Corporate Documentation for Soft Console Pty Ltd - Case Study Example

ASSESSMENT 2: CASE STUDY Student name: Class: Professor: Institution: Date: Corporate documentation for soft console pty ltd The company requires high quality and standard documentation to facilitate its internal and external communication and documentation needs. The documentation design as well as production will undertake various documentation functions to produce the following documents for the company; Emails, letters, memos, reports, order files, cash-flow statements, invoices, income tax documents, company promotions, quote, and meeting agendas as well as minutes, partner contracts, and distributor contract. The company’s standard documents will adhere to various criteria to ensure they are within the required quality, structure, language, and format. Language criteria- directness, grammar, punctuation, readability, and plain words To achieve directness, alphabetical listing, for instance, acronyms and abbreviations will exclusively utilized in situations where the reader would easily comprehend the message. The full terms will normally precede the bracketed initials. Full stops will be utilized to specify the letters that would be missing to equally achieve readability. Capitalization and the use of gender-neutral terms will ensure the documents are direct, clear, and adhere to the ethics. Utilizing the Australian English and the proper citation (Harvard) which is widely used in corporate documentation styles will ensure the company’s documents adhere to the standard grammar as well as punctuation requirements. The documentation will utilize plain words to facilitate the ease in which the recipients can understand the texts. Design criteria- structure, legibility, impression, and graphic elements The style attributes will conform to the common corporate structure which specifies different attributes like the use format features of bold, centred, font size, and all caps for different functions. The title that is specific to cover pages or utilized for man headings, for instance must be in bold, centred, all caps, and in 18 font. Heading 1 must have a formatting of bold letters, all caps, font size 14, 0.76 cm hanging indent, and should be numbered. The use of the correct fonts as well as layout will ensure the documentation is legible. The use of graphic elements which include bullet lists, tables, diagrams, and charts among others. The elements will not only assist the documentation to develop a quality structure, but will also promote its attractiveness, and hence generate a positive impression. These attributes will be encompassed in the uniform style guide and the company’s template for all the documentation. Macros will be utilized to facilitate the automation of the documentation. Relationship criteria- audience fit, tone, contact, and authority The documentation will use the company’s logo on every document to communicate the authority of the documents. The logo will be embedded on the footer of the document. Maintaining a uniform colour and font, the documents will right angled and numbered. The documents will also consist of contact channels that will be clearly articulated. The contact channels will consist of the company’s premium phone line, mail, and social media profiles. The additional contact information will contain the company’s physical address and other details like the map to the address and the call rates among others. The documentation will also be categorized based on the functional literacy of the audience. Since most of the aspects in the business segment require technical knowledge, the documentation will focus on using plain words to ensure the communication is relevant to the stakeholders. The documents will also be developed to represent a tone that is generally comprehensible by the general audience. The general Australian English will therefore be utilized to produce the documentation. Content criteria- subject, relevance, action, alignment The criterion will encompass the documentation relevance, action, subject, and alignment. The documents will have to retain relevant content to our recipients. They will also have to be subjective in order to transferee a clear communication. The documents will have to induce the required action from the user. Finally, the documents will have to demonstrate an alignment with the overall aims as well as values of the company. To facilitate all the requirements, the uniform corporate style guide and templates as well as macros will be utilized in developing all the standard documents. Testing the suitability of the documents To ensure the documents fulfil the desired purpose and fit the audience, a research will be conducted to gather and observe the reactions of the users. Usability testing, surveys, interviews, and focus groups will consist of the methods that will facilitate the identification of problems and the necessary potential improvements. Information technology requirements To design as well as produce the required quality of documentation, the company will require resources that are in the form of labour and equipment. Labour requirements- the workforce will have to demonstrate the following skills; communication skills, literacy, ability to interpret policies as well as procedures, ability to make the considerations regarding the audience, purpose, and the context when formatting the texts, skills of research and analysis, and finally the relevant technological skills required to manage the documentation designs as well as layout requirements. The employee will also have to demonstrate the following knowledge; the processes relating to document production, cost constraints, ethical principles, relevant regulations as well as legislations in the field, various software application, the know-how of various activities that are external to the company, and an extensive knowledge on piracy and other regulations associated with document design as well as formatting. Equipment requirements Hardware requirements- the equipment will include access devices like a server, computers, a printer, scanner, copier, shredder, label marker, dictation machines, and lamination machines. Software requirements- the software requirements include desktop publishing, word processing, database management system, professional invoicing, and quick book software for various accounting record functions. Design and productions There are various tasks that will be required to facilitate the process of design as well as production of the company’s documents. The functions include graphic design, colour printing, binding and lamination, printing, presentation, drawing, content and template generation, and managing other office publishing systems. Document production personnel- the company will utilize its internal personnel to assist in various documentation functions. It will also, however outsource other functions to external personnel. The personnel requires from both internal as well as external sources consist of printers, digital designers, graphic designers, professional writers, data base managers, and data security experts. Technical functions- the company will utilize the personnel with the relevant expertise in digital design, engine search optimization, digital marketing and the capabilities to develop Macros that encompasses all the design requirements of the themes necessary for producing standard documentation. Data entry and other graphic designs and presentations will, therefore, be easily entered into the standard company documents. Other technical functions that requires expertise such as data storage and systems management and security will be managed an external service provider. The developed content and themes will be integrated using a document management system that is among the management systems that will be adopted. The integration between the devices in the company will facilitate easy access, distribution, editing, printing, and storage of the content developed or retrieved by the users through the company’s secure network. The numbering system adopted in the documentation layout will assist in both physical and electronic storage. Apart from the physical filing system utilizing a numbering system and secure filing safes, the soft copies of the company’s standard documents will be stored electronically in flash drives and hard drives. To generate the backup or master files for the documents, the company will outsource for a cloud-based service provider to store all the standard documents, designs, and templates. The documents can be retrieved and shared via email using the cyber space. The service provider will be responsible for the security of the master files. The service will not only cut on costs, but will also improve security benefits. A password to control the authorized access of information will be implemented. Only the authorized personnel will distribute the documents both internally as well as externally. Legal considerations The department will take into considerations the various legal issues that will have an impact on the designing as well as management of the company’s documents. The common legal issues concerning documentation management include the government’s regulations regarding the freedom of information, intellectual property as well as copyright, confidentiality, data protection, and legal admissibility (Guffey & Loewy 2012). Managing these issues will ensure the company adheres to good practice, policies and regulations involved. Performance evaluation and sustainability To ensure the documentation management serves its purpose, the department’s manager will implement various strategies and procedures. Training and development- through developing technical and user manuals that are based on the users’ knowledge and skills, the department will equip the personnel the necessary knowledge and user guides to the key company’s processes. Other training methods will include focused group discussions, video training, mentoring, e-learning, and association with external experts. Quality evaluation and monitoring- the process of monitoring as well as evaluating the quality standards of the of the company’s documentation will be based on factors that include the template completion rate and accuracy, the macro processes effectiveness, user and customer feedback, and the adoption time of the new templates as well as macro. These factors will assist is evaluating the performance based on the required documentation standards. Reviews and improvements- continuous review of the macro and themes is necessary through gathering and analysing the reviews and feedback concerning the developed themes as well as macro. Researching on new standard requirements in the field is also necessary to ensure the documentation is updated. Once gaps are identified, it would be necessary to involve the relevant personnel in the department to edit, update, and finally distribute the new adjustments to the other users in the company. Bibliography Guffey, M.E. and Loewy, D., 2012. Essentials of business communication. Cengage Learning. Read More