Training Industry Magazine - Spring 2024 - 66

CLOSING
DEALS
MADCAP SOFTWARE'S ACQUISITION OF XYLEME SET TO STREAMLINE
TECHNICAL DOCUMENTATION AND COURSE DEVELOPMENT
BY SARAH GALLO, CPTM
From product manuals and guides to
subject matter expert (SME) documentation
to online help, technical documents lay the
ground for effective customer education,
product and technical training and more.
These documents are important tools
that can help educate employees and
external users and customers on how to
use different products and technologies.
For example, for learning tech providers,
they can help customers learn how to
implement and optimize their platform
or tool. For businesses, they can help
employees get up-to-speed on how to
use a new learning technology platform.
As products and technologies evolve,
technical documents must be updated.
Thus, effective training, whether it's a
customer, product or technical training
course, relies on communication between
technical document writers and course
developers. However, these two functions
are often siloed, and updates may or may
not be communicated. Other challenges
include scalability and efficiency: As
new products are released and existing
products evolve, creating and updating
technical documents and courses can be
a huge lift.
Here, we'll explore how MadCap Software's
acquisition of Xyleme, Inc. is working to
solve the above challenges and more
to improve collaboration and efficiency
between technical documentation writers
and course developers.
THE OPPORTUNITY
MadCap Software's content management
solutions are designed to help
organizations create, manage and
deliver effective technical documentation
and at scale. Anthony Olivier, MadCap
Software's CEO, has long recognized the
opportunity to expand into the L&D space:
" We've always thought there was overlap
between technical documentation and
66
L&D within enterprises. " After all, the two
groups technical writers work the most
closely with are the SMEs they're getting
information from and the instructional
designers creating and facilitating courses.
So, when the opportunity arose to acquire
Xyleme - a leading learning content
management system (LCMS) provider -
" we jumped all over it, " Oliver says.
SOLVING SHARED CHALLENGES
Bringing its technical documentation
solutions and Xyleme's LCMS under a
single solutions provider will help solve
shared challenges.
Specifically, it will help to:
* Integrate content authoring and
management capabilities: MadCap
Software's technical documentation
authoring tools combined with Xyleme's
LCMS enables documentation writers
to create and manage technical
content within MadCap's authoring
environment. Then, they can publish
it to Xyleme's LCMS for content
syndication and use in training.
* Streamline content reuse: Xyleme's
LCMS enables writers to create reusable
components of technical documentation
that can be incorporated into multiple
courses. This streamlines the process of
updating documentation and ensures
collaboration and consistency.
* Provide robust analytics and
reporting: Xyleme's LCMS provides
analytics and reporting capabilities
that allow organizations to track the
usage and effectiveness of technical
documentation in courses.
* Consolidated tech
stacks: The
acquisition will help consolidate tech
stacks - which Olivier notes is a
priority for many businesses - bringing
technical documentation and course
development and delivery under a
single solutions provider where the tech
stacks integrate and communicate with
each other.
In terms of leveraging artificial intelligence
(AI), Olivier says they're taking a " threepronged
approach. " The combined
platform will leverage AI:
* For content development.
* For improved publishing, data analytics,
content consumption and search.
* And to leverage all of the content and
data created to train businesses' large
language models (LLMs).
Although misconceptions persist around
AI taking the jobs of technical document
writers and instructional designers,
this isn't usually the case. " Most of our
customers are creating proprietary
content, " Olivier says, and they don't want
to use ChatGPT or another tool to create
it. As more training and technical content
gets created, " solutions like MadCap that
can maximize content reuse, manage
and syndicate all the data components
become even more important. "
Looking ahead, MadCap Software
is focused on bringing together the
solutions. That said, they aren't trying to
build a " a one-size-fits-all " platform and
will continue to focus on different buyers'
needs (with Xyleme targeting instructional
designers and compliance managers
and MadCap Software targeting tech
documentation managers).
" Our priority now is making sure the
platforms talk to each other, " Olivier says.
This will lead to greater collaboration
and efficiency for course developers,
documentation writers and, ultimately, ROI
for the business.
Sarah Gallo, CPTM, is a senior editor
at Training Industry, Inc., and co-host of
" The Business of Learning, " the Training
Industry podcast. Email Sarah.

https://trainingindustry.com/articles/learning-technologies/the-business-of-learning-bonus-episode-ai-in-ld-5-things-you-need-to-know/ https://trainingindustry.com/articles/learning-technologies/the-business-of-learning-bonus-episode-ai-in-ld-5-things-you-need-to-know/ https://trainingindustry.com/glossary/learning-content-management-system-lcms/ https://trainingindustry.com/glossary/learning-content-management-system-lcms/ https://trainingindustry.com/press-release/content-development/madcap-software-acquires-xyleme-to-expand-suite-of-intelligent-content-management-products/ https://trainingindustry.com/training-industry-podcast/

Training Industry Magazine - Spring 2024

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