Need
A major insurance company contacted Dashe & Thomson for assistance in designing a documentation system that would provide comprehensive, accurate information to personnel who needed to assess risks, quote rates, and service customers. Information was being distributed on paper, but the thousands of pages of documentation often contained obsolete, incomplete, or contradictory information. Additionally, the cost of maintaining, printing, and distributing the documentation was skyrocketing.

Solution
Dashe & Thomson worked with the company to design a new way to provide information that would be reliable, easy to maintain, and cheaper to distribute.

We designed a web-based architecture that enabled linking between procedure and reference material.

• Consolidated reference materials such as risk assessment and rate tables, eliminating redundant or obsolete information.
• Standardized and documented processes across the enterprise, and linked them to the reference materials.

We developed and implemented a methodology to assure reliable content.

• Prepared a document blueprint for the e-content, divided all source materials into information “chunks,” and assigned each to a category in the blueprint.
• Determined subject-matter experts for each category of information and worked with them to update content.

We transferred the knowledge necessary for company personnel to maintain and enhance the system.

• Implemented a process for subject-matter experts to communicate changes.
• Trained maintenance personnel in the tools and methods for managing the system.

Result

• New users require less time learning how to do their jobs, and experienced users spend less time supporting them.
• Printing costs have been eliminated, and information distribution is more efficient.
• Maintenance is easier; update turnaround time has dropped from days to minutes.