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I'm looking for opinions and/or examples. Here's my situation:
I create browser based help for a suite of financial applications,
generally used by banks, credit unions, etc. A suggestion has been made
that we put all of our documentation online, wide open for everyone who
wants to access. I disagree, since I feel it contains proprietary
information and represents intellectual property. Our competitors could
very well look at it and say "we can do that better", or use information
they see there against us when competing for the same business.
We're not the same as Microsoft Office or even Sage Accounting (which were
examples given to me) because we are not dealing with retail, off the shelf
applications; ours is enterprise software in a highly competitive industry.
My proposal is to restrict access somehow, perhaps requiring user accounts,
or verified IP addresses, etc. I note that none of our competitors make
their documentation freely accessible.
Have any of you come up against a similar situation or have any
thoughts/ideas on how I can best present my case?
Suzette Leeming
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