Position Paper on

Value of Technical Publications in the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance Industry

Introduction
This paper presents the necessity and merits of technical publications in the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) sectors. Technical publications comprise a wide variety of material such as process and workflow documentation, market and research reports, user guides, online help, white papers, classroom training material, reference guides, administration guides, standard operating procedures, installation manuals, Web-based training materials, and product demos. In addition to their basic roles of providing loans, saving deposits and investments, banks cater for services like e-banking, tele-banking and mobile banking. Increasing customer requirements and complex applications make it essential for companies to provide their clients with quality deliverables, and adequate training. The entrepreneurial success in the e-Commerce market relies on objective-oriented upto-date information of the dynamic market that is delivered by financial reports. Quality documentation of the business process is vital to the clients of the insurance and reinsurance industry. Litigation issues are a main concern caused by improper documentation. The policy documentation is the written contract which describes the criteria for coverage and the basis for payment of claims. Therefore, the need to avoid arguable terminology remains crucial for the involved price risks. Optimized processes and quality documentation are key factors that govern profits and losses. The simplified documenting of existing or new processes, by technical specialists ensures better compliance.

TWB Leading Technical Documentation Outsourcing Company

TWB is a leading technical publisher with an excellent record of providing consummate technical documentation to many major companies. TWB is the ideal choice of leading clients in the banking, finance and insurance sectors. TWBs critical support for mapping, merger, migration and training process documentation has helped meet Merger and Acquisition (M&A) goals of a Fortune 20 financial company. TWB works in close co-ordination with client teams located globally, and assists them in managing and maintaining technical documentation. We work round-the-clock with client teams and help them with quick responses that facilitate timely distribution of documents around the globe.

Knowledge is people, money, learning, flexibility and competitive advantage. Knowledge is more relevant to sustained business than capital or labor. And yet knowledge remains the most neglected asset of a business. TWB helps you unlock and share your technical knowledge with the world.

TWB believes that technology cannot exist without being communicated effectively.

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BFSI Technical Publications

Growth and Penetration of BFSI Industry
The banking industry is likely to grow in future with a more qualitative rather than quantitative approach. The total assets of all scheduled commercial banks are expected to reach $ 4,090,000 by the end of March 2010. This will also witness mergers and acquisitions around the globe. BFSI is evidently the largest industry as compared to other growing industries, as per a report released by NASSCOM.

Challenges and Solutions

Some of the challenges in documentation that most banking industries face today include: Converting banking output into attractive financial documents, statements and transaction letters. Simplifying documentation of automated complex banking processes Documenting the complete range of risk and contract details of insurance documents tailored to client needs With special expertise in business process documentation, TWB provides comprehensive documentation solutions to resolve these challenges. Documentation challenges are also found in the M&A processes. A critical part of the M&A challenge is the mapping, merging, and migration (including training) of these processes. TWB, however, found that the transition needs to occur on critical timelines for the M&A goals to be met. TWB has helped acquiring companies by leveraging on its process documentation and offshore program management expertise. Having understood the problem faced by the acquiring company, TWB proposed that the documentation of these processes be outsourced and done as an offshore activity. A purely offshore model allowed all TWB resources, across the spectrum, to be brought into the delivery of documents.

The banks assets are estimated to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 13.4% during the rest of the decade. There will be huge additions to the capital base and reserves towards the liabilities. People will rely more on borrowed funds, with the pace of deposit growth slowing down side by side. Tapping the growth potential in rural markets by volume growth for banks through banking awareness is an RBI measure to increase the Gross Domestic Product through Project Financial Literacy. Public awareness of services offered depends on the quality of documentation and the medium chosen. Despite the fallout and nationalization of banks across developed economies, banks in India seem to be on the strong fundamental base and seem to be well insulated from the financial turbulence emerging from the western economies. - Reportlinker adds Indian Banking Sector Forecast to 2012 report.

Benefits
The companies of BFSI industry associated with TWB have benefitted immensely through professional documentation, the benefits include: Transferring complex automated processes into easily understandable procedures Managing and maintaining process related documentation Quick turnaround and very high savings in opportunity costs

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Value of Technical Publications

Technical Communication for Transferring Product Knowledge
The purpose of technical communication is to transfer product knowledge to end users in a comprehensible manner. The strategies of communication and levels of information vary depending on the type of product and audience. Providing end users with information about a products operation and maintenance is critical to the market performance of the product. Hence, the need for quality documentation is imperative. In todays business scenario, technical publications are often developed as an afterthought. This usually results in inaccurate and incomprehensible documentation, which, in turn, renders the users incapable of using the products. Accurate, readily understandable, and quality documents determine how a product sells in the market and result in increased customer satisfaction.

Communication for Different Levels of Technical and Product Knowledge

In technical publications, audience is the focal point. Hence, the style, language, and content must vary depending on the type of audience being addressed. It is because every user has a specific role in the implementation and usage of the technology. Therefore, it is important that documents be created keeping in mind the role of the person who will use the document. For example, when you document a software application designed for highly technical users, it is sufficient to provide the users with quick reference information to use the application. For users who start without technical or product knowledge, it is important to provide detailed product information along with instructions on how to use the product.

Attractive Publications as Useful Marketing Tools

Besides transferring knowledge, technical publications are also used for marketing a product. Before a product is released in the market, information about the product needs to be effectively communicated to the customers. Well-designed, accurately presented, and attractive marketing collaterals increase the market prospects of a product and reduce support costs.

Faulty Assumptions that Result in Problems in Documentation

The faulty assumptions listed below result in incomprehensible document:

Developers know their products better than anyone else due to time constraints and limited resources, many companies assign their documentation tasks to the programmers. This more often results in the creation of technologycentered information, while end users require task-oriented information.

Documentation of complex applications requires a longer learning curve for the writer - learning the product will not be a major obstacle for writers with the right technical background.

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Conclusion

Benefits of TWBs Documentation Solutions: The customer meets its internal timelines and derives the full benefit of the solutions. Customers get processes documented in record time, which otherwise may have prevented sufficient process visibility. Overall, in terms of opportunity cost and savings in direct costs, TWBs service pays back a 100x multiple to the customer. Value of Technical Publications: Technical Publications are very essential for transferring product knowledge to end users. Provisioning of proper material to use the technology and products enables the user to accept and efficiently use the product. Faulty assumptions about documentation lead to inaccurate and hard-to-understand material. This also decreases the chances of marketing the products in the global market. Role of Documentation Outsourcing: The complexity involved in implementing a documentation system requires that vendors and purchasers consider outsourcing their documentation needs to well-established technical publication solutions providers. This helps the company cut costs and at the same time deliver their products with quality documents.

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TWB Services
TWB is Indias leader in technical communication outsourcing and education. TWB offers a complete suite of services that allows our customers to effectively publish their technical knowledge with their people and processes. TWBs customers range from Global 500 including Cisco, Accenture, McAfee, LG, Samsung, Citrix, SAP, Siemens, AOL, Intel; Indian technology majors including Infosys, Wipro; Global defense majors - Pratt & Whitney, Honeywell, DRDO, HAL; and exciting technology startups. TWB's expertise in technical communication ranges from IT Products and Outsourcing, ITES, Banking, Financial, Aerospace, Defense, Ship Building to Hi-tech Manufacturing, and Discrete and Process Manufacturing. TWBs services include:

Technical Marketing Solutions

Datasheets Cheat sheets Solution Briefs/Solution Brochures Presentations Products/Corporate Profile Brochures and marketing collateral Web content Audio and video scripts Press releases Direct mail Newsletter design copy Sales catalogues Sales sheets

Technical Product Documentation

Business Communication
Short Reports Proposals Case Studies Lab Reports Memos Progress/Interim Reports Writing for Electronic Media

Illustrations
Graphic Designing Info graphics 2D & 3D animation Line drawings and illustrations

Datasheets Administrators Guide API Document Configuration Guide Functional Specifications Document Installation Manual Interface Document Interactive Electronic Technical Manual (IETM) Maintenance Manual Online Help Operation Manual Product Demo Product Specifications Document Product Overview Document Quick Reference Guide Release Notes Requirement Analysis Document SDK Document Troubleshooting Manual User Manual Open Source Documentation Programmers Guides Functional Specifications Document Use Cases Online Help /Context Sensitive Help Troubleshooting Guides

Documentation Quality Management

Copy Editing and Proof Reading Managing Writing Editing Services Layout and Design Creating SLAs

Business Documentation
Business Proposals Legal Disclaimers Policy Manuals Style Guide Design Template Design

Content Management
Single Sourcing File Version Control Document Naming Conventions Consistent Document Formatting Data Transformation

Web site Development

Web 2.0 development Web content Web applications

Qualitative Analytics for Decision Support

Economic Business Research Industry Analysis Market Opportunity Analysis Competitive Business Analysis Company & Prospect Profiling Reporting Solutions Assessment of Unmet Market Needs Status and Potential of Technologies Benchmarking of Strategies Vs Competition Forecasting Sales Force Effectiveness Market Assessments Competitive Intelligence Opinion Leadership Emerging Markets - evaluation and research

Translation and Localization Services

Software Translation Services Document Translation Services Localization (L10N) Testing Internationalization (I18N) Testing

Process Documentation
Workflows Standard Operating Procedures ISO Documentation CMM Documentation

Records Management
Document Management Solutions Record Management Storage and Retrieval

Deployment and Support

Installation and Configuration Guides Operations Manual

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TWB Software Tools Expertise

Our technical proficiency software and authoring tools includes: Our technical proficiency inin software and authoring tools includes:

Unstructured Content Development

Microsoft Word Adobe FrameMaker Adobe InDesign QuarkXPress Adobe PageMaker

XML Structured Editors

Epic FrameMaker+SGML X-MetaL

Multimedia/Authoring
Adobe Flash Adobe Dreamweaver Microsoft FrontPage Adobe Captivate

Macromedia Captivate Graphics/Animations

Adobe Flash Adobe Photoshop Adobe Fireworks

Illustrations
Adobe Flash CS4 Professional Adobe Illustrator CS3 CorelDRAW Microsoft-Expression Graphic Designer Xara Xtreme (Windows & Linux) CuteDraw Publisher3D(for animation) Sketsa SVG Editor (for vector graphics) Techsmith Camtasia Arbortext IsoDraw (technical illustrations for 2D and 3D)

Multimedia/Authoring/ Supporting tools

Adobe Flash Adobe Flex Adobe AIR Adobe Dreamweaver Adobe Acrobat Microsoft Silverlight Adobe Authorware Adobe Director Adobe Captivate Trivantis Lectora ASP.NET JSP JAVA

Online Help
JavaHelp Adobe RoboHelp 7.0 HelpScribble WebWorks Publisher PowerCHM Doc-To-Help WinCHM HelpSmith 2.1.1(Windows) Fast-Help MadCap Flare Help-Server NVU Help

Graphics/Animation
Adobe Flash Adobe Photoshop Adobe Illustrator Adobe Fireworks Microsoft Silverlight

Standards
SCORM 1.2 / 2004 AICC W3C Section 508 QTI XML

XML
XMetaL Microsoft Word 2003, Microsoft Word 2007

Databases
Microsoft Access Microsoft SQL Server

CMS/LMS
Sharepoint Moodle Joomla, WordPress Media Wiki CMS Builder Author-it (formerly AuthorIT) Alfresco

Development and Publishing tools

XSLT/XSL EDD

Flowcharting
Microsoft Visio iGrafx EDraw RFFlow Flowbreeze Smart Draw

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Industries Served

TWB services a wide range of technology and knowledge-driven industries, helping them meet their markets better. These TWB services a wide range of technology and knowledge driven industries, helping them meet their markets better, these include: include:
Banking, Insurance and Financial Services Consulting and Business Services Defense, Aerospace and Hi-Tech Manufacturing Education and Learning IT, ITES ITES/ KPO/ BPO Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology Process Manufacturing and Allied Industries Steel, Ship Building, Construction and Aviation Telecom and Digital Communications

TWB has been the preferred technical documentation outsourcing company for: TWB has been the preferred technical documentation outsourcing company for:

The TWB Building

No: 4062, 19th Main Road, HAL 2nd Stage, Bangalore 560008 India. Landmark: Behind Carlton Towers Telephone: +91.80.40741400 / +91.80.41256367 Corporate Enquiries: corp@twb.in

US Office: TWB
11701 Norwegian Wood Drive Austin, TX 78758

Telephone: +1.512.586.8357

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