News from ISIS Papyrus Software
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Release
From the Web to Print on Demand (POD): XML Poses
Challenges for High-Volume Printing
Pearson Government Solutions Uses ISIS Papyrus Tools
to Make the Conversion Easy
Pearson Government Solutions has partnered with its
customer (a federal agency) and the customer’s
other contractors to develop a customized POD solution
using eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and the ISIS
Papyrus software solution. The job was to produce printed
versions of complex, data-rich documents that compared
multiple Medicare health plan choices, nursing home
information, drug benefit information, or participating
physicians available throughout the 50 states.
 The catch: Pearson would receive the electronic files
just as they were created for the Web, in XML and
standard text. All told, eight different production
documents
have been developed to date, with the largest including
up to 32,000 variables.
In addition, the federal agency customer continues
to make frequent changes and updates to the Web
site and documents, often leaving little time to react,
test, and still meet the production schedules.
The strategy for meeting these challenges, according
to Pearson software developer Michael Plain,
was to create a generic XML parser that could automatically
handle hierarchy changes in the XML that ultimately
forms the unique printed documents.
Using the ISIS Papyrus Designer and DocEXEC software
tools, Plain and his colleagues created a generic
parser that utilizes definition tables. They
did this by creating
tables that define key elements, key attributes,
and default elements.
In creating the generic parser, Pearson and
its customer gained major advantages:
• |
Quality of product – The focus shifted
from data to the document that consumers would
depend on – changes were no longer a problem. |
• |
Ease of development – The development
team only had to work with one XML parser, instead
of
one per document. |
• |
Flexibility in testing – Pearson was able
to provide the customer with more useful sample
documents more quickly, allowing for extensive
testing before going into production. Much of the
information is highly sensitive and critical to
the decisions being made by the requestor (the
agency’s audience). |
By using the ISIS Papyrus tools, Pearson was able to
reduce development time dramatically – programming
that previously may have taken 2-3 months is now completed
in a week or less – and essentially has created
a whole new business opportunity for the company.
Working hand in hand with a Pearson CSR, or going directly
to the Web site, requestors are now able to view and
select personal attributes and have a customized/personalized
document printed and mailed to them, generally within
one business day.
If you would like to discuss this further please contact
us.
Kathy Minchew
Pearson Government Solutions
4250 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 1200
Arlington, VA 22203
703-284-5817
703-284-5625 (fax)
703-307-7826 (cell)
www.pearsongov.com
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