Q&A with Paligo on the value of content reuse
Mark Pepper, Information Architect at Paligo, sits down for an interview about how maximizing the use of content reuse in technical publications and complex documentation can greatly improve efficiency for companies. He emphasizes the benefits of utilizing a CCMS (component content management system) to not only save time, but also reduce costs.
Information Architect at Paligo
Could you give us an overview of content reuse?
In the Paligo CCMS, we have four primary types of content reuse.
- Topic reuse in multiple publications
- Element reuse in multiple topics
- Profiled reuse of content in a topic
- Variable reuse of content in a topic
The first is the reuse of topics in publications, where an individual incorporates the same topic into various publications. Then there is the possibility of reusing elements within each topic. This includes paragraphs, tables, images, and other components that are present in the topic and can be utilized in various topics.
In Paligo, there are two additional types of reuse: profiled and variable. This feature enables the user to have a single topic with several versions of content that can be tailored or reused based on various factors, such as the user or publication destination.
Why is content reuse important for businesses?
It’s about increasing the value of each piece of content. If the user writes something once, they can use it many times.
A major benefit is the time saved in writing topics, as opposed to having to write numerous repetitive or similar topics.
One can also save time by assembling their publications from a collection of components instead of building the publications as a single piece. This is a change from the current common practice of focusing on building a whole publication and all of the content in that publication.
With content reuse, instead of creating large publications, writers can concentrate on producing specific pieces of content that can be reused in various publications.
Another advantage is consistency. Content reuse ensures that the same content is used consistently in all publications. This means that if an individual has written a topic once and is reusing it in multiple publications, it will remain unchanged each time. When content is not reused, minor changes may not get included in all topics or may be made differently in topics. This means users may use outdated or different content, depending on which topic they are looking at.
By viewing topics and content as individual pieces of information or data, the workflow is enhanced. One can efficiently manage the development of small, discrete pieces of content within a workflow, instead of attempting to create a lengthy publication, which can be hundreds of pages.
So then, what are some common challenges that businesses may face when they use these strategies and are there solutions for these challenges?
One of the major difficulties people encounter when delving into structured authoring and concepts of reuse is how they perceive content. Many tend to view all material as books or publications rather than as a compilation of different pieces. It adds a lot of overhead to manage entire books. They find themselves in charge of content that does not require immediate modification. It has already been approved and completed. The approach to follow with a CCMS is to view each piece of content as a standalone piece of information, and publications as methods of delivering that information to users.
Another frequent challenge is changing the roles involved in content management. We can see this problem when individuals are assigned to manage content by publication. Each writer plans, authors, assembles, and publishes all content for a single publication. They may not be aware of what other writers are doing and therefore cannot plan for or participate in any form of content reuse. They are effectively building these silos around the different books and not sharing that information.
By assigning specific pieces of content to individuals who are best suited to creating them, users can break down these silos and consolidate content into distinct collections. Then they can have someone assemble that content in a way that makes sense for the intended use of that particular publication.
Since everything is available in one place, it becomes effortless to search for and gather the necessary components. Naturally, this also entails factors such as effective categorization and well-structured content. Once a strong strategy for reusing and managing content is implemented, everything falls into place.
Do you have any examples of successful content reuse initiatives that you’ve been involved in?
I did a metrics evaluation on one company fairly recently. They had hundreds of guides, and they would reuse content 75% of the time across all those different guides. Their method of reuse involved copying and pasting from a central source to multiple locations. Now this, of course, is very time-consuming and I believe the amount of time estimated to locate and access various publications, confirm the designated placement within each one, and complete the copying and pasting process, was about 10 to 15 minutes every time.
If we’re looking at just that scale of operation, we’re looking at a savings of around $11,000 by just removing the copy-and-pasting activity across these hundreds of guides. Now, they only have to manually add it once for each publication, eliminating the need for copy-and-paste entirely.
Looking ahead a year, this information may have changed and needs to be updated. So without content reuse, they would need to manually hunt through each of those different guides and make the changes. Then if they miss any, they would have guides that are inaccurate, which would result in a lot of additional costs – everything from user errors to potential legal instances. Whereas, this isn’t an issue with content reuse in structured content.
There’s another project I worked on in which we were doing intelligent content applications. This was in the smartphone industry. We established a method where we created central repositories of content, which consisted of reusable content, that could automatically present relevant information to the user. So when the user requested a particular piece of content, the request would include profile information that would allow the help system to show content that was most relevant to them.
This is another way of applying intelligent content reuse. Simply reuse the content from one central repository and display the content that matches the particular characteristics of the user who is requesting that piece of content.
Do you have any tips for best practices when creating reusable content?
Absolutely. The biggest tip is to plan the content as discrete content pieces instead of as publications. When I say plan the content, I start by identifying the needs of the reader. What does the reader need to have to achieve a set of intended goals? Know the audience and what should be achieved with the content. From there, it’s easy to plan the topics that are needed.
We’re not even looking at publications at this point. We’re looking at what individual pieces of content are, breaking down the concept of publication silos. View content as individual pieces that a user can assemble at a future time.
When assigning content to authors, reviewers, collaborators and contributors, the content should not be assigned as complete publications, but as collections of related content focused on those particular contributors and authors. This allows reuse of that content in different publications as the audience needs it.
About Paligo
Paligo is a cloud-based Component Content Management System (CCMS) that offers robust single-sourced content reuse capabilities for technical documentation, training content, policies, procedures, and efficient knowledge management. Paligo takes content creation and management to a whole new level with its robust version tracking and user-friendly roll-back capabilities. It also offers version branching and efficient release management designed specifically for technical writers and content creators.
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