automating technical publications

Customer Profile Cadence Design Systems Business overview Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NYSE: CDN) is the world’s largest supplier of electronic design technologies and services. Cadence solutions are used to accelerate and manage the design of semiconductors, computer systems, networking and telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics, and a variety of other electronic-based products. With approximately 5,200 employees and 2002 revenues of approximately $1.3 billion, Cadence has sales offices, design centers, and research facilities around the world. Challenges To provide a high level of customer support for electronic design automation (EDA) technologies and services, Cadence produces hundreds of thousands of pages of technical documentation in the form of detailed user manuals, tutorials, data sheets, bulletins, FAQs, screen captures, and so on. This information is delivered to customers on CDs packaged with the end product as well as on the Web via HTML pages, with links to video and PDF pages suitable for print. Managing technical publications and providing Cadence customers with all the written resources they might need is an ongoing challenge. In recent years, however, the size of the challenge had increased dramatically. New Product Delivery Strategy Overloads Technical Writers In 1998, Cadence began releasing its CAE design software to customers in suites of complementary products that work together, as opposed to strictly standalone products. As a result, the company’s Knowledge Transfer Organization (KTO), which produces nearly all of the information that ships with each product, was tasked with producing significantly more documentation in much shorter time periods. In 1999, Cadence publications groups delivered 45 documentation releases, up from an average of four per year prior to introducing product suites. In addition, for each new suite introduction, Cadence technical writers had to find out if the products they supported were shipping in the suite. If their product was included, they then needed to determine which version of the product was required for that suite’s release and make sure the proper documentation for that version was included with the supporting documentation for the suite. These time-consuming, manual activities, along with the increase in number of publications, came during a period when technical writing headcount was not allowed to grow. In short, the load placed on Cadence technical writers was unsustainable. Cadence knew this situation couldn’t continue. Information Silos, Multiple Processes Make Finding Information Difficult Cadence technical writers kept the source files for their various projects on their own workstations and were responsible for backing up their own systems. Not having a central location to store source files made it difficult for writers or others to find and view information stored on someone else’s workstation. When a writer was absent or left the company, finding the correct version of his or her documents was often difficult. Because of missing files or backup failures, writers were occasionally forced to recreate documentation, which took time they could ill afford. Business profile Cadence Design Systems The world’s largest supplier of electronic design technologies and services Industry High technology Geographies Headquarters in San Jose, California, with sales offices, design centers, and research facilities around the world. Business Focus Enterprise publishing EMC Documentum Products Documentum ECM platform Deployment Summary As of June 2003, publications management system used by 140 technical writers across the company to manage 36 gigabyyte of content (manuals and other techniica documentation) Partners Documentum Consulting, Sun Microsystems, Adobe Systems Automating Technical Publications Production and Delivery Saves MillionsIn addition, Cadence had grown much larger through mergers and acquisitions, which complicated matters further. Each new publications group formed as a result of a merger or acquisition had its own method for creating technical documentation. As a result, Cadence technical publications could be created using any of 11 different processes and a number of different authoring software packages. The company realized that the solution to its technical publications challenge would involve standardizing processes and managing content in a central, easily accessible location. EMC Documentum Solution In August 1999, Cadence KTO managers formalized a vision to build a technical publications system that would automate and streamline production and delivery of technical information. Such a system would make it easier to enable customers to receive documentation with the software, quickly find and access up-to-date documentation for products from any major platform, and augment the documentation with their own information. This vision required that Cadence implement a content management system to be used worldwide by all publication groups across the company. It also required that the company build a customized content delivery system to allow customers to view a list of available documentation on the fly and easily access the information they needed. Choosing a Content Management Solution Because Cadence chose to standardize on Adobe FrameMaker as its preferred authoring software and because the Sun Solaris Operating System™ was widely used by many Cadence programmers, the new content management system had to be able to integrate seamlessly with FrameMaker on the Sun platform. The system also had a number of other requirements: it would have to provide version control and an easy way for writers to check documents in and out of a controlled system; it would need to automatically render FrameMaker files into HTML, PDF, and other formats, sometimes in several variations; and it would have to allow writers to create “kits” of files that could be included in any product suite release in which their documentation is needed. After evaluating the leading content management solutions, Cadence chose the EMC Documentum® ECM platform. According to Amy Witherow, operations director of KTO at Cadence, “We chose Documentum because of its leadership position in the industry, its history of supporting the Sun Solaris Operating System, its ability to handle almost any kind of file imaginable, its ability to break tagged documents into smaller components automatically, and its open API, which could interface with homegrown tools.” A Documentum consultant helped guide and train a project team of Cadence engineers so they could build a customized system to fulfill KTO’s vision. The system went live in May 2000, just eight months after project approval. As of June 2003, the system has managed 36 gigabytes of technical publications information consisting of close to 250,000 objects and 3,200 FrameMaker books. “By automating and streamlining the way we create technical publications and deliver them to multiple channels, our Documentum-based publicationsmanagement system has saved us millions of dollars. We also have much tighter control of our source documents and can more easily reuse and repurpose information.” Amy Witherow, Operations Director, Cadence Benefits • Annualized savings of $1.6 million by reducing time used by publications personnne • Additional savings of $560,000 by using system to automatically convert files to a newer version of Adobe® FrameMaker® • Greater efficiency through automation • Tighter control over source documents • Increase in reuse of information and document collaboration in R&D Automatically Assembling and Delivering “Kits” of Information Cadence technical writers create source files in FrameMaker — which may have other types of files embedded — and they check these files in and out of the Documentum repository. The customized Documentum system ensures that basic requirements have been met, enforces version control, and automatically renders the documents into HTML, PDF, online help, and other formats. Customizations enable the system to automatically package these output files into groups of files and forward them to several delivery systems, including CD-ROM, an external help Web site, and an internal Web site where Cadence employees can quickly look up information without having to have access to the repository. To easily locate specific information within a package, a Java application with a built-in Verity search engine presents the customer or internal user with a menu of choices, enabling the user to view documents by title, product, or category. Providing Tighter Control Over Source Documents With all documentsmanaged centrally (in two repositories, one in the U.S. and one in India) and support for document check in/check out and version control, Cadence has much greater control over all technical documentation and a controlled look and feel for all its documents. Now everyone can locate content quickly and easily and know which version is the most current. No longer do partial or entire FrameMaker books have to be recreated because of missing or corrupt files. In addition, every time a writer attempts to check in a FrameMaker book, the system checks the file against a long list of requirements that ensure that the book will be consistent with others, that HTML and PDF files will be created properly, and that proper metadata tags will be generated. For instance, each book must have a unique book name, and the book’s contents must be in a certain sequence starting with a title page and table of contents. Each book has specific references files, and the filenames for these files are valid on both UNIX and PC platforms. In addition, the system verifies that the proper FrameMaker template versions were used and performs other checks. The system automatically extracts information such as book title, copyright date, product name, and product version to create some 25 metatags that are used to locate and deliver information to users. Saving Millions Through Automation The new publications system automates many previously time-consuming processes. For example, many man hours were spent creating menus of files that could be viewed via the online help system, a cost to Cadence of approximately $30,000 for every product release. Today the new system extracts metadata tags to create these lists automatically, saving the company $425,000 in 2001 alone. By delivering documents in a more automated way, the new technical publications system is saving the company an estimated 10 percent of writers’ time and the work of approximately one-and-a-half project coordinators, for an annualized savings of $1.6 million. And that figure doesn’t even take into account the time previously spent searching for or recreating lost files. Thanks to its open API and ability to intelligently extract and classify metadata, the new system also saved Cadence over half a million dollars in 2001 by automating conversion of existing FrameMaker files when the company upgraded to FrameMaker version 6.0. “Changes to FrameMaker 6 from version 5 required redesigning templates and updating existing books,” explained Witherow. “Our programming group was able to develop a tool that leveraged the captured metadata to remove obsolete text, check and convert graphics as necessary, map page number formatting from old templates to new, and apply new settings.” “We chose Documentum because of its leadership position in the industry, its history of supporting Sun Solaris, its ability to handle almost any kind of file imaginable, its ability to break tagged documents into smaller components automatically, and its open API, which could interface with homegrown tools.” Amy Witherow, Cadence Estimating an average of one to two days to manually update each of the more than 500 books affected, Cadence calculated that it saved $560,000. Because they could store each version of the FrameMaker files within Documentum, writing groups could transition to FrameMaker 6 on a timeline that suited their schedule. Reducing the number of authoring processes from 11 to 4, with Adobe FrameMaker being the primary authoring software, has also cut production overhead, according to Witherow. Increasing Efficiency and Accuracy Because it makes their jobs so much easier and enables them to make better use of their time, Cadence technical writers have embraced the new system. “Users love the push-button GUI for document management tasks — available right in their FrameMaker environment— and they are amazed at how easy and robust the system is,” said Witherow. The system also produces reports, including an automatically updated list of who owns which documents, and in which product release the documents are included. “Previously this information was created by hand and invariably was out of date,” explains Witherow. “Now configuration management knows exactly which documentation to ship with which products.” Linking Documents to Related Content Throughout Their Lifecycle The “virtual document” capability of the Documentum ECM platform enables Cadence writers to map documents to a changing set of product, technology, and family categories, and ensure that a document maps to the right set throughout its lifecycle. Consequently, Cadence writers can quickly and easily update old versions of manuals and map them to old products, as well as create and modify new versions of those same manuals and map those to new products. Prior to implementing the new system, linking versions of documents to specific releases was not possible. Facilitating Information Reuse Within R&D An added benefit of the new system is that research and development groups at Cadence are increasingly sharing information and reusing existing code for multiple products. The authoring community is also beginning to generate written information once and use it in multiple deliverables. In the future, Cadence plans to leverage this aspect of the system further, allowing authors to more efficiently create and manage shared content. Because of its open architecture and robust design, the new publications system can easily be expanded and enhanced down the road. For instance, Cadence is beginning to implement more lifecycle management functionality to automatically archive content managed by the Documentum system. The company is also working on automatically posting content from the Documentum system to its Web site. Summary With its new Documentum-based technical publications system, Cadence has automated and streamlined the production of technical content as well as its delivery through multiple channels to both customers and internal users. Doing so has saved the company millions of dollars in reduced man-hours, and has provided tighter control and increased information reuse. EMC Corporation 6801 Koll Center Parkway Pleasanton, CA 94566-7047 1-925-600-6800 In North America 1-800-607-9546 EMC2, EMC, Documentum, and where information lives are registered trademarks of EMC Corporation. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners. © 2005 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Produced in the USA. 07/05 Customer Profile 31530705V4 www.EMC.com/documentum By delivering documents in a more automated way, the new technical publicattion system is saving the company an estimated 10 percent of writers’ time and the work of approximately one-and-a-half project coordinators, for an annualized savings of $1.6 million.