Defence

SDL signs enterprise agreement with USAF

Posted 10 October 2019

Maidenhead headquartered SDL has signed an enterprise agreement with the United States Air Force (USAF) to provide the SDL Contenta Publishing Suite for Technical Order (TO) creation, management and delivery, which includes support of technical information into predictive maintenance and analysis across all USAF assets.

Above: An F-16 Fighting Falcon releases a flare over Grand Bay Bombing and Gunnery Range at Moody Air Force Base.
Courtesy SDL / USAF

With the enterprise license agreement, the USAF has entered the last stage of its consolidation strategy to deliver a centralised enterprise technical data creation, management and delivery solution. The SDL solution will support maintenance and operations personnel with diagnostic checklists and repair procedures, interacting with other USAF systems such as health monitoring, materials management and maintenance management systems.

The USAF’s Technical Order Authoring and Publishing (TOAP) system is hosted and managed by the Air Force Lifecycle Management Center, on behalf of the Air Force Material Command, and is its single organic enterprise TO authoring and publishing system. Originally implemented in 2006 as the Warner Robins-Integrated Data for Maintenance (WR-IDM), the system provides content/configuration management, process workflow, and authoring and publishing capabilities to all USAF programs, as necessary to create and sustain USAF TOs.

Since the USAF inventory of TOs is currently produced from a variety of source formats, including FrameMaker, Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and S1000D developed in compliance with USAF standards, the SDL solution was identified as the only system that could meet the USAF’s enterprise requirements.

TOAP will help manage technical content in support of the USAF’s asset maintenance for all USAF programs, including the new T-X trainer aircraft programme, and various programmes aligned under the USAF Nuclear Weapons Center. The TOAP system is the single USAF system supporting TO source data content/configuration management, editorial sustainment and publishing processes.

“The USAF is a diligent organisation, looking to streamline processes and gain maximum efficiencies across its global operations,” said Thomas Labarthe, Chief Revenue Officer, SDL. “We’re excited to have been selected by the USAF as its enterprise technical data solution, and look forward to working closely with the team to deliver efficiencies across its operations.”

The USAF selected SDL’s Contenta Publishing Suite after an extensive assessment of the market’s commercial off-the-shelf software providers. The USAF found SDL Contenta Publishing Suite to be the only known integrated software suite solution that supports and satisfies all USAF TO content/configuration management, authoring and publishing requirements.

The SDL Contenta Publishing Suite for S1000D is a complete, integrated, industry-proven publishing and interactive solution for technical content, with functionality optimised for each step of the publishing and maintenance processes.

For over 25 years, SDL has helped companies communicate and deliver transformative business results by engaging customers across multiple touchpoints, strengthened by human expertise and machine learning technology. Having recently joined forces with Donnelley Language Solutions, SDL provides digital content management and language translation services for 90 out of the top 100 global brands.