BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH (BSH) is a joint venture between Robert Bosch GmbH in Stuttgart and the Siemens Corporation in Munich. BSH is an internationally leading manufacturer of household appliances with annual sales in 2006 exceeding 8.3 billion euros. The company's strategy and development are determined by a consistent policy of innovation and quality.
As part of its policy of innovation, BSH decided in May 2006 to replace its publishing system for user manuals for its entire range of brands (including Bosch, Siemens, Gaggenau, Constructa and Neff) with the empolis:Content Lifecycle Suite (e:CLS).
e:CLS is an XML-based editing and content management system that fulfils all the requirements of a modern editing environment. The system guides the planning, creation, processing, collating, translation and publication of any amount of content throughout the information's entire life cycle. All aspects of content lifecycle management for technical documentation are comprehensively covered: management of versions and variants, integration of translation tools, and the configurability of business processes.
BSH chose e:CLS because of its broad range of capabilities. BSH required a high level of modularization and reuse, and demanded both a proven, standardized product and standard formats. BSH also wanted to improve its internal translation management for over 30 languages and its integration of external translation agencies. By automatically generating manuals from layout-neutral content, the necessary layout rework is reduced to a minimum, resulting in drastically reduced layout costs.
The project was launched in June 2006, together with our partner sd&m AG, which acted as the general contractor for the project. Following a two month conception stage in which a DTD (Document Type Definition) was developed for BSH, the publishing solution was implemented and integrated as a combination of custom development and extension of the e:CLS product. The initial installation at BSH occurred in December 2006. The entire installation with full functionality was completed in February 2007.
In the meantime, the solution has undergone all internal and external acceptance tests at BSH and is now in full production. The user manuals for ovens, washing machines, dishwashers and refrigerators are now produced using the system. Further improvements and extensions are currently being implemented or are in planning.
For further information please contact Andreas Rempe: andreas.rempe[aet]empolis.com, telephone +49 (5241) 80-42324.
About BSH:
BSH is a worldwide leading manufacturer of household appliances. BSH is number 1 in Germany and Western Europe and is one of the world's top three leading companies in its sector. BSH employs 38,000 employees worldwide in 45 countries. BSH strives to be the benchmark in its industry. BSH products are known for quality, design, innovation and serviceability.
About sd&m AG - software design & management:
sd&m AG - software design & management - has been developing high-performance custom software solutions for 25 years and provides consultancy services for all aspects of IT. sd&m's customer base boasts major enterprises from all sectors. sd&m employs 1250 staff at its branches in Munich, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Cologne/Bonn, Düsseldorf, Berlin, Hamburg and Zurich and reported revenues of 184 million euros in 2006. The company is part of Capgemini, making it part of a global network.
