Position Paper on

Value of Technical Publications in the Electric and Electronic Industry

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Installation Manual

User Manual Quick Reference Guide

Product Demo

Release Note Troubleshooting Guide Online Help

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Introduction
This paper presents the value and need for quality Technical Publications in the Electric and Electronic Industry. Technical publications in Electric and Electronic Industry include a wide variety of documents such as user guides, online help, reference guides, administration guides, standard operating procedures, installation manuals, troubleshooting guides, release notes, quick reference guides, research reports, and product demos. The electric and electronic industry has experienced enormous changes in the last few decades, and the pace of its evolution is increasing. This industry has grown because of government's thrust on it and also due to overall economic growth. The industry has seen a growth of 20% and should continue at the same level for the next few years. These changes necessitate documentation of the updated processes and workflows, along with the creation of user manuals for the product, and productspecific configuration documents. Thus there is tremendous potential for technical documentation in the electric and electronic industry. Due to the rapid growth of the Electric and Electronic Industry, the use of the electric or electronic products makes quality documentation important to both the vendors of these products and the end users. The documentation needs to be simple and comprehensible to end users, which necessitates the involvement of technical documentation specialists in the creation of documents relevant to this industry.

TWBs presence as a Leading Technical Documentation Outsourcing Company

TWB is a leading technical publisher with an excellent record of providing unmatched technical documentation to many major companies. TWB is the ideal choice for leading vendors of Electric and Electronic products. TWB helps customers with all their technical documentation needs such as user guides, administration guides, installation manuals, process and workflow documentation, configuration documents and training materials. TWB works closely with client teams located globally, and assists them in meeting their worldwide product announcements and launch deadlines. We work roundthe-clock with client teams and help them with quick responses that facilitate timely distribution of documents around the globe.

Knowledge is people, money, learning, flexibility and competitive advantage. Knowledge is more relevant to sustained business than capital or labor. And yet knowledge remains the most neglected asset of a business. TWB helps you unlock and share your technical knowledge with the world.

TWB believes that no technology can be effectively used without being communicated efficiently.

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Electric and Electronic Industry Technical Publications

Growth and Penetration of Electric and Electronic Industry in India
This sector has been growing at a rapid pace with the invention of innovative technologies and an everincreasing customer inclination towards electronic goods and services. India has positioned itself as one of the front-runners of the rapidly growing Asia Pacific Region. This industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the country and is driven by growth in key sectors such as IT, Consumer Electronics and Telecom. The Indian electronics industry today stands at US $ 25 billion. It is ranked 26th in the world in terms of sales and 29th in the world in terms of production. It is growing at over 25% CAGR and is expected to be worth US $ 158 billion by 2015.

Challenges and Solutions

Some of the greatest documentation challenges that most companies face today include:

Lack of documentation during a product release or launch. Managing large amount of information for new product releases. Applying cost-cutting measures while serving many vendors.

Creating and maintaining documents specific to this industry involves enormous capital investment in labor and technology. TWB provides documentation solutions for creating and maintaining product and process documents. The invention of innovative technologies in this industry leads to a lot of changes. These changes have to be documented and revised frequently. TWB provides continuous support to update product documents regularly with changing technology advancements. Attaining the quality standards require huge capital investment. Cost-cutting measures play an important function in increasing capital gains for companies. TWB provides technical documentation solutions that are at par with the industry standards, and within the budget.

Growth and Penetration of Electric and Electronic Industry in Global Market

The global electric and electronic industry is highly fragmented, comprising of various auxiliary sectors namely electronic components, computer and office equipments, telecommunications, consumer appliances, and industrial electronics. According to BCC Research, The global market for power electronics was worth $9.8 billion in 2007. This is expected to reach $10.2 billion by the end of 2008 and $17.7 billion in 2013, for a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.7%. The U.S.market generated $2.1 billion in 2007 and is expected to generate $2.2 billion in 2008. This should reach $3.9 billion in 2013, a CAGR of 12.1%.
Worldwide and US Demand for Power Electronics, 2007-2013 ($ Billions)
20 $ Billions 15 10 5 0 2007 2008 2013

Benefits

For a leading electric and electronic company, association with TWB has benefited them immensely in saving costs and producing professional documentation along with:

Transferring complex technical data into easily understandable language Protecting technical and commercial data of newly developed products Managing knowledge management and content management solutions, and single sourcing.

US Only

Worldwide

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Value of Technical Publications

Technical Communication for Transferring Product Knowledge
The purpose of technical communication is to transfer product knowledge to end users in a comprehensible manner. The strategies of communication and levels of information vary depending on the type of product and audience. Providing end users with information about a products operation and maintenance is critical to the market performance of the product. Hence, the need for quality documentation is imperative. In todays business scenario, technical publications are often developed as an afterthought. This usually results in inaccurate and incomprehensible documentation, which, in turn, renders the users incapable of using the products. Accurate, readily understandable, and quality documents determine how a product sells in the market and result in increased customer satisfaction.

Communication for Different Levels of Technical and Product Knowledge

In technical publications, audience is the focal point. Hence, the style, language, and content must vary depending on the type of audience being addressed. It is because every user has a specific role in the implementation and usage of technology. Therefore, it is important that documents be created keeping in mind the role of the person who will use the document. For example, when you document a software application designed for highly technical users, it is sufficient to provide the users with quick reference information to use the application. For users who start without technical or product knowledge, it is important to provide detailed product information along with instructions on how to use the product.

Attractive Publications as Useful Marketing Tools

Besides transferring knowledge, technical publications are also used for marketing a product. Before a product is released in the market, information about the product needs to be effectively communicated to the customers. Well-designed, accurately presented, and attractive marketing collaterals increase the market prospects of a product and reduce support costs.

Faulty Assumptions that Result in Problems in Documentation

The faulty assumptions listed below result in incomprehensible documents:

Developers know their products better than anyone else due to time constraints and limited resources, many companies assign their documentation tasks to the programmers. This more often results in the creation of technology-centered information, while end users require task-oriented information.

Documentation of complex applications requires a longer learning curve for the writer - learning the product will not be a major obstacle for writers with the right technical background.

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Conclusion

The Importance of Electric and Electronic Industry: The worldwide electric and electronic industry is experiencing phenomenal and remarkable changes these days. The future seems prosperous for this industry in terms of the expected surge in global demand and upsurge in investments. Increased foreign investments have resulted in the accelerated growth in terms of electronic production and exports. Foreign companies are now making huge investments and are installing extensive production capacities in developing countries. The rapid pace of innovation in electronics technology is resulting in a consistent demand for newer and faster products and applications. Value of Technical Publications: Technical Publications are very essential for transferring product knowledge to the end users. Provisioning of proper material to use the technology and products enables the user to accept and efficiently use the product. Faulty assumptions about documentation lead to inaccurate and hard-tounderstand material. This also reduces the changes to be made for marketing the products in the global markets. On the other hand, good documentation is clear, easy to read and simple to understand. It helps the user operate and maintain the system with ease. Good documentation allows products to be used effectively. Role of Documentation Outsourcing: The complexity and growth involved in the electric and electronic industry requires that companies look at outsourcing their documentation needs to well-established Technical Publications Solutions providers. This helps the company cut costs and at the same time deliver their products with quality documents.

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TWB Services
TWB is Indias leader in technical communication outsourcing and education. TWB offers a complete suite of services that allows our customers to effectively publish their technical knowledge with their people and processes. TWBs customers range from Global 500 including Cisco, Accenture, McAfee, LG, Samsung, Citrix, SAP, Siemens, AOL, Intel; Indian technology majors including Infosys, Wipro; Global defense majors - Pratt & Whitney, Honeywell, DRDO, HAL; and exciting technology startups. TWB's expertise in technical communication ranges from IT Products and Outsourcing, ITES, Banking, Financial, Aerospace, Defense, Ship Building to Hi-tech Manufacturing, and Discrete and Process Manufacturing. TWBs services include:

Technical Marketing Solutions

Datasheets Cheat sheets Solution Briefs/Solution Brochures Presentations Products/Corporate Profile Brochures and marketing collateral Web content Audio and video scripts Press releases Direct mail Newsletter design copy Sales catalogues Sales sheets

Technical Product Documentation

Business Communication
Short Reports Proposals Case Studies Lab Reports Memos Progress/Interim Reports Writing for Electronic Media

Illustrations
Graphic Designing Info graphics 2D & 3D animation Line drawings and illustrations

Datasheets Administrators Guide API Document Configuration Guide Functional Specifications Document Installation Manual Interface Document Interactive Electronic Technical Manual (IETM) Maintenance Manual Online Help Operation Manual Product Demo Product Specifications Document Product Overview Document Quick Reference Guide Release Notes Requirement Analysis Document SDK Document Troubleshooting Manual User Manual Open Source Documentation Programmers Guides Functional Specifications Document Use Cases Online Help /Context Sensitive Help Troubleshooting Guides

Documentation Quality Management

Copy Editing and Proof Reading Managing Writing Editing Services Layout and Design Creating SLAs

Business Documentation
Business Proposals Legal Disclaimers Policy Manuals Style Guide Design Template Design

Content Management
Single Sourcing File Version Control Document Naming Conventions Consistent Document Formatting Data Transformation

Web site Development

Web 2.0 development Web content Web applications

Qualitative Analytics for Decision Support

Economic Business Research Industry Analysis Market Opportunity Analysis Competitive Business Analysis Company & Prospect Profiling Reporting Solutions Assessment of Unmet Market Needs Status and Potential of Technologies Benchmarking of Strategies Vs Competition Forecasting Sales Force Effectiveness Market Assessments Competitive Intelligence Opinion Leadership Emerging Markets - evaluation and research

Translation and Localization Services

Software Translation Services Document Translation Services Localization (L10N) Testing Internationalization (I18N) Testing

Process Documentation
Workflows Standard Operating Procedures ISO Documentation CMM Documentation

Records Management
Document Management Solutions Record Management Storage and Retrieval

Deployment and Support

Installation and Configuration Guides Operations Manual

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TWB Software Tools Expertise

Our technical proficiency in software and authoring tools includes:

Unstructured Content Development

Microsoft Word Adobe FrameMaker Adobe InDesign QuarkXPress Adobe PageMaker

XML Structured Editors

Epic FrameMaker+SGML X-Metal

Multimedia /Authoring
Adobe Flash Adobe Dreamweaver Microsoft FrontPage Adobe Captivate

Macromedia Captivate Graphics/Animations

Adobe Flash Adobe Photoshop Adobe Fireworks

Illustrations
Adobe Flash CS4 Professional Adobe Illustrator CS3 CorelDRAW Microsoft-Expression Graphic Designer Xara Xtreme (Windows & Linux) CuteDraw Publisher3D(for animation) Sketsa SVG Editor (for vector graphics) Techsmith Camtasia Arbortext IsoDraw (technical illustrations for 2D and 3D)

Multimedia /Authoring / Supporting tools

Adobe Flash Adobe Flex Adobe AIR Adobe Dreamweaver Adobe Acrobat Microsoft Silverlight Adobe Authorware Adobe Director Adobe Captivate Trivantis Lectora ASP.NET JSP JAVA

Online Help
JavaHelp Adobe RoboHelp 7.0 HelpScribble WebWorks Publisher PowerCHM Doc-To-Help WinCHM HelpSmith 2.1.1(Windows) Fast-Help MadCap Flare Help-Server NVU Help

Standards
SCORM 1.2 / 2004 AICC W3C Section 508 QTI XML

Graphics/Animation
Adobe Flash Adobe Photoshop Adobe Illustrator Adobe Fireworks Microsoft Silverlight

XML
XMetal Microsoft Word 2003, Microsoft Word 2007

Databases
Microsoft Access Microsoft SQL Server

CMS/ LMS
Sharepoint Moodle Joomla, WordPress Media Wiki CMS Builder Author-it (formerly AuthorIT) Alfresco

Development and Publishing tools

XSLT/XSL EDD

Flowcharting
Microsoft Visio iGrafx EDraw RFFlow Flowbreeze Smart Draw

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Industries Served
TWB services a wide range of technology and knowledge-driven industries, helping them meet their markets better. These include:

Banking, Insurance and Financial Services Consulting and Business Services Defense, Aerospace and Hi-Tech Manufacturing Education and Learning IT, ITES

ITES/ KPO/ BPO Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology Process Manufacturing and Allied Industries Steel, Ship Building, Construction and Aviation Telecom and Digital Communications

TWB has been the preferred technical documentation outsourcing company for:

The TWB Building

No: 4062, 19th Main Road, HAL 2nd Stage, Bangalore 560008 India. Landmark: Behind Carlton Towers Telephone: +91.80.40741400 / +91.80.41256367 Corporate Enquiries: corp@twb.in

US Office: TWB
11701 Norwegian Wood Drive Austin, TX 78758

Telephone: +1.512.586.8357

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