Our Information Mapping consultants sometimes feel like firefighters when they’re called in by organizations in need of urgent, immediate help to improve their content. A merger, acquisition or spinoff is often the cause of the urgency, because those are critical tests of the quality and consistency of documentation.
Our client might be a growing regional bank whose takeover of another bank is behind schedule because their customer service documentation is badly out-of-date and nearly useless for training hundreds of newly acquired employees. Perhaps it’s a pharmaceutical manufacturer that’s recently merged with another, only to see production slowing and quality declining because workers can’t understand their confusingly written manufacturing practices. Or maybe it’s an energy company whose brand-new biofuels spinoff will be shut down by the EPA if they fail to correct problems with unclear compliance processes.
These scenarios and others like them highlight the costs and risks of poorly written or poorly maintained content. Fixing these problems in the midst of a merger is seldom quick or easy, because that’s a difficult, stressful time for an organization to begin improving its documentation—it’s like trying to change a tire on a moving car. Just as the easiest time to prevent a fire is before it starts, the time for you to prevent content problems is before they can jeopardize the success of your merger, acquisition or spinoff.
Anticipating the severe demands a merger, acquisition or spinoff places on your documentation will help ensure smooth transitions and reduce errors, confusion and costly delays. Review your content well in advance so you’ll have time to correct problems and make improvements.
Download this case study to find out more about how creating effective content helped take the pain out of mergers and acquisitions for a large regional bank.
Comments will be approved before showing up.
