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RE: Issues with distribution of technical documents
Subject:RE: Issues with distribution of technical documents From:"Giordano, Connie" <Connie -dot- Giordano -at- FMR -dot- COM> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 28 Jun 2001 14:29:43 -0400
Two points on this issue:
Documentation is a form of customer support, and should be figured into the
cost, however your company prices its products. Charging separately for
documentation is even more onerous than paying for being put on hold with a
tech support person.
In the software world, it is possible to generate revenue from doc in one
other way that doesn't upset the customer: if you work in B2B applications,
they are often customized to fit the needs of a particular client. So then
should documentation and training be customized ... for a fee.
MTC
Connie Giordano
-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Hall [mailto:dhall -at- san-carlos -dot- rms -dot- slb -dot- com]
Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2001 12:21 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: RE: Issues with distribution of technical documents
>Documentation as a profit center? I may be taking a view without
>sufficient awareness of the existence of any actual documentation
>profit centers, but I don't see it.
Documentation can be a profit center, but rarely is for the company that is
selling the product/service. One example is Adobe's _Adobe FM Classroom in a
Book_ which, I assume, is a profitable document - I paid for it, as did a
number of others on the list. This is one of those rare examples of a
company successfully creating a "profit center" of their documentation. The
manual that came with my BMW is an example of where documentation is not
"profitable".
The amount documentation contributes to customer satisfaction is more
difficult to quantify, but is important nevertheless.
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