Re: CD-ROM and Internet Documentation

[Margaret Packman <mpackman -at- CISCO -dot- COM>]

Garret Romaine wrote:

>There are some fascinating issues here. I'm curious if there was any
>financial justification required at Nortel (or Cisco, also referred to in
>Marguerite's post) to distribute the manuals free of charge, or if it just
>"felt right"? Our situation is different -- charging for manuals produces a
>high-dollar revenue stream, and with sales slow, now isn't a good time to
>suggest we give anything away. Yet that is exactly what our manufacturing
>team requested -- less paper, and more electronic distribution.

OK, I'll bite. Just remember, though, the opinions and advice are mine
alone. ;-)

It is true that Cisco's documentation is available on the web, and we do
ship a documentation CD-ROM (actually, I think we're up to three now) with
our products, but if a customer wants a printed set of our docs (and has
the room to store them all!) we do charge them for them. And with some of
our client-side products we ship hard copy at no charge along with the
CD-ROM. Many of our products also include online help and PDFs of the user
guide on the product CD-ROMs. (BTW, we have also recently started to
publish some third-party books that are available through
scientific/technical bookstores, including http://www.amazon.com.)

The original decision to ship electronic docs was made, I believe (I wasn't
here at the time), because the documentation set had become so huge. This
was because our product line, through both development and acquisition, had
expanded to cover the entire spectrum of networking, from home-office
telecommuters to high-speed internet routers and the software that runs in
between. At first when we surveyed our customers (and we do that a lot)
they preferred printed docs, but over the years that has changed so that
now our customers much prefer the online docs. I don't know if that's
because they've become used to it, or it's easier to find things, or maybe
they don't have the storage room!

You also say your manufacturing team has requested electronic docs. This
might be because it is now cheaper and easier (for us, anyway) to produce
CD-ROMs than either printed docs or diskettes. Additionally, replacing
printed docs with CD-ROMs lets manufacturing use smaller, lighter shipping
boxes which are cheaper to buy and ship.

I think the best way to find what will work for you is to survey your
customers and potential customers and do a cost analysis. Do your customers
prefer hard copy or electronic, and what kind of electronic delivery do
they prefer? Some people love HTML and hate PDF, and vice-versa. What is
cheaper and easier for manufacturing and shipping? You say your sales are
slow now. Have you checked to see if you are losing sales to your
competitors because they include hard copy at no charge? And to relate this
all back to writing, follow the #1 rule: Know Thy Audience.

 - Marge


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