Reasons To Structure

[Stephen C. Gillespie Sr]

One more reason, at least for my team, and I did not see this in the thread
(not directly said, anyway) is that we have a totally diff publishing model
here at FedEx. Our model is stood on its head, so to speak. By that, I mean
that our small group of writers function as a 'service bureau'. We are the
only authors with Frame. However, our large body of 'authors', the SMEs, of
course, author in Word. The, we must copy & paste their content into Frame,
which amounts to a big waste of time _ theirs in fooling with all the
formatting in Word, and ours by not being able to use their work, directly.
So, we are trying to solve that problem by going to Structured Frame and
DITA, and then use the XMetal collaboration tool, "XMAX," to provide a
web-based interface in which they can author xml in a 'word-like'
environment (we call it 'Bait & Switch'). Finally, we will use the
Documentum CMS to manage it all (workflow and configuration management).
I'll let you all know how it shakes out.

Steve Gillespie, PMP
Sr Information Development Analyst
FedEx Express
Memphis, TN 38125
901.434.9982