Since 1978, Comtech has helped customers worldwide provide effective products and information to their customers and employees by providing outstanding services in the following areas:

content management
customer studies
process transformation

Content Management

Comtech has been in the content-management industry for more than 25 years—beginning with the development of information resources for sales and marketing, new business proposals, key corporate reports and analyses, product documentation, and training materials.

SingleSource Solution™

Today, we work with you to help you handle the phenomenal growth in information resources. You need processes, Information Models, and structured information designs to organize and manage the thousands of images, pages of text, and other assets so that they are available to all your users, inside your organization and outside. We help you structure your content so that it meets the needs of your users, put processes in place that ensure that your authors know how to meet the standards, and select the best technology solution to support your requirements.
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Structured writing for content management

Without building a structured-writing environment, you cannot maximize the reuse of content among multiple deliverables. Structured writing, using meaningful XML or SGML tags, ensures not only that information can be reused in many contexts but that search engines will return critical information resources rather than irrelevant trivia.

We work with you to develop enterprise-wide key document structures, create Document Type Definitions (DTDs), and institute processes so that no untagged content gets through.
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Minimalism

With the current trend toward electronic delivery of information to the Web and to wireless devices, you already know that your traditional paper documents are no longer appropriate. Success lies in knowing what your customers want to do and know and providing only the information they need.

Comtech works with your team to understand your users and determine their goals and the tasks they need to perform. We help you review existing documentation and extract only the content that concisely describes how they will accomplish their goals.
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Customer Studies

Knowing your customers is key to your company's success. Who are your customers? What do they think? Need? Want? With answers to questions like these, you can design better products, information resources, and services, and you'll be armed to make better decisions.

Comtech consultants facilitate customer site visits, customer partnering, and focus groups and use tools such as questionnaires, individual interviews, group discussions, and on-site observations to gather the customer information you need.
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Usability studies

Usability studies help you ensure that your customers can easily use your products and information resources. Through early prototyping and iterative testing, you can determine what will best meet the needs of your users, thereby substantially increasing customer satisfaction and reducing your costs for service calls and product training.

Comtech has developed a proven methodology for designing and conducting usability studies including prototype testing, product testing, documentation testing, heuristic evaluation, and competitive benchmarking. Using our methods, you reveal information about the strengths and weaknesses of your products and information.
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Web design

It isn't enough to create great content if you can't deliver it effectively. Too many content-rich Web sites fail because users can't find the information they need. They are forced to wade through layers and layers of information links before discovering that they've been following the wrong paths.

We conduct walkthroughs of your sites (Internet and intranet), recommend design changes, advise on user testing, and develop Information Models that will support your sites through content-management systems.
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Interface design

Designing software products that are obvious to customers should be a standard objective of every design team. Comtech design experts work with your team, not as outsiders, but thoroughly involved in the process. We have learned that elaborate formal methodologies are not enough. Developing successful interface designs takes people—people who are dedicated to improving the quality of the customers' experience.
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Process Transformation

Your organization recognizes the value of continually refining your processes and improving your skills. Comtech's leadership position in the field of content management and product design and our experience working with organizations similar to yours makes us well qualified to assist you in these endeavors.

Process maturity

To achieve maximum benefit from your resources, your organization needs mature and effective information- and product-development processes. Using the Information Process Maturity Model (IPMM) created by our president, Dr. JoAnn Hackos, Comtech can evaluate the level of refinement, or maturity, of your processes and recommend critical strategies and tactics for improving your organization's effectiveness.

We lead you through a self-assessment and conduct interviews with key team members to prepare a detailed report with recommendations for process improvement.
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Strategic planning

To remain competitive, you need to anticipate trends, plan ahead, and face the challenges of the future.

Comtech works with team members from all levels in your organization, including senior managers, product designers and developers, customer support providers, and customers. Together, we identify goals, set specific and measurable objectives, and formulate strategies for meeting these objectives. We identify key factors that will foster successful planning and identify key challenges that may impede your progress.
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Process redesign

To survive in the current economic climate, we have to build information resources smarter, not work harder. Many information-development organizations waste time continually reworking source documents to match product interface changes, cutting and pasting text between multiple versions of output, tweaking formatting to accommodate complex page and online designs, moving source language through the translation and localization process, and more.

Learn from the industry process experts how to shorten cycle time, avoid duplicating process steps, and eliminate activities that don't contribute to customer satisfaction or benefit the bottom line.
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Industry Research

Our benchmark studies focus on industry innovations and uncover best practices. For instance, our study of leaders in customer support revealed new techniques like the customer-partnering method that has been used by many of our clients to establish partnerships with customers that focus on product improvements and enhancments to documentation and training.

Let us work with you to identify special cases of innovative activities that will give you an edge over your competition.

	Benchmark studies It's always good to know that you're not alone. Your problems are often the same problems that other managers are experiencing. And, everyone else can learn from your successes. Comtech's well-known benchmark studies enable you to learn from colleagues and the competition. By taking part in a benchmark, you learn industry best practices and receive a custom recommendation that suggests how you might best apply the findings. You also receive a comprehensive report of the study results and a list of industry best practices. Read More...
	Competitive analysis Ever want to know what the competitors are doing? Comtech conducts industry competitive studies. Previous studies have looked at high-end publishing tools, college and university-enterprise software vendors, library software applications, user manuals for desktop computers, online and on-product documentation practices, and customer satisfaction analyses.
	White papers Comtech white papers bring together the results of key benchmark studies, competitive analyses, and industry best practices. Our white papers are consulted year after year because the information they include rarely goes out of date. Visit the Download Center for copies of sample white papers and a catalog of white papers available and their prices.
	Customer satisfaction Just what do your customers think about your products? Your documentation and training? Your support? Your Web site? Comtech conducts customer satisfaction surveys, focus groups, and customer site visits to find out specifically how customers feel about interacting with your products. We typically focus on satisfaction with the product, information, and support, and we always get results that are both surprising and revealing.