Much business consulting falls into two traps: lengthy audits culminating in huge reports that no-one reads, or quick but generic solutions that don’t work for your unique requirements. Our decades of experience enable us to understand your goals and issues quickly and clearly, then demonstrate to your organization the potential value that could be unlocked. Whatever planning and analysis you have already done, we will start with that so that we don’t waste time covering old ground. While each consulting engagement varies to suit the individual client’s needs and abilities, we always provide four key benefits:

• We help to connect your organization’s strategic goals to your current content resources and capabilities. Where you already have a clear idea of your strategy, we will validate this based on our extensive experience of content projects. Where you may have questions still, we will provide insights on how your current abilities can work with organizational goals.
• You may be in a better position than you think! Your legacy content, while perhaps in inaccessible formats and inadequately addressing user needs, still contains much useful information. Teams that produce content often have considerable experience and knowledge. When considering a change to tools or processes, team members may well have conducted useful research and testing already. We make these strengths or “bright spots” a key part of any solution you consider.
• With our consultants’ extensive real-world experience of managing and creating information, we are able to quickly identify your major issues, both in tools and processes. We prioritize these issues and help you understand the countermeasures that will unlock the potential in your content and staff.
• When considering new tools or solutions, people often frame them in terms of what they already know. If they imagine them as improvements on the current tools — XML as a more organized form of Word, for example — they miss out on many of the potential benefits of a move to a new system. If the strengths and weaknesses of a system aren’t considered, the organization may face considerable customization costs and change management issues. At Mekon, we believe that all stakeholders in an organization should be given enough knowledge to make effective decisions. We demonstrate clearly the pros and cons of each approach under consideration, using examples and hands-on exercises as necessary.

Example services:

Content Strategy Assessment

Do you need to change the way you create and manage content, but are not sure of the next step? Or, are you confident of your high-level approach but need confirmation that this will work using existing technologies? In both of these cases, an initial content strategy assessment could help you and your organization understand the roadmap — and potential ROI — for such a change. This takes a high-level view of the current business processes and pain points around the creation, management, review, reuse and delivery of content, and establishes the strategic needs for the future. The objective is to answer some key questions:

• Is there a business case for moving to structured content?
• If yes, what is the most appropriate technology framework to use i.e. DITA, DocBook, S1000D, Wiki frameworks, etc.?
• If no, what other actions could be taken to still improve the processes?
• What are the next steps? – what areas will need to be assessed in the second phase of consulting to help shape the solution?

DITA Orientation

Are you considering using a particular technological framework, such as DITA XML? We can provide a bespoke orientation session that presents the pros and cons of that framework in the light of your organization and team’s specific needs. Using hands-on exercises and realistic content, you will directly understand the new way of working and will be able to make an informed judgement on whether it is right for you.