September 20th, 2011 by admin
To follow up on my previous blog entitled “Our Customer’s Due Diligence”, this month’s blog is about the due diligence that Innovatia does prior to agreeing to provide outsourced services in technical information development such as documentation and videos.
As part of any agreement to provide outsourced services Innovatia and our customers enter a due diligence phase. Depending on the size of the potential agreement this can take days or weeks to ensure that we have all the information we need to determine if we can provide the services in the way that the customer expects. Outlined below is an example of the information that Innovatia looks for prior to engaging in an agreement.
Thorough due diligence is very important to the success of an outsourcing agreement. Better to ask the tough questions up front than to fail in delivery part way through the transition.
Stay tuned next month for a discussion on “The Outsourcing Agreement”.
Connie Twynham
VP — Business Development, USA
Tags: company, delivery, due diligence, engaging in an agreement, function, Innovatia, Innovatia’s, operations, outsourcing agreement, service, transition, vision
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August 2nd, 2011 by admin
The decision to outsource a piece of work or function within a company should never be made without significant due diligence on both sides. Due diligence can be a legal obligation but also applies to voluntary investigations to determine the work involved and a company’s capabilities. Outlined below is a checklist of sorts on the types of information that we (Innovatia) have provided to our customers as they worked through due diligence with us.
Stay tuned for my next blog when I let you know what Innovatia looks for during our due diligence.
- How do we engage our highly skilled technical writers, information architects, media designers, and project managers to ensure that we know what the requirements are?
- How do we make sure we can architect our infrastructure to ensure Intellectual Property (IP) security and connect seamlessly to our customers to deliver on our commitments?
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July 18th, 2011 by admin
Well CiscoLive is over for another year. What a great event and it really is all about Cisco’s Customers. Lots of opportunities to see new technologies, learn, and interact with Cisco experts and fellow customers.
I had the chance to take part in an interesting session about User Personas. Cisco actually engages their users to the point of understanding the different titles and roles for individuals inside their customer’s organization. Why do they do that? Two reasons; one – to build a really great solution Cisco needs to know who they are building solutions for, and two – how will the individual use it meaning what procedures and tips will that user benefit from. From those two pieces of information they can additionally find out what documentation (or other information types such as videos) they will need and from what device will they read or watch the information.
This particular session was all about gathering information from customers. Allowing the customers to set the direction of products and solutions by gathering an understanding of their roles and environments is genius really. Imagine a solution built for a problem rather than a solution looking for one!
Signing out from Las Vegas and CiscoLive 2011. See you next year!
Connie Twynham
VP — Business Development, USA
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July 12th, 2011 by admin
There are so many great collaboration and productivity tools that I can envision Innovatia’s technical writers and developers using it’s hard to know where to start. There is Show and Share, Quad, Jabber, and WebEx to name a few. I spent the day listening to sessions with the User Group as they heard about features in upcoming releases and future considerations. It’s helpful to hear how the users implement and integrate the solutions to solve their specific business challenges. Tonight I get on the Cisco Solutions Showcase floor to see some live demonstrations. I hope to share some more information and pictures soon!
Connie Twynham
VP — Business Development, USA
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July 11th, 2011 by admin
Cisco is a great example of a big company that pays attention to little details and quality. Details that make it easy for the attendees to register, reserve accommodations, attend workshops and sessions and keep it all in one place. It’s very similar to so many of Cisco’s Unified Communication solutions.
Cisco Live is July 11th-14th in Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. I have 16 sessions booked and I am pumped and ready to see and hear all that I can about new innovative technologies and solutions.
Innovatia is always looking for better ways to collaborate with our customers to develop and deliver more effective “best of breed” information assets. Integrating technologies like SMART Board with WebEx and Video means that our technical writers can work remotely with development teams to create and test concepts and procedures. Sharing brainstorming ideas and diagrams real time saves development effort and promotes more effective communication. Being “in the room” through video and conferencing capability makes sure that everyone understands how a solution works and what needs to be created to help the user quickly adopt the new technology.
I wonder what I will find next week!
Connie Twynham
VP — Business Development, USA
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June 17th, 2011 by admin
It’s amazing how often you see it. Work gets outsourced, but the folks managing that work from the customer’s perspective and the supplier’s perspective do not have clear definitions of roles and responsibilities. It can cripple a team. At first there is an obvious need for duplication—the supplier is learning the intricacies of the client’s culture and standards; the client is unsure of how the supplier gets work done. Multiple attempts at understanding the correct level and detail of communication are worked through and toes get stepped on.
As we’ve discussed before in “So you’ve outsourced,” during the Storming phase challenges to authority and subsequent role clarification are the main struggles, and realignment of cross-team dynamics is required to establish the new hierarchy and build trust and confidence. A manager who has always managed people will find little that is familiar in a vendor-management role. A project manager will struggle with managing people and career paths. In some cases training and mentoring will be required to assist the team with new responsibilities.
Prior to outsourcing it is important for all parties to have a clear understanding of how the supplier fits in to the new organization. What governance and operational model will fit best? What is the best communication plan to ensure that all parties get the information and guidance they need to guarantee success?
Successful outsourcing is not easy… it isn’t “just throw it over the fence” and it isn’t “just take it and do it.” Innovatia is the outsourced vendor for many top names in the IT and Telecom industry for end-user documentation, training development and delivery, as well as customer technical support. The models vary across our customer base but one thing remains the same: clear, open lines of communication that start and end with mutual success in mind is critical. Documented, revised and regularly reviewed descriptions of the roles and responsibilities of all team members are key components of open communications.
Connie Twynham
VP — Business Development, USA
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April 14th, 2011 by admin
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Albert Einstein once said this. Think about it for a second and ask yourself, does this quote apply to the way most companies are run? Hire the same high priced staff, use the same technologies, create the same outputs, and follow the same processes equals get the same results.
So why do companies outsource? You might think that the only reason is cost but think again. The cheapest is not always the best answer. The market wants best of breed, intuitive-to-use, high quality products. Can you get all three and still cut costs? Innovatia has many customers who have outsourced various pieces of work to us. Their reasons for doing so are varied but a few seem to ring louder.
Increase Innovation – This means meeting the customer where they are. Knowing the enterprise and end customer so well that you can readily see the requirement and create products, solutions and accompanying information assets that immediately fills the need. Further to that, it is imperative that users feel like they can’t perform their jobs without them. Large and small companies typically spend most of their profits on research and development to create products. Rarely do they also have budget set aside to research the best way to deliver information about a product. Maybe it is a YouTube video, an on-product tutorial, or a one page quick reference card, but typically information is developed in the same way; creating the same user guides, installation manuals and help files. Outsource vendor companies like Innovatia spend millions of dollars on research and development for information products.
Companies outsource “non-core” documentation development so that innovation in those assets can be improved while focus can remain on the core product.
Improve Quality – Reading quality metrics is likely driving a car while looking through the rearview mirror. Initiating a quality-built-in approach means that not only is something free of defects but it is also fit for purpose. The best training is not considered high quality if everything in it is only accurate. – it’s considered high quality if it is easily accessible by the user and actually provides the right training, in the right way at the right time.
Companies outsource “non-core” training development and delivery so that users can be trained to use the products and solutions correctly and in a way that positively affects their lives.
Increase Productivity – Let’s face it, internal projects always get lower priority and internal resources are not motivated to make themselves more efficient. Never has anyone knowingly created a process inside a company that has eliminated their job. It takes an outside vendor with service level agreements, productivity improvement metrics, and governance models to quickly get at improved productivity.
Companies outsource “non-core” customer contact centers (for example) so that productivity (calls answered, cases avoided or solved) can be improved.
Decrease Cost – Long gone are the days when all components of a company’s activities are carried out in the same location. With the development of new technologies, a resource doesn’t have to be there to “get it”. This means that although headquarters might be located in a high priced area, non-core activities and even research and development does not have to be co-located. That means that the opportunity to outsource to lower cost of living areas is very good. Outsourcing to a company who has resources in multiple low cost locations to account for time zones and language barriers is even better.
Companies outsource “non-core” activities to lower cost areas to save money.
In an industry where Innovatia’s customers are experiencing increased levels of competitiveness, they take advantage of every method available to help them increase innovation, improve quality, increase productivity, and cut costs.
Connie Twynham
VP — Business Development, USA
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March 24th, 2011 by admin
The decision has been made, the impacted parties have been notified, and production … must not suffer. There is no time for reflection, relationship management, team building, or any other activities for newly formed teams. The show must go on, the customer’s customer must not be affected and service levels must be met. So what happens when something goes wrong? Access to critical systems is denied by internal security, resources are not familiar with proprietary tools and technologies, and communication between the management team is deteriorating. It’s a case of “us and them.”
Sigh … the trap was laid well before the teams were formed. Discussions and strategies around critical success factors such as; partnership approaches, sustainability of existing processes and procedures, and last but not least fit did not occur at the management team level. Oh yes, the account manager, business owner, and other corporate sponsors all talked about this but it just never trickled down to the team. There are multiple challenges, hurdles, pitfalls and roadblocks that the new teams will have to navigate through, and for the most part it takes time and hard work. But there is something to be said for understanding the basic stages of team dynamics.
The figure below outlines the stages and provides some words often used to describe the feelings. In addition the
phases of the outsourcing implementation are provided.
So what’s a leader to do?
There is no silver bullet for getting through the phases and on with the transition but there is some advice:
- Where possible let the team work through it themselves.
- Recognize the interdependence that is inherent for both parties to achieve success.
- Communicate in person, by phone and video more often than email and text
- Get the team members together early and often. Plan functions together if possible even virtual when face to face can’t work
- Have meetings where the agenda is just getting to know each other. The trust that typically comes from a combination of personal relationships and professional credibility is extremely important.
- Promote high levels of information sharing between the parties, including sharing of critical and proprietary information.
- Exercise high levels of information participation through joint planning and goal setting.
- Suggest small groups from both companies for specific areas and have them bring back ideas and resolutions to the larger team
- Provide opportunities for workshops on roles and responsibilities.
- Have team meetings where the discussion is about successes.
- Celebrate the milestones and recognize when the stages are evolving.
- Recognize each other’s strengths but provide opportunity to develop skills as well.
- Recognize that conflict brings innovation and shouldn’t necessarily be seen as a bad thing. A joint problem solving approach to conflict resolution is the key to the innovation.
Final words
Outsourcing is a difficult decision, and companies do it for all kinds of reasons. One reason given is performance and innovation. Therefore, it makes sense to invest in team dynamics. Members are selected and teams are formed because they can achieve far more than their individual members can on their own, and while being part of a high-performing team can be fun, it can take patience and professionalism to get to that stage.
Effective team leaders can accelerate that process and reduce the difficulties that team members experience by understanding the basics and providing guidance as the teams moves through the stages of mourning, forming, storming, norming, and finally, performing.
Connie Twynham
VP – Business Development, USA
Tags: change management, emotional stages, outsourcing, outsourcing issues, resource development, team building
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February 3rd, 2011 by admin
I bet you think I’m going to talk about how to convince your customers that you understand and can protect their intellectual property (IP). How can an outsourcing vendor really know enough about a customer’s solution to develop industry-leading information assets that will help drive the capture of market share? Nope—in actual fact I am less concerned with that than with another IP problem. Our own IP.
Significant amounts of time have been consumed talking about what our intellectual property is and is not. It isn’t our customers’ information about their product. It isn’t how their solution fits in a network. It isn’t how they do their research and development. Our IP is in how we develop information outputs, how we transition work from our customers, and how we integrate ourselves into their customers’ feedback loop.
It’s tricky, really, because most customers demand to know, see, and monitor our processes. Customers want to know exactly how we are going to perform a function better, faster and for less cost. Mostly, they want this information because they just need convincing that we can deliver, that we will delight, and that we “get it.” But, sometimes, the customer is on a fact-finding mission of a different kind. I, unfortunately, am guilty of giving away too much and “overtelling” the service. A couple of weeks after the deal has been killed, I’ll find out how the company is changing its processes internally, has switched to a different authoring tool, or has hired resources internally to do what I told them was needed. Where does one draw the line? When is it enough to say “We have internal processes and tools that will drive efficiencies and cost savings” or “We have significant experience with a similar company of the same size and have demonstrated our capability”?
Customers need the information, they need the warm, fuzzy feeling that we can deliver what we promise, but somehow we have to be able to protect our IP. We have to convince customers that only we can do what we say we can—they can’t duplicate it, can’t use our processes and tools to get the same results. Huge changes in results require monumental changes that can sometimes be achieved only by changing the players.
- Connie
Tags: intellectual property, outsourcing
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November 18th, 2010 by admin
A few years ago a colleague of mine sent me this write up. As we are about to swell our ranks of technical writers and information developers once more I think it is appropriate to share.
Ever been asked what you do? When you say ‘technical writer’, do you often get that blank “What is that?” look?
“Well, I write instruction manuals, like, you know, for your VCR or washing machine.” “Oh really,” they say, and move on.
Next time, try this: “What do you do?” “I’m a writer.” “Oh, what do you write?” “Primarily, non-fiction, though I do dabble in fiction from time to time.” (Smile serenely to yourself at the in-joke.)
“Have you been published?”
“Yes, quite widely actually, but my work is tailored for specific audiences so you won’t see many of my titles on the best seller list. [In a much lower voice say] Much of what I do is confidential, you understand what I mean, so there is only so much I can discuss.”
Notice that a crowd has grown around you and people are bringing you drinks.
So, who is this technical writer person?
First and foremost, we are writers. There are probably more struggling writers than actors. What that means is that not only are we writers, we are very successful ones. And there is good reason for that. Technical writing combines a set of skills that are not only rare, they are rarely recognized by technical writers themselves.
We are story-tellers. Like any good story-teller, we must keep the reader engaged and entertained from beginning to end. Like many good stories, we begin with an unknown, mysterious, and sometimes frightening character who is revealed step-by-step, in a satisfying and meaningful way so that, by story’s end, this character is familiar to, and a support for, one and all. A happy ending is always the goal, and the only measure of success.
Next, we are teachers. Most writers can assume that the reader has a rapport with their characters because, in almost all cases, those characters are human. Ours are not: they are hard core metal and plastic or the invisible, unintelligible series of ones and zeroes that compile into ‘software’. Yet by the end of our story the reader must have an intuitive understanding and appreciation of our characters, as if they had known them for a long time. Added to this challenge is the reality that we rarely, if ever, see or meet our students. The immensity of the educational challenge we face every day would make the most accomplished teachers cringe.
We are artists; the blank page is our canvas. As artists we have to paint a picture that has significant aesthetic appeal yet always provides quick orientation to, and easy assimilation of, ‘the message’. And all we have to work with is black on white. In many environments, our canvas is defined by templates, which makes our work easier if they are well done, and adds to our challenges if we must compensate for them. Insofar as the templates we work with at Innovatia are concerned, anyone who has ever worked with Bell System Practices or to military specs knows how much better ours are.
Last and far from least, we are scientists. It is impossible to explain complex technologies to someone else if we don’t have a working understanding of those technologies ourselves. It is also very difficult to gain much satisfaction from our work unless we know what we are talking about. It isn’t always easy but we always have to be willing to jump into the technology with gusto. To do that we have to have the investigative spirit and unrelenting attention to detail of the best scientist.
Teacher, story-teller, artist, scientist. This is what the technical writer is. It’s a tall order. It is you.
Feel proud.
Tags: technical writer, technical writing
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