Outcomes
DELIVER.
Make information available wherever it is needed without losing the meaning behind it.
Product information rarely has one destination. It belongs in the manual, on the product page, in the service portal and in places nobody has planned yet. Deliver lets each of them use the information with its meaning, scope and source intact, without another copy to maintain.
- iiRDS
- Taxonomy
- Ontology
- Semantic Metadata
- Knowledge Graph
EVERY NEW DESTINATION STARTS ANOTHER COPY.
Take one line from a product specification: a maximum operating temperature that applies to one model, one variant and one firmware version. It already sits in a manual, an online shop and a service FAQ. Then a service portal needs it, a field app, a machine interface. Each destination usually means another export and another copy. When a new firmware version brings a different value, every copy has to be found and checked, because some machines still run the old firmware. After a while nobody can say which value is right for which machine.
WHAT EACH DESTINATION RECEIVES
Engineering maintains the limit in the product specification, together with the firmware version each value applies to, its language versions and the information that belongs to it. Configured delivery processes bring each destination what applies to its context: published text for the service portal and the FAQ, structured data for a machine controller that requests it through the API.
Illustrative exampleNot real customer or product data
In the product specification
Maximum operating temperature
- Firmware 2.1
- 60 °C
- Firmware 2.2
- 65 °C
- Applies to
- Model 200, variant B
- Related
- Safety notice S-14, service procedure 7.3
- Languages
- 12
- Maintained by
- Product engineering
Service portal
A technician services a Model 200 B on firmware 2.1 and reads in German.
Shows:Maximale Betriebstemperatur: 60 °C
Verlinkt: Sicherheitshinweis S-14, Serviceanleitung 7.3
Online shop
The product page for Model 200, variant A.
Shows:Nothing, because the limit applies to variant B only.
Machine interface
The controller of a Model 200 B on firmware 2.2 requests its limit through the API.
Receives:{ "value": 65, "unit": "°C", "appliesTo": "Model 200 B", "firmware": "2.2" }Service FAQ
A customer with a Model 200 B asks about its operating limits.
Shows:60 °C with firmware 2.1
65 °C with firmware 2.2
Linked: safety notice S-14
Firmware 2.2 brought a higher limit, so engineering added 65 °C for firmware 2.2 to the specification and left 60 °C in place for firmware 2.1. Each destination the change applies to receives it through its configured delivery process, when that process runs; machines that stay on firmware 2.1 keep receiving 60 °C.
WHAT STAYS WITH THE INFORMATION
- Meaning
- What the value describes, in terms people and systems share. The German text for the technician and the data for the machine controller refer to the same limit, each with the value for its firmware.
- Applicability
- The models, variants and firmware versions each value applies to. This is why the product page for variant A leaves the limit out and why a machine on firmware 2.1 still receives 60 °C.
- Relationships
- The safety notice and the service procedure that belong to it, so a destination can show them together with the value.
- Source
- Where the value is maintained and by whom. It can stay in the system where engineering keeps it today, and delivery does not require one central repository. Delivered results can carry a reference to that source, so they can be traced and brought up to date by the next delivery; a destination does not need a permanent live connection to the source.
Delivery across systems and channels
The four destinations in the example stand for wider groups that use product information. Each group receives it through its own configured delivery process, in the form it works with and with the same applicability you saw for firmware 2.1 and 2.2.
People
Technicians, customers and sales teams read product information in portals, on product pages, in search and in service content. Each of them sees the values that apply to their product, its version and their language.
In the example
- Service portal
- Online shop
- Service FAQ
Systems and machines
Business software, service tools and machine controllers request structured data through an interface and use it in their own processes, for example to check a limit during operation or to prepare a service order.
In the example
- Machine interface
Partners and other platforms
Information that leaves your own landscape, for a partner, a customer or a content delivery platform, needs an exchange format both sides understand. A standard such as iiRDS packages it together with its applicability and relationships.
Not shown in the example. In a package, the limit would keep its firmware scope.