Daimler AG is a leading supplier of premium passenger cars as well as the world‘s largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles. With its strong brands and its comprehensive portfolio of automobiles from compact cars to heavy-duty engine trucks which are completed by tailor-made services along the automotive value chain, Daimler is active in nearly all countries in the world.
Daimler’s new global buying system GLOBUS has provided the company with an efficient organization of procurement processes all over the world.
In order to ensure fast and comprehensive education and ongoing support of the system users, Daimler decided to develop and implement a special user support system. The main requirements to the system were its transparent structure and easy-touse interface which would allow users in various countries to use materials describing GLOBUS functioning. Besides, the system had to be compatible with the technology which GLOBUS itself was built.
When looking on the other side of the process, it was necessary to organize a proper environment for multiple global content creators and translators which would streamline timely, consistent and reliable creation and delivery of the information.
It was decided that the solution would be built on the pre-packaged CMS version of *instinctools’ GateOne framework which meets all the requirements in the best way: it is web-oriented which offers independency from time and place, J2EE compliant which makes it compatible with GLOBUS, offers selectively DocBook or DITA standard which helps to properly structure and create documents according to international standards, has a WYSIWYG user interface which makes it easy-to-use for content editors, and at the same time it offers required flexibility and scalability to encounter future needs of a global roll-out.
The *instinctools team analyzed required document structures, discussed them with the Daimler team to ensure proper understanding and implemented it in the selected CMS.
From the beginning it was clear that the system would have to serve a distributed international community, therefore analysis had to be focused on localization strategy in order to provide proper possibilities for content localization into multiple languages and in multi-country environment.
As Daimler’s editors had already started creating documentation, *instinctools helped to migrate already existing parts of the user manual into the CMS-based help and support platform.
Daimler’s new Global Buying System GLOBUS has now an effective web-based help function and user support. We have chosen *instinctools’ innovative GateOne solution because it satisfied our needs in terms of multilingual content, flexibility and scalability.
After 5 months of the intense cooperation with Daimler’s teams, *instinctools introduced the required Help and Support System to the GLOBUS user community. The final solution covered all main aspects of editing and authoring processes by providing an efficient and comfortable environment for the content creators, editors and publishers:
a single sourcing content repository and separationof the content from its layout and freed authors and editors from unnecessary activities
well structured workflows enhanced real-time collaboration of global teams and simplified processes of content creation and localization The new architecture insures that localized content is consistent and is conveyed the information as originally intended
transparent structure of the existing content decreased information redundancy and improved content consistency
appliance to corporate standards ensure the presentation of the information is similar in all types of published media
On the other hand, GLOBUS users were provided with a comfortable and easy-to-use help-system which streamlined efficiency of their operations:
training materials become easily accessible from any place at any time
easy and effective search functions offer easy search and retrieval of the existing information
web-based system allows asking questions on-line and getting fast replies
content-sensitive help functions provides users with complete and timely information by a simple F1 clicking
automated publishing allows converting the content into any preferable digital format without any sophisticated technical knowledge
easy search and decreases dependency on the availability of the system expert made users more willing to use available materials
