Are You Satisfied with Your DITA-based Software in 2024?

Is your DITA setup causing more headaches than it's providing value?

If your answer is "yes," you are not alone. A staggering 62% of DITA satisfaction survey respondents claim existing DITA-based content management technology doesn't meet their expectations.?

Moreover, 83% of attempts to adopt DITA-driven software face insurmountable setbacks and end up on the list of failed or underachieving projects.

But before we discuss those setbacks, let's recall why DITA is still the golden standard for documentation management in 2024.

DITA in a nutshell

Since its release in 2005, Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) has matured to an excellent specification for managing large doc sets with extensive reuse.?

The benefits companies realize over time once they're creating, managing, and delivering content with DITA make it a not-to-miss opportunity for all willing to squeeze value from each bit of content.

DITA allows businesses to secure corporate information channels against discrepancy, redundancy, and unnecessary errors.

Why DITA implementation struggles to cover your business goals

Ideally, your content solution doesn't only cover the needs of your content department. When adopted correctly, it directly impacts business outcomes.

But why do so many organizations struggle even to fine-tune content processes??

The thing is, the majority of DIY or vendor DITA documentation tools have inherent shortcomings, like:

• Limited support of DITA processors
• Narrow scope of reusable elements
• Hurdled map making
• Limited metadata customization
• Difficulties in navigating mature content structures with multi-layer hierarchy?
• Tricky content integration with innovative delivery channels like voice assistants, AR/VR documentation, etc.

Here’s exactly the situation our client got caught up in.

A global manufacturer's second shot at DITA SaaS that worked wonders

A leading Danish manufacturer was hamstrung by outdated DITA-based software. Their team of 50+ technical writers had been struggling with:

• Underdigitized technical documentation creation and management process
• Weak content reuse mechanisms
• Lack of history view and in-depth version control
• Poor search and conditional processing functionality
• Impossibility to work on a piece of content without affecting the whole content ecosystem
• Tight limitations of the working context
• Human errors in CP tags due to manual input

To tackle daunting tasks of tech documentation management, the client decided to switch from their ill-fitting DITA-based software to *instinctools' feature-rich DITAworks software that:

• Keeps sensitive information under lock and key
• Comes packed with an extensive set of out-of-the-box features
• Plays well with the existing ecosystem
• Is customizable to the core

Here's how we made it all possible for their enterprise:

• Hurdle-free DITA content migration: Our dedicated team wrote migrators powerful enough to automate map formatting, grouping topics of different types into relevant folders, etc., to speed up the process of the client's DITA content migration from their old solution to DITAworks.
• Custom functionality: The team made custom modifications that have opened the door to numerous tailored benefits for the client's tech documentation management, including advanced map development, custom versioning, flexible content settings, and a translation analyzer.
• Website integration: After enhancing the out-of-the-box product with various custom features, we integrated DITAworks Webtop with the client's website for direct content publishing. This integration enabled the client to deliver the most relevant and accurate documentation to their customers.

The result??

• Fully digitized tech documentation management
• 14% faster document operations
• 11% reduced translation costs
• Error-free workflows?

Read the full case study >

DITAworks Webtop: thought-out architecture and limitless adaptability to your needs

Success stories like this come alive thanks to the integration of products like DITAworks Webtop.

This DITA-based multi-processor component content management software (CCMS) has a solid content reuse mechanism for authoring, managing, and publishing tech documentation.

Unlike other DITA documentation tools, it is an enterprise-oriented system with a modular, flexible, and highly customizable architecture to meet the needs of companies with mature content structures.

With *instinctools' seasoned guidance on DITAworks implementation, you're well-positioned to reap the enterprise-scale benefits of structured topic-based authoring.

Ready to bank on a customizable SaaS heavy hitter for hassle-free tech documentation management?

Give DITAworks Webtop a try. Request a demo

More insights on this topic

Case Study: Documentation Management Software For a Technology Equipment Manufacturer >?

Case Study: User Support Platform For a World-Leading Premium Cars Manufacturer >

DITA XML: Exploring the Darwin Information Typing Architecture Standard and Its Use Cases >

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