Enabling business evolution with expert content migration and strategy

Introduction

Helping clients navigate a critical content transition

Our client, a global leader in precision high-tech manufacturing, was evolving its business model, but its content strategy was struggling to keep pace.

Continuous product launches and a modernised marketing approach created pressure to deliver information more efficiently. Static PDFs were no longer fit for purpose. With the same headcount but rising demands, adopting a structured content approach became essential. Unsure how to move forward, the team turned to the enterprise content experts to define requirements and guide the transition.

The challenge

Confronting content complexity with a structured content approach

When the marketing team planned to upgrade their CMS, the digtal transformation team defined a new user experience that required the technical writing team to upgrade their processes. The business needed to move beyond static PDFs and deliver technical content consistently through a modern online customer portal. Operational pressures mounted as multiple SMEs produced content in their own styles, creating inconsistencies, and making quality harder to maintain.

A structured approach was clearly required, but this introduced new layers of complexity the business needed support with.

The issues we encountered:

• Content quality and compliance were difficult to ensure across expanding product lines, markets, languages, and audiences.
• Delivery needed to be automated and reused across PDFs, web, customer support, packaging, machine displays, and training.
• A small centralised team had to work through legacy content spanning 20 years, with copy-paste methods leading to errors, wasted time, and higher translation costs.
• Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) were creating content in disparate ways, leading to inconsistencies.
• Budget constraints required reducing translation costs while boosting efficiency.
• Ensuring writers were able to utilise the new software was essential.
• The business had limited knowledge of their CCMS requirements, and of the required ecosystem to put in place to reach peak efficiency.

The action

From theory to practice: building an actionable content roadmap

We approached this project with a proven methodology, starting with a deep understanding of the business and its content challenges.

• Discover phase: We conducted a preliminary assessment of the client’s CCMS RFP, identifying critical requirements that had not yet been considered. We also led a kickoff workshop to surface challenges and establish the scale of complexity.
• Strategy phase: We applied our framework to map challenges, uncover content requirements, and define a tailored enterprise knowledge strategy. This led to the delivery of a blueprint outlining how to manage and structure content effectively going forward. We also recommended the supporting ecosystem — a previously overlooked layer in the client’s future content roadmap — including an XML editor, content optimisation software, translation management integration, digital asset management, an orchestration layer, a content delivery platform, and integration with the marketing and sales platform. These insights enabled us to develop use cases based on business needs, inform CCMS selection, build a shortlist of vendors, and establish a governance model to maintain long-term consistency and scalability.
• Pilot phase: We reconfigured a first batch of documentation for optimum reuse and modularity. This ensured the business could migrate content directly into the chosen CCMS, enabling a seamless transition.
• Training phase: We trained the entire team of writers, including SMEs, to write in a modular way, equipping them with the skills to sustain quality and efficiency from day one (find out more about our Writing for structured content training courses).

This comprehensive approach gave our clients the content processes, digital ecosystem, and writing skills to move forward without disruption.

Find out more about our content migration and structured content services.

The results

Unlocking efficiency and future-proofing content operations

Even after a single pilot phase, the project has already delivered measurable results and positioned the client for long-term success.

Our client reports:

• Increased operational efficiency through structured content practices.
• Facilitated compliance with applicable regulations.
• Improved translation workflows, paving the way for reduced translation costs.
• Equipped the content team and SMEs to create modularised content ahead of CCMS deployment.
• Strengthened business resilience by preparing for market disruptions with a future-ready content strategy.