Mike Starr wrote: > Your client has developed, based on many years in their industry, their > own system and it serves them well. There's no need for them to > "upgrade" their system. > > However, many of these tools are designed to give the completely > clueless a systematic approach and save them the trouble of reinventing > the wheel with all of its attendant fits and starts. I imagine that over > the years, your client wandered down a few blind alleys in the course of > developing their system. What you see probably didn't just happen > overnight. I'm guessing they endured a few painful lessons along the way. > > For a company with little understanding of all the issues involved in > managing a large number of documents, a well-designed document > management package can save them an enormous amount of time and labor. >
Mike, I appreciate your orthogonal view of the question, but in my experience a document management package doesn't work unless the culture of the company supports the management of documents in the first place. In other words, no matter how well engineered the system is, and no matter how talented the consultants who come in to implement and fine-tune the system, if people think of documents as "paperwork" (you've seen the poster I'm thinking of, I'm sure), the system will be given lip service while most documents that ought to be captured remain cached on hundreds of personal computers, to be lost forever the next time there's a downsizing. Conversely, if the culture of the company is such that people understand the value of their documents, then spending $100K to implement a brand-name doc management system doesn't add a whole lot of value. That's really all I was saying. Dick ______________________________________________ Author Help files and create printed documentation with Doc-To-Help. New release adds Team Authoring Support, enhanced Web-based help technology and PDF output. Learn more at www.doctohelp.com/tcp. Interactive 3D Documentation Parts catalogs, animated instructions, and more. www.i3deverywhere.com _______________________________________________ Technical Communication Professionals Post a message to the list: email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, unsubscribe, archives, account options, list info: http://techcommpros.com/mailman/listinfo/tcp_techcommpros.com Subscribe (email): send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe (email): send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Need help? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] Get the TCP whole experience! http://www.techcommpros.com
