Océ Business Services and Docufy GmbH join forces to streamline companies’ technical documentation processes
Poing, Germany, 19 March 2007 — Océ Business Services and Docufy GmbH have entered into a strategic partnership to offer companies major process improvements and cost savings in their technical documentation processes. Océ Business Services is a leading provider of document process management services, while Docufy GmbH is a professional software and services provider specialising in optimising editorial processes, translation management and single source publishing.
The agreement between the two companies follows an evaluation by Océ of best-of-breed solutions for streamlining the technical documentation processes of manufacturing companies. With its COSIMA editorial system for module-based creation, administration and production of technical documentation, Docufy proved to exceed the strict technology and business metrics applied by Océ. It is now the first solution provider to be rewarded with an international partner contract supporting Océ’s Technical Documentation Lifecycle Services.
Océ Technical Documentation Lifecycle Services (TDLS) offer much more than simply handling the creation and production of manuals and related product documentation. By introducing a controlled, end-to-end document process based on best practices at every stage, TDLS takes out unnecessary costs, delays and other shortcomings which can lead to challenges right through the business chain. A key element within the Océ portfolio for optimising technical documentation processes is the Océ Reference System, which combines best-of-breed solutions available on the market with Océ’s own value-added developments.
Leveraging their in-depth process and technology expertise, Océ and Docufy are working together on a number of DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) implementations which have the potential to be the first of their kind in the technical documentation market. DITA is an end-to-end, XML-based architecture for authoring, producing and delivering technical information. It provides a standardised, process?based methodology for organising information, emphasising content reusability and eliminating redundancy across different deliverables.
Key benefits for Océ customers will result from Docufy’s best-of-breed toolset to support the best practice technical documentation process integrated in Océ’s TDLS workflow. For Docufy customers, key benefits will be access to an international system, including process consulting and managed services expertise provided by Océ.
Mastering today’s system selection challenges
“Ever since we have been active in the field of technical documentation processes, we have recognised great uncertainty among our customers about which vendor and which solution they should select to optimise their technical documentation processes,” says Konrad Sommer, Vice President Océ Business Services. This uncertainty is based on a number of aspects, such as:
- How to place technical documentation into the IT/system landscape of Product Life Cycle Management (PLM), Product Data Management (PDM) and Content Management (CM) solutions
- How to find a provider meeting the flexibility and productivity demands of companies with growing product ranges and increasing numbers of international locations
- The sheer mass of solutions available on the market
- The lack of standardisation of available solutions and integration into the working procedures and methodologies of their departments
- Doubts about how to ensure the security of long-term investments The lack of internal expertise and dedication of staff appointed for documentation-related system issues
- User-friendliness issues which can be vital success factors in system roll-out
“In our role as general contractor, providing a wide range of solutions and managed services for technical documentation, we have the mandate and the ability to predefine and select best?of?breed solutions and methodologies to support our customers in achieving industry best-practice level,” Sommer adds.
For these reasons, Océ has established a recurring evaluation procedure run by its R&D, process and business experts, to keep its knowledge up-to-date with all developments in the technical documentation area. As well as ensuring that the above challenges are met, Océ is investigating the following:
- Overall process management capabilities
- Consistency of workflow
- User-friendliness of the authoring environment
- Interfacing with leading translation systems and tools
- Automated publishing capabilities
- Overall robustness, productivity and flexibility of the system
Docufy and its COSIMA system were selected out of more than 50 companies in the recent evaluation cycle. Uwe Reißenweber, CEO of Docufy, says: “We are very proud that the Océ evaluation has found Docufy and our COSIMA editorial system to be the best fit for Océ’s Technical Documentation Lifecycle Services. We have been working together successfully with Océ Germany since 2004. We are happy that the quality and the variety of features of our content management system, together with this good experience, have now led to the partnership contract signed today.”
“Right from the outset, the aim of developing COSIMA was to create a flexible, open and powerful integration platform. This is reflected by the wide-ranging configuration options and the flexibility of the system.” COSIMA is an ideal starting point for the implementation of highly specific editorial applications. With the simple scalability of the system and a pricing concept depending on the user, COSIMA is suitable for editorial departments of all sizes. The creation of workspace-specific applications is supported by a flexible concept which defines graphic and web-based user interfaces. The powerful client and server APIs allow user-specific extensions to the system. Using COSIMA as an integration platform allows costs to be reduced, cuts implementation risk and shortens implementation time. COSIMA is therefore the ideal product to be used as integration platform in customer-specific projects or as a standard component of best-practice applications.”
About Océ Business Services
Océ Business Services is one of the world's leading providers of document process management services and technology to law firms, corporations and the public sector. Its spectrum of managed solutions spans the document lifecycle. These include print/copy, mail services; Six Sigma® based performance management, and outsourcing and optimisation of complete document-intensive processes such as technical documentation, records management and eDiscovery. Océ Business Services' integrated capabilities allow it to serve enterprise-wide requirements with advanced technology, people and processes. By enabling organisations to manage and control their document assets, Océ Business Services helps reduce costs, increase efficiency, mitigate risk and introduce innovation.
About Docufy
Docufy is an independent software developer and services company, based in Bamberg, Germany. Founded in 1998 it first started as system integrator. Finding no suitable content management system for the specific needs of its customers at that time, Docufy decided to develop an own, standard based system, which led to today’s COSIMA. For more information about Docufy, visit http://www.docufy.de/.
For further information, please contact:
Nick Gale
Manager Media Relations
Océ Technologies
Tel.: +31.77.359.5628
Email: nick.gale@oce.com