Outsourcing Technical Writing For Better Results

Procedural documentation and manuals are an integral part of industrial training. Similarly, when high-tech products are introduced in the market they have to be packaged along with user manuals that effectively communicate to the customers’ optimum usage of the product as also details of trouble shooting. New business systems need to be supported by user assistance manuals and structured training manuals. All these requirements need the services of a good technical writer. The focus of technical writing is to
o analyze and assess audience needs
o design the documents with appropriate words and images
o Test and measure the effectiveness of the information disseminated and make necessary modifications as needed to increase the effectiveness of the communication.
Professional technical writers possess expertise in understanding and analyzing technical information and presenting a quality document that can be easily understood. They are able to structure complex technical information in a user friendly manner. They also gauge what information is critical for the reader – the most important being how to use the product efficiently rather than details of how or why it works. Writers with engineering and technical backgrounds who can comfortably interact with engineers and technicians are ideally well suited to handle technical writing projects.
However the cost of employing full time in-house technical writers is substantial and includes not just the salary but also insurance and paid leave, apart from office space and supplies. The cost incurred on a full-time writer is often not justified given the varying work load. As an alternative, very often companies delegate the task of writing operating manuals to their in-house engineers who may not be comfortable with the written word and may not even be motivated as they prefer to be hands on engineers.
The Solution – Get a Team of Experts at Half the Cost
The ultimate aim of technical communication is to explain, train, and teach through well made documents. This means that the writers must have sound technical knowledge and strong language skills. In addition they also require two important attributes – discipline and consistency. These are skills and attributes that offshore professional technical writing firms thrive on. The end objective of any technical document be it an online help document, a printed manual or a downloadable PDF file, is effective communication to the end customer. Offshore technical writing teams are well equipped to design textual and visual content for concise and clean technical communication delivering exceptional results at extremely competitive rates.
Additional Benefits:
You retain Full Control
When technical writing services are outsourced, you are paying only for the end product. You also have more control over an outsourced technical writing team than in-house employees. Moreover these professional technical writing firms offer trial documentation before the actual offshore process is initiated. This ensures you have complete control over quality and time lines.
Your developers can focus on their core skills
Developers are not necessarily good writers. A trained technical writer is well qualified to extract essential knowledge and present it using the appropriate tone in a language that will be understood by the specific audience using the product.
The Net Value Addition
On off shoring your technical writing tasks to a dedicated, professional team with the necessary expertise and equipment, you will be able to get technical documentation done in a time-bound, cost-effective manner. As engineering and software firms work on tight schedules, outsourcing technical documentation tasks increases their overall productivity.