Success story
American Bureau of Shipping (ABS)
Industry• Maritime—Transportation
Equipment Manufacturing

Solutions• OpenText Content Suite• OpenText BRAVA!

Results
Average turnaround timeshortened from 2 weeks to 2 days
Eliminates the need for multiple
software applications
Users can view and collaborate on
a variety of formats including Word,PDF, PowerPoint® and AutoCAD®
Web-based solution provides
collaborative environment for
global teams
Markups from multiple
sources easily consolidated
into one document

ABS navigates the review and markup
process with OpenText BRAVA!
™

“OpenText’s support and staff were really great.
They worked closely with us on the integration process
and customization. With OpenText, the process went quickly.”
Greg Schreiber

Director of IMS Operations and End User Services
American Bureau of Shipping (ABS)™

ABS navigates the review and markup process with OpenText BRAVA!

American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) is one of the three leadingclassification societies in the world. It was founded in 1862 and has
promoted maritime safety from its beginning. ABS serves the public
interest as well as the needs of its clients by promoting the securityof life, property and the natural environment primarily throughthe development and verification of standards for the design,
construction and operational maintenance of marine-related
facilities. These standards are known as Rules.

society Rules, but also on Common Structural Rules developed by thevarious societies for standardization.

From its worldwide headquarters in Houston, Texas, ABS delivers
services and solutions to an international client list which includes mostof the world’s major shipyards. With a network of more than 150 local
representative offices in 70 countries, ABS focuses on global reachthrough local response.

Going electronic meant implementing new technology. ABS chose
OpenText Content Suite to manage their documents, but since customers
submit drawings in different formats—from Microsoft® Word and Adobe®
PDF to a variety of CAD formats like DWG and DGN—ABS needed theability to view these documents without installing numerous expensive
applications. “Moving everything to an electronic format was a must,”
Schreiber explained, “but we didn’t want to constrain the customer.
We needed a markup solution that was flexible and able to handle
multiple file formats.”

The challenge—electronic markup on multiple
file formats

Historically, whenever a shipyard or design agent requested a vessel orstructure be classed, the agent would present ABS with detailed drawings
and project documents for a review of compliance. Greg Schreiber,
Director of IMS Operations and End User Services, explains that ABS
engineers would receive paper copies of the drawings and documentsfrom the customer. These documents would then be physically routed
through the appropriate team members who would add comments andmarkups by hand based upon their various areas of expertise. Finaldrawings, with the engineers’ markups, would then be mailed back tothe customer. This process took several weeks and was often repeatedas the customer made changes and resubmitted the updated plans forthe next review.
Clearly there was a compelling business need to speed this review cycle.
Additionally, the maritime industry relies not only on specific classification

Responding to this change in the marketplace, ABS focused on improving
customer service as a way to stay ahead of the competition. Schreiber
recalled the challenges and questions, “‘How can we do it faster? How
can we enhance customer service?’ We realized that we had to goelectronic before some of our competitors did and we had to continue
to deliver a good product to our customers.”

The solution—OpenText BRAVA! view and markup

ABS created a custom application that sits on top of OpenText Content
Suite, giving users a very specific interface that is completely customized for their needs. The society needed a view and markup tool thatwould integrate seamlessly with both Content Suite and the custom
application. Their first choice had various issues, the most significantof which was that it couldn’t work across their different WAN links. “Allof our engineers and worldwide offices come across the network
in Houston,” explained Schreiber. They needed a solution that worked
just as well in Asia, Europe or anywhere else as it did in Houston. That iswhen ABS made the switch to OpenText BRAVA!.

“We needed a markup
solution that was flexible
and able to handle
multiple file formats.”
Greg Schreiber

Director of IMS Operations
and End User Services
American Bureau of Shipping (ABS)ABS navigates the review and markup process with OpenText BRAVA!

“BRAVA! was the ideal solution for working with different file types,”
said Schreiber. Describing BRAVA! tools as “intuitive and straightforward,” he explains that the markup functionality, the ability to handle allformats and the ability to run BRAVA! through a web browser proved
to be critical success factors.
At any given time there are up to 120 ABS engineers around the globe
working in BRAVA! to review and comment on drawings. Engineers use
the custom application to find the drawing or document they need fromContent Suite, then it automatically launches the file in BRAVA!. When theengineers are finished marking up the drawing, they just use BRAVA! to add
a watermark indicating it was reviewed by ABS, then publish the drawing,with markups and the watermark, to PDF. The files are then ready to sendback to the customer the same way they were received—electronically.

While implementing BRAVA!, ABS discovered a few features that called
for more flexibility. For example, they needed more size options formarkup text to make it more readable across the various drawing
scales. “OpenText’s support and staff were really great,” describedSchreiber. “They worked closely with us on the integration process
and customization. With OpenText, the process went quickly.”

Results—fast response time for better customer service

By implementing BRAVA!, ABS has been able to dramatically speed
review cycles. “What used to take several weeks is now taking a day ortwo,” noted Schreiber. In a world where areas for competitive advantage
are shrinking, speeding processes while improving quality and the overallcustomer experience is key. Adapting to the changing tides of the maritimeindustry, ABS is applying innovative solutions, like OpenText BRAVA! andOpenText Content Suite, to create superior value for its customers.

About OpenText

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visit opentext.com.
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