I’m writing this post mid-air on my way back from Hong Kong. In 3 weeks, I flew 30.000+ miles, visited 3 continents in 5 different time zones. Although physically exhausted, I’m refreshed and energized by everyone I’ve met and the conversations that have arisen from this.

A particular highlight of this trip was the success of our very first Knowledge Center User Day in India, hosted at the Leela Palace Hotel in Bangalore. At first, when we started conversations about organizing an event in India, I thought we would only get a handful of people together. I was wrong… luckily! The response was overwhelming and quickly grew to a significantly high attendance.

Unfortunately, due to unforeseen flight cancellations, Jim Saunders, our Chief Product Officer, was unable attend the event as he had hoped. Thankfully, Famir Shah Moidu, General Manager of India, graciously stepped in at the last minute and saved the day. Famir introduced us to his team and we heard about the Professional Services team capabilities, and the support team’s ability to deliver 24x7 response to priority 1 (P1) tickets for SaaS and on premise customers.

Personally, I was excited to share what is upcoming in the next version of SDL Knowledge Center and beyond. The energy of the room was astounding, everyone was so knowledgeable and I was amazed the volume of questions fired at me during the breaks. I really enjoyed the level of engagement.

Post lunch, we were able to hear from two customers live on stage: Ashwath Gudugunti, NetApp and Rishi Sood, Dell EMC.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank them.  Their sharing of experiences, best practice, what works and what to be aware of, was a great learning pathway for everyone… including myself!!!

Ashwath explained the concept of Content Fabric.  Invented by NetApp specifically to further optimize use of the technology.  Historically NetApp assigned a 1-to-1 relationship between products and content. Content Fabric delivers integrated content, it identifies user needs, sources the right information, in the correct format at the point the user requires it.  Ashwath also shared tips and tricks around how to streamline localization workflow.  Examples detailed how to use libraries of content, how to structure source content, etc.  Although, the tip I take way from the day is to “lend a hand to troubleshoot” which for me not only embodies the team spirit at NetApp, but also what we are trying to nurture in the SDL Community Knowledge Center Group. 

Similarly, Dell EMC also demonstrated the potential to expand on the Knowledge Center tool.  We were enthralled to hear from Rishi as he guided us through some of the customizations Dell EMC have developed over the years. One of the tools Rishi showed us was the QA validator, which automates the XML code review process: it identifies tagging, metadata, and accessibility errors and checks for 508 compliance, aggregates quality metrics, and much more. Many of these tools are open source and Rishi has promised me that he will look to post a blog post on this, so more to come shortly.

To close of the day before a few well-earned cocktails, we finished with a round table discussion dividing into 3 groups to discuss topics such as metrics, best practices for folder structures, and legacy migration. All teams reported back following an hour of interesting discussions.

All in all, it was a very successful day and I would like to thank everyone who attended the event, our two guest speakers and everyone that helped to organize this event.   With special mention to Seema Singh who was responsible for coordinating the event.  It was exceptionally well organized, thank you personally and on behalf of everyone who attended.

If you would like more events such as this globally, please do like this blog and provide your comments and suggestions below;

I hope to see everyone again next year

– Frank