Shufra partners with JustSystems to bring powerful, high-quality data management solutions to customers

Singapore – Shufra (www.shufra.com.sg) announced a new strategic partnership with JustSystems (www.justsystems.com), the largest independent software vendor in Japan and a worldwide leader in XML and information management technologies.  Together, Shufra and JustSystems will let customers benefit from XML, a global non-proprietary standard for creating, storing and managing data in any language.

JustSystems XMetaL is an XML-based software for structured authoring and content collaboration that provides structure and automation for managing high volumes of valuable content. Using industry standards including Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA), XMetaL enables content creators to efficiently create, collaborate, and reuse information that can be repurposed into the languages and formats customers demand. The XMetaL product family has improved time-to-market, compliance, quality and customer satisfaction for a wide array of industries and applications.

Shufra is a leading provider of technical documentation services and products. Its experienced team of writers, illustrators and translators works according to international aerospace and defence standards, while having the flexibility to deal with the customer’s specific requirements. In this way, Shufra strives to establish long-term partnerships with its customers to maximize mutual benefits.

Dr. Frans Wijma, managing director at Shufra explained, “At Shufra, we believe in using standards whenever possible. This helps our customers to work and collaborate efficiently – making data more intelligent as well as future-proof. With its proven XMetaL suite of software, JustSystems is the partner of choice for us. Our customers need the flexibility offered by XMetaL to make optimum use of XML in creating and managing technical documentation for compliance purposes.”

A global leader with three decades of innovation in information management technology, JustSystems helps organisations create, unify, visualise and deliver business-critical information. JustSystems solutions reduce the cost of content creation and maintenance and improve the effectiveness of business processes that depend on content and data from diverse, distributed sources.

“XMetaL greatly improves accuracy and quality of information, eliminates duplication of effort, and dramatically reduces the cost of content creation, localization, publishing and maintenance,” said Aaron Deitcher, vice president of North America and EMEA for JustSystems.  “Since XMetaL is also very easy to use, the partnership will enable Shufra’s technical documentation team to be more efficient in providing valuable services to its customers so that customers can stay ahead of the competition in terms of their information assets.

For more information on JustSystems XMetaL, XML and the other products and services that Shufra provides in the field of technical documentation, translation and engineering, please contact info@shufra.com.sg.

About Shufra

Shufra is an established company founded by industry professionals who take pride in delivering multilingual technical documentation management solutions, consultancy and related training courses to its customers. With over 20 years of industry experience, the team at Shufra supports your documentation needs and provides blueprints, recommendations and tailor-made solutions to establish and streamline your authoring and technical publication processes. On a global scale, we partner with international major companies like Boeing, Corena and JustSystems to bring powerful, high-quality data management solutions closer to our customers.

About JustSystems

JustSystems is a leading global software provider with three decades of successful innovation in office productivity, information management, and consumer and enterprise software. With over 2,500 customers worldwide, the company is continuing a global expansion strategy based on its xfy enterprise software, XMetaL content lifecycle solutions, and its pioneering work in enabling XBRL financial reporting technologies. JustSystems is one of the 2008 KMWorld 100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management, a 2008 EContent 100 member, and was recognized on the 2008 KMWorld Trend-Setting Product list for XMetaL. Major strategic partnerships include IBM, Oracle and EMC. For more information, please visit http://www.justsystems.com.

All brand names and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Shufra to complement its range of XML-based services

Shufra establishes further strategic partnerships in order to provide its customers with unmatched practical and efficient state-of-the-art solutions for technical documentation and training.

Says Ms. Shumin Chen, business development manager at Shufra: “Our customers are looking for turn-key solutions that create and manage data in a vendor-independent way. At Shufra, we support the use of global standards in order to safeguard the flexible and efficient usage of all data created.”

XML is a standard that allows for a universal and non-proprietary way of creating, storing, editing, managing and publishing data. Shufra partners with market leaders and innovative companies, integrating their products into solutions that satisfy all of its customers’ needs now and in the future.

Shufra offers XMetaL by JustSystems to allow for the easy creation and management of content. The partnership with xEdge provides a flexible viewing solution that allows companies to show and publish their data in an intuitive browser environment. Ms. Julia Yeong, owner at xEdge Consultancy welcomes the collaboration with Shufra and explains: “We are a young and dynamic software company based in Singapore. We believe that the synergy between Shufra and xEdge Consultancy will allow us to rapidly expand our presence in the field of technical documentation management.”

To further optimise documentation management, there are a number of value-added options available. Shufra’s partnership with Corena provides for a comprehensive yet flexible data management solution centred around a common-source database (CSDB), based on the S1000D standard that is compulsory for most aerospace and defence projects, and can easily be adapted to all industries.

The S1000D specification recommends the use of ASD-STE100 (Simplified Technical English) for English technical language narration, as this not only provides an improved opportunity for clarity but also yields the benefits of easier and cheaper translation.  To date, Shufra is the only company that offers full support for STE as part of its range of XML-based solutions. Shufra offers the Boeing Simplified English Checker, the most established and accurate authoring tool, available for commercial use since the year 2000.

Says Dr. Frans Wijma, managing director of Shufra: “We are proud to announce that Shufra, in close co-operation with its partners, can offer a unique and very comprehensive package, focused around the use of XML and a common-source database. Combined with our training, consultancy and system integration services, this package is unique in its domain and will greatly benefit its users.”

For more information, please contact Shufra at info@shufra.com.sg or visit our website www.shufra.com.sg.

Implementing corporate style guides: Shufra becomes authorised reseller for acrolinx™ IQ Suite

Dr. Frans Wijma, managing director of Shufra (www.shufra.com.sg) announced today a partnership with acrolinx GmbH from Germany. As part of the agreement, Shufra now offers its customers worldwide acrolinx™ IQ Suite, a powerful linguistic quality assurance application that helps companies to implement corporate style guides and their specific writing rules. The software can check for correct spelling, grammar, style and terminology, thus improving readability, translatability and overall consistency.

IQ stands for Information Quality. Key benefits of Information Quality are:

• Optimum leverage of translation memory software (TM)
• Better communication between customers and sales, support and product development teams
• Consistent branding across corporate communications
• Certified quality of product information

One of the unique features of acrolinx™ IQ is acrolinx™ Intelligent Reuse, which will flag different sentences that provide the same information in order to improve consistency. In addition, the software allows users to create and manage their own specific sets of rules.

Dr. Frans Wijma added, “Our team at Shufra has been working with customers in the aerospace and defence industries at the international level for years, applying international standards for documentation quality and compliance. This new partnership with acrolinx GmbH will allow us to share our knowledge and expertise in controlled authoring with an even more diverse customer base.”

For more information on acrolinx™ IQ Suite and relevant implementation services, please contact us at: info@shufra.com.sg.

Beyond Standard English: Shufra becomes authorized reseller for the Boeing Simplified English Checker (BSEC)

Shufra (www.shufra.com.sg) announced its latest business venture with the Boeing Company, offering a unique software product that helps technical writers check for compliance with the international standard ASD-STE100, also known as Simplified Technical English (STE), or Simplified English (SE).

STE as opposed to Standard English is a form of controlled language that only uses specific grammatical structures and unambiguous, consistent technical terms. On the contrary, the large repository of words and grammar rules in Standard English can pose many limitations in its usage for technical documentation purposes. Confusing word meanings and complex grammar rules in Standard English only add to the frustrations of technical writers whose primary aim is to facilitate communication between product manufacturers and end-users.

Dr. Frans Wijma, managing director and linguist at Shufra explained, “To help writers achieve this goal, we need a specialised language that is highly accurate and consistent. ASD-STE100 meets these requirements. This specification consists of a set of writing rules and guidelines for technical terms that can be used to convey instructions in a direct manner. The benefits of STE are manifold: lower word counts, fewer mistranslations and cost savings.”

In recognition of the importance of creating clear and unambiguous content in the field of technical writing, the BSEC package is comprehensively designed to include the following: BSEC Vocabulary Management System allows users add new technical terms and modify dictionary entries, BSEC Vocabulary Profiler provides writers and editors with text mining tools such as a word frequency profiler and concordance generator, BSEC STE Tutor coaches users on the correct writing rules of STE and the ASD-STE100 specification.

Jointly developed by Dr. Richard Wojcik and Dr. Philip Harrison together with their team at the Boeing Research & Technology Division (formerly Phantom Works), BSEC was originally used to provide technical documentation support for Boeing commercial airplanes. Since 2000, BSEC has been sold to customers outside of Boeing and the usage of BSEC can be adapted for other industries.

For more information on BSEC and STE implementation services, please contact us at: info@shufra.com.sg.

LISA and Shufra join forces to better serve Asia’s technical documentation needs

With the global economic downturn, the world has borne witness to a global trend towards downsizing across markets. Such cost-cutting measures without compromising on the quality of work can be a catch-22 situation that every business deals with. This is no exception within the field of technical documentation.

This year at the 2009 LISA Forum Asia in Taipei, Dr. Frans Wijma, a widely regarded leader in the field of technical documentation and managing director of Shufra, will discuss cost-saving strategies on how to manage your translation and technical documentation projects more efficiently and effectively.

Shufra is a company based in Singapore (www.shufra.com.sg). The company was founded by Ms. Shumin Chen and Dr. Frans Wijma. Together with their team of professional writers and translators, they work according to international standards such as ASD-STE100 and S1000D, while having the flexibility to deal with your specific requirements.

When asked about Shufra’s mission statement and motivation behind its collaboration with an international body like LISA, Dr. Wijma says, “At Shufra, we view our customers’ requirements and expectations very seriously and build on their feedback and trust. In this way, we strive to establish long-term partnerships with our customers to mutual benefit. Our collaboration with LISA is largely fuelled by our keen interest in working together on a global platform that is based on international standards. In the same vein, LISA values and recognises our efforts in this respect. I am very confident that working closely together will stimulate a growing synergy to better serve Asia’s growing technical documentation needs.”