Technical and business documentation has always been important, but it is increasingly becoming even more so in our complex world. Businesses need to document their business policies, processes and procedures, product manuals, new business proposals, and marketing strategies. Some documentation may be required for legal or regulatory compliance, while other forms of documentation are just good business practice. Beacon Technical Services maintains a strong focus on quality documentation—most of our other services are based on this focus. We can help your business with a wide array of documentation services, from complete document creation, printing, binding, to digital storage of archival records, to professional editing of your in-house produced documentation. Our experts can bring order to documentation nightmares and we do it with precision.

Document your business procedures, products, or services A well run business requires documented policies and procedures. These documents contain the essential elements about how your business is run. Without these your business processes are handed on by oral tradition, like story tellers around an ancient campfire. Even worse, your processes might resemble the children's whisper game of "pass it on." By the time the process is taught to the 5th or 6th generation of employee it has very little resemblence to the original process. Proper documentation maintains consistent quality and standards, enables you to identify and repeat successful strategies, and ultimately allows your business to expand by accurately passing on the accumulated experience of your organization. Likewise, your products and services need to be fully documented, not only to accurately inform your customers, but to inform your employees as well. ISO 9000 Procedures If your firm is seeking ISO 9000 certification or is already certified, then you know that the major component for certification is accurate documentation of your processes. All businesses should have documented processes, but ISO 9000 requires them. We can help you acheive your ISO 9000 goals. Create marketing collateral All businesses advertise and market themselves in some way. Beacon Technical Services can help you create attractive, informative, and coherent marketing material. We can create a specific ad or help craft a complete campaign. Beacon will ensure that your marketing message is consistent wherever it appears. Create online help systems for your customers, employees, or suppliers An online help system may be one of the most cost-efficient and effective ways to transmit valuable information to your clients, your employees, or your business partners. If you've ever clicked the Help menu in MS Word or in Windows or most other applications then you've used an online help system. A help system anticipates the most common questions or describes the most common procedures and provides several different ways for the user to find the information that is needed. Help systems can be extensions and enhancements to your other documentation. We can design a help system for you that ensures that your users always have the most current information at hand. File format conversions Technology is constantly changing, almost always for the better. Unfortunately, change often involves some chaos. With digital documentation this usually involves different file formats. You may have recently switched from WordPerfect to MS Word. Beacon can help convert your old document files into Word format. Perhaps you have a lot of documents that were created in Word, but now need to be delivered as Adobe Acrobat files—Beacon Technical Services can help. Digital scanning Do you have important paper documents that you'd like to have in digital format? We can scan your historical documents into an appropriate file format for your needs. Digital documents are easier to search and find, convenient to distribute and minimize physical storage requirements. Digital archiving to CD-ROM Move important historical files to digital storage and save valuable space. Beacon Technical Services can help set up an ongoing archival system for your business or create individual archive discs on an as-needed basis. A single CD-ROM can store a whole hard drive's worth of data, yet is always available. Regain valuable space on your computers for today's work or convert excess filing cabinets to more work space. For a minimal annual fee we can also store a backup copy of your archives at a secure off-site location. With off-site storage you have the peace of mind of knowing that your business's important information is safe from unforseen catastrophe. Professional editing for in-house documentation Professional editing is an easy way to assure that your business looks its best in the documents that represent it. We will provide you with paper or digital markups for your approval, or we can take your first draft to final copy. You have complete control over the entire process. Our editors will make sure that your documents are free from grammatical and spelling errors, and stylistically consistent throughout. When you submit your documents electronically you can have them returned by the next day. Custom template development for MS Word Does your office create a lot of similar documents? Letters, forms, reports? Most offices do. Custom templates can save your office staff time. A proper template is NOT a document that you open, change the date and the name and other specific information and "Save As" another document name. That's a recipe for trouble. It is too easy to miss an important substitution and create an inaccurate document. A template eliminates those errors. Templates can be simple fill-in-the-blanks form letters or complex mini-applications. A template with attached logic, or macros, can even help eliminate some paperwork in your work processes. A Beacon document expert can help you assess the best way to implement templates in your office.