Proposals Library – Document automation platform
Client: Ceridian
Ceridian HCM, Inc. is a provider of human resources software and services with employees in the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, and Mauritius. It is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange.
Project Summary
The Ceridian Proposals Team wanted to overhaul its proposals content practices, automate document draft creation, streamline review processes, and improve standards and consistency.
My Responsibilities
Current State Analysis
Taxonomy Overhaul
Document Engineering
Quality and Process Improvements
Timeline
12 months start to finish including training.
Interesting Facts
The content team comprised two staff members, myself and a junior content manager in Toronto.
The Process
This project comprised four phases end-to-end, culminating in
Audit
In consultation with the team and domain experts, I reviewed the current state of the library content, templates, style guides, and training practices.
Optimize
I restructured the library taxonomy to more closely represent company/product organization, and accommodate change and growth. I also processed all library content at multiple levels of edit.
Engineer
I standardized styles and built templates integrated into the content library tool to accommodate flexible document automation and streamline project management.
Deploy
I revised content and proposals processes and associated documentation, trained on the integrated solution, and provided technical support to the team.
Content Library Audit
The Qvidian Platform
Qvidian Proposal Automation is an enterprise-grade RFP and proposal automation tool.
The Ceridian Proposals team underutilized Qvidian’s library functionality and wanted to better leverage its capabilities.
Additionally, the Ceridian team wanted to begin using Qvidian’s document automation functionality to produce quality proposal drafts.
Finally, the team wanted a more streamlined process for content management.
This screen is Qvidian’s library interface displaying (left-to-right) the collapsible navigation tree, the results pane, and the content preview pane.
Content Lifecycle Planning
Following multiple interviews with content producers, content managers, and content consumers, we mapped each major category of proposals and RFP response content by their representative Triggers, Feeds, and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs).
This exercise revealed the myriad of necessary touchpoints required to ensure library content would be complete and current.
As a by-product of this exercise, we were able to identify multiple redundancies and siloed efforts we could remedy to streamline content efforts and save staff time.
Library Optimization
Taxonomy Planning
With the mapping in place and approved, we created a new library folder structure and moved approximately 3,000 content records from the legacy folder structure to the new.
We leveraged integrated Qvidian CMS metadata fields and external tracking spreadsheets for status and progress reporting.
As content was required in multiple languages, this graphic illustrates three levels of representative categories for each language.
Record Metadata and Content
With all content now migrated into the go-forward taxonomy structure, we then validated each record against defined metadata standards.
Most metadata fields were standard functionality of the Qvidian library tool, though custom metadata fields were also present.
Optimizing metadata ensured records were optimized for findability and were appropriately scheduled for review.
In addition to record metadata, we validated record content against corporate standards for style, grammar, and punctuation.
Finally, where appropriate, we validated content merge codes and transclusion references leveraged in document automation.
Engineering the Solution
The Content Pyramid
Now that the team’s content management processes were in place and library records were moving toward optimization, I shifted my attention to the document automation requirements.
I defined the Content Pyramid to illustrate each layer of governance required to produce quality documents consistently.
Then I created the Qvidian document models, mapped library content to them, and built user interfaces within Qvidian for users to leverage when generating their documents.
The Content Lifecycle
I developed the Content Lifecycle to illustrate how all the pieces fit together.
Now Ceridian users of all roles—content producer, content manager, and content consumer—had a visual representation of how the content process and proposal project process co-exist in relation to company triggers and supporting processes.
Deploying the Solution
The Outcomes
As a result of content and process improvements, and the adoption of Qvidian’s document automation capabilities, the Ceridian Proposals Team produced higher quality drafts faster.
Faster drafts meant proposal writers could spend more time customizing content, targeting it to the prospect’s needs, and leave more time for review and revision.
The end result was better proposals and improved win rates.
