• Is the development of your technical and product support information flexible enough to meet the challenges of today’s changing market?
• Are you getting the most from your present technical information staff?
• Do you deliver this crucial technical information and data in the most effective method possible, at the highest return on investment for you and your company?
• Can your documents keep pace with the future expectations and demands of others?
  Consider these key points and see why many of today’s leading companies are outsourcing the one part of their business that is so critical to their future success – technical information management.

Can Outsourcing Really Reduce My Costs and Streamline Efficiencies?
Today, many companies have either considered or are actually implementing options to outsource the development of their original or vendor-supplied technical information to further reduce spiraling internal staff expenses or to trim overhead costs.

Often, these costs are associated with providing advanced pay and benefit packages, especially those demanded by longer-tenured staff employees. More importantly, these same costs are often driven by staff employees who are working at less than their maximum productivity or delivering less than 100% of a total team effort in meeting your technical information needs. That can lead to missed deadlines and late deliveries. It adds to cost overruns, ultimately affecting your budget. Unfortunately, it’s also a lack of attention to detail in an industry that prides itself on accuracy and professionalism.

The option to outsource is sometimes unsettling to consider, but it is often a necessary cost-containment method that helps to strengthen your firm’s standing in a highly competitive industry – an industry facing ever-increasing profit and market pressure.

And in using today’s advanced computer technology and the capabilities offered through the Internet and e-commerce, every task associated with the creation, archiving, repository and duplication and delivery of technical information can now be completed less expensively and handled more efficiently, by utilizing an outside contractor rather than continuing with this type of cost-intensive operation ‘in-house.’

What Should I Look For, In Terms of Experience?
Consider a technical information services provider with a proven track-record of working with clients in the aerospace, automotive or equipment manufacturing industries.

• Is the firm experienced in working to stringent quality specifications, such as those called for by leading trade and business associations, such as the American Transport Association, or the American Trucking Association, to name just two?
• Can the final product be completed in both MIL-SPEC and commercial industry formats?
• Are their operations ISO certified for quality and accuracy of work?

Many companies pretend to be a technical information management company.
But most are not.

It's important to select a company that offers a full menu of service and understands the technology needed to complete your job in the most efficient and productive ways possible. Look for one whose daily operations are conducted on a national level – and not just with local or regional clients.

Are they:

• Accustomed to working with clients nationwide or in several global locations?
• Knowledgeable in creating and managing large-scale repositories?
• Well-versed in standard industry phraseology and working terms?
• Familiar with a variety of languages and business customs?
• Accustomed to working within the tight timeframes and cost constraints typically found within your industry group?

Ask your peers about overall company reputation and the knowledge base of employees within that particular technical information company.

• Will the professionally skilled people working on your account come from past technical backgrounds that are the most appropriate?
• Are they conversant in the descriptions, technical illustration development and standard procedures for document creation and production that you, your superiors and your customers are familiar with?
• Are their employees dedicated and committed? Do they enjoy what they do?
• Are they quality-focused and results-driven?

What Type of Services Do I Need?
Especially in the rapidly changing aerospace, automotive and equipment manufacturing industries, you must plan for tomorrow, today.

Can your technical information provider offer you and your company:

• A core competency in technical writing capability?
• Skills in technical illustrative, engineering and isometric artwork?
• Parts listing and parts association analysis?
• Database development and systems integration?
• Expertise in Information Technology (IT) and programming functions?

How Much Will Outsourcing This Work Cost Me?
This is the best question of all and also the most difficult to answer. But it will always cost you less than what your current costs are.

Each job requirement is different in size, scope and complexity. However, the right technical information services provider will have in-place the best systems and most advanced software to complete your projects in the most cost-effective manner possible. They will also retain longer-tenure employees well versed in the technical information industry – professionals who know from experience what works and what doesn’t.

Be certain that whichever company you evaluate has a full-service automated document management system already in place to meet your future needs.

• Does your provider use high-end software specifically created to reduce the time needed to replicate text and illustrations and to update information to most current revision levels – throughout an entire document?
• Can their staff make changes in a printed version and also ensure that those changes are later reflected in other media as well – such as throughout an Internet site containing the same technical data and information?
• Are their systems fully ATA compliant?
• Most importantly, do they run in a Microsoft® Windows environment?

Also be sure your provider can process large-scale databases and has the IT capability to support your database needs and the efficient transfer of information electronically.

Ensure that they utilize their own in-house database development group, working with only high-quality digital electronic files for ease-of-use across differing computer platforms or software requirements. And be sure to inquire if they have optimum connections – via multiple full T-1 connections or faster -- for optimum connectivity and file transfers to and from your various site locations.

Is your work done digitally now, or is it time to convert to digital? Your technical information services provider must be able to easily work with your existing materials in formats such as microfiche, hard copy, or even original engineering bills of materials (BOMs), if necessary. Clients have been known to deliver raw technical information literally on outdated mag tape, in shoe boxes and file cabinets.

If this sounds like some of your archived information, then be sure they have the ability to convert and upgrade your older information into modern, indexed electronic files and extensive databases that can be quickly and easily accessed via the Internet from anywhere in the world.

All of these factors will determine the estimated costs needed for your job to be completed within time and within budget.