digital experience for POST Telecom’s professional and enterprise customers.
At his first contact with DITA in 2016, David understood that single sourcing and multi-format-publishing needed to gain momentum at POST Telecom. Since then he has been a DITA evangelist across multiple departments to improve efficiency and user experience.
Following her studies in Information Sciences, which included such subjects as IT documentation and communication techniques, Carole has worked for over 20 years assisting companies to ensure that their employees receive the right information. In order to encourage commitment to a project or a new strategy, Carole conceives document support material designed to promote understanding of the challenges involved, to explain complex technical concepts and to accompany the final user in the assimilation of a new working tool. This support material may consist of infographies, user guides, an Intranet, animations or videos all of which are produced in cooperation with the MindForest teams.
Her competences in Information Design and Information Architecture serve as an ideal basis for the conception and realization of such support material. Carole has further specialized in structured documentation whilst applying the principles of minimalistic editing and also of XML editorial writing standards in the form of DITA, which is a method dedicated to the conception and publication of technical information.
France Baril, owner of Architextus Inc., is a DITA/XML consultant as well as a documentation architect who helps organizations analyze their content and processes, select and develop tools, and learn about DITA and/or XML. She has a unique background with a BA in Communication from University of Ottawa and a BSc in Computer Science from Université de Sherbrooke.