Sarah Slade

Product Help was an online help tool accessible from the help menu on a Reuters products. It was first implemented on five Reuters products in 2005, and by 2009 was operational in over 40 Thomson Reuters products. The core functionality of Reuters Product Help was also used as a basis for the online help in versions 1 and 2 of Thomson Reuters Eikon.

The tool aggregates content from several sources in a single web portal:

Reuters Messenger (2005)

• Illustrated Help Topics (written and produced within PH workflow).
• FAQs (from the Customer Answer Zone).
• Training (from http://training.thomsonreuters.com).
• Downloadable documents (from Customer Zone)
• Support e-channel (email form directed to appropriate support group).

The tool was initially developed using a combination of .ASP, Ajax and JavaScript in 2005.  The illustrated help was written and developed using RoboHelp and output to XML files which were accessed from the product.

My role was to document the process and manage the testing, working with stakeholders, developers and authors to ensure that the prototype functioned properly within the product.

As part of the documentation process I produced user guides, FAQs and a blended training course for authors that incorporated live webinars and face to face training where appropriate.

Where the product team required the help content to be localised for regional use, I managed the content localisation process:

• identifying translation companies
• liaison with content authors, RPH developers and product team stakeholders
• manage the QA process and publishing approved localised content

I also mentored the publishing team in Bangalore, working with them to ensure 24/7 support.