Process documentation at SERVICE&MORE
SERVICE&MORE is a service provider to medium-sized interior design consultancies and furniture retailers who, through 2 purchasing associations, looks after more than 230 members all over Austria.
SERVICE&MORE's extensive range of services is what predominantly sets them apart. Besides the centralized purchasing of furniture and interior décor, they also support most small and middle-sized companies in their core competencies. SERVICE&MORE provides not only service, marketing and business management, but also a diverse range of specialized services, including an extensive training program with an e-learning platform.
Assimilated process documentation
The sheer amount of information in a company nowadays makes it necessary to document the internal processes and procedures. What used to be depicted in Word documents, Excel sheets and HTML sites should now all be consolidated and managed centrally by two employees. Therefore, the first particular challenge was to enable a seamless integration with the internal Content Management System. The second important task was to restructure the documentation procedure in order to avoid repeating content that appears several times - quality management, also for internal documentation. The last but most important task was to make a complex system user friendly with no teething problems - simple for even those employees whose main occupation doesn't deal with documentation.
Close collaboration with the creator of the CMS
The people who were responsible became quickly convinced by the user friendliness of Help+Manual because it made it easier for the users to concentrate on writing the content. But could the program be incorporated into the current Content Management System?
This concern was successfully addressed with "Webhelp" and the PDF Export from Help+Manual. The company's internal CMS is a customer specific solution which delivers database driven contents, as well as, static documents (HTML sites, PDF and Word data, spreadsheets, etc.) via the internal browser network. It succeeded in achieving a space in CMS for the extensive HTML documentation to be completely incorporated into the general layout of the intranet.
Documentation workflow, CMS delivers integrated content
Re-use of existing content
Even internal processes often cross over and parts of a process are then found in other processes. In order to maintain the volume of documentation to a manageable level, these should be consolidated to avoid duplication.
That's where Help+Manual was able to assist with a highly modular structure of the documentation project. Segments were moved to separate projects and then added again as components into the superior process documentation.
Process documentation at SERVICE&MORE
Implementation period: just a few weeks
In summary, we can say that integration was very successful. The software fulfills all of the stipulated technical requirements and, for the employee, all of the visible documentation is seamlessly embedded in the Content Management System.
Whereas projects of this size normally take months to implement, we were able to implement the combination with Help+Manual within just a few weeks - from the completed planning phase to going live; an advantage not to be underestimated.
About SERVICE&MORE
As a professional partner in the interior design sector, SERVICE&MORE offers medium sized companies everything they need in order to remain successful in the age of mass production providers. With the purchasing associations GARANT-MÖBEL Austria and WOHNUNION, SERVICE&MORE looks after more than 230 furniture retailers and interior designers.