Position Paper on

Value of Technical Publications in the Biotechnology Industry

Introduction

This paper presents the importance of qualitative technical publication in biotechnology industry. Technical publication includes a wide range of deliverables like white papers, process and workflow documentation, user guides, online help, classroom training materials, reference guides, administration guides, standard operating procedures, installation manuals, web-based training materials, and product demos. The biotechnology industry has spread over several sectors, including health care (medical), agricultural biotechnology, contract services, bioinformatics, biological engineering, genetics and others. It forms one of the fastest growing sectors in global economy, and necessitates documentation of technical processes and products. Use of products developed in the biotechnology industry varies from large pharmaceutical industries to a kitchen. There is a wide range of products (machineries, tools, equipments, chemicals, medicines and drugs, bio-fertilizers, organic pesticides, cheese, dairy products etc.) available. Hence, it covers a wide range of consumers. This is the chief reason for the enormous growth of the biotechnology industry. Along with increasing popularity of biotechnology products, the complexity of implementation, usability issues (of the equipments and various products) and matching international standards make quality documentation important. The documentation needs to be simple and comprehensible to end users, which necessitate the involvement of technical documentation specialists in creating qualitative documents.

TWB Leading Technical Documentation Outsourcing Company

TWB is a leading technical publication company with an excellent record of providing unmatched technical documentation solutions. TWB helps customers with all their technical documentation needs such as creating user guides, administration guides, process and work flow documents, installation manuals, configuration documents and training materials. TWB works closely with client teams located globally, and assists them in meeting their worldwide product announcements and launch deadlines. TWB works round the clock with client teams and help them with quick responses that aid timely distribution of documents around the globe.

Knowledge is people, money, learning, flexibility and competitive advantage. Knowledge is more relevant to sustained business than capital or labor. And yet knowledge remains the most neglected asset of a business. TWB helps you unlock and share your technical knowledge with the world.

TWB believes that technology cannot exist without being communicated effectively.

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Biotechnology Industry Technical Publications

Growth of the Biotechnology Industry
At present the Indian biotechnology sector comprises more than 350 companies. The sector has been growing at the rate of 35% - 40% per annum for the last three years. India is ranked third in Ernst & Youngs Global Biotechnology Report 2004, for the number of biotechnology industries in the country. India is the largest vaccine producer and cotton cultivator. The Indian biotechnology market, valued at INR 112.6 billion (US$ 2.86 Billion) in 2007-08, is projected to hit a CAGR of 30% in near future. According to ABLE-Biospectrum survey report 2008 the Indian biotechnology industry is growing at an impressive annual growth rate of about 20%. The following graph shows the technology wise growth in the global biotechnology equipment market.

Challenges and Solutions

Some of the documentation challenges faced by the industry today include:

Developing comprehensive documents for the nontechnical audience Managing large volume of documentation during the documentation process Ensuring timely availability of quality documents during product release Aligning with international standards of documentation

Currently, the market is highly competitive, and in this context the toughest job is to satisfy the customer. It results into lower profit margins, keeping implementation cost low. Still a large part of the cost is connected to maintenance activities. The quality of documentation plays an important role during implementation and maintenance. If the documentation is not satisfying, it needs to be restructured. It will lead to significant increase in maintenance effort and total cost. TWB being a leading technical documentation outsourcing company provides documentation solutions with professional quality. The biotechnology industry is working as a global unit, which often required modifications to suit the requirements of a specific organization in different geographies.

Benefits
Partnering with TWB has extremely benefited many companies in saving costs and producing professional documentation along with services such as: According to a new technical market research report the global market value for biotechnology equipment is an estimated $5.5 billion in 2009, but is expected to increase to nearly $7.3 billion in 2014, for a 5-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.8%. The segment projected to see the largest growth from 2009 to 2014 is array.

Transforming complex technical data into simple and comprehensible language Protecting technical and commercial data of newly developed products Providing rapid action for documentation availability and reduced process complexity Enabling easy update and management of documents

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Value of Technical Publication

Technical Communication for Transferring Product Knowledge
The purpose of technical communication is to transfer product knowledge to end users in a comprehensible manner. The strategies of communication and levels of information vary depending on the type of product and audience. Providing end users with information about a products operation and maintenance is critical to the market performance of the product. Hence, the need for quality documentation is imperative. In todays business scenario, technical publications are often developed as an afterthought. This usually results in inaccurate and incomprehensible documentation, which, in turn, renders the users incapable of using the products. Accurate, readily understandable, and quality documents determine how a product sells in the market and result in increased customer satisfaction.

Communication for Different Levels of Technical and Product Knowledge

In technical publications, audience is the focal point. Hence, the style, language, and content must vary depending on the type of audience being addressed. It is because every user has a specific role in the implementation and usage of the technology. Therefore, it is important that documents be created keeping in mind the role of the person who will use the document. For example, when you document a software application designed for highly technical users, it is sufficient to provide the users with quick reference information to use the application. For users who start without technical or product knowledge, it is important to provide detailed product information along with instructions on how to use the product.

Attractive Publications as Useful Marketing Tools

Besides transferring knowledge, technical publications are also used for marketing a product. Before a product is released in the market, information about the product needs to be effectively communicated to the customers. Well-designed, accurately presented, and attractive marketing collaterals increase the market prospects of a product and reduce support costs.

Faulty Assumptions that Result in Problems in Documentation

The faulty assumptions listed below result in incomprehensible documents:

Engineers know their products better than anyone else due to time constraints and limited resources, many companies assign their documentation tasks to the programmers. This more often results in the 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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Conclusion
The value of technical publications and the role of documentation outsourcing can be summarized as follows:

Importance of Biotechnology: The importance and significance of biotechnology can be understood by the fact that its development and application is associated with almost very field. Advancements in the areas of biotechnology have exploited a variety of ways for industrial production, thus creating a commercial environment. In the US alone there are more than 200 such companies including Genentech, Cetus, Hybritech, Biogen, etc. These companies have been active participants in the research and development of emerging products. The research and development needs to be supported with extensive documentation of processes, workflows, and specifications. Value of Technical Publications: Technical publications are very essential for transferring product knowledge to 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 decreases the chances of marketing the products in the global market. Role of Documentation Outsourcing: The complexity involved in developing products requires that vendors and purchasers consider outsourcing their documentation needs to well-established Technical Publications Solutions providers. Outsourcing technical documentation has helped companies cut costs and at the same time deliver their products with quality documents.

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TWB Services
TWB is Indias 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. TWBs 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. TWBs services include:

Technical Marketing Solutions

Datasheets Cheat sheets Solution Briefs/Solution Brochures Presentations Products/Corporate Profile Brochures and marketing collateral Web content Audio and video scripts Press releases Direct mail Newsletter design copy Sales catalogues Sales sheets

Technical Product Documentation

Business Communication
Short Reports Proposals Case Studies Lab Reports Memos Progress/Interim Reports Writing for Electronic Media

Illustrations
Graphic Designing Info graphics 2D & 3D animation Line drawings and illustrations

Datasheets Administrators Guide API Document Configuration Guide Functional Specifications Document Installation Manual Interface Document Interactive Electronic Technical Manual (IETM) Maintenance Manual Online Help Operation Manual Product Demo Product Specifications Document Product Overview Document Quick Reference Guide Release Notes Requirement Analysis Document SDK Document Troubleshooting Manual User Manual Open Source Documentation Programmers Guides Functional Specifications Document Use Cases Online Help /Context Sensitive Help Troubleshooting Guides

Documentation Quality Management

Copy Editing and Proof Reading Managing Writing Editing Services Layout and Design Creating SLAs

Business Documentation
Business Proposals Legal Disclaimers Policy Manuals Style Guide Design Template Design

Content Management
Single Sourcing File Version Control Document Naming Conventions Consistent Document Formatting Data Transformation

Web site Development

Web 2.0 development Web content Web applications

Qualitative Analytics for Decision Support

Economic Business Research Industry Analysis Market Opportunity Analysis Competitive Business Analysis Company & Prospect Profiling Reporting Solutions Assessment of Unmet Market Needs Status and Potential of Technologies Benchmarking of Strategies Vs Competition Forecasting Sales Force Effectiveness Market Assessments Competitive Intelligence Opinion Leadership Emerging Markets - evaluation and research

Translation and Localization Services

Software Translation Services Document Translation Services Localization (L10N) Testing Internationalization (I18N) Testing

Process Documentation
Workflows Standard Operating Procedures ISO Documentation CMM Documentation

Records Management
Document Management Solutions Record Management Storage and Retrieval

Deployment and Support

Installation and Configuration Guides Operations Manual

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TWB Software Tools Expertise

Our technical proficiency in software and authoring tools includes: Our technical proficiency in software and authoring tools includes:

Unstructured Content Development

Microsoft Word Adobe FrameMaker Adobe InDesign QuarkXPress Adobe PageMaker

XML Structured Editors

Epic FrameMaker+SGML X-Metal

Multimedia /Authoring
Adobe Flash Adobe Dreamweaver Microsoft FrontPage Adobe Captivate

Macromedia Captivate Graphics/Animations

Adobe Flash Adobe Photoshop Adobe Fireworks

Illustrations
Adobe Flash CS4 Professional Adobe Illustrator CS3 CorelDRAW Microsoft-Expression Graphic Designer Xara Xtreme (Windows & Linux) CuteDraw Publisher3D(for animation) Sketsa SVG Editor (for vector graphics) Techsmith Camtasia Arbortext IsoDraw (technical illustrations for 2D and 3D)

Multimedia /Authoring / Supporting tools

Adobe Flash Adobe Flex Adobe AIR Adobe Dreamweaver Adobe Acrobat Microsoft Silverlight Adobe Authorware Adobe Director Adobe Captivate Trivantis Lectora ASP.NET JSP JAVA

Online Help
JavaHelp Adobe RoboHelp 7.0 HelpScribble WebWorks Publisher PowerCHM Doc-To-Help WinCHM HelpSmith 2.1.1(Windows) Fast-Help MadCap Flare Help-Server NVU Help

Standards
SCORM 1.2 / 2004 AICC W3C Section 508 QTI XML

Graphics/Animation
Adobe Flash Adobe Photoshop Adobe Illustrator Adobe Fireworks Microsoft Silverlight

XML
XMetal Microsoft Word 2003, Microsoft Word 2007

Databases
Microsoft Access Microsoft SQL Server

CMS/ LMS
Sharepoint Moodle Joomla, WordPress Media Wiki CMS Builder Author-it (formerly AuthorIT) Alfresco

Development and Publishing tools

XSLT/XSL EDD

Flowcharting
Microsoft Visio iGrafx EDraw RFFlow Flowbreeze Smart Draw

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Industries Served
TWB services a wide range of technology and knowledge-driven industries, helping them meet their markets better. These include: TWB services a wide range of technology and knowledge driven industries, helping them meet their markets better, these include:
Banking, Insurance and Financial Services Consulting and Business Services Defense, Aerospace and Hi-Tech Manufacturing Education and Learning IT, ITES ITES/ KPO/ BPO Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology Process Manufacturing and Allied Industries Steel, Ship Building, Construction and Aviation Telecom and Digital Communications

TWB has been the preferred technical documentation outsourcing company for: TWB has been the preferred technical documentation outsourcing company for:

The TWB Building

No: 4062, 19th Main Road, HAL 2nd Stage, Bangalore 560008 India. Landmark: Behind Carlton Towers Telephone: +91.80.40741400 / +91.80.41256367 Corporate Enquiries: corp@twb.in

US Office: TWB
11701 Norwegian Wood Drive Austin, TX 78758

Telephone: +1.512.586.8357

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