Astoria 6.2’s embedded editor allows subject-matter experts to contribute content without certified expertise in structured authoring
The Wall Street Journal - June 19, 2013
SAN FRANCISCO – Astoria Software, a division of TransPerfect, announces general availability of version 6.2 of the Astoria Component Content Management System (CCMS). The new version incorporates capabilities that streamline the creation and editing of content, allowing users with little or no training in XML-based authoring to participate in content creation processes. Astoria 6.2 was distributed to customers in early May 2013.
The killer app for subject-matter experts
The most valuable feature of Astoria 6.2 is the embedded editor, which allows a subject-matter expert (SME) to create and edit XML content without being a certified expert in XML-based authoring. In the streamlined Astoria interface, the SME simply clicks on a topic and invokes the “edit” operation. The embedded editor presents the topic with all of the XML tags hidden from view and laid out much like a common word processing application. The SME simply clicks and starts typing. When the SME is done, a one-click operation saves the file in Astoria.
“Astoria Software’s commitment to innovation enables companies to engage more meaningfully with their employees and customers,” said Michael Rosinski, president and CEO of Astoria Software. “Astoria 6.2’s improvements make it the killer app for documentation by pushing content creation right to the source of our customers’ intellectual property: the experts themselves. A recurring challenge for SMEs is to transfer their knowledge into a structured format. With Astoria 6.2, we’ve solved that problem.”
Roadmap for customer engagement
According to a five-year study published recently by Watermark Consulting, “…companies which bring great customer experiences to the marketplace are being rewarded – by consumers and investors.” Companies in the customer experience “Leader” portfolio generated cumulative total returns that were 27 percent better than the S&P 500 Index and 128 percent better than companies in the customer experience “Laggard” portfolio. Astoria 6.2 is a milestone on Astoria Software’s roadmap to improve its clients’ levels of customer engagement. With subject-matter experts now part of the content creation and editing process, the next step is to incorporate end users into the conversation. Astoria Software recently announced Astoria Mobility, which lets a client’s end users provide feedback on content delivered to mobile devices. The result is a clear pathway for enterprises to draw closer to their employees and customers, all of which enhances customer engagement and ultimately drives higher revenues.
Astoria is an essential platform in the GlobalLink Suite
Astoria is the CCMS platform for Translations.com’s GlobalLink® Product Suite. Content authored in Astoria seamlessly flows into other GlobalLink components to be quoted, translated, reviewed, approved, and then delivered back to Astoria. The entire suite of GlobalLink products forms an integrated content experience allowing content authors, localization professionals, and language-matter experts to collaborate in producing the highest quality content for their end users. With Astoria 6.2, subject-matter experts now participate in that collaboration effortlessly.
About Astoria Software
Astoria Software is the world’s most successful enterprise solution for XML Component Content Management and the first to deliver both an Enterprise wide SaaS/On-Demand and an On-Premise approach to structured content management. Cisco Systems, Teradata, ITT Fluid Technology, Siemens Healthcare, Northrop Grumman, Citrix, and other Forbes Global 2000 manufacturers rely on Astoria to meet increasingly competitive demands for product documentation—high volume, accelerated time-to-market, and globalized output. Astoria Component Content Management, whether On-Demand or On-Premise, is an enterprise wide solution for translation-enabled content management, reducing documentation costs up to 90 percent, compressing product launch times from months to weeks, and generating productivity and management benefits with its flexible delivery model. Astoria Software, a division of TransPerfect, Inc., is based in San Francisco. For more information, visit www.astoriasoftware.com.