The Challenge

Finding changes in large revised documents

In highly regulated industries like Aviation, ensuring the accuracy of detailed procedures & specifications, and efficiently communicating content updates to all relevant departments is crucial.  Any errors can lead to severe safety risks. Furthermore, documents in Aviation are often huge, containing many topics and complex technical information. When processing these files, SunExpress found that Word editors were insufficient for the job. Although MS Word is one of the most popular text writing platforms used today, when it comes to handling large, complex technical documentation, it often struggles, causing formatting inconsistencies, performance slowdowns and risks of data loss. With over 800 documents reviewed every year, speed and efficiency became of utmost importance. This led to the decision to move from MS Word to DITA, an XML-based standard.

Unable to produce user-friendly redline reports

After the migration to DITA, SunExpress started using DITA conversion tools to create HTML and PDF outputs of their aviation documents. However, these documents did not highlight the revised content, making it difficult for authorities and users to find where the technical information had updated. In fact, users would often have to read the entire document to find out what section or content has changed. This created the need to find a product that would accurately compare DITA content and produce an easy-to-understand, user-friendly report, which can be distributed to both regulatory bodies, as well as the SunExpress crew.

The Solution

Tailored document comparison, easy to understand results

To improve their document change management and produce a more reliable, user-friendly change reports, SunExpress realised that a content comparison technology was needed for their regulatory documents. After searching the internet for suitable options, they decided that DeltaXML’s DITA Compare was most suitable. DeltaXML’s solution was found to be superior to others on the market, especially in DITA comparison technology, and the features of the product were quite satisfactory for the Turkish airline.

Offering unparalleled accuracy, DITA Compare provides the most reliable method for identifying and publishing changes between two versions of DITA documents. DITA Compare delivers results that can be easily marked up for processing as redline documents or integrated with popular editing software.

The parameter options in the DITA Compare product allowed SunExpress to get more flexible results during document comparison. DITA Compare could be configured to meet SunExpress specific business requirements and was easily embedded into their existing systems & processes. Our self-hosted REST API provides a seamless integration option for any workflow, CCMS, or DMS.

SunExpress also found the flexible configuration especially useful, particularly the ability to exclude elements that they did not want from the comparison. DITA Compare’s configuration ability is one of it’s most powerful features. You can choose to ignore certain elements, find change within referenced images, and even compare CALS and HTML tables. In this case, SunExpress found that the results obtained in table comparisons, provided effective reading for the end users.

The Results

Significant efficiency gains and enhanced user experience

Upon integrating DITA Compare into their process, SunExpress achieved significant reduction in man-hours per document revision and greatly improved user experience when reviewing revised documents:

• Approximately 90% reduction in man-hours spent demonstrating changes in Word documents
• 80% faster revision review times
• Improved user experience with quick access to the parts where changes were made
• Minimised risks associated with content changes in operational processes
• Expert support team always on hand to answer any questions within a day