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Re: Issues with distribution of technical documents
Subject:Re: Issues with distribution of technical documents From:"Damien Braniff" <dbraniff -at- amphion -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 27 Jun 2001 08:17:37 +0100
I think it depends very much on the product and how it's to be used (one product, one user vs one product many users). Not really a problem where I am now but in my last job we didn't charge for documentation (built in to the cost of the products).
For hardware products you got the relevant documentation with every piece of kit. Talking to installers (those who used installed out kit regularly) rarely used the manual after the first few installations and then only as a reference or if a new version came out to check for changes.
For the software we provided 5 basic user guides and one reference manual but all were provided as PDFs on the CD so the customer could print out as many as they needed.
As we didn't sell direct to the end user support was provided by the installers but we provided full tech support to the installers (and large end users).
Somebody mentioned free training and we used to provide that but changed our policy to charge a nominal fee - seemed it was appreciated more (and better attended) when they had to pay something. Seemed the view was free = shoddy!
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