With a company name that is derived from the phrase intelligent content architecture, Ictect promotes a different and structured way of looking at unstructured content. Its patented XML automation technology has been implemented by a diverse roster of clients, including the City University of New York, Lam Research, NetApp, Peterson’s, ScholarOne, and the United States Department of Defense.
Established in 2008, Ictect makes software that helps clients handle complex documents on their own, generating XML, ePub, JATS, and DITA files as required. “We offer proof of concept and a small-scale production support through our U.S. headquarters—in Brookfield, Wisconsin—and Bhopal facility in India,” company president Pradeep Jain says, pointing out that “getting the tags in” remains a challenge for organizations and service providers despite advances in the last 15 years. “Our XML technology gets the tags in for STM publishers for their journals, or big corporations for their technical manuals.”
A midsize STM publisher recently called for a proof of concept that covered a random sampling of articles from 42 journals for XML-to-JATS conversion. “The company produces 500,000 pages of journal content annually, and the proof of concept, if extended to production, will save several million dollars,” Jain says. “Another client, NetApp, was attempting Word-to-DITA conversion when they saw our Word plug-in and were sufficiently impressed to start a project with us. They receive several thousand technical manuals annually that have to go into SDL content management system, and our software helps them to do this quickly on their own without having to outsource.”
Ictect’s XML automation platform comes with models to improve quality, consistency, and outputs for various types of content. “The platform is based on Microsoft Word and supports Office 365 workflow, which makes it ideal for technical as well as nontechnical users. It offers the comfort of the familiar Word while providing the benefits of highly granular XML,” says Jain, whose company is now a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. “Developing innovative publishing apps on Office 365 with intelligent content can be more user-friendly and less expensive compared to the alternatives out in the marketplace.”
Over the next 12 months, Jain will be expanding Ictect’s product offerings for Office 365, with some interesting enterprise-wide applications. “A cloud-based XML automation for the STM segment is also a part of our plan,” he says.
