Proven Content Reuse Strategies for Authoring Efficiency Identified

Leading Performers Publish As Much As 99% More Content per Contributing Author Than Competitors


BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - April 8, 2010) -  While technical publications departments often struggle to keep up with tightening product documentation deadlines, Aberdeen Group's newly published Benchmarking Content Reuse in Technical Communication study identifies how leading performers have responded to publish between 31% and 99% more content per contributing author than their competitors. Past research by Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS), shows that as the number of products companies develop has expanded by 14% in the past year, technical publications headcount has decreased by an average of 6%, pressuring technical publications departments to find ways to deliver more content with fewer resources.

Aberdeen's new report identifies the strategies and practices top performers deploy in the face of this challenge to effectively reuse content in ways that drive greater productivity from technical communicators and other content producers.

"Reuse is a longstanding goal within technical publications," David Houlihan, Senior Research Associate with Aberdeen's Product Innovation and Engineering practice explains, "but, the challenging business climate of the last year has transformed reuse into an operational necessity. Many organizations still wrestle with manual 'copy and paste' process or with the first steps of component-based authoring approaches, which eat up time that could be spent developing new content with mundane, repetitive tasks. In contrast, top performing companies are leveraging an array of proven practices and content management solutions that free their authors to devote 41% of their time to developing new content than we found among other organizations."

Through direct survey research with over 200 participating organizations, Aberdeen's Benchmarking Content Reuse in Technical Communication report reveals the initiatives and key process and organization changes needed to achieve this level of authoring effectiveness. In addition, Aberdeen identifies the content management and publication solution suites used by leading performers to enhance the benefits of content reuse. Based on these findings, Aberdeen offers recommendations for organizations at all levels of maturity, whether a company is struggling to implement component-based authoring process or seeking to drive the next in a series of performance gains.

To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?spid=30410182&cid=6333&camp2

Visit Research.Aberdeen.com for additional access to complimentary Product Innovation and Engineering Research.

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company

Aberdeen provides fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having queried more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen for insights that drive decisions.

As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of Harte-Hanks (Information - Opportunity - Insight - Engagement - Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit Aberdeen or call (617) 854-5200, or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748.

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