By: Maureen Newman, UVC Biomedical Engineering Community Connector
In today’s world, it can be easy to get caught up in the latest, greatest, high-tech hype. But at 36Software, the team seeks to simplify content management technology into a more user-friendly interface. Their solution: SmartDocs.
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SmartDocs is user-friendly and less expensive than other products designed in an XML environment,” explained Lisa Pietrangeli, Managing Partner, Executive Director of Operations and Business Development at 36Software. “The original idea for SmartDocs was developed after seeing different types of content management solutions that were highly complex and costly, requiring an arduous amount of effort to adapt to the XML environment.”
SmartDocs installs as a tab inside of Microsoft Word and uses Microsoft Sharepoint to operate. The founders saw a large opportunity for a product that enables users to stay inside of Microsoft Word to make changes to existing content and generate different versions of documents such as user manuals, contracts, and training documents. Pietrangeli explained an example: “If a company has five similar products, instead of creating five different user manuals, they make one manual that is tailored for five variations.” The software assembles a document from user-supplied information.
The road map for the future at 36Software looks to enhance and expand the current product by increasing the server capabilities and automation of documents. “We have a great way of managing versions of documents, but we want to automate that,” said Pietrangeli. “There is a significant need, and it is a very expensive thing to do, so it will allow our customers to save if content reuse is incorporated into SmartDocs.”
Most of the action happens in Rochester, where there is a team of five that grew out of Rochester Institute of Technology’s Venture Creations. Another three team members are in Washington state, completing the network of people who train and consult customers. Partner companies in Europe, South Korea, and Canada help with training and support, which increases the customer interactions 36Software values. “We focus a lot on our SmartDoc users, asking them, ‘What do you want it to do?’ and ‘How do you want features to work?'” said Pietrangeli. The team travels to conferences seeking feedback to improve their software, all the while keeping in mind that sometimes simple is better.