Milestones

2024

The year 2024 brings change, innovation and exciting projects at parson. From smart technical documentation and the use of AI to a wide range of customer projects, we continue to expand our commitment to digital transformation.

Digitalising technical communication
 

Order-specific technical documentation

Products are becoming more diverse and configurable – a major challenge for technical documentation. How do you manage to deliver precisely tailored content, e.g. for a digital twin?

Endress+Hauser is developing an intelligent solution based on the Empolis Content Connect software with the support of parson. Product data from SAP and PIM systems is linked to a special iiRDS information model in a knowledge graph. This graph automatically generates a query to the CCMS which allows technical communicators to directly create content that perfectly matches the corresponding product configuration.

We present the pilot project funded by the iiRDS consortium at the tcworld conference 2024. Watch the recording (in German).

Artificial Intelligence in technical communication

We present our experiences from projects and research:

Prompt engineering made easy: At gdslive 2024, our AI experts Helle Hannken-Illjes and Lukas Jetzig show how to optimize AI queries through targeted prompt engineering. Watch the recording (in German).

AI in chatbots and knowledge portals: In a webinar, Ulrike Parson and Roman Senger (Empolis) share their knowledge on how to optimize AI processes in chatbots and knowledge portals. Watch the recording (in German).

How will AI change our work? At the tcworld conference, Ulrike Parson and Britta Görs (University of Hannover) show how you can identify AI use cases, exploit automation potential and select suitable technologies. The presentation includes a survey on the use of AI in technical communication, the results of which you’ll find here soon.

Intelligent information and iiRDS
 

New DITA OT plugin: iiRDS meets DITA

Together with our partner Empolis and on behalf of the tekom iiRDS consortium, we develop a plugin that generates iiRDS packages from DITA files. Learn more

iiRDS for digital product information at Danfoss Drives

Our customer Danfoss Drives relies on a DITA-based CCMS and the iiRDS standard for digital product information. Together with Danfoss we develop the metadata model and implement it in MadCap IXIA CCMS. Watch the video of the presentation by Danfoss and parson.

Digital standards with IDiS

In 2024, we continue to work on the digitalization of standardization and actively participate in a pilot project for the integration of standards into the administrative shell. The IDiS pilot "Integrating Standards into the Asset Management Shell" is successfully demonstrated in the middle of the year. Read more

Customer Projects – Highlights

We support various companies in the digitalisation of their technical communication, in technical documentation, and in the improvement of content processes with AI. A selection:

Cooperations

We start new cooperations with Fluid Topics and the Semantic Web Company. See cooperations of parson

We continue to be a member of the Component Content Alliance, a hub for professionals interested in the dynamic fields of content componentization and structured content creation.

TISAX® certification

parson AG stands for the comprehensive protection of its customers' information. This is confirmed by our TISAX® certification.

New services for our customers

We expand our service portfolio to include corporate content strategy and prompt engineering.

Reseller for Oxygen Products

As a certified consulting partner and reseller of Syncro Soft, we offer professional consulting and support for the implementation of Oxygen products. What we can do for you as an Oxygen reseller.

New roles in technical communication

We introduce once again new and exciting technical communication job profiles: knowledge engineer and technical content engineer.

Inspiring events


DITA Europe and DITA-OT Day 2024

In "Feeding a chatbot with DITA", Mette Lilienthal and Marion Knebel present a content supply chain in which DITA XML documentation is made accessible via a chatbot.

At the DITA-OT Day Marion Knebel presents the DITA-OT plugin: "Publishing from DITA with iiRDS."

Nordic TechKomm 2024

At the Nordic TechKomm conferences in March and September we talk about AI in technical communication (Ulrike Parson) and the continuing iiRDS pilot project with Danfoss (Frank Ralf, parson, and Holger Thater, Danfoss).

tcworld spring conference 2024

Helle Hannken-Illjes (parson) and Dr. Patrick MacCrae (LangTec) give an overview of use cases for artificial intelligence in technical communication.

Adobe DITAWorld 2024

parson supports Adobe DITAWORLD 2024 again as a Gold Sponsor. Together with Sarah O'Keefe (Scriptorium), Umar Akhtar (Content Bloom) and Stefan Gentz (Adobe), Ulrike Parson discusses the topic "Navigating the AI Frontier – Transforming Knowledge Management and Documentation."

tcworld conference and tekom fair 2024

In addition to several presentations and workshops at the tcworld conference, we are co-exhibitors at the tekom fair for the first time.

Knowledge and blog articles - the most exciting articles on our website

2023

Research and innovation
 

Artificial intelligence 

2023 was dominated by artificial intelligence and its impact on technical communication. Selected presentations and articles on this topic:

  • "Artificial Intelligence in technical communication: application, opportunities, risks, and how it will change our profession". Presentation by Ulrike Parson, tcworld conference  2023. Watch video (in German) 
  • White paper by Ulrike Parson “Artificial Intelligence in technical communication: application, opportunities, risks, and how it will change our profession“. Download
  • "KI yes, but not ChatGPT! How do I get my own language model? " Presentation by Helle Hannken-Illjes and Ulrike Parson, tcworld conference 2023. Watch video (in German)
  • "AI and Technical Documentation. What’s next?" Podium discussion with Ulrike Parson and other AI experts at tcworld conference 2023. Watch video 

Technical documentation and standards of the digital twin

  • We contribute to the development of two sub-models of the Asset Administration Shell (AAS) as part of InterOpera. Learn more about the results (in German): Digital data standards and iiRDS
  • We continue to participate in IDiS, the digital standards initiative driven by DIN and DKE. More about IDiS

Smart content and iiRDS

We continue to participate in the development and application of iiRDS. More about iiRDS

  • "Danfoss goes iiRDS – Moving to a standard-based metadata model". Joint presentation by Danfoss and parson at tcworld conference 2023. Watch video
  • "iiRDS-Plugins for the DITA OT". Mark Schubert presents the iiRDS DITA OT plugins, their features, challenges and future improvements at the tcworld conference 2023. Read the announcement 

Exciting customer projects

We support several companies in digitalizing their technical documentation and developing an information architecture. A selection:

Cooperations

  • AI cooperation with LangTec. To offer our customers the best possible solutions for AI-based text and language technology applications, parson has started a cooperation with the Hamburg-based technology provider LangTec. Read the announcement
  • parson becomes Solution Partner of BOTfriends. This allows us to support our customers in providing the content of their technical documentation in an intelligent chatbot. Read the announcement
  • gds and parson expand their partnership. Customers implementing an information management solution from gds can now benefit from parson's many years of experience in modern and sustainable information architectures. Read the announcement
  • Empolis honors us with its Partner Award for the trustful and successful cooperation and outstanding achievements in the joint realization of innovative customer solutions. Read the announcement

Events

  • Empolis Exchange Summit. „How Endress+Hauser turns technical documentation inside out“. The joint presentation by Thomas Ziesing (Endress+Hauser Group Services AG), Ulrike Parson (parson AG) and Franz Stötzner (Empolis Information Management GmbH) focusses on the transformation of Endress+Hauser's technical documentation. Watch video (in German)
  • Adobe DITAWORLD. As a leading DITA ambassador, parson supports Adobe DITAWORLD 2023 for the second year in a row as a gold sponsor and gives two presentations on smart content and DITA. Read the announcement
  • Gdslive. „Metadata for intelligent information“. Gernot Baumann and Ozan Yldirir show how a modern metadata concept based on iiRDS can be set up in order to better deliver semantically enriched content. Read the announcement
  • Adobe Experience Makers. Ulrike Parson gives a presentation on the subject of DITA and iiRDS. Read the announcement
  • tcworld conference 2023. Wir participate with several presentations. Read the announcement

Working and studying at parson

We support two students with their theses:

  • Martin Fiebig  is writing his bachelor thesis in Technical Information Design and Technical Editing (University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hanover) at parson. His research topic: "Converting HTML or DITA XML files into PDF files". Read the results in the knowledge base
  • Together with our partners RWS and Botfriends, we are supervising Mette Lilienthal's master's thesis on "Chatbots in technical communication". Read the results in the knowledge base. Presentation at tcworld conference 2023: "Feeding a chatbot with your documentation content". Mette Lilienthal (parson) and Jörg Schmidt (RWS). Watch the video

We continue our series of interviews with the parson team:

We present a job profile that is becoming increasingly important:

Selected knowledge articles and blog posts

  • Publish DITA content at the click of a button: the DITA Open Toolkit. Read the article

  • Creating a PDF from HTML – Formatting documents with CSS Paged Media. Read the article

  • Artificial Intelligence in technical communication. Or would ChatGPT get a job with us as a technical communicator? Read the article

New website

We present our redesigned website with services for intelligent information solutions.

2022

Research and innovation

  • parson remains committed to the development and application of iiRDS. The Steering Committee and working group representatives present the developments of iiRDS in 2022 at the tcworld conference. Read the announcement.
  • We contribute to IDiS, the German standardization strategy, driven by DIN and DKE. parson participated in working group 2, which focused on the representation of standards in the management shell for Industry 4.0. Learn more about IDiS.

Exciting customer projects

  • We support several companies in the digital transformation of their technical documentation, including GS1 and Endress+Hauser.
  • With FLEXIM, we support a technology leader in industrial metrology by developing an information architecture and creating a Getting Started Guide.

Events

  • At the tcworld spring conference 2022, Mark Schubert and Ulrike Parson give a presentation on "iiRDS in the semantic network - together in Europe". Read our blog post "iiRDS in the semantic network".
  • As a Gold sponsor, parson is participating in DITAWORLD 2022. Frank Ralf, technical consultant, presents "DITA Intelligence for Adobe Experience Manager. How to use DITA Metadata to improve the Customer Experience". About the conference.
  • We give four presentations at the tcworld conference 2022, including metadata management and smart content, docs-as-code, and innovations in iiRDS. Read the announcement.

New cooperations

  • Fonto is a new partner. The Dutch technology company offers easy-to-use and highly flexible solutions for editing and reviewing XML content. Read the announcement.
  • parson and itl have been working together for several years in the form of joint presentations and knowledge exchange. We are pleased to officially welcome itl as a partner in our partner network. Read the announcement.

Working and studying at parson

  • Meet the team. In this series, we introduce the parson team one by one. We start with Ann-Cathrin Mackenthun, senior technical communicator. Read the blog post.
  • Since 2014, parson has carried the Hamburger Familiensiegel, which is awarded to companies that support their employees in balancing family and career. In November 2022, we meet existing and new seal bearers at a reception hosted by the Hamburg Senate. More about working at parson.
  • parson supports students by, for example, supervising a bachelor or master thesis. We have talked to our master student Mette about how this can work. Read the blog post.

Selected knowledge articles from our website

  • Docs-as-code for technical documentation. Our authors discuss the docs-as-code method, its principles and the tools that are used. Read the knowledge article.
  • First comes metadata, then comes content. How to control your CCMS with metadata. Together with our partner Empolis, we have written a knowledge article on this topic. Read the knowledge article.

2021

2020

  • We launch our digital learning platform. The platform provides access to the e-learning courses on technical communication, intelligent content, and DITA.
  • At the digital tcworld conference 2020, we give five presentations on content delivery, iiRDS, terminology, and visualization. 
  • SDL and parson form a strategic partnership. With this partnership, we contribute our expertise in the areas of structured documentation and content strategy.
  • We publish the parson Smart Content service package. With parson Smart Content, you can easily create modular, XML-based documentation according to the DITA standard.
  • As a service provider with many years of experience in standardization documentation and database specification, we support ASAM e.v. in revising the OpenDRIVE standard and the OpenCRG standard. In 2020, we will also become a member of the ASAM consortium.
  • Clear, modern, informative: our new website goes online.
  • parson assists tcworld in developing an intelligent chatbot. 

2019

  • We move into a new company building.
  • At LearningDITA Live 2019 we offer four presentations in German.
  • We give several presentations at the tekom spring conference and annual tcworld conference. Our topics: software documentation, topic-oriented writing, iiRDS, and chatbots.
  • With plusmeta, gds, and IXIASOFT, we extend our partner network in the field of content management and artificial intelligence for documentation.

2018

  • We become a founding member of the iiRDS Consortium.
  • We enrich our DITA lernen e-learning platform with two new courses; a total of eight courses are now available here.
  • parson joins intrinsify, the think tank and leading network for the new working world and modern business management.

2017

  • iiRDS takes technical documentation to the next level: we actively participate in shaping the new content delivery standard under the patronage of tekom.
  •  Our DITA lernen e-learning platform acquires three sponsors: Empolis, oXygen and Kilgray.
  • Ulrike Parson holds the opening lecture at tcworld in China on the topic of Intelligent Information in Technical Documentation.

2016

  •  Our new DITA lernen e-learning platform is launched, whereby we offer free courses for learning DITA.
  • Working together instead of just processing: parson introduces a sociocratic business model.
  • We celebrate our 10thanniversary with a garden party.
  • Information 4.0 is moving the industry. We are actively involved in the “Information 4.0” tekom working group.
  • We become a member of DIN, the German Institute for Standardization, and are certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 27001.

2015

  • A year of amazing growth: the team now has 14 technical writers.
  •  Software standardization for more quality. We are actively involved in the tekom “Software Standardization” project group.
  •  Qualified training is important to us: this is why our first volunteers, who are training as technical writers at tecteam, begin working with us.
  • We are one of the first German companies to use the brand new DITA Standard 1.3.

2014

  • We are awarded the Hamburger Familiensiegel – due to the excellent compatibility of work and family.

2013

  • parson communication becomes parson AG. With the transformation into an AG (or stock company), we are ideally prepared for further healthy growth.
  • We open an office in Berlin.

2010

  • With our growth in mind, we move into a new company building..

2009

  •  We are expanding our portfolio with XML-based documentation applications.

2006

  • Ulrike Parson founds parson communication, a specialized service company for software documentation in Hamburg.