Clarifying: Charging for Softcopies

Subject: Clarifying: Charging for Softcopies
From: Tammy Sudol <tammy -at- ATSAEROSPACE -dot- COM>
Date: Tue, 8 Apr 1997 10:37:05 EDT-500

On 7 Apr 97 at 16:38, Jane Bergen wrote:

> I do remember seeing your original post, but my reaction was ...
> "Softcopies of what?" Are you talking about documentation? If so,
> are you selling a file copy of the documentation separate from the
> purchase of the software? How big is it? What will the user do with
> it? How are you marketing it (web site download, etc.)?

Good questions, Jane... I'm impressed!

I've received several responses (this time around). A few of them
were from people who didn't know what a softcopy was. Let me be more
clear....

We deliver 5 copies of our user documentation with our product
(FYI: Our product is worth approximately a million and
a half to 6 million). The manuals include:

- 2 different types of user's guides (250 pages each)
- hardware & technical manuals (50 pages)
- administrator's manuals (30 pages)

Occasionally, we have clients (typically, the international
governments) who ask for a copy (file copy) of each manual on diskette. Essentially,
they are asking for the copyright. We want to charge them for this
(separately from the manuals).

Being a manager, I am asked to provide a price for this request. I
do not want to leave this to the marketing department as I really
don't think that they know enough about the documentation process to
assign a fair price. I'm usually battling with them over manual
pricing.

Is this a rare thing--for clients to ask for the softcopy? I've come
across it at two different companies. Each time, the company has had
no idea of what to charge and has picked a number out of a hat..


***************************************************

Tammy Sudol
Documentation Manager
ATS Aerospace Inc.
1250 Marie-Victorin, St. Bruno, P.Q. J3V 6B8
(514) 441-6744 ext. 301
tammy -at- ATSaerospace -dot- com

***************************************************

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