1. Position Paper on
Value of Technical Publications in
the Telecom Hardware Industry
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3. Introduction
This paper presents the value and need for quality TWB – Leading Technical Documentation
Technical Publications in the Telecom Hardware
Industry.
Outsourcing Company
TWB is a leading technical publisher with an excellent
Technical publications include a wide variety of
record of providing unmatched technical documentation
documents such as user guides, online help, white
to many major companies.
papers, reference guides, administration guides,
standard operating procedures, installation manuals,
and product demos. TWB is the ideal choice for leading vendors of Telecom
Hardware products. TWB helps customers with all their
technical documentation needs such as user guides,
The telecom hardware industry has experienced
administration guides, installation manuals, process and
enormous changes in the last few decades, and the
workflow documentation, configuration documents and
pace of its evolution is increasing. This increasing
training materials.
pace of innovation has altered the traditional
telecommunications market model. No market
research could have predicted the billion-dollar market TWB works closely with client teams located globally,
for cell phone ring tones, for example, because the and assists them in meeting their worldwide product
concept had no precedent. These changes necessitate announcements and launch deadlines. We work round-
documentation of the updated processes and the-clock with client teams and help them with quick
workflows, along with the creation of user manuals for responses that facilitate timely distribution of documents
the product, and product-specific configuration around the globe.
documents.
“Knowledge is people, money, learning, flexibility
According to MAIT (Manufacturing Association of and competitive advantage. Knowledge is more
Information Technology), the hardware and networking relevant to sustained business than capital or labor.
industry is growing at over 40 percent annually. This And yet knowledge remains the most neglected
indicates that there is tremendous potential for asset of a business. TWB helps you unlock and
technical documentation in the telecom hardware share your technical knowledge with the world.”
industry.
Despite the rapid growth of the Telecom Hardware
Industry, the use of the telecom products makes
quality documentation important to both the vendors of
these hardware products and those organizations that
purchase them. The documentation needs to be
simple and comprehensible to end users, which
necessitates the involvement of technical
documentation specialists in the creation of documents
relevant to this industry.
“TWB believes that technology cannot exist
without being communicated effectively.”
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4. Telecom Hardware Industry – Technical Publications
Growth and Penetration of Telecom Challenges and Solutions
Hardware Sector in India
India has become one of the fastest-growing mobile
markets in the world. The mobile services were Some of the greatest documentation challenges that
commercially launched in August 1995 in India. In the most companies face today include:
initial 5–6 years, the average monthly subscribers
additions were around 0.05 to 0.1 million only. In  Lack of documentation during a product release or
December 2002 the total mobile subscriber base stood launch.
at 10.5 million. As of July 2009 the total mobile  Managing large amount of information for new
subscribers base stands at 441.66 million. product releases.
 Applying cost-cutting measures while serving many
India has positioned itself as one of the front-runners of vendors.
the rapidly growing Asia Pacific Region. This is due to a
series of ambitious and positive economic reforms aimed
Building a telecom network requires huge capital
at deregulating the economy and stimulating foreign
investment. Cost-cutting measures play an important
investment.
function in increasing capital gains for companies.
TWB provides technical documentation solutions that
India’s liberalized FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) policy are at par with the industry standards, and within the
allows up to a 74% FDI in Telecom Industry with up to budget.
100% FDI in the manufacturing of telecom equipments.
Creating and maintaining documents specific to this
“India's mobile subscriber base is expected to grow industry involves enormous capital investment in labor
at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.3 and technology. TWB provides documentation
percent, from 2007 to 2013, reaching a penetration solutions for creating and maintaining product and
rate of 53.4 percent by end-2013.” process documents.
Today telecom is one of the most popular and The telecommunication industry is undergoing a lot of
widespread communication technology on the planet, modifications and reforms which requires a lot of
with an estimated 4.6 billion subscriptions globally. documentation. These changes have to be
documented and revised frequently. TWB provides
continuous support to update product documents
regularly with changing technology advancements.
Benefits
For a leading telecom hardware manufacturer,
association with TWB has benefited them immensely
in saving costs and producing professional
documentation along with:
 Transferring complex technical data into easily
understandable language
 Protecting technical and commercial data of newly
developed products
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5. Value of Technical Publications
Technical Communication for Communication for Different Levels of
Transferring Product Knowledge Technical and Product Knowledge
The purpose of technical communication is to transfer In technical publications, audience is the focal point.
product knowledge to end users in a comprehensible Hence, the style, language, and content must vary
manner. The strategies of communication and levels of depending on the type of audience being addressed. It
information vary depending on the type of product and is because every user has a specific role in the
audience. implementation and usage of technology. Therefore, it
is important that documents be created keeping in
mind the role of the person who will use the document.
Providing end users with information about a product’s
operation and maintenance is critical to the market
performance of the product. Hence, the need for quality For example, when you document a software
documentation is imperative. application designed for highly technical users, it is
sufficient to provide the users with quick reference
information to use the application.
In today’s business scenario, technical publications are
often developed as an afterthought. This usually results
in inaccurate and incomprehensible documentation, For users who start without technical or product
which, in turn, renders the users incapable of using the knowledge, it is important to provide detailed product
products. information along with instructions on how to use the
product.
Accurate, readily understandable, and quality documents
determine how a product sells in the market and result in
increased customer satisfaction. Attractive Publications as Useful
Marketing Tools
Faulty Assumptions that Result in
Problems in Documentation Besides transferring knowledge, technical publications
are also used for marketing a product. Before a
The faulty assumptions listed below result in product is released in the market, information about
incomprehensible documents: the product needs to be effectively communicated to
the customers.
 Developers know their products better than anyone
else – due to time constraints and limited resources, Well-designed, accurately presented, and attractive
many companies assign their documentation tasks to marketing collaterals increase the market prospects of
the programmers. This more often results in the a product and reduce support costs.
creation of technology-centered information, while
end users require task-oriented information.
 Documentation of complex applications requires a
longer learning curve for the writer - learning the
product will not be a major obstacle for writers with
the right technical background.
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6. Conclusion
 The Importance of Telecom Hardware: The Indian telecommunications industry is one of the fastest growing in
the world and India is projected to become the second largest telecom market globally by 2010. Thus the need
for good quality documentation arises.
 Value of Technical Publications: Technical Publications are very essential for transferring product knowledge
to the end users. Provisioning of proper material to use the technology and products enables the user to accept
and efficiently use the product. Faulty assumptions about documentation lead to inaccurate and hard-to-
understand material. This also reduces the changes to be made for marketing the products in the global
markets. On the other hand, good documentation is clear, easy to read and simple to understand. It helps the
user operate and maintain the system with ease. Good documentation allows products to be used effectively.
 Role of Documentation Outsourcing: The complexity and growth involved in the telecom hardware sector
requires that companies look at outsourcing their documentation needs to well-established Technical
Publications Solutions providers. This helps the company cut costs and at the same time deliver their products
with quality documents.
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7. TWB Services
TWB is India’s leader in technical communication outsourcing and education. TWB offers a complete suite of services that allows
our customers to effectively publish their technical knowledge with their people and processes. TWB’s customers range from
Global 500 – including Cisco, Accenture, McAfee, LG, Samsung, Citrix, SAP, Siemens, AOL, Intel; Indian technology majors –
including Infosys, Wipro; Global defense majors - Pratt & Whitney, Honeywell, DRDO, HAL; and exciting technology startups.
TWB's expertise in technical communication ranges from IT Products and Outsourcing, ITES, Banking, Financial, Aerospace,
Defense, Ship Building to Hi-tech Manufacturing, and Discrete and Process Manufacturing.
TWB’s services include:
Technical Marketing Technical Product Documentation Quality
Solutions Documentation Management
 Datasheets
 Administrator’s Guide
 Datasheets  Copy Editing and Proof Reading
 API Document
 Cheat sheets  Managing Writing
 Configuration Guide
 Solution Briefs/Solution Brochures  Editing Services
 Functional Specifications Document
 Presentations – Products/Corporate  Layout and Design
Profile  Installation Manual
 Creating SLAs
 Brochures and marketing collateral  Interface Document
 Web content  Interactive Electronic Technical Manual
(IETM)
Business Documentation
 Audio and video scripts
 Maintenance Manual  Business Proposals
 Press releases
 Online Help  Legal Disclaimers
 Direct mail
 Operation Manual  Policy Manuals
 Newsletter design copy
 Product Demo  Style Guide Design
 Sales catalogues
 Product Specifications Document  Template Design
 Sales sheets
 Product Overview Document
 Quick Reference Guide
Business Communication Content Management
 Release Notes
 Short Reports  Requirement Analysis Document
 Single Sourcing
 Proposals  SDK Document
 File Version Control
 Case Studies  Troubleshooting Manual
 Document Naming Conventions
 Lab Reports  User Manual
 Consistent Document Formatting
 Memos  Open Source Documentation
 Data Transformation
 Progress/Interim Reports  Programmers Guides
 Writing for Electronic Media  Functional Specifications Document
 Use Cases Web site Development
Illustrations  Online Help /Context Sensitive Help
 Web 2.0 development
 Troubleshooting Guides
 Graphic Designing  Web content

 Info graphics  Web applications
Qualitative Analytics for
 2D & 3D animation
Decision Support Translation and Localization
 Line drawings and illustrations
Services
 Economic Business Research
Process Documentation  Industry Analysis  Software Translation Services
 Workflows  Market Opportunity Analysis  Document Translation Services
 Standard Operating Procedures  Competitive Business Analysis  Localization (L10N) Testing
 ISO Documentation  Company & Prospect Profiling  Internationalization (I18N) Testing
 CMM Documentation  Reporting Solutions
 Assessment of Unmet Market Needs Records Management
Deployment and Support  Status and Potential of Technologies
 Document Management Solutions
 Benchmarking of Strategies Vs
Competition  Record Management Storage and
 Installation and Configuration Guides
Retrieval
 Operations Manual  Forecasting
 Sales Force Effectiveness
 Market Assessments
 Competitive Intelligence
 Opinion Leadership
 Emerging Markets - evaluation and
research
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8. TWB Software Tools Expertise
Our technical proficiency in software and authoring tools includes:
Unstructured Content XML Structured Editors Multimedia /Authoring
Development
 Epic  Adobe Flash®
 Microsoft Word®  FrameMaker+SGML  Adobe Dreamweaver®
 Adobe FrameMaker®  X-Metal®  Microsoft FrontPage®
 Adobe InDesign®  Adobe Captivate®
 QuarkXPress® Macromedia Captivate
 Adobe PageMaker® Graphics/Animations
 Multimedia /Authoring /
Illustrations  Adobe Flash® Supporting tools
 Adobe Photoshop®
 Adobe Flash CS4 Professional  Adobe Fireworks®  Adobe Flash®
 Adobe Illustrator CS3  Adobe Flex®
 CorelDRAW Online Help  Adobe AIR®
 Microsoft-Expression Graphic  Adobe Dreamweaver®
Designer  Adobe Acrobat®
 Xara Xtreme (Windows & Linux)  JavaHelp
 Microsoft Silverlight®
 CuteDraw  Adobe RoboHelp 7.0
 Adobe Authorware®
 Publisher3D(for animation)  HelpScribble
 Adobe Director®
 Sketsa SVG Editor (for vector  WebWorks Publisher
 Adobe Captivate®
graphics)  PowerCHM
 Trivantis Lectora®
 Techsmith Camtasia  Doc-To-Help
 ASP.NET
 Arbortext IsoDraw (technical  WinCHM
 JSP
illustrations for 2D and 3D)  HelpSmith 2.1.1(Windows)
 JAVA
 Fast-Help
 MadCap Flare Standards
Graphics/Animation  Help-Server
 NVU Help
 SCORM 1.2 / 2004
 Adobe Flash®  AICC
XML
 Adobe Photoshop®  W3C
 Adobe Illustrator®  Section 508
 Adobe Fireworks®  XMetal®  QTI XML
 Microsoft Silverlight®  Microsoft Word 2003®,
 Microsoft Word 2007®
Databases Development and Publishing
tools
CMS/ LMS
 Microsoft Access  XSLT/XSL
 Microsoft SQL Server  EDD
 Sharepoint®
 Moodle
Flowcharting  Joomla,
 WordPress
 Microsoft Visio  Media Wiki
 iGrafx  CMS Builder
 EDraw  Author-it (formerly AuthorIT)
 RFFlow  Alfresco
 Flowbreeze
 Smart Draw
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9. Industries Served
TWB services a wide range of technology and knowledge-driven industries, helping them meet their markets better. These include:
 Banking, Insurance and Financial Services  ITES/ KPO/ BPO
 Consulting and Business Services  Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology
 Defense, Aerospace and Hi-Tech Manufacturing  Process Manufacturing and Allied Industries
 Education and Learning  Steel, Ship Building, Construction and Aviation
 IT, ITES  Telecom and Digital Communications
TWB has been the preferred technical documentation outsourcing company for:
The TWB Building US Office:
No: 4062, 19th Main Road, TWB
HAL 2nd Stage, 11701 Norwegian Wood Drive
Bangalore – 560008 Austin, TX 78758
India.
Landmark: Behind Carlton Towers
Telephone: Telephone:
+91.80.40741400 / +91.80.41256367 +1.512.586.8357
Corporate Enquiries: corp@twb.in
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