Newsletter September 2025
Paths to the digital future: From product models to self-service portals
Dear readers,
Digital transformation is reshaping processes, systems, and customer expectations at a rapid pace. For companies, this means technical documentation must do much more than provide information. It must accelerate workflows, enable customer self-service, and integrate seamlessly into digital product environments.
In this newsletter, you’ll learn how smart product models foster shared understanding, why a 360-degree analysis is essential for successful transformation, and how self-service portals can reduce support team workload while providing real value to customers. You will also learn how all of this is changing the role of technical communication.
Finally, we'll preview key industry conferences, including our sessions at the 2025 tekom annual conference.
In this issue:
- Smart product models: Building a common understanding of product structures
- Self-service: Delivering information where customers look for it
- Analysis as the foundation for digital transformation
- How the role of technical communication is evolving
- Upcoming Tech Comm conferences
Smart product models: Building a common understanding of product structures
Product models are becoming a cornerstone of technical communication. They provide the basis for automatically, consistently, and tailoring content to each product variant.
Rather than maintaining the same information multiple times, technical communicators can access structured product data directly from systems such as PIM, PLM, or product configurators. This makes content easier to reuse, reduces redundancy, and speeds up processes.
Shared product models also foster clarity across the company. Technical communicators, developers, salespeople, and service representatives all speak the same "product language." This improves collaboration, reduces errors, and makes it easier to embed documentation into digital twins.
The result is less manual work, more automation, and documentation that always corresponds to the correct product variant.
- Learn more about product models
- Also, read our article: Driving technical documentation from a digital twin
Self-service delivers information where customers look for it
Today, buying decisions are usually made after online research, rather than at trade fairs or through direct sales contact. Technical documentation plays a central role here. It is often the most important source of product details, instructions, and troubleshooting information.
However, downloadable PDFs are no longer sufficient. Customers expect content to be web-based, searchable, and easy to find via Google. This allows them to quickly find the answers they need and solve problems themselves.
For companies, providing documentation through self-service portals or knowledge bases reduces support team workload, increases customer satisfaction, and creates a competitive advantage.
A common step toward digitalization is to introduce a together with a . Learn more in the knowledge article by Mette Lilienthal, technical communicator at parson
We helped GS1 Germany transition from traditional documents to structured, modular content for a digital business process standard. The result is managed in a semantic CCMS and delivered through a content portal. Read the customer story
Learn more about self-service and knowledge portal solutions
Analysis as the foundation for digital transformation
Many companies face significant challenges with digital transformation. Processes, systems, and requirements evolve quickly, so it’s often unclear where to start.
That’s why the first step is a thorough assessment. A 360-degree analysis establishes the current state of affairs, identifies weaknesses, and clarifies strategic goals. This analysis examines processes, content, and systems holistically, considering the perspectives of employees, management, customers, and external partners.
The result is a realistic big picture that serves as the basis for a roadmap. This roadmap helps companies identify priorities, spot opportunities, and successfully transform step by step.
We advised SEEBURGER on digitizing technical documentation and introducing customer self-service. Read the customer story
Learn more about the 360-degree analysis of content, processes, and systems
How the role of technical communication is evolving
The digitization of sales, service, and product information is transforming the role of technical communicators. New skills are in demand, while routine tasks are increasingly automated or supported by AI. Read more on our blog
TechComm conferences
The upcoming conference season promises plenty of highlights: NORDIC TechKomm in Copenhagen in September; the tcworld conference in Stuttgart in November; and Europe in Brussels in February 2026.
Here’s a sneak peek at our contributions for the 2025 tekom conference:
Comparing use in large-scale documentation projects
As products become more configurable, documentation must keep pace. Knowledge graphs facilitate this by linking product data with modular content, enabling the creation of accurate, up-to-date, variant-specific documentation — even for digital twins. Ericsson and parson will share insights from two large-scale projects, demonstrating how knowledge graphs can enhance the accuracy and efficiency of technical communication. Learn more
AI in everyday life: Practical support through MCP servers
AI is everywhere, but what if it could do more than just have conversations? What if it could actually help with real tasks? Mark Schubert and Marion Knebel of parson AG demonstrate how MCP servers can unlock large language models and transform them into practical assistants for everyday tasks. Learn more
Linking standards, risk analysis, and documentation with IDiS and
Inconsistent warnings and outdated standards cause headaches and can jeopardize traceability. The IDiS initiative has developed a prototype that uses iiRDS as a vocabulary in the Asset Administration Shell. Ulrike Parson (Parsons) and Harald Stadlbauer (Ninefeb) demonstrate how digital standards can update risk assessments and generate concrete change requests for documentation. Learn more
iiRDS in practice
More and more companies are adopting iiRDS, but its practical implementation raises questions:
- How can I effectively model metadata?
- What approaches have proven successful?
- How can my feedback help shape the standard?
These questions will be discussed at a meetup with Ulrike Parson (Parson AG) and Harald Stadlbauer (Ninefeb Technical Documentation GmbH). Learn more
CCA panel: Intelligent content, smart user experiences
How can content stand out in a world full of distractions? The Component Content Alliance invites you to a panel discussion on the future of intelligent content systems powered by AI, influenced by psychology, and driven by data. Learn more
Whether you need smart product models, structured analyses, or self-service solutions, we can help you streamline your content processes, prepare them for the future, and focus them on your customers.
We look forward to taking the next steps in your digital transformation journey with you.
Your parson team