Better Knowledge Management: Extending XML Across the Enterprise
XML has become mainstream for content and knowledge management, as well as open systems architectures in IT. For content and knowledge management deployments, XML adds structure and intelligence to data that can help organizations find, assemble, reuse and deliver content in print, Web and other electronic forms, while IT organizations have embraced XML as an open standard for system integration and data processing.
Generally, use of XML has spread more widely in the IT domain than it has in content authoring and delivery environments. This is largely due to the fact that XML initiatives in IT are transparent to end users within the organization who can continue to use familiar interfaces on their desktops. Because XML is "under the hood," it has little impact on how people go about their daily jobs.
For content development, however, XML is more obvious, and some might even say, intrusive. Often, familiar word processors are replaced with specialized XML editors, where users must learn complex tag sets, and the presentation of data may not be as rich or intuitive as it was with other desktop tools.
XML content solutions are most common in highly structured content environments where the ROI justifies significant changes in production processes and technology. Examples include technical documentation for dynamic hardware or software products where delivering timely, accurate content is essential for product sales. Another is scientific, medical or legal reference publishers who must keep their information up to date, while delivering it in a variety of traditional and electronic formats. The return on investment for these organizations is compelling enough to offset major organizational and technical changes often required to migrate to XML.
Despite these proven business benefits, XML has not yet been universally adopted. In fact, studies by InfoTrends indicate that only 22% of enterprise content has migrated to XML.
Why Hasn't XML Growth Happened Sooner?
The very notion of structured content is partly responsible for the limited enterprise deployment of XML technologies. Replacing common, friendly tools on someone's desktop with a highly structured XML interface has been a significant barrier to adoption. Although there are very robust authoring tools, it is a major change to move someone from a desktop platform to a specialized XML editor.
Consider the enterprise content pyramid shown here (See PDF version or P. 18 of May Supplement). XML is at the tip where complexity is the highest. Moving down the content pyramid, complexity decreases and content becomes less structured. As complexity decreases, the audience increases. The opportunity then is to broaden the XML solution set within the middle tier, using the structure of the content to drive automation.
Recent releases of the Microsoft Office Suite that include XML-based components, e.g., InfoPath and WordML, provide the ability to "covertly" structure content behind the scenes so the user can work with familiar applications, largely unaware of the structure of the content. From an IT and automation perspective you get consistency across the enterprise, while gaining the benefits of content reuse and multi-channel delivery.
Legal contracts, human resources policies, test plans, logistics plans, product safety sheets and owner's manuals can be created and managed as XML instances with limited retraining and retooling of processes. Any content that can be divided into a few familiar units can benefit from this moderately structured approach. The end user need not think about tags or attributes and can continue to use standard formatting conventions to control the presentation of the information. Embedded features such as notes, comments and edit tracking that are often heavily relied on in Word-based environments also remain. Standard Microsoft tools for providing user help and guided editing can also be leveraged to create a "smart document" solution which supplies mark-up in the background. Coupled with a CMS, content can be collaboratively created, dynamically assembled, approved and delivered automatically within a controlled workflow.
What are the Business Benefits?
The business benefits derived from the use of XML can now be extended to a new class of content, bringing reuse and multi-channel delivery to a much broader community of users. Providing users with interfaces that are familiar and easy to use, in combination with XML intelligence in the content, reduces content creation, approval and delivery time. User acceptance is higher as they are leveraging existing skill sets and gaining greater control of the content life cycle.
There will always be complex, highly structured content ideally suited for specialized editing tools. And you will find unstructured content that wouldn't benefit from an XML model. It is the moderately structured content in the middle of the pyramid that offers the greatest opportunity to extend the benefits of XML within the enterprise. XML coupled with good content management enables reuse, automation and multi-channel delivery, thereby contributing to better knowledge management within your business.
XyEnterprise (
www.xyenterprise.com) builds solutions that help workgroups simplify and expedite the automated creation, delivery and reuse of content across the enterprise. With unmatched XML expertise, built upon a 20-year heritage of successful deployments, XyEnterprise excels at delivering configurable and scalable XML content management and publishing solutions for commercial publishing, technical documentation groups and departments with a need to communicate or document information.