Case study — digital user manuals, automotive industry
65% less time to create and review vehicle manuals
How Daimler replaced paper and cumbersome digital manuals with a single interactive manual system — available on mobile, tablet and computer, in multiple languages and for three different brands simultaneously.
-65 %
less time writing and reviewing manuals
3 designs
for Mercedes, Smart and Evobus in one system
iOS · Android · Web
platforms on which manuals are available simultaneously
DAIMLER AT A GLANCE
Location Stuttgard
Industry Automobile and commercial vehicle manufacturing
Employees 285 000
Systems in use Interactive tutorials
Manuals for a global portfolio that had to be created by hand
Daimler AG is a global manufacturer of Mercedes-Benz, Maybach, AMG, Smart and Setra vehicles, with 285,000 employees and annual sales of 172.7 billion euros. In order to improve customer service and protect the environment, Daimler wanted to provide its customers with high-quality interactive car manuals instead of traditional printed manuals.
The problem was that maintaining and creating user manuals for such a wide portfolio of cars was too laborious and content control was time-consuming. Every change in model specifications required manuals to be manually updated across multiple formats, languages and brands.
Daimler therefore needed a system that could manage content for the entire model portfolio via a simple web interface — with changes immediately reflected on all devices and in all languages.
Are you dealing with the same thing in your company?
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Do you have a wide portfolio of products or models and maintaining user manuals for them takes too much time?
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Do you need to publish content in multiple languages and synchronizing versions is a constant headache?
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Different brands or product lines need their own design, but you want one common content management system?
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Do customers expect access to documentation on mobile, tablet and computer, not just in printed form?
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Do changes to content need to be reflected immediately for all users, not weeks apart?
The good news: data from previously used formats and sources can be imported into the system — there is no need to rewrite the content from scratch.
Preview, languages and model catalog in one place
While entering data, it is possible to preview the visual directly on individual devices and in individual languages — so the administrator sees exactly what the customer will see. The system also integrates the management of languages, language mutations and car catalogs, including three different designs for the Mercedes, Smart and Evobus brands within a single solution.
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Preview the visual on different devices and in different languages during editing.
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Integrated management of languages, language mutations and car catalogs.
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Three different designs (Mercedes, Smart, Evobus) in one system.
Interactive tutorials
One content generator, all devices
The user edits content via a simple web interface. We have created a content generator for display and communication on various devices (mobile, tablet, PC) and platforms — iOS, Android and a web interface accessible to all devices. After confirming the changes, the updated content is immediately available to all devices and all users.
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Content generator across devices and platforms (iOS, Android, web).
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Simple and clear content administration via a web application in real time.
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Automatic update of changes, immediately visible to all users.
-65 %
less time writing and reviewing manuals
3 designs
for Mercedes, Smart and Evobus in one system
iOS · Android · Web
platforms on which manuals are available simultaneously
What did it bring to DAIMLER?
The system was successfully deployed and thanks to it, measurable operational improvements were achieved.
Other operational improvements
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Significantly shorter time to train an employee in the system.
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Minimized error rate when creating and updating manuals.
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Fewer hidden costs and misunderstandings between teams and language versions.
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Strengthening the reputation of a quality manufacturer with customers.
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Saving environmental costs thanks to online manuals instead of printing.
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Stabilized and standardized documentation creation processes.
A new level of documentation management from M2M Solutions
One system for multiple brands
Mercedes, Smart and Evobus have their own design, but they run under one common content management system — not three separate solutions.
The change is reflected immediately everywhere
As soon as the administrator confirms the change, it is reflected immediately on all devices, platforms and language versions — without waiting for another update.
Import instead of rewriting from scratch
Data from previously used formats and multiple sources can be imported into the system, which significantly reduces the migration time to the new solution.
Solution for a truly broad portfolio
The system is designed to handle the entire portfolio of models and brands at once — not just one product or one language.