Category: ADOPT THE SINGLE SOURCE OF TRUTH

Andrea Borsetto

Technical Documentation

Before EKR?
The standardization and reuse of information which is now mostly missing. If you have to write, you have a blank sheet in front of you and it is difficult to retrieve the previous information, you can write whatever you want, even invent! After some time, the writer uses a different form each time to say the same thing. Other advantages are the drastic abatement of translation costs and the automatic layout.

At the beginning we really did a great job, long and meticulous, to create the whole structure. Then the results arrived!

A bit like when you buy an empty shed, you start installing the machines from scratch and everything else. They all look like lost expenses: then you start producing, selling and earning, they come back even more: the initial one was a good investment.

Change is difficult, you need to break down the rocks related to the usual ways of working with systems in “Word style”. Like when someone comes to your house and makes you a proposal, the first answer even before you understand it is always no. The real obstacle is being able to change your mind.
Usually software providers find it difficult to fully understand the particular needs of our company. Marco is different: he is an enthusiast and is always very helpful!

Alessandro Fabris

Marketing Manager of Profilitec Spa

With EKR we reduce the list publication time by 90%!

Of course, you first need to build a solid process in which to enter all the product data, to then have the advantage of such lower timing. We had 12 versions of our talking price list and needed at least 8 months to complete the graphic files and to print the customized price list for each version, updated with prices and images. When it ended, only a few months and the list was already old! Today with EKR, always updating the database, technically in two weeks we complete all

We have decided to implement the EKR software so that it becomes the management and collection system for all Profilitec product information, so that we can distribute the same contents on different platforms and on different tools, working with homogeneous and always updated data. The price list was the first goal, but now we will continue with the technical catalog and the website developed with the same logic.

Before that, I am a big fan of innovative IT tools and I really believe in it. 19 years ago the first job as Marketing Manager in a well-known company in the Vicenza area – Alban Giacomo Spa – was the implementation of a pager automatic to list the company that could no longer print due to too much data to update. One of the first experiences in Veneto with a program then created in Visual Basic. I know this type of logic very well and I share it in every detail.

How was EKR implemented in the company? In every reality there are the comfort zones, and to implement EKR at the beginning is impacting, imposes a change of thought and processes and change the uses and customs of the corporate departments. So it is very important that the decision makers believe in it: whether they are the managers or the managing director, who has to make the investment and who has to deal with it at the level of responsibility must be convinced. Looking at the advantages of tomorrow and not the many small changes you have to face in everyday life. We need to look forward to the next commercial development. Need a list in a different language or with different prices for a new distributor: that’s enough to have the prices on an Excel sheet and the new translations, and in just a few clicks the list will be ready.
Personally I would recommend EKR a all, except my competitors! A system for data centralization and its automatic layout, with templates that allow you to manage it quickly … today there is no modern company that does not use it .

Paolo Bertolassi

Head of the Mechanical Manuals Office of Lonati Spa

Before EKR ORCHESTRA… it was hard!

We practically make a different manual for each machine model. For us, EKR ORCHESTRA makes the difference especially for translations. We used to spend several hours just on those! The time needed to produce the document used to be quite long.

At the beginning it was difficult to compose the basic structure: every title, every chapter, every note, defining everything in little pieces … then we learned! It makes an initial effort, then it goes! Today a new hiring is found the structure already ready.

EKR ORCHESTRA is a good investment for those with lots of technical documents and many translations: work becomes organised and fast.

Carlo Gardini

Technical Documentation Manager di Mg2 Srl

We’ve grown a lot over time,

both in terms of number of machines and technical complexity. Ours is a configurable and increasingly personalized product. MG2 produces automatic machines for the pharmaceutical industry: a highly regulated sector in which the technical documentation must be carried out with particular rigor and precision.

The order of magnitude is onerous: the manuals provided for each machine can reach 1500 total pages. And this “only” for the instruction manual, to which it is necessary to add other documentation such as validation procedures, etc.

The activity carried out by the Technical Documentation Department was recognized by our customers as quality, but the production of the documentation was basically “handcrafted”. We were therefore very effective but inefficient. For the editorial staff used Word with specific models and macros to simplify the layout. Documentation production was also supported by specific tools. Translation management was manual. The professionalism and competence of colleagues made it possible to produce high quality technical documents, but at the cost of mainly manual operations. From an analysis it emerged that the hours spent in non-value added activities were many: this prompted us to analyze alternative solutions for the document workflow.

We carried out a software selection that led to EKR: convinced us not only about the presence on the territory but also the willingness to work alongside us in the analysis and to customize their CMS according to our needs, as was necessary. EKR gave us a lot of support: it didn’t just sell the software and that’s it, but it immediately supported us during the initial analysis, which turned out to be very complex.

To whom do I recommend it? Jokingly I would say “to someone who is not sane!”, But in reality I recommend EKR to companies that want to really tidy up the amount of technical information they manage, because it allows understanding the redundancy of the contents and duplication of files. EKR clearly shows that the same information exists in a thousand different variations depending on the department: commercial, technical, etc. It allows to manage the data life cycle avoiding to wonder if it is reliable or not. If it is “validated” it is reliable! It forces you to think about the structuring of the product, optimizing the variants.

Staff training is a delicate phase, but as soon as the editors understand the benefits of the new system of working their collaboration is assured and the learning curve is relatively fast.