Years of collaboration
2022 – present
Context
Leading provider of maritime navigational solutions
For over 100 years, Sperry Marine has been providing safe, efficient, and reliable navigation solutions for the commercial and defence maritime industry. With a worldwide presence, spanning 10 countries in Europe, Asia, and the Americas, Sperry Marine provides a full range of maritime navigation tools, including Radar and Compass systems, as well as integrated bridge and control systems.
Aim
Consolidate and improve documentation to support product launch
Sperry Marine produces the VisionMaster Net network bridge solution, which is used worldwide by large ships to aid safe and efficient navigation. However, documentation for this product had been initially created in different authoring tools, to produce the different outputs needed. These outputs included printed user guides, installation & configuration manuals, and embedded help.
However, this piecemeal approach led to issues with version control, as well as inefficiencies in updating all parts of the documentation with each new launch. Add to this the amount of content needed to support such a complex product and it became clear that Sperry Marine needed a documentation partner to help improve their approach to documentation.
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Challenges
A complex product with multiple formats of help documentation
VisionMaster Net is a complex product with multiple requirements for documentation that helps facilitate the navigation of large, commercial ships, so the accuracy of the documentation is very important.
Sperry Marine had a combination of challenges. Firstly, their current content in Microsoft Word, Adobe FrameMaker, and Adobe RoboHelp needed to be combined into one definitive single source. To do this, Sperry Marine needed their content migrated into a single authoring tool. This was no easy task, as Sperry Marine had over 1,700 pages that needed to be migrated. Then, new templates needed to be set up to produce print-ready manuals and context-sensitive help that could be embedded in the VisionMaster Net software.
There were also considerations involving the presentation of this documentation. Strict maritime regulations impact the presentation of HTML help content and Sperry Marine was undergoing a rebranding.
Solution
Provided a single source document, as well as consultancy for ongoing improvements
The 3di team:
- Analysed existing content to identify what content was being reused across the different outputs, to help streamline the migration process.
- Reviewed the existing information model and documentation, and recommended a new approach for Sperry Marine’s documentation.
- Migrated over 1,700 pages of content into MadCap Flare, including technical diagrams, software screenshots and text.
- Set up new templates in MadCap Flare, conforming to Sperry Marine’s new branding guidelines.
- Worked together with Sperry Marine to develop a context-sensitive help that can be embedded in the VisionMaster Net software.
- Delivered PDF and HTML outputs for VisionMaster Net 3.0, then continued to maintain content for subsequent releases.
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Result
A single source that’s efficient to maintain for each product release
The 3di team:
- Helped Sperry Marine find and implement the perfect technical writing tool for their needs. As a result of migrating their content from multiple sources, Sperry Marine now has a single source of content in one authoring tool, meaning regular updates are much faster and easier to manage.
- Created new documentation templates that match Sperry Marine’s new branding,
- Provided consultancy services that recommended a new information model and style guide.
- Are continuing to provide technical writing and consultancy services for more of Sperry Marine’s products.