*************************************************************** ****************** WELCOME TO SGML NEWSWIRE ******************* *************************************************************** * * * To subscribe, send mail to sgmlinfo@avalanche.com * * * * (Please pass along to interested colleagues) * * * *************************************************************** SGML HIT LIST -- AGAIN! ======================= The most recent addition to the SGML Hit List is AT&T, making a total of 17 SGML users. For those of you who are new to SGML Newswire, the SGML Hit List is an ever-growing collection of case studies on SGML and includes a reference list of several industry analysts, industry publishers, and SGML vendors. For those of you who have the last edition of the Hit List, sent out 10/26, I would suggest flushing that version and replacing it with this one. At the end of the Hit List (after the section on analysts) is a set of statistics drawn from the user studies. -- Linda Turner, list manager *************************************************************** SGML Hit List Avalanche Development Company Industry and User References Fall 1993 Below is a list of contacts who may provide helpful information on SGML. The first 17 are SGML users available to discuss projects they are undertaking with Avalanche's SGML conversion technologies; the next eight are industry analysts, vendors of SGML tools or editors/publishers of prominent industry publications. Note: Some of the customers below require approval of any material prior to its appearance in print within any context. Please contact them before printing their story (stipulations are noted where appropriate). Last, please be reminded that although these case studies do emphasize the use of Avalanche's SGML tools (naturally!), the purpose of the studies is to demonstrate that SGML is an enabling tool, a means to an end. Descriptions of the particular tools used are included here to illustrate the various advantages of implementing SGML and of using specific SGML conversion tools. For more information about this list, contact: Linda Turner Director of Corporate Communications Avalanche Internet address: linda@avalanche.com **************SGML USERS, listed alphabetically***************** 1. AT&T, Westminster, CO Contact: Linda Wolpert, Manager, Product Documentation Development Phone: 303-538-4420 Fax: 303-538-1741 In the spring of 1992, AT&T Global Business Communications Systems began evaluating various online delivery tools when its customers requested that their technical manuals -- administration, network, and maintenance documentation -- be delivered online as well as in printed copy. After extensive evaluation of online delivery systems, AT&T chose EBT's Dynatext, which uses the ISO 8879 SGML tagging standard. Because AT&T's source files needed to be converted into SGML, the company turned to Avalanche for conversion tools. AT&T's customers were seeking online documentation for several reasons. They were interested in the ability to access information electronically (as an alternative to paper) and the ability to access that information in a platform- and application-independent way. They also needed to receive up-to-date, accurate information on a timely basis. To respond to these needs, AT&T found SGML to be the logical solution. In SGML, legacy and newly created data can be distributed in a variety of outputs, including CD-ROM, which is clearly more convenient to carry around than thousands of printed pages. Online data is also easier to upgrade and update, so AT&T is able to get the right information to its customers at the right time. AT&T internal employees who create the documentation had additional expectations of SGML. They desired the ability to interchange information online, and the ability to shorten production time. With their documents marked up in SGML, employees can share files electronically without having to manually convert among proprietary formats, such as troff, Word and Frame, every time changes and input from other writers are required. At the same time, AT&T preserves its investment in existing hardware equipment, including UNIX and DOS operating systems, because SGML enables employees to continue using the platforms of their choice. Last, with the data in electronic format, production turn-around time -- packaging and distributing -- is minimal. All of these advantages turn into tangible benefits, i.e. cost savings, for the company. AT&T is in its second phase of development using SGML. Currently only about ten documents -- or 9000 pages -- are put onto CD-ROM. The company anticipates putting additional volumes of its documentation, containing many thousands of pages, into electronic format. Linda Wolpert, manager, product documentation development, says the project is about 18 months underway and that SGML is "definitely" a long-term, continued commitment. FastTAG was the product chosen to convert the data into SGML. Wolpert particularly likes Avalanche products and services because she feels the company "truly understands" AT&T's requirements: Avalanche is able to work with AT&T's specific environment, including writing and designing a custom DTD. Wolpert is also attracted to the fact that FastTAG is not strictly an off-the-shelf product -- Avalanche has worked interactively with her to fully customize FastTAG according to her group's specific needs. Wolpert contends that SGML is the optimal way to go when it comes to getting documents online: "SGML is going to be the most versatile interchange standard of the future." 2. Aquidneck Management Associates Limited, Middletown, RI Contact: Robert Fye, VP and General Manager for Information Engineering Phone: 401-849-8900 ext. 597 Fax: 401-848-0638 Aquidneck Management Associates Limited (AMA) is an entrepreneurial company that, among several other things, provides program planning and management support to the Naval Undersea Weapon Center. AMA has a contract with the Naval Air Systems Command to create processes and procedures for migrating NAVAIR work packages to SGML-compliant IETMs (Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals). The company is currently converting 1500 hardcopy pages of documents as a sample set, and the process will determine a cost effective method of converting paper data into electronic formats. Robert Fye, VP and general manager for information engineering at AMA, claims that since information within technical manuals is transferable, keeping the information intact and continually accessible is a crucial part of information engineering: "Products come and go, but data is stable across time," he says, and this is where SGML is particularly useful. The DoD CALS initiative is a key driver in AMA's conversion projects. But the company is also actively pursuing commercial contracts, as more commercial industries are beginning to migrate toward SGML implementation. SGML applies to whatever the industry, he says, whether it be pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, automotive, or aerospace. And Fye contends that industries who value their information resources will eventually turn to SGML. Fye asserts that SGML is absolutely key for companies serious about actively moving toward open systems. To provide a good model for such open-systems oriented companies, AMA uses several different SGML products, including FastTAG. Fye says a variety of off-the-shelf SGML products are what's needed to complete the product mix. This, he says, eventually helps organizations realize that regardless of the software they are using, they can build a migration strategy that reflects the true "openness" of open systems. One of the advantages Fye sees in FastTAG is the ease with which the Louise files are customized. He also notes that once the project design is set up, "junior" employees are able to perform the tagging and conversion processes themselves, in the absence of SGML experts. AMA has been involved with SGML for over five years and is one of the early adopters of open systems approaches. The company also wanted to be ahead of the game for the CALS initiative. And, since AMA's business is in the retrieval, interchange and storage of large volumes of information, SGML really just fits in with the company's primary activities. Fye says that although SGML does help in the flexible re-use of information, whether or not companies implement SGML depends on how valuable they consider their data to be in the first place. SGML is an enabling technology, a means to an end, not a solution in itself. Once they've made the decision to adopt, companies look toward commercially available SGML tools to help them achieve their information needs. Companies who have made the decision to implement SGML must strategically decide what information will be worth tagging and why. For instance, unreliable data in safety manuals for commercial aircraft can mean liability for the organizations that manufacture them. The data must be carefully managed and controlled at all costs -- it is mission critical. SGML ensures that the crucial data is always up-to-date, accessible and efficiently organized. Fye claims that companies who don't implement SGML will sooner or later fall behind the competition, and that SGML is a measured risk worth taking. Information engineering is a strategic decision made by individual companies, and if they implement SGML sooner, they may stand out from the rest... for now. 3. Canadian Standards Association, Toronto, Ontario Contact: Alison MacIntosh, Manager of Electronic Publications Phone: 416-747-2466 Fax: 416-747-4287 The Canadian Standards Assoc. (CSA) produces standards documents which must be reviewed as standards requirements evolve, or at least every five years. CSA investigated SGML in 1990 when it concluded that its DEC computer system was out-of-date and needed to be switched for a system more adaptable for the production of new editions of standards documents. SGML was the chosen technology. InfoDesign Inc. recommended that CSA use Avalanche's FastTAG conversion product because it is easy to use, doesn't require a significant amount of training, and is customizable (InfoDesign wrote additional scripts that automated the conversion process to an even greater level). CSA has been implementing SGML since June 1992. The Standards Division's Production and Development groups are involved in the creation of the standards documents. The Development Group uses WordPerfect to create the standards. The Production Group then uses FastTAG for conversion to SGML; it is used at the front end of the project to do as much automatic tagging as possible. Clean-up of the SGML coding is done in SoftQuad's Author/Editor, and layout is done on the Agfa CAPS System. One of Development's requirements is the ability to search and retrieve standards in production at any given time. This is where SGML will be particularly useful. Although it is currently only being used by the Production Group, its adoption is expected to extend to other groups and to regional offices. CSA anticipates eventually using SGML to produce and convert all other CSA documents, including directories, membership lists, and memos, and plans to use FastTAG for those and other such conversion projects to come. SGML is a long-term commitment for CSA. It has invested 1/2 million dollars in training, hardware and software and doesn't plan to back down. Training included courses at technical and basic levels for word processors, typesetters and high level management. Alison Macintosh, manager of electronic publications, says the typesetting group within Production has experienced a 50% increase in productivity as a result of using FastTAG for SGML conversion. At this point SGML is only used internally but CSA would like to share standards with other organizations such as the International Standards Organization, in order to reach the "harmonization" of documents required for today's push toward the flexible, open interchange of information. 4. Cray Research, Inc., Mendota Heights, MN Contact: Mark Crowley, Online Information Services Manager Phone: 612-683-5728 Fax: 612-683-5599 Email: mjc@cray.com Written material must be approved in advance by Mark Crowley. Cray Research (CRI) uses Avalanche's SGML Hammer and FastTAG products to create SGML markup in Interleaf documents. The company plans to use SGML to provide information online with an online browsing tool. SGML is considered a long-term commitment for CRI. Its customers have requested its plans for online delivery, and Cray found SGML the most workable solution. According to Mark Crowley, online information services manager at CRI, SGML is a better approach to displaying information than PostScript: SGML is more of a "real" standard whereas PS exists in different versions on machines in disparate locations. CRI chose FastTAG and Hammer primarily because these products offered "one-stop shopping." CRI is currently beta-testing the technology -- or rather, the concept of viewing documents online -- with four of its customers. CRI's customer base includes government sites, the automotive industry, chemical companies, airline manufacturers, high-end computer users, the petroleum industry and universities with supercomputer centers. Customers use online delivery to disseminate their information more easily and for easier search and retrieval. For example, many customers want documentation that describes their products in site-specific documents -- SGML enables them to customize the "global" documents by extracting only the parts relevant to their specific site or location. 5. Cubic Defense Systems, San Diego, CA Contact: Jan McNulty, Senior Training Specialist Phone: 619-277-6780 ext. 2866 Fax: 619-277-1878 Cubic sells range training systems to the DoD (Air Force, Army, Navy/Marines). Jan McNulty, senior training specialist there, has 17 technical manuals -- or 8000 pages -- in WordPerfect that need to be delivered in SGML to comply with CALS requirements. The manuals consist of both text and graphics. Once the books in WordPerfect are reviewed and approved for content, they are tagged and submitted in SGML. SGML is a long-term commitment for Cubic because of the DoD's CALS requirements. McNulty uses FastTAG to do the SGML tagging and says it does a wonderful job. She has been working with this product for the last seven to eight months and is totally satisfied with the products, services, and support Avalanche offers. According to McNulty, the product is "unbelievably fast," its versatility is impressive, i.e. it is easily modified by the user, and it's so simple to use that she was able to train herself to use it. She is also preparing to train others in her group to use SGML. FastTAG tags and converts an average manual in four days or fewer, a process that, had they been tagged manually, would have taken a month at minimum. To make the process even simpler for FastTAG, McNulty first takes two days to strip and clean out the documents, as well as make their formats consistent with one another. FastTAG performs the actual tagging within about two minutes, or in five minutes maximum for manuals of about 400 pages. The remaining time is spent on manual clean-up. FastTAG's visual recognition technology is very effective in scanning thousands of pages of technical manuals; McNulty claims this capability is essential when government contracts set a 60-day time limit to complete projects. Concerning the return on investment, McNulty says that FastTAG has paid for itself probably 50 times over, within the current contract alone. McNulty regards the use of SGML so pertinent that she plans to start her own business and consultancy for military and commercial organizations moving toward SGML. She hopes to resell FastTAG as part of that. 6. Diebold Inc., North Canton, OH Contact: Bill Cap, Manager of Corporate Technical Publications Phone: 216-489-4000 Fax: 216-497-4508 Marketing: Amy Bahler 216-588-3773; Fax: 216-588-3794 Claudette Dampier 216-588-3775 Written material must be approved in advance by the marketing group. Diebold was looking for a software tool to convert WordPerfect documents into SGML for use in CD-ROM, when Novell Inc. recommended that Diebold look at Avalanche's SGML tools. Today Bill Cap, manager of corporate technical publications, uses FastTAG for SGML tagging in the front-end, then EBT's Dynatext Indexer for authoring and that company's PC Browser for viewing. Diebold would like an SGML native editor as well, and is considering products from several companies. Cap regards FastTAG as the best product in the market for conversion of WordPerfect documents to SGML, and says he will continue to use it for other similar projects. The company is transferring its technical manuals to CD-ROM so that its 1500 service technicians can use the information in a non-paper-intensive way. The technicians have over 30,000 hardcopy pages of legacy documents containing information vital to their everyday operations in the field. Diebold realized it had an over abundance of hardcopy when it stacked its documentation, reaching a height of 14 feet and a weight of 563 pounds. In February 1992, the company was prompted to begin investigation of SGML as a solution to the inefficiency problems hardcopy documents were creating. Cap estimates the total SGML conversion process will take about two years. Diebold also plans to move its technical bulletins, 1956 of which are currently active, into SGML. The use of SGML in this application will guarantee that the technical bulletins for all of the company's documents contain up-to-date, accessible, reusable information. Eventually, the CD-ROM documents will be available for customers. However, the beta-testing currently under way with technicians and engineers will determine whether SGML will be a long-term commitment for Diebold. At the moment Diebold does not share data with other organizations also using SGML, although it is considering a conversion-related joint-venture with one unnamed computer giant. 7. Docucon, San Antonio, TX Contact: Alan Hobgood, President Kenny Weber, Senior Systems Engineer Phone: 210-525-9221 Fax: 210-525-0507 Email: ahobgood@docucon.com kweber@docucon.com Docucon, a San Antonio based document conversion services company, has been providing many types of conversion services to the Department of Defense and major commercial accounts since 1987. A significant portion of their business consists of conversion and tagging of documents for use on SGML based document management systems. At any one time, Docucon may be required to tag documents in accordance with 15-20 different DTD's for several different customers, at rates of thousands of pages per day. Docucon's search for a suite of products to optimize the conversion and tagging process in a high volume environment led them to Avalanche. The company now uses the full suite of Avalanche products and has developed a significant amount of customized software which incorporates FastTAG and the other products. "Providing high quality tagged documents at reasonable prices would not be possible without FastTAG." says Kenny Weber, senior development engineer at Docucon, "It's the best product in the market for our environment." Docucon's customers experience many benefits from the use of SGML tagged documents including; ease of information access and interchange, flexible re-use of data, broader control over data integrity (both structure and content), up-to-date documentation, and reduced costs in producing and distributing documentation. 8. GE Aircraft Engines, Springdale, OH Contact: John Bowers, Project Manager Dir. Phone: 513-552-2722 Mn. Phone: 513-243-2000 Fax: 513-552-2105 Media Relations: Jim Stump General Electric Company MD N-109 One Neumann Way Cincinnati, OH 45215-6301 John Bowers agrees to interviews relative to the conversion projects GE is undertaking with Avalanche's FastTAG and SGML Hammer products. Written material must be approved in advance by Media Relations of GE Aircraft Engines; the review process takes about ten days. GE Aircraft Engines (GEAE) uses SGML Hammer and FastTAG for the application of SGML to maintenance data publications, specifically, engine shop manuals. Although SGML has not been implemented yet, the project moving toward that was launched in June 1992. GEAE purchased from Digital Equipment Corporation a package that bundled three key components for this "Commercial Publication Systems" project: Avalanche's SGML conversion technology, Datalogics' Writer Station tools, and project integration by Digital Equipment Corporation. The group performing the conversion projects consists of about 20 users. GEAE is about to go into production of the electronic manuals which will be distributed to hundreds of locations internationally in September of this year. Each manual for this initial shipment will contain 8000 pages of data, and the subsequent shipment will contain up to twice that number of pages. The Air Transport Association's SGML specification, ATA-100, is the standard requiring GEAE to comply with SGML. 9. GTE Government Systems, Needham, MA Contact: Hank Pelletier, Manager of Publications Phone: 617-455-2829 Fax: 617-455-4460 GTE Government Systems operates a service bureau that prepares military documents for digital delivery as part of the Department of Defense's JCALS (Joint Computer-aided Acquisition and Logistics Support) initiative. The DoD mandates SGML-compliance, so Hank Pelletier, manager of publications, was seeking an SGML conversion product that would meet that requirement. Pelletier bought the Avalanche package after doing a survey of what SGML conversion products were out there. He chose FastTAG as the solution for several reasons: FastTAG is inexpensive, powerful, approachable, and, with minimum customization, performs with 90% accuracy. By "approachable" he means it's something non-programmers can handle. When Pelletier purchased FastTAG two years ago, he used it to convert text to the JCALS 28001 specification for the CALS Test Network. Now, GTE's mission with FastTAG is to convert 500 pages of legacy, online field documentation to SGML, ready for delivery to the Air Force Technical Order System. 10. Hewlett-Packard, Palo Alto, CA Contact: Katherine Armstrong, Software Design Engineer Phone: 415-968-9200 Fax: 415-960-5575 Email: kathya@hpasdd.mayfield.hp.com Hewlett-Packard (HP) is one of the earlier adopters of SGML. Since 1987, HP has been using SGML to produce both hardcopy and online documentation for display with the HP LaserROM product. Two primary problems prompted HP to look to SGML six years ago. HP found that SGML was an effective way to cut the cost of producing documentation. For example, converting documents into a common format allowed HP to develop an online documentation system and distribute its documentation on CD-ROM, reducing the cost of producing paper documentation. Also, the company wanted to develop a uniform, consistent way of presenting its documents. In addition to solving those problems, the use of SGML helped HP to automate processes involved in the electronic creation, replication, management and distribution of documents. And, of course, SGML is used by HP's publishing group to facilitate acceptance of electronic documents from the outside in a variety of formats. HP is looking into Avalanche's FastTAG product as a tool for conversion to SGML (the company is currently using its "home-grown" tools for the majority of the work). For instance, FastTAG is being considered for prototyping projects that allow documentation providers to determine whether they'd like to distribute their documents online. FastTAG can be used in prototypes because it can be easily tailored to convert new document formats. Software design engineer Katherine Armstrong says that she chose FastTAG because it was reputed as being the best conversion tool available on the market. She also found that FastTAG is easy to use (the learning curve isn't as great as with other products) and it's fast. In addition, conversion with FastTAG has an 50 to 80% accuracy rate, 80% of the tagging is done automatically, and the product's visual recognition technology has the ability to break the documents into their respective objects, for instance, tables. Overall, SGML implementation at HP is an on-going project for producing, converting and processing documents for online use. The benefits HP sees with SGML are the money the company saves by producing documents online instead of in hardcopy, and the fact that SGML preserves HP's investment in documentation, since it is not dependent upon a particular hardware or software authoring environment. 11. Jana Inc., San Antonio, TX Contact: Doug Welling, VP and Chief Information Officer Phone: 210-616-0083 Fax: 210-616-0088 Jana is a technical publishing company that provides services to customers who have large technical manuals, including illustrations, they want transferred to CD-ROM and other means of electronic delivery. The company found SGML as the solution to provide the common format needed for delivery in a variety of outputs. Jana discovered Avalanche's FastTAG product when both companies were working on an Air Force automated printing contract with Xerox. Jana evaluated FastTAG and chose it for SGML conversion because it is easy to use and because the tagging process "doesn't require the involvement of SGML experts." Now, Jana also provides SGML training and business analyses for its clients, who come from a wide range of industries including the military, airlines, telecommunications and computer industries. Currently, Jana has two and a half million pages of hardcopy, of which 15% -- or 350,000 pages -- must be delivered electronically, mainly on CD-ROM. FastTAG automatically tags these documents in SGML for delivery in the chosen format. Ultimately, the company would like CD-ROM to replace all hardcopy forms of documentation, thus SGML is a long-term commitment for Jana. Typically, 90% of the documents at Jana go through a quarterly revision process. FastTAG cuts the turnaround time immensely. Consider the following cost/benefit analysis: Before FastTAG, to manually structure and tag CD-ROM prototypes used to take three weeks, incurring a total cost of $4160; with FastTAG automating that process, the work takes two days, incurring a total cost of only $640. The company has increased its efficiency by 84.6%. These figures were calculated in terms of overhead costs, including time required for the conversion projects, and employees' pro-rated salary figures. Doug Welling, vice president and chief information officer, has this advice for potential SGML users: They must know their business very well -- understand the ins-and-outs of the way their manuals are organized, what kind of information they contain, and for which purposes the information is used. According to Welling, the real cost of implementing SGML takes place in the front-end because of the time and resources it requires. But on a day-to-day basis, companies truly committed to SGML as a long-term, strategic business decision will not typically consider it an expense -- at that point, SGML has just become part of the way the business is handled. 12. Motorola GSTG, (Government Systems & Technology Group) Scottsdale, AZ Contact: Larry Jackson, Software Engineer Phone: 602-441-5112 Fax: 602-441-2363 Motorola GSTG supports Information Services Technical Publications with the National Security Agency, and recently had a contract to deliver documents in SGML. For that project the company converted about 1500 pages of WordPerfect documents into SGML. The project took about three months; manually, it may have taken up to six months to complete. Larry Jackson, software engineer for the computer integrated design manufacturing group at Motorola, used FastTAG to perform the conversion processes. This involved coding of FastTAG's Louise and Inspec files to verify the tagging structure, then the use of SoftQuad's Author-Editor to parse the tagged file for accuracy. Jackson prefers FastTAG for conversion projects because it is quick, easy to learn, efficient, and customizable. The most important benefits Jackson realized as a result of using SGML were the ability to flexibly re-use information, eliminate redundancy and associated costs (physical storage of hardcopy, re-authoring of information for multiple use), and the enhanced ability to share information online. Additional benefits included the reduced time and money that would be required to produce and mail hardcopy documents, decreased amounts of paperwork, easy transferability and accessibility of electronic information, ability to keep information up-to-date on a timely basis, optimized workflow processes resulting from information models, and, of course, maintained compliance with the CALS standard. 13. Marion Merrell Dow, Inc., Kansas City, MO Contact: Joe Beckner, Senior Advisor Phone: 816-966-7862 Fax: 816-966-5635 Email: jlb-adis@syc.ibmmail.com Beckner is the appropriate contact for discussing SGML. All written material must be approved in advance by Beckner. Marion Merrell Dow (MMD) is currently at the endorsement stage of SGML. SGML is expected to become part of MMD's long-term strategy to pull away from proprietary formats and the constraints they have on MMD's document management system. Beckner says that MMD is currently working with Interleaf products (RDM, Worldview), with which its first priority will be to provide a "common repository" for its documents. MMD also has Avalanche's SGML products. With Interleaf's recent acquisition of Avalanche, SGML will be even more possible to achieve and will be very important to creating a common environment for document development. MMD has not fully studied/analyzed SGML and the impact it will have on the organization, nor does it have a laid-out plan for exactly how SGML will fit into the architecture. Beckner may be interested in citing the FDA as the one organization that could have a huge effect on the pharmaceutical industry if it enforced the use of standards like SGML. 14. O'Neil & Associates, Dayton Ohio Contact: Larry McKinley, CALS Coordinator Phone: 513-461-1602 ext. 3008 Fax: 513-228-0135 O'Neil & Associates, providers of documentation services for commercial and military customers since 1947, is currently creating CALS/SGML documents about a jet engine oil system trainer for the U.S. Navy. For this project, O'Neil's uses Avalanche's FastTAG to convert FrameMaker documents into SGML. The company, which has been delivering SGML documents for about six months, first looked into SGML when the DoD's CALS initiative mandated SGML-compliance. At that point the company realized that it needed to supply its documents in SGML to stay competitive. O'Neil's produces about 20,000 pages of technical manuals a year, of which about 5-10% are tagged in SGML. Larry McKinley, CALS coordinator at O'Neil's, says that the number of documents that must be SGML-tagged is growing significantly. He expects that a greater percentage of SGML deliverables will be required of his company within the next several months. Avalanche's FastTAG successfully completes about 75% of the SGML conversion, and WordPerfect's Intellitag is used for the clean-up. Because the company's documents typically go through about four revision cycles (creation, validation, verification, and final delivery), these tagging tools appreciably reduce the cost of conversion. McKinley recommends that new FastTAG users attend Avalanche's training courses. The classes resulted in a real "breakthrough" for him because he was able to visualize the complexities of the entire tagging process. McKinley says that a recent survey of DoD agencies shows that most are planning to use CALS/SGML for technical documentation on new programs. He feels that service bureaus who do not provide their documents in SGML may not remain competitive. Or, they may need to use the conversion services of companies like O'Neil & Associates. 15. Passage Systems, Mountain View, CA Contact: Vance Nakamoto, President Phone: 415-390-0911 Fax: 415-390-0919 Passage bundles Avalanche's FastTAG and AIT (Avalanche Input Translator) into its products to create a document management and production system. The Avalanche technology is used to perform text conversion processes, mainly from Frame to SGML, although the company has received requests to convert from Microsoft Word, Interleaf, WordPerfect, and troff, as well. Passage Systems' target market includes producers of information, e.g. of user's manuals, in high-tech companies. Key customers of the Passage/Avalanche bundled technologies include Silicon Graphics Inc., Novell, and BellCore. Vance Nakamoto, president, cites SGI in particular as one customer who has experienced some gains in productivity and quality as a result of Avalanche's SGML conversion tools. SGI is processing books from O'Reilly that have been authored in SGML, which relieves the compatibility problem that a non-SGML document would create. Passage is a recognized leader in SGML systems integration and has been approached by many of its customers for SGML solutions. However, the company is also educating its customer base on SGML because it believes the standard is "the way to go": it's the dominant open standard, it provides a richer database of information than other standards, and it provides good online presentation because it separates content from look, or format. Few of Passage's customers are required by third-parties to comply with the standard, but Nakamoto says organizations are realizing that "somewhere down the line they will have to comply with SGML." 16. PRC Inc., St. Louis MO Contacts: Tracy Oltmann, Senior Data Analyst Kent Chapman, Principal Software Engineer Phone: 314-542-8889 Fax: 314-542-8897 Email: tracy@stl.prc.com kent@stl.prc.com PRC Inc. has been implementing SGML since the winter of 1992. The company uses FastTAG to convert legacy documents -- about 10,000 pages so far -- into SGML. PRC accepts both hardcopy and electronic documents, most of which have been created in FrameMaker, the format most customers use. A filter product called "Filtrix" first converts the documents from MIF (Maker Interchange Format) into WordPerfect format for input into FastTAG. Presently PRC's client base consists mostly of government contractors -- for instance, the company is a consultant for the Comanche helicopter program, whose prime contractor is Boeing-Sikorsky. But PRC expects its client base to include more and more companies from the commercial sector, as the interest in SGML is growing rapidly across industries. For example, PRC may soon be serving the legal industry; one organization is considering having its legal books converted into SGML for distribution on CD-ROM. In the government sector, primarily within the Air Force and the Army, technical manuals and "Depot Maintenance Work Requirement" documents must be converted into SGML to comply with CALS requirements. These documents contain legacy data that must be maintained over a long life-span, and that must incorporate technical changes on demand. As a result of using SGML, the need to re-publish these documents "from scratch" is eliminated, and the data is revised and redistributed online as part of an on-going process. PRC's customers experience several benefits associated with SGML. These include the enhanced ability to: interchange information in a platform and application-independent way; flexibly re-use information; control the integrity of the data; keep information up-to-date on a timely basis; create information models to optimize workflow processes; eliminate redundancy and associated costs (e.g. multiple storage and re-authoring of similar information); access and distribute information online; do key word searches and hypertext across document collections; and comply with industry standards and contractual requirements. Tracy Oltmann, senior data analyst, says that two of these benefits have had the most significant impact on the company's decision to implement SGML. The first advantage is the eliminated need for physical storage space. Thousands of pages of "softcopy," or online, documents take up much less file cabinet space than hardcopy. By the same token, the lack of space online information requires also results in greatly reduced costs of reproducing, distributing and mailing the documents -- the weight and volume of the printed page are what cost money. The second advantage is the ability to access and share the information more efficiently and effectively through "peer review." Documents maintained online in just one database file can be annotated online by engineers and others involved in the revision process. Once all the comments and memos have been made, they are compiled into summaries and incorporated, online, into the document, which can then be redistributed as needed. Kent Chapman, PRC's principal software engineer, chose FastTAG because of positive recommendations from Electronic Book Technologies, word-of-mouth, the product's performance, its ability to support arbitrary DTDs, and, in contrast with other auto-taggers on the market, the intuitiveness of FastTAG's programming model. PRC is very satisfied with the performance of FastTAG, and although the company continually evaluates new products, it will continue to use FastTAG for the foreseeable future. 17. Recording for the Blind, Missoula, MT Contact: George Kerscher, Director of Research & Development Steve Edwards, Senior Programmer Phone: 406-728-7201 Fax: 406-728-6331 Email: cbfb_gwk@selway.umt.edu Recording for the Blind (RFB) is an organization that provides recorded and electronic textbooks, library services, and other educational resources to the print disabled -- persons with low or no vision, orthopedic disabilities, or perceptual difficulties like dyslexia. It actively looks for methods to help them access information more easily via electronic delivery. RFB stores all of its documents electronically, but it was searching for a conversion tool to facilitate braille production, large-print publishing as well as conversion into soft-copy books for direct electronic access via computers adapted with speech synthesizers, screen magnification software or even refreshable braille screens. RFB's senior programmer, Steve Edwards, chose to use FastTAG as the tool to convert various electronic file formats into SGML. For the print impaired, capabilities such as browsing, scanning, and cross-referencing, or the examination of such features as graphs and tables, are not always possible with printed media used to deliver documents. These media are also expensive, inflexible, and often out-of-date by the time the information reaches its readers. SGML is a tool that ultimately enables the print disabled reader to perform these kinds of functions. Among people who have troubles with traditional print, audio recordings and braille are the most widely adopted and preferred methods of delivering text. The purpose of any media for the print disabled is to represent printed material as accurately and completely as possible. Certain structural characteristics -- like headings, paragraphs, tables and charts -- are visual cues to the sighted reader that must also serve as navigational cues to the blind reader. All media must represent reading materials, then, precisely and consistently, but such exactitude is difficult to achieve due to the long and complicated process required to create, reproduce, and edit such media as audio recordings and braille. The vast majority are turning to electronic delivery as the means to directly access information, because it enables simultaneous access to print and multi-media. And they're discovering that SGML is the tool that will take them to that end. Recording for the Blind uses FastTAG to convert RFB's files to SGML from formats such as ASCII and Ventura Publisher. Steve Edwards first uses RFB's in-house software to generate lists of the Ventura codes used in the input file set, runs macros that generate FastTAG INSPEC and Louise files, and then FastTAG converts the Ventura files into SGML. FastTAG also converts files from RFB's proprietary minimal-description format to a format that IBMs Build II can convert into Book Manager output. FastTAG helps to create hypertext links, for example, between items of documentary information and their related index entries, simplifying what would be an extremely difficult manual markup process. SGML is a powerful resource for Recording for the Blind. Using SGML as an enabling tool, RFB is opening the door to what would otherwise be a world of inaccessible information. **********SGML INDUSTRY ANALYSTS, listed alphabetically********** Gilbane Report, Arlington, MA Description: Report on Information & Document Systems; strong emphasis on SGML Contact: Frank Gilbane, Editor Phone: 617-643-8855 Fax: 617-648-0678 Email: fgilbane@world.std.com IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, CA Contact: Charles Goldfarb, Creator of SGML Phone: 408-867-5553 Email: gml@almaden.ibm.com InterConsult Inc., Arlington, MA Description: Publisher of the SGML Software Market Report Contact: David Henry Goodstein, President Phone: 617-646-9600 Fax: 617-646-9615 Email: dhg@world.std.com Interleaf Inc., Waltham, MA Description: Electronic publishing software vendor with strong commitment to SGML Contacts: Larry Bohn, Senior Vice President of Business Development Moira Meehan, Product Marketing Manager Phone: 617-290-0710 Fax: 617-290-4943 Release 1.0, New York, NY Description: Computer industry newsletter Contacts: Esther Dyson, Editor/Publisher and member of Board of Industry Advisors for SGML/Open Jerry Michalski, associate editor Phone: 212-924-8800 (Dyson) 212-758-3434 (Michalski) Email: 5113763@mcimail.com (Dyson) spiff@well.sf.ca.us (Michalski) Seybold, Media, PA Description: Report on Publishing Systems Contact: Mark Walter, Senior Editor Phone: 215-565-2480 Fax: 215-565-4659 SoftQuad, Toronto Ontario Description: Software vendor of SGML authoring tools Contact: Yuri Rubinsky, President Phone: 416-239-4801 Fax: 416-239-7105 Wessels, Arnold & Henderson, Minneapolis, MN Description: Investment banking firm Contact: Peter D. Schleider, CFA Phone: 612-373-6100 *************************************************************** Some statistics on SGML user case-studies 16 SGML customers were surveyed on several benefits they have experienced or achieved as a result of using SGML. The results are below. Each "benefit category" is preceded by the corresponding percentage of respondents who agree it's a benefit due to SGML*: 69% - information access, including search & retrieval capabilities 69% - online information sharing 69% - electronic distribution of information 63% - information reusability and portability 56% - workflow automation, worker productivity 56% - cost effectiveness 50% - information interchange, regardless of software application or hardware platform 50% - control of data integrity 50% - up-to-date information 50% - compliance to a standard or contractual agreement (CALS, ATA, AAP) 57% - combined other benefits, including: broader commitment to open systems; greater competitive advantage * These figures do not necessarily determine the level of importance for any one category over the others, they rather indicate the level of frequency with which customers cited them. A NOTE ON COST/BENEFIT ANALYSIS =============================== The cost effectiveness category above represents both companies that have conducted a cost/benefit analysis and those that have not: 50% of total customers surveyed say they strongly feel SGML has resulted in cost savings (decreased costs as a result of producing and distributing softcopy documents, decreased turnaround for conversion processes, decreased levels of human labor required, etc.), but they haven't conducted a cost/benefit analysis to prove it. They feel: a) it's sufficiently obvious that SGML is a cost-saving technology, if expressed only in terms of the enhanced levels in productivity and the decreased costs of creating and distributing electronic as opposed to hardcopy documents b) the benefits simply outweigh the costs in terms of what they are able to offer the customer (flexibility of information, preservation of data integrity, etc.) as a result of SGML c) they are not using SGML as a cost-saving tool but simply as a means of "getting the job done" (i.e., SGML is mandated by a third-party association, such as the Department of Defense) Interestingly, the remaining 50% have not determined the cost-effectiveness of SGML, one way or the other, simply because SGML's non-cost related benefits, such as portability of documents and online information access, speak for themselves. Two percent of companies in the group above have conducted a cost/benefit analysis to justify their investment in SGML. USER TYPES ========== The following presents a different kind of summary of the companies surveyed. These numbers distinguish the companies who implement SGML because they have to from those who are doing it on their own will: 47% - Customers use SGML as a service to their customers who are seeking specific capabilities, e.g. online search or flexible re-use of information 40% - Customers use SGML because its compliance is mandated 33% - Customers use SGML internally, e.g. for in-house publication or document management systems ************************************************************** * SGML NEWSWIRE LIST MANAGER * * * * Linda Turner * * Corporate Communications * * Avalanche * * 947 Walnut Street * * Boulder, CO 80302 * * sgmlinfo@avalanche.com * * linda@avalanche.com * * Vox: (303) 449-5032 * * Fax: (303) 449-3246 * **************************************************************