SDL Empowers Global Companies to Deliver Smart, Interactive Product Information and User Assistance Across the Entire Customer Journey

As the XML community gathers at DITA Fest 2012, SDL (LSE: SDL), the leading provider of Global Information Management solutions, today announced the release of SDL LiveContent, a new family of software products, that empowers companies to meet their customers’ needs to find the right technical information through all the relevant touch points in the customer journey.

High-quality technical product content is essential in providing outstanding customer experience. An SDL survey conducted in August 2012 found that 79% of respondents agreed that high-quality product information makes it more likely they will purchase additional products from the same manufacturer and 87% agreed that high-quality product information makes it easier for them to solve service problems on their own. With the launch of SDL LiveContent, SDL helps companies engage customers beyond the point of sale, converting them into repeat buyers and loyal brand advocates by ensuring they have the information they need when they need it.

“Quality product content is the key to empowering customer self-service,” explains Amber Swope, DITA Specialist. “By creating content that is relevant, searchable and available on any device or platform you can guide your customers to their own solution and put control of the journey back in their hands.”

SDL LiveContent achieves these goals by giving developers of technical content an integrated end-to-end solution that harnesses the power of XML for authoring, collaboration and customer-facing delivery. Replacing ad hoc tools and processes traditionally used in the past, SDL LiveContent lets companies benefit from better quality content, faster time to delivery and improved findability. SDL LiveContent is comprised of the following components:

- SDL LiveContent Create: Removes the complexity of XML, allowing anyone to create and edit structured content using a powerful, browser-based editor
- SDL LiveContent Architect: Stores, organizes and manages all structured content so that it can be easily reused, shared, filtered and delivered to any channel
- SDL LiveContent Reach: Allows companies to deliver smart, interactive product content that is tailored to customers’ needs in various forms while also empowering collaboration in the creation and editing of structured content across all silos of the business

"High quality product content is a critical ingredient in the overall customer experience - during the buying process and especially at the point of service or support, after a purchase is made,” says Melissa Webster, program vice president, Content and Digital Media Technologies at IDC. “The quality, accessibility and usefulness of that content is vital to customer satisfaction and to turning that customer into a brand advocate. We are seeing a new generation of technology that is transforming how companies manage and deliver their technical product content at all the relevant touchpoints of the customer’s journey.”

“Companies have learned that customer engagement does not end at the point of sale,” said John Hunter, CEO of SDL. “The rubber meets the road after the product is purchased, when customers need information on how to use the product they purchased. Therefore, technical product content is not a ‘create it and leave it’ proposition. It must be informative, relevant and consistent, while also easily updated, reused and shared across the enterprise. With the introduction of SDL LiveContent, we are transforming the ability of companies to harness the power of XML to meet the challenges of customer engagement.”

Resources:

- SDL LiveContent
- Video: The Customer Journey is Driven by Content
- Survey: For more information about the survey, contact Mary Galoski Parsons at mparsons@sdl.com. The SDL survey was conducted in August 2012 among 1,000 U.S. adult consumers to uncover important trends about how customers use product information and the role that product information plays in customer experience.

About SDL
SDL enables global businesses to engage with their customers in the language, the media and at the moment they choose. We help businesses manage their brands, drive global revenues, accelerate speed to market and enrich their customers’ experience. SDL’s enterprise-ready innovative technology and service solutions span the entire customer journey and include social listening and marketing analytics, campaign management, language management and services, video and written content creation, web content management, dynamic technical documentation publication and eCommerce. SDL solutions drive global reach across multiple languages, cultures, channels and media. SDL has over 1,500 enterprise customers, 400 partners and a global infrastructure of 70 offices in 38 countries.