Re: Certification

[Kent Newton <KentN -at- METRIX-INC -dot- COM>]

On Wednesday, March 20, 1996 8:43 AM, David Jones wrote:
>Just a thought ... does anyone on the list report/work under marketing
or
>sales management instead of technical development? I would think
marketing
>would place more importance on good documentation, if nothing else as a
sales tool.
>Does anyone have any input that might prove/disprove that?

I don't work for the sales department, I work for Post Sales Operations
(that's the support department to you and me).  However, our salesmen
have told me many times how important they think our documentation is.
 They've often said that prospects almost always want to see our
documentation to get a feel for its depth.  They've also said that the
manual, a physical, concrete item they can carry in their hand (okay,
_hands_ -- it's a BIG manual), reassures them that they are getting
something for their money.

In all fairness to our development staff, most of our programmers tell me
how important the documentation is, too.  Because our product is so
feature-rich (not to be confused with complex), they often refer to the
documentation when they are asked to work on a section of the program
with which they have no previous experience.  That's not to say they are
any more helpful when I'm pestering them for information ;-)

Kent Newton
Senior Technical Writer
Metrix, Inc.
kentn -at- metrix-inc -dot- com