Astoria Software announces partnership with JustSystems

04/01/07

SAN MATEO, CA – Intending to “drive the pain associated with product content to extinction,” Astoria Software has announced a partnership with JustSystems, Inc. to create an end-to-end solution for XML content authoring, management and publishing of technical documentation to the DITA standard.
Astoria will join JustSystems’ Partner Program as a Certified Solution Partner and integrate XMetaL Author, JustSystems’ XML-based content creation software, with its own on-demand XML content management system.

The solution will be aligned with the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) standard.

“ By partnering with JustSystems, we can deliver a combined technology advantage,” said Dan Ortega, Astoria’s vice president of marketing. The new service, he said, will “drive authoring efficiencies and speed time-to-publish, a significant reduction in content management costs, and an immediate improvement in content quality.”

Astoria was launched in the 1990s and targeted the defense and aerospace industries. It eventually turned to the healthcare sector, and now includes in its client list GE Healthcare and Siemens Medical Solutions.
In a press release provided by the San Mateo, Calif. -based company, Astoria points out that manufacturers are facing intense market demands for documentation that is timely, relevant and available in a variety of formats. With new products or technology released frequently, the manufacturer has to be able to update the documents that accompany those products quickly and accurately.

As opposed to document management services, XML content management services work through an object-oriented content repository, allowing individual words, sentences and sections to be managed, tracked, re-used and translated.

The company, which currently integrates with PTC Arbortext, plans to announce support for Adobe FrameMaker and MS Word later this year.