Data Conversion Laboratory, Revolutionizing Publishing for the Digital Age 
  DCLab.com | About DCL | Tech Info | Press Info | Contact Us | DCLNews | Partners | Client Area     
Survey Results
1. Which of the following sectors best describes your employer's primary market?
 Response Percent
 Academic
3.8%
  Aerospace
5.2%
  Education
6.1%
  Government
8%
  Hardware/Equipment Manufacturer
14.1%
  Life Sciences
4.7%
  Military/Law Enforcement
6.6%

Publishing

11.7%

Services

17.4%

Software

15.5%

Other

7%
 

2. How many people create or maintain documentation in your department?
 Response Percent
  5 or less
42.1%
  6-19
24.4%
  20 or more
33.5%
3. Where are you located?
 Response Percent
  United States
71.5%
  Other Country (please specify)
28.5%
4. What type of information do you work with?
 Response Percent
 Maintenance information
44%
 Policy & Procedure information
33.9%
 Operations information
51.4%
 Other (please specify)
41.3%
5. What software does your department primarily use to author/edit information?
 Response Percent
  Adobe FrameMaker
14.6%
  Justsystems XMetaL
2.3%
  PTC (Arbortext) Epic
15%
  Syntext Serna
0.5%
  Microsoft Word
48.4%
  not really sure
1.9%
  Other (please specify)
17.4%
6. What software does your department use to manage your information?
 Response Percent
  file server system
45.2%
  EMC Documentum
6.2%
  SiberLogic SiberSafe
1%
  Vasont Vasont
1.4%
  X-Hive Docato
1.9%
  XyEnterprise Content@
5.2%
  not really sure
12.9%
  Other (please specify)
26.2%
7. What are the most serious issues that you face with your information?
 Response Percent
 Insufficient standardization of content among multiple authors
42.1%
 High maintenance costs for document changes
21.5%
 High translation costs
15.9%
 Need for sophisticated conditional publishing beyond what our software can provide
21%
 Need for multiple outputs, including HTML
41%
 Inability to develop semantic tagging to provide additional information about content
14.4%
 Too much time and money spent on formatting tasks
31.8%
 Inability to reuse content among multiple deliverables
34.9%
 Other (please specify)
14.4%
8. What trend do you see in working with information versus a few years ago?
 Response Percent
  It's getting easier to deliver the correct information to the people that need it in a timely manner.
52.8%
  It's getting harder to deliver the correct information to the people that need it in a timely manner.
19.1%
  It's about the same
28.1%
9. What are the biggest causes for improvement?
 Response Percent
 Better software
64.1%
 More experienced workforce
46.6%
 More information is available in a digital format
57.3%
 More standards in my industry
26.2%
 More information is available in SGML/XML
49.5%
 Increased budget
2.9%
 Other (please specify)
7.8%
10. What are the most significant causes for things getting worse?
 Response Percent
 Less experienced workforce
34.2%
 Inflexible software tools
36.8%
 Lack of data standards in my industry
28.9%
 Increasing complexity of documentation
47.4%
 Translation requirements of foreign markets
13.2%
 More demands for multiple outputs (web, paper, etc)
57.9%
 Reduced budget
36.8%
 Other (please specify)
21.1%
11. How familiar are you with the following terms:
Very familiar with the termHeard of it but unsure what it isUnfamiliar with the term
S1000D
23% 22%55%
Content Reuse
78%15%7%
Single Source Publishing
64%25%11%
Blog
80%14%6%
12. Do you plan to improve your processes over the next few years?
 Response Percent
  We are evaluating options and will implement a process improvement if the ROI (Return on Investment) justifies it.
31.1%
  We are currently implementing process improvements.
56.5%
  We have no plans to evaluate or implement process improvements.
9.3%
  Other
3.1%
13. In evaluating potential improvements to how you handle information, please rate the importance of the following issues:
Very ImportantImportantSomewhat ImportantNot Important
Cost of maintaining information
53%40%6%1%
Cost of distributing information
41%40%14%5%
Ease of use for tech writers
39%38%14%9%
Ease of use for mechanics and engineers
30%28%18%25%
Ease of use for customers / partners
69%25%3%3%
Adherence to data standards
46%38%12%5%