Organization Background
CNDP (Centre National de Documentation Pedagogique), the
French national centre for educational documentation, gathers and
publishes resources, under the supervision of the French ministry
of Education, for all education system users and contributors (teachers, librarians,
students, parents, etc…) in France.
Composed of over 500 employees, CNDP is also responsible for
publishing news releases and statements (Bulletin Officiel) and
the collection of statutes and regulations (RLR - Recueil des Lois
et Règlements) issued by the French Ministry of Education. RLR is
an essential tool that compiles, in 30,000 pages, all texts that
rule the French education system. It is updated 8 times a year
and is distributed to 10,000 subscribers. These publications available
on paper and on CD-ROM represent a very important source of revenue
for CNDP. The Project
Before CNDP invested in the improvement of the management
of their documentation, they were outsourcing both production and
publishing processes to 3rd party suppliers.
Paper and CD-ROM updates to the CNDP documentation occurred frequently
since timeliness and currency of information was crucial. With this
architecture, maintenance was done through a 3rd party supplier
– making updates inefficient and costly.
In order to increase efficiency and ultimately reduce costs,
CNDP consulted 4DConcept, specialists in document management. Together,
they concluded it was time to centralize their publications’ management instead
of having to deal with various suppliers looking after the production
and publishing of their documentation.
In search for a new document management system which could easily
be managed in-house, CNDP set some objectives:
- Regain control
of their documentation
- Adopt production standards
- Produce content efficiently and quickly – easy maintenance
- Have the RLR available on-line
The Challenge
In addition to the obvious time and budget constraints, CNDP
faced technical problems inherent to the fact that they were outsourcing
their production and publishing needs:
- Proprietary content
management tools
- Production of documentation was outsourced
- The documentation was structured for paper publishing and not
well-formed for electronic publishing
- Content analysis and DTD development
- Data conversion: the content was available in SGML format only
The SolutionStandardizing CNDP’s Documentation Using XML
One
of 4DConcept’s first recommendation was to standardize the usage
of XML for production and publishing of all CNDP’s documentation.
Using XML as a basis for the document management application would simplify
the exchange of information, enable powerful searching capabilities,
and guarantee the longevity of the system. Moving the Production In-House
Before
moving to XML, the RLR authoring team was accustomed to sending
their manuscripts to a service provider who updated the SGML database
for the printed edition of the RLR, and then sent the SGML database
to another service provider in charge of producing the CD-ROM version
of the RLR. All tools in the system were the proprietary tools of
the service providers.
CNDP - Former document management
system architecture
With the integration
of TEXTML Server at the core of the electronic document management
system, authors and managers of CNDP documentation can centralize content,
store it as native XML, and make full use of the document structure.
This is made possible by TEXTML Server’s powerful advanced search
engine.
CNDP – Current document management system architecture
Leveraging the XMetaL Integration
In order
to create reusable XML content in-house, 4DConcept suggested that
CNDP use XMetaL as their content authoring tool. Because of its
WebDAV support for collaborative authoring, XMetaL is able to easily connect
to TEXTML Server via IXIASOFT’s TEXTML Server WebDAV Extension.
Users
are then able to utilize TEXTML Server as a primary repository for
XML documents edited with XMetaL.
Results & BenefitsRegained Control of Technical Documentation
- Documentation production centralized within CNDP
- Documentation lifecycle managed end-to-end by CNDP
Reduced Costs
- Easier documentation
maintenance and update
- Dramatic cuts in outsourcing costs since authors directly save
updates to the central database
- Affordable solution, no need for powerful tools
- Dramatic cut in print cost, since users can choose to subscribe
to paper, CD-Rom or online edition
User Satisfaction
- Easier, faster,
more efficient search through the RLR thanks to advanced searching
capabilities
- Better result accuracy
- Improved information structure
- Updates available instantaneously for searching and viewing
thanks to dynamic indexing
The final
application
Future-proof Solution
- Perenity
of XML language
- Scalable database that supports dramatic increase in documentation
volume
- No further development required to move to online-only documentation
About TEXTML Server
TEXTML Server is a native XML database and search engine
whose purpose is to store, index and retrieve XML content. It is
the first embeddable XML server for OEMs and developers of XML applications.
It was designed as an OEM product to build document-centric XML
applications, such as web content management systems, knowledge
management, or digital asset management systems where the content
consists mostly of rich semi-structured information. The key advantages
of TEXTML Server include the ability to combine full-text and metadata
search, speed of execution, schema independence, ease of integration, and
aggressive OEM-geared pricing model.
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Web site:
www.cndp.fr
Industry:
Education, Government
Application:
Document management
Products:
TEXTML Server, WebDAV Extension
Critical functions:
- Content reuse
- Cost savings
- Advanced search capabilities
- Seamless integration
Partners involved:
4DConcept, Blast Radius (XMetaL)
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