Re: Long-distance contracts

[Avi Jacobson <avi_jaco -at- NETVISION -dot- NET -dot- IL>]

Janet Manry <bioedit -at- concentric -dot- net> wrote in article <199706110434 -dot- AAA09073 -at- cliff -dot- concentric -dot- net>...

> The question is: how do you handle long-distance projects, that is,
> projects for clients who are too far away to visit on a regular (say
> weekly) basis?

My personal experience corresponds only in part to the scenarios you have presented.  I work as a freelance Marketing Documentation Specialist for a multinational software company whose development center is based here in Israel.  Much of the technical writing I do consists of Functional Descriptions or technical responses to RFIs and RFPs.  Input comes from software specialists located either here in Israel or at any of various customer sites worldwide.  As a rule, I work from home, so it makes little difference if the software specialist with whom I am communicating is at the development center (fifteen minutes away by taxi), at corporate headquarters in St. Louis, or at any of the company's other sites in North America, Europe, Australia, or the Far East.

> Possible scenario: You are writing either a hard-copy manual or online
> help for a software application. The developer sends you updates of the
> software as electronic files, and you send copies of the documentation
> for review as electronic files. Whenever you have questions, you send an
> email or telephone them.

Yes, that is how I work, as a rule.  I must state that it is rare that I require an actual demo of the software, since as a rule I have extensive existing technical documentation at my disposal (including system specs, GUI documents and screen captures, etc.).  On the two recent occasions when I did require a demo, I went into the development center and saw one.  From then on, most iterations are done by remote control.  The company uses Microsoft Exchange Server, which links ALL of its sites worldwide, as does a leased telephone line directly from its Tel Aviv (development center) office to corporate headquarters in St. Louis.  I have an email account on their Microsoft Exchange Server on which I have placed a forward to my private Internet email account.  (Technically, I an also dial directly into the St. Louis switchboard from home, and put a follow-me on my internal phone extension to ring me at home, but there are plenty of non-technical reasons for me not to do so.)  Documents fly back and forth instantaneously, and all sites use LaserJet 5 printers, which shoot even the hugest documents into their hands at a blinding 15 ppm or so.  Each site is loaded with fax machines, printers, and secretaries, so the administration involved goes without a hitch.

The result is that from the standpoint of the company, there is no difference between communicating with me at home and communicating with someone on another floor / building / worldwide site.

> I have been successful at doing this with a local client -- after the
> initial meeting, we communicated solely by email. It worked really well,
> mostly because his answers to my questions were in writing. Now I am
> considering approaching other potential clients with a similar
> arrangement, but I'd like to know what experiences others have had first.

As I said, although my case is a rather unique one, I work this way -- and exactly the same way -- both with software specialists here in Tel Aviv and with those in the U.S. or elsewhere.  But remember, my case is a rather unique one, since most people in the corporation are used to intra-corporate over great distances, and the company has developed excellent resources to support this.

At the opposite end of the spectrum is a second client of mine, an Israeli firm which specializes in telemedicine hardware, software, and service infrastructures.  They, too, are only fifteen minutes away by taxi, and my contacts have Internet email addresses.  With them, communication by fax or email -- or even by phone -- is a painful process.  Often, they cannot work with the files I send because they have problems with their 3 ppm inkjet printer.  Faxes are also a problem; they have ONE machine which uses the old toilet-roll technology.  They have one switchboard operator, whose job in life is to say "still busy" or connect you to the wrong voicemail.  Needless to say, I have to go over there every time something serious needs to be done -- but I don't mind, since I charge them by the hour.
 
> The major issues that jump out (at me) are:
> 
> *) Do you need to have at least one meeting in the initial stages in
> order to have someone go over the software with you in person?

If it is software I am reviewing (rather than documents), than almost invariabily yes.  But the multinational company has no problem arranging for the demos to be done here, at their development center in Tel Aviv.

In most other cases, I can do the whole project by remote control.


> *) How do you make sure the development team remembers you and remembers
> to send you timely updates and information?

This isn't quite relevant to the kind of work I do.  If, for example, I am responding to  a Requirements Questionnaire in the framework of an RFP, then I am usually given a list of software specialists who are responsible for each subject area.  If I am lucky, there is a Project Coordinator who is responsible for organizing the responses that are written and submitted to me by these specialists.  The key issue is making sure there is a single person who is ultimately responsible for confirming that the material I have written (or copied from other, earlier, documents) is acurate and up to date.

> *) What do you do if you can't run their software on your own computer?

1.  Utter something unrepeatable, usually in Hebrew or Arabic.
2.  Call for a taxi.

> *) How do developers view this arrangement if you suggest it to them?

This varies from person to person.  Some people at the loal development center will demand that I come in every day and work with them in person -- even though this is often slower and more cumbersome than working by remote control.  (For example, carrying a draft from one building to another at the development center -- including two 12-storey elevator rides and a stretch of about 100 yards of sidewalk -- an take muh longer than sending it by Microsoft Exchange.)  In many cases, no constructive purpose is served by my working there in person except that they can come into my room every fifteen minutes and ask whether I'm finished yet.  But again, I don't mind much, since I charge by the hour.

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