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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:

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Quality of product – The focus shifted from data to the document that consumers would depend on – changes were no longer a problem.

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Ease of development – The development team only had to work with one XML parser, instead of one per document.

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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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