Documenting products integrated with your own

[Chris Kowalchuk <chris -at- BDK -dot- NET>]

I tend to agree with the prevalent opinion thus far: avoid taking
responsibility for a product that is already well documented (or should
be--if they don't know how to use Windows, etc.,  that is hardly your
company's fault).

However, I would sometimes make an exception.

In one case, our product contained a modular control unit that was
widely available in our industry, and which came with its own
documentation. However, that documentation was so infamously bad, that
asking a customer to use it seemed like an exercise in futility, so we
rewrote (and illustrated) the sections that pertained to our product
(with specific examples of configuration/installation etc.). In this
case, the time and effort paid off. We would have had to take the
service calls anyway, and at least we now had a reasonable hope of
referring a customer to our manual, or letting our own technicians use
it as a more reliable resource. Furthermore, it generated a fair bit of
goodwill, especially among customers who had used the OEM product in the
past in other circumstances, and saw our manual as a much needed, and
long overdue resource for the industry in general--we received many
unsolicited, positive comments about our rewrite (the fact that
rewriting *their* manual was not *our* responsibility, I think added to
the goodwill in this case).

We did, incidentally, obtain the OEM's permission to rewrite/reproduce
part of their manual as long as we made it clear that this was our work
and not theirs (they didn't care too much as long as they could keep
selling product), and we of course made clear that our recommendations
applied to the specific version and product application supported by our
equipment and no other.

Caveats: I certainly wouldn't recommend this approach in most
situations, or even in most industries, but there are times when the
extra effort and responsibility can be warranted, and in the end are
well rewarded. I must admit that we did not necessarily foresee the
positive response--we were more motivated by the spectre of unending
problems if we didn't take action. When our own technicians couldn't use
the OEM's directions, it did not seem likely that our customers would be
able or inclined to. I spent a few weeks doing some pretty exhaustive
product testing on that one!

My 2 cents..

Chris Kowalchuk

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