SDL, the leading provider of Global Information Management solutions, announced today the acquisition of Xopus, the leader in online XML editing. The acquisition by SDL’s Structured Content Technologies division addresses the growing trend to broaden the adoption of structured authoring beyond technical writers.

Founded in 2001 in the Netherlands, Xopus has emerged as the leading provider of a friendly and simple-to-use online XML editor. By making XML authoring and editing easy to work with, the Xopus editor addresses the growing demand to extend the benefits of structured content beyond the classic technical publication organization.

Complementing high-end XML editors that are designed specifically for technical writers, Xopus enables a broader audience to contribute comments and content to increasingly distributed structured authoring processes. With several thousand users worldwide in the high-tech, life sciences, manufacturing and government sectors, Xopus is already extending the business benefits of structured authoring to a much broader set of users and roles than would otherwise be possible. 

“Our structured content technologies already drive proven efficiency gains for a wide range of global customers,” said Mark Lancaster, Group CEO of SDL. “Xopus removes one of the most difficult barriers to XML adoption: the complexity of authoring and reviewing in XML. We plan to integrate Xopus with our suite of structured content technologies as well as the larger SDL Global Information Management product suite.”

“Xopus realizes significant business benefits by becoming part of SDL,” said Laurens van den Oever, CEO of Xopus. “We gain a powerful worldwide sales channel and support infrastructure, as well as becoming part of a much broader suite of technologies that enhances the value of our product and offers an end-to-end solution.”

Today, most XML editors are designed primarily for technical writers. With a “zero training/zero install” capability, Xopus makes it possible for corporations to extend XML content contribution and review to a much broader set of users and roles. Accessed through a Web browser, Xopus provides all of the flexibility, ease-of-use, and interactivity of a Wiki, while still leveraging the benefits of structured content. Xopus, integrated with other SDL technologies, will significantly improve content review processes by subject matter experts and content development by non-technical writers, while making content accessible to a corporation’s customers or “crowd” for comment, collaboration and contribution.

“We find that 71% of companies review documentation with three or more departments outside of technical publications, and as many as 24% of companies seeking input from five or more departments,” said David Houlihan, Senior Research Associate, Aberdeen Group. “The technical complexity of XML authoring tools causes securing this feedback from subject matter experts, such as engineers or lawyers, to be one of the most frequent challenges cited in the development of documentation. By exposing this content to reviewers in a way that’s easy to consume without technical training, SDL offers to add greater efficiency to documentation development.”

The Xopus organization will become part of SDL’s Structured Content Technologies division. Laurens van den Oever will take the role of Director, Structured  Authoring Solutions, reporting to Kevin Duffy, CEO of the division. A prototype integration already exists between SDL Xopus and SDL Trisoft™, the company’s Component Content Management system for DITA. Looking forward, SDL Xopus will be integrated with SDL LiveContent ™, the company’s dynamic publishing solution. Future integrations are envisioned with SDL Contenta® for S1000D and related markets, as well as SDL’s suite of Global Information Management technologies.

SDL will continue its philosophy of supporting an “open technology” approach to the enterprise ecosystem through integration to 3rd party applications and systems. SDL currently supports, and will continue to support, out-of-the-box integrations from SDL Trisoft and the SDL Global Authoring Management System™ to JustSystems’ XMetaL, PTC Arbortext, and Adobe® FrameMaker®. SDL Xopus will continue to support existing integrations to 3rd party content management systems. For information or to schedule a demonstration of SDL Xopus, please email xml@sdl.com. For frequently asked questions about the announcement or to hear a webinar, please visit www.sdl.com/en/xml/xopus.