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basys Moves to Web-Based Content Delivery Using MadCap Flare

Tuesday 26. August 2008 - MadCap Software's Flare helps basys to modernize and streamline content delivery through single-source publishing and support for Microsoft .NET and Visual Studio

MadCap Software, the leader in multi-channel content authoring and a showcase company for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Visual Studio 2005 and Microsoft XPS, today announced that basys, inc. has modernized its documentation and Help content delivery using MadCap Flare. MadCap’s flagship content authoring software has enabled basys to migrate from PDF documentation files to a Web-based content delivery model. Using features in Flare, such as single-sourcing, reusable snippets, and conditional tags, basys also has significantly cut the time for maintaining its documentation — completing some updates in minutes that once took hours. Flare replaces the Adobe RoboHelp content authoring tool.

“When we began rewriting our software as Web-based applications, we wanted an authoring product that was optimized for the Web and could provide true single-sourcing. That product was Flare,” said Adrienne Pugh, technical writer for basys. “We have been using Flare since April 2006, and it is one of the best decisions we’ve made. We haven’t looked back since.”

Headquartered in Linthicum, Maryland, basys has been a leading provider of benefit administration solutions for 30 years. More than two years ago the company made a strategic decision to rewrite its Unix-based applications as Web-based applications using Microsoft .NET and Visual Studio. With the move to Web-based software, basys wanted to modernize its documentation, and deliver it as Web content.

“We were jumping into a new world with our software and documentation, and it was time to look at a new authoring solution,” Ms. Pugh recalled. “We reviewed a number of products, but most were based on older proprietary architectures. We were attracted by MadCap Flare’s standards-based, native XML architecture. We also liked the fact that Flare is based on .NET and Visual Studio, providing a lot of potential for seamless integration with our Web- based software.”

It was also seen by basys as an opportunity to improve the efficiency and quality of documentation. Due to RoboHelp’s lack of robust single sourcing, basys had to maintain some 10 projects and hundreds of in-line styles, and each change had to be made manually in every place it occurred. Not only was this time consuming for basys’ technical writers, it also demanded close scrutiny by quality control (QC) team members to ensure consistency.

Since implementing Flare, basys has taken advantage of several product features, as well as MadCap’s responsive support team and community forums, to enhance and streamline its content delivery. With Flare’s single-source functionality, basys only needs to maintain a few projects. Condition tags combined with single sourcing allow basys to control what documentation users can see based on their profile — for example whether the person is an administrator, an employer, or a member. One of the most popular features is the ability to create reusable snippets, and today they appear in every topic within basys’ documentation. Now when there is a word change, it can be made automatically throughout the Flare project.

“We love the snippets in Flare. It’s one of the things that has transformed our lives,” said Ms. Pugh. “Now when we have an update, we just go to the snippet source, make the change, and the change appears everywhere. It just takes a few seconds. It’s so much more efficient, and there is a lot more control.”

“Our QC people say it has affected their process as well,” Ms. Pugh added. “Before, they had to review every topic and hope that a function or field was described the same way. Knowing that we use snippets, they no longer have to eyeball every instance where a change occurs. It adds a whole new level of certainty.”

The internal efficiencies have been matched by the rich, user-friendly experience for the company’s customers using basys’ Web Help. Customers report that the Web-based content is much more intuitive and more in line with what they are used to seeing with other Web-based applications. The use of drop down text and expanding text allows users to read only what they want to — and to access it faster. The “favorites” feature allows coworkers to save frequently visited help topics so they can find what they need without searching.

“Our Web-based documentation has become such an asset that our sales team pitches it to prospects, almost treating it like another application,” Ms. Pugh observes. “Flare makes our technical writing team feel like rock stars.”

“basys has taken a strategic step in extending its market leadership by transforming its proven benefit plan applications into Web-enabled processes-supported by state-of-the-art Web-based documentation,” said MadCap CEO Anthony Olivier. “We are thrilled by the role that our ground-breaking, native XML Flare authoring software has played in enabling basys to deliver a world-class customer experience along with superior quality control and productivity. We look forward to supporting basys as it delivers new Web-optimized solutions and documentation for the future.”