SDL, the leading provider of Global Information Management (GIM) solutions, today announced the release of SDL Global Authoring Management System™, a global authoring system based on SDL AuthorAssistant™ and used by organizations such as Avaya, HP and Dell. The system helps companies to improve brand consistency, increase the efficiency of their global authoring process and reduce time-to-market for global content.

A recent survey of more than 160 technical documentation professionals showed a 15% increase in concern about the importance of consistency over the last 2 years. There has also been a 22% increase in authoring teams that are now geographically dispersed. Through its centralized system which checks against corporate assets, SDL Global Authoring Management System (SDL Global AMS™) enables enterprise-wide consistency of terminology, style and linguistic best practices, as well as maximizing the reuse of previously written content.

The upgraded system is now tightly linked with SDL’s automated translation technology, allowing authors to create content that is better prepared for automated translation. The post-processing required from automated translation is then significantly reduced, accelerating time-to-market for content into multiple languages by as much as 50% and reducing costs by as much as 40%. This major breakthrough in linking authoring, translation and publishing gives global companies a significant edge when creating ever-changing global content. Other enhancements in SDL Global Authoring Management System include: 
 

• Sophisticated linguistic and grammatical enhancements 
  
• Enhanced collaboration throughout the content lifecycle 
  
• Centralized access for enterprise-wide configuration and profile management.

“SDL Global Authoring Management System enables companies to prepare content that is applicable for global audiences, right from within Adobe’s authoring tools,” said RJ Jacquez, Senior Product Evangelist at Adobe. “Companies can now prepare content in a single-sourcing environment that uses Adobe FrameMaker® along with SDL technology to communicate consistently and provide a rich customer experience across multiple languages and markets.”

Aquent specializes in meeting the high-volume content development needs of its customers, such as Adobe, Amazon.com, HP, Starbucks and T-Mobile. “SDL Global Authoring Management System is a tremendous aid for our technical writers,” commented Jeff Garner, Vice President, Aquent. “The style and linguistic checks can be easily configured to meet the writing guidelines of our various clients. They help us to streamline our content development process by saving human editing time and finding errors that a human editor can overlook. In addition, having access to translation memories during the authoring process helps us to maximize content reuse, saving money for our clients. Deploying SDL Global Authoring Management System for our writing teams keeps us on the cutting edge of our industry.”

“We are excited by the response in the market to this new release,” added Sophie Hurst, Senior Product Marketing Manager at SDL. “SDL Global Authoring Management System is easily configured to match a corporation’s style guide and is uniquely able to combine powerful linguistic checks with knowledge of downstream translation costs. Enterprises are achieving a rapid return on their investment.”

SDL Global Authoring Management System integrates with standard authoring tools, including Adobe® FrameMaker®, PTC Arbortext® Editor, JustSystems XMetaL® and Microsoft® Word. For more information on SDL Global Authoring Management System, visit www.sdl.com/globalAMS