Bangalore:  TWB announced today the availability of the FIRST comprehensive survey of the Indian Technical Communication industry. This survey, a first-of-its-kind in India, puts into perspective the drivers, technologies and players in this rapidly expanding industry. The survey contains data gathered from over 75 companies across the spectrum of Technical Communication domains. The sectors surveyed range from Engineering and Manufacturing, Software Products, Consulting and software services, Aerospace and Defense. The TWB survey resulted in over 20 key inferences to aid decision making for top management about Information Management strategies; Technical Communication teams about technology choices; Hiring and Learning teams about development of talent. These point to the importance of Single Sourcing, preferred Technical Communication authoring environments, team sizes of Technical Communication teams, and preferred domain knowledge of Technical Communicators.

The findings of the TWB survey are consolidated and presented in the TWB Biennial Technical Communication Report (2011 – 2012). The report contains a wealth of data about current and emerging trends in the Technical Communication industry. The research inferences include essential facts like:

•           77% of today’s companies require and produce technical documentation. 23% are dependent on Technical Communication outsourcing for their documentation requirements.

•           Over 60% of today’s companies do not have a separate department for Technical Communication, indicating a decentralized team structure.

•           Implementation of a centralized information management system can result in savings of nearly USD 2-6 million per annum, for a company with a turnover between USD 20 and 30 million.

•           36% of organizations in the Technical Communications industry focus on Content Management, while 34% focus on Technical Writing.

•           86% of companies are convinced that single sourcing is important and are willing to incorporate single sourcing systems in their organizations.

•           Microsoft Word, Adobe FrameMaker and Adobe RoboHelp continue to lead the industry as preferred authoring environments with 14%, 17% and 16% of the market share respectively. However, nearly 15% of the market share is dominated by XML-based tools, indicating a growing market for XML-based products.

In addition to the research inferences based on the TWB survey, the TWB Biennial Technical Communication Survey (2011 – 2012) also includes: contributions from key industry thinkers including:

•           Dr. JoAnn T. Hackos, President of STC (1992 – 93), President of Comtech Services

•           Constance McCutcheon, an industry veteran with over twenty years of experience

•           Paul Trotter, Founder and CEO of Author-it Software Corporation

•           Dr. Carlos Evia, a professor in Technical Writing at Virginia Tech. University

•           Professor Sadagopan, from IIIT-Bangalore

•           Industry Discussions, which highlight the growing significance of technical publications across industries including Aerospace and Defence, BFSI, Biotechnology, Blended Learning, Business Intelligence, E-learning, PC and Server, Storage and Backup, and Telecom Hardware and Software.