Category: ADOPT THE SINGLE SOURCE OF TRUTH

with Stefano Beschi, IT Manager – Nicola Giaon, Manuals – Roberto Manganotto, Marketing of ICI Caldaie Spa

EKR allows you to build a single centralized database.

One of the main advantages of the system is that it leads you to manage only one data container, capable of ordering all the information, before divided between the various archives of the various company departments.

Even the translation management is very handy.

We appreciate the flexibility in generating and publishing different documents starting from a single master. With EKR we created the catalog and then we published it in 5-6 different language versions, maintaining a single graphic layout. The same for the technical manuals and for other documents that we intend to carry out, when we will be even better!

From a graphic point of view we work better than InDesign. With EKR we create established templates that are then reused, without having to get them back in each time. The uniformity that derives from it visually is definitely an improvement. Using InDesign released from the database always changed the details, the layout was never the same. Especially with the linguistic variants: in addiction to longer times, the document was never the same. With EKR, once the layout has been set, go away safely!

The centralization of the single data in the company is an organizational effort that surely costs, but it is a mandatory step. What you pay for otherwise is to always have redundancies and waste, not only of spaces for the storage of data but also of lost time in recovering what is actually the right information!

Having a central, aligned and maintained archive that is the only source of information is certainly the need of every company. Getting there from an organizational point of view is not easy, but it is the goal to aim for. We come from SAP, so we are already well established! EKR helps, indeed forces towards a solution of this type: it was a positive coercion! Giving too much freedom in these areas could be deleterious, if the purpose is to maintain an organized infrastructure and above all to guarantee the coherence of information.

Elisa Zanin

Marketing Office of GICO Spa

The biggest advantage so far?

EKR forced us to collect the data in one place and organize them. The resulting automatic layout is definitely a benefit, but I think the aspect that will remain the most is cataloging.

Before EKR, I made all layouts by hand. Certainly there was a different flexibility: if I had to add to the last or make something stay, I just inserted it, one way or another. The effort we made with EKR was precisely to gather all the possible additions, sometimes it was almost necessary to foresee the future, just to avoid having to manually modify the documents.

It has been a busy month … to explain to EKR how corporate life unfolds we had to make a huge effort: piling up a whole world according to precise criteria was a big job. The organization of the data has been the subject of much discussion with Marco and the other EKR staff, above all on the WHO had to fix them!

I have to say that it was hard to agree, the reality of a corporate workflow is not always so linear: then we got a really wonderful job! Today the automatic layout of the resulting price list is a very productive aspect.

The documentation we produce with EKR stands out above all for higher quality. But also to insert different and sudden versions: in a short time today I could print the whole list with different prices.

EKR is a method that can be adapted to any business reality and any type of content, even if we use it mainly to lay out technical data: in my opinion is also suitable for updating a website or other media.

Gennaro Esposito

Head of Technical Documentation of HUB Parking Technology

I immediately saw in EKR a system to solve a lot of trouble!

At the company level it was a bit more difficult: often you could only see a tool that let you make the beautiful things with automatic layouts. And so the answer was “we don’t care about nice doodles, two lines are enough for me and I have to go out with my product”. EKR’s biggest difficulty is to pass on its value, work vision and its true return.

Some types of system benefits – such as reduced documentation release time or translation savings – are quite common. What do I like most about EKR actually? Since focusing on PIM and real information management, as well as document production, we have had tremendous advantages in areas that go far beyond publication.

When documenting a piece of software, the screen is cut out with a screenshot and described it.

So you should cut the image 20 times and then have the various contents translated into 20 different languages. The interfaces vary with a very high frequency: with each change, you have to do all the work over again! We were able to take a huge advantage both in terms of lead time and saving on translations. Now we intercept with EKR every text that the developers insert, we assign them a whole series of meanings, then it is sent directly to the translator who finds all the elements to translate but also to make a perfect localization. In addition, we change the images automatically. If we used to take 3 months just for the images, today we can do everything in 4 hours.

So what does EKR give me? It completely manages the information and does not make it useful only for the purposes of publication.

Although of course we also use it for those, because the same data is in every manual, and if the technician changes something, it is updated on all the documents, in the online help, everywhere. It is a use of the system that allows you to maximize profit, focusing on information and not just on the final output that could perhaps be the only value perceived within a company.

We have created an environment where the data is at the center and is available to all: a completely different vision, a whole other perspective. We do not think of the 2 pages to make by the end of the month, but of the value that this data is giving us. Unfortunately we often tend to look only at ROI and numbers: it is true that I have reduced translation costs by 75%, but it is not just that! It is all the time of people and the value of information that is lost, a critical aspect because it creates confusion in companies. EKR changes the way you think and gives value to the job.