Are you managing your content? Or is your content managing you?

Aesbus conducted a Content Management Webinar on August 20 that explored the latest concepts and technologies for managing business content more efficiently.

Rob Weaver and Caroline Juszczak also discussed single sourcing along with other strategies that save time and money during and beyond the business documentation lifecycle.

To listen to this presentation, click on the following links.

• Part 1 — Concepts
• Part 2 — AuthorIT
• Part 3 — From Theory to Practice

The Aesbus team attended the 23 Annual AMA Houston Crystal Awards show held on May 29 at the InterContinental Houston Hotel.

Over 400 attendees watched Las Vegas-style entertainment from J&D Entertainment. “The Crystal Awards is more than a beauty contest – it is the marketing awards program that recognizes results,” said Crystal Awards Chair Colin Hageney, president of Bullpen Marketing. “That focus on marketing effectiveness is what sets AMA apart from other awards programs,” he added, “and we extend our congratulations to all of our winners for their successes and to our sponsors for helping make possible such an amazing evening.”

Special guest Nancy Costopulos, the chief marketing officer of AMA, presented a special trophy for AMA Houston being named Chapter of the Year, the top award among all chapters in North America.

Aesbus’ entries were finalists in the multimedia category. Congratulations to the creative teams that worked on these projects! 

We really enjoyed receiving the fun gift bag!

Aesbus’ package design for the Black Iguana Frozen Rita product was featured in the May edition of ShelfImpact, a publication of Packaging World.

“Packages that save consumers time are the rage, and another recent example is DGI Beverage’s Black Iguana Frozen Rita premixed frozen cocktail in a pouch. The mixture makes margarita preparation and consumption convenient and portable.”

The door64 Tech Fair in Austin, Texas was a huge success.

Aesbus was one of the many Central Texas technology companies that showcased its services at the door64 Tech Fair (April 30). The Aesbus booth generated a high level of interest in our multimedia and single-sourcing solutions. The Aesbus team will follow up on the many inquiries.

The Aesbus graphics team did an awesome job in designing the Aesbus banner and creating the marketing materials!

The following entries submitted by Aesbus have been selected as finalists!

• Interactive Virtual Product Simulation
• Web-Based Pop-Culture Animations

Winners will be announced on May 29 at the InterContinental Houston Hotel.

The AMA Houston Crystal Awards program honors those who have exhibited marketing mastery through successful campaigns over the past year.

AMA Houston is the area’s premier professional marketing organization and the nation’s second largest chapter. Named Chapter of the Year in 2003-2004, 2005-2006 and 2008-2009, AMA Houston serves more than 900 members with diverse marketing expertise from a variety of industries.

What would happen if an outside consultant came to evaluate your company? Say they start with financials. You are probably able to bring up a nifty little accounting program that shows your POs, accounts receivable, expenses, links to bank accounts, and so on. All of your financial information is not more than a couple of clicks away.

Now that same consultant asks about your documentation. They ask a simple question: “What type of system do you have in place to manage your documentation content?” Your response? “Uh…”

Your content is valuable! Is it spread out over several servers? Even worse, saved to individual machines?

You would never take such a casual approach to managing company money. So why are so many companies so unconcerned about getting a handle on the location, state, and accuracy of their documentation content?

Aesbus can provide a variety of suggestions for you to manage and utilize your content.

Visit Aesbus at the upcoming door 64 Tech Fair April 30th in Austin, Texas for more information.

The traditional approach to documentation is to create a document, print it. Create another document, print it.

Create a help file, compile it. Create an html file, publish it to the web.

Like individual dinner plates in a restaurant, you’re serving up plates to a customer.

But where did that meal start? In the kitchen. The chef has large containers of food that he takes from to put together a meal. One plate has mashed potatoes, corn, and chicken. The next plate has mashed potatoes, roast beef, and green beans. The chef doesn’t begin each meal from scratch, present it, and then move on to the next meal – creating each dish from the beginning. The chef has large quantities of food prepared that he uses to put together the individual meals.

So why in the documentation business are so many people still creating each individual meal from scratch before moving on to the next one? It makes about as much sense as our chef scenario.

Aesbus’ response to this question is Single Sourcing – the concept of WRITE ONCE, housing information in a central repository. Information is then drawn from the repository to create the individual documents (meals) your customer’s desire.

• The first step to single sourcing is to think in chunks of information, rather than in completed deliverables.
• Think about all of the side dishes, meats, and desserts that comprise your information.
• After you have these chunks identified, it’s simply a matter of putting them in one central location, and then plating them up.

Aesbus has the experts available to help you analyze and organize your information so that it can be kept in a central location, and output in the formats you need: print, .pdf, help, html. Write once, deliver as needed, in the format needed. That’s what single sourcing is all about.

Visit Aesbus at the door64 Tech Fair on April 30th. We will share more information about Single Sourcing and other NextGen Content Solutions.

One of the multimedia marketing entries that Aesbus has submitted for the 2009 AMA Houston Crystal Awards is a whimsical series of pop-culture animations that were part of a marketing promotional campaign.

To Vote for your favorite, click on the Continue Reading link…

The Colorado Space Coalition gave special recognition to Aesbus’ commitment to the aerospace industry in Colorado. The plaque was presented by Lt. Governor Barbara O’Brien to the Aesbus team at the 25th National Space Symposium, held in Colorado Springs, CO.

Aesbus will be one of the many Central Texas technology companies that will be showcased at the door64 Tech Fair in Austin, Texas (April 30).

In that great Austin entrepreneurial spirit, Matt Genovese started the door64.com web site a year ago. And what does ”door64” really mean? The name door64 pays homage to his first computer, a Commodore 64. Remember those?

For more information about door64 and its grassroots high-tech community mission, check out this recent cover article in the Austin Business District magazine.