Content is the crown jewel for many companies supporting today’s digitally connected customers, and product documentation accounts for a sizable proportion of content being converted for online access, according to a survey by Data Conversion Laboratory (DCL), a leading provider of digital publishing services.
Close to half of the respondents, 44 percent, say their content accounts for more than 50 percent of their company’s value. More than 266 professionals from a wide variety of industries completed the survey.
“Content has become an important corporate asset, and it’s attracting the attention of the C-suite, especially for customer support,” said Mark Gross, CEO of DCL. “As a result, most respondents say decisions about content are now elevated to top management and 60 percent believe the job needs to be done this year or next,” he added.
A wide range of organizations, from manufacturers to drug makers and publishers, are challenged by the complexity involved in moving content into a form that can be accessed on the web or a mobile device. The DCL survey also shows that 77 percent of the content is notwhat we think of as traditional publishing. The majority is actually product information, service manuals and other types of product documentation.
“Our clients are deadline-driven, and they need responsive online help,” said Matt Barbarello, Technical Information Architect at Mediaocean, which provides a technology platform for advertising agencies. “That’s why we are converting FAQs, product information and videos into electronic formats,” he added.
The survey shows that while companies have tried to convert information on their own, accuracy became an issue, as 85 percent say the cleanup of errors became an unexpected cost. In the future, 96 percent say having outside expertise to help them through the conversion process is critical.
View the details of the survey, or the complete press release.
