Write on Time Solutions

One Stop Systems (formerly SBE)

The Problem

SBE had developed a family of networking routers. This was their first commercial product and they needed help. Literally, they needed a help system!

The Solution

Write on Time Solutions (WTS) came in ready to develop a help system for SBE, Inc. We were familiar with RoboHelp, Doc-To-Help, and ForeHelp, all viable technical
solutions. All we needed was content. Where was the content for the help system? The manager said that we should mirror it after the product’s user guide. Where was the user guide? It was not written yet, so WTS personnel began working with SBE to write the user guide. The user guide, written in FrameMaker with multiple writers, won an “Excellent” award from a Society for Technical Publications contest. Once the user guide was written, WTS personnel worked on the help system.

One challenge that WTS had was to keep ahead of the translators. We revised the text and then passed it on to the Japanese translators. Marketing took the application with the revised help system with them to Japan. The solution was in place “write on time.”