Managing Enterprise Content
Willis/Bach
Chapter 3 – Assessing Return on Investment for a Unified Content Strategy.
This chapter primarily consisted of the setting and meeting of goals when deciding whether or not to implement a unified content strategy. It was divided primarily into three parts, "Identifying goals," "Qualifying goals," and "Quantifying goals." The first two are easily summarized, with statements such as the following:
A fictitious company was used in demonstrating the process of deciding whether or not to implement a unified content strategy. The process was as follows:
Identifying Goals:
- Shorten time-to-market (how long it takes to get an item from conception to sales).
- Reduce cost of content development.
- Improve accuracy and quality of content.
- Reduce manufacturing defects.
These are all noble goals, but they aren't very specific. Without further guidelines, slight improvement can be viewed as successfully completing a goal. Hence, the next category:
Qualifying Goals:
- Reduce time-to-market by two months
- Reduce cost of content development by 25%
- Ensure content accuracy at all times (100% accuracy)
- Reduce defects to less than .01%
The last task of Quantifying the content is a bit more difficult. This essentially breaks down to how much benefit (read: money) the company gains by following these guidelines. For instance, maintaining constant 100% content accuracy can be fairly costly; however, if the company is sued due to a flaw in a manual, the loss could be catastrophic. Even if the company wins the case, the costs for simply defending themselves alone will be far greater than the cost spent on making sure they aren't sued in the first place.
The above process is not possible without gathering metrics (real costs). To do this the following steps need to be taken.
-Identify tasks.
-Measure the duration of a task.
-Calculate the cost of a task.
Ongoing metrics need to be performed as well.
Compare savings and/or value to the cost of achieving a goal.
After calculating the return on investment, the determination to implement a unified content strategy should reveal itself.
Willis/Bach
Chapter 3 – Assessing Return on Investment for a Unified Content Strategy.
This chapter primarily consisted of the setting and meeting of goals when deciding whether or not to implement a unified content strategy. It was divided primarily into three parts, "Identifying goals," "Qualifying goals," and "Quantifying goals." The first two are easily summarized, with statements such as the following:
A fictitious company was used in demonstrating the process of deciding whether or not to implement a unified content strategy. The process was as follows:
Identifying Goals:
- Shorten time-to-market (how long it takes to get an item from conception to sales).
- Reduce cost of content development.
- Improve accuracy and quality of content.
- Reduce manufacturing defects.
These are all noble goals, but they aren't very specific. Without further guidelines, slight improvement can be viewed as successfully completing a goal. Hence, the next category:
Qualifying Goals:
- Reduce time-to-market by two months
- Reduce cost of content development by 25%
- Ensure content accuracy at all times (100% accuracy)
- Reduce defects to less than .01%
The last task of Quantifying the content is a bit more difficult. This essentially breaks down to how much benefit (read: money) the company gains by following these guidelines. For instance, maintaining constant 100% content accuracy can be fairly costly; however, if the company is sued due to a flaw in a manual, the loss could be catastrophic. Even if the company wins the case, the costs for simply defending themselves alone will be far greater than the cost spent on making sure they aren't sued in the first place.
The above process is not possible without gathering metrics (real costs). To do this the following steps need to be taken.
-Identify tasks.
-Measure the duration of a task.
-Calculate the cost of a task.
Ongoing metrics need to be performed as well.
Compare savings and/or value to the cost of achieving a goal.
After calculating the return on investment, the determination to implement a unified content strategy should reveal itself.
Labels: Chap 3 MEC
posted by Karen.Bach1 | 5:01 PM
9 Comments:
You presented a very good overview of calculating ROI. I find it is beneficial to present to management just how much it is costing them to continue on with what they are already doing. The inefficiencies of the legacy system are what are driving the need for a replacement. Pointing out the wasted time on the part of the engineering staff is a powerful argument. Engineering drives IT budgets.
I like that the unified content strategy is being elaborated upon a bit. Since first reading about it, this is something that has piqued my interest and I’m glad that we finally get to read about how it can be applied. Granted, it’s still a bit theoretical, but we get more information nonetheless. I also like how you guys have laid all this out for us; it helps highlight the pros of a unified content strategy and made me think of ways that this could be implemented. How could development costs be reduced? How could we reduce manufacturing defects? This really related to me because I work in a production facility where questions like these are being asked all the time. I hope we get to hear more.
As far as identifying goals: yes, Rockley isn't very specific in this chapter, but I think the author wants the readers to be aware that management often has strategic goals in mind. Everyone must be aware that their work will be looked at and that they will have goals they need to meet (or they won't have a job!). In this age of job migration to foreign countries, we all need to keep this in mind! Yes, money IS a huge factor in everything you will do in the world of work. Trust me, bosses keep very close tabs on things that cost them money; often their salary and bonuses are based on cost incentives.
This chapter seemed a little confusing to me, especially since I don't know much about business or finance issues. The chapter is focused on costs and investment, which is important for any business to keep track of. Although this chapter was a little overwhelming for me, I do think it's important for a business to carefully consider whether or not implementing a new strategy would make sense for them and whether the savings will outweigh the costs of implenting the strategy. You guys summarized the chapter really well, it made more sense to me after viewing your summary.
I think Rockley made a good point about qualifying goals during a project. By making your goals more specific, you give your co-workers/employees a clear vision of what to strive for. Also, by making the goals measurable, you can go back after the project is complete and assess how well your organization did in pursuing the project. This way, a company can learn from their sucesses/mistakes, and make changes for future projects.
Also, this chapter may not have been very specific, but I think that's because projects vary between companies. Maintaining a level of ambiguity in a document (such as this textbook) helps make it more widely acceptable to more audiences. Unfortunately, though, many times a tradeoff must be made between ambiguity and clarity. So, while this text may be useful to a wide variety of companies, it may not be explicitly clear to them how to implement a unified content strategy and manage the implimentation process.
Personally, I like the way you've made this understandable for me. I think you did a really nice job of taking a complicated subject and putting it in terms I can identify with. This book seems a bit confusing to me at times but after reading your summary and if I'm understanding it correctly, it seems like more of an economic situation. I also liked what Carl said here about the powerful argument being identifying how much time is wasted doing it a different way. I still do not quite understand ROI, but it does make a little more sense after reading this summary. And if I understand it correctly I just don't think it's possible.
You did a really good job summarizing the chapter. I haven't had to deal with creating any goals outside of myself. I do have to set goals each year at one of my jobs. It requires me to set a goal to accomplish within the next year and then list who and what I will need to help me accomplish the goal. I also have to list how I accomplished my goal from the previous year. The whole thing is really superficial though.
Great job covering the topic. More like this and I won't have to read the chapter.
This chapter brings up a very good point as to just how import a technical communicator is to the bottom line of a company. If A company is having problems with the content of quality, development, or manufacturing then it will have a big impact on the outcome of the company. Being able to spot problems with in a company is easy if there is a clear product of failure, but in many time it the efficiency that needs to be worked on. Being able to spot efficiency can be hard if that is the way something has been done at a company for many years.
Post a Comment
<< Home