Re: Developing tech communication department

[Elna Tymes <etymes -at- LTS -dot- COM>]

Samuel -

> I have been given the opporunity to provide a proposal to management
> that will allow for the development of a TC department within the
> company that will provide a full range of TC consulting services to
> clients on a project basis, with clear goals and objectives, rather than
> the nebulous, semi-permanent situation we are currently in.

You have a wonderful opportunity to create the kind of TC department most of us
dream of having.  Start by realizing that TC folks are basically information
consultants, in the business of helping other groups and people communicate
about their product or service to selected audiences.

The first task, then, is to identify both your department's 'customers' and the
types of customers those groups currently have and are likely to have in the
near future.    This may take a survey, or informal conversations with several
department heads, but you'll get a sense for this by talking with the groups
who use TCs.

Secondly, identify how your group differs from the MIS group in the company.
This is important, because both groups deal with information, and the mission
of MIS sometimes overlaps that of a TC group.

Third, decide on what services your group can offer your 'customer' groups.
Are you going to stay out of training? Are you going to help do proposals? Are
you going to do white papers and other relatively 'hard' marcom work?  (As
opposed to fact sheets that sometimes go with the product, or supplemental
sales material, which are sometimes categorized as 'soft' marcom work.) Are you
going to offer to help write specifications?

Fourth, if possible, set up some sort of a billing code system so that
'customer' groups acknowledge use of TCs and their assets. That way upper
management can quickly see just where TCs are being used efficiently by a group
and where they're not.

Fifth, decide whether you want to have your department responsible for the TC
tools - hardware, software, etc. - or each customer group be responsible.  It
usually makes more sense for the TC group to initially acquire these resources
as capital costs, with the understanding that the costs are recouped as
'customer' groups use the services of the TC group.

Finally, realize that every service group needs to market itself within the
company, and that this marketing effort is ongoing. Many groups within a
company can use TC services and simply don't know it, or don't know how to use
a TC.  It falls to the TC group to teach these folks about TC services.

These are general guidelines, but if I had to set up a department, it's how I'd
start.

Elna Tymes
Los Trancos Systems


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