Survival of the Fittest. Raji Santhanam Manager - Software Operations VeriFone - A Division of Hewlett-Packard Company

Survival of the Fittest.

Raji SanthanamManager - Software Operations

VeriFone - A Division of Hewlett-Packard Company

12/4/1999 STC India Conference/ "Survival of the Fittest" by Raji_S1

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Survival Summary

Technical Communicator Defined Why Change? What’s my Role? Changing markets And Finally...


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Technical Communicator Defined

Who are Technical Communicators? Aka... What do they do? What don’t they do?


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Who are Technical Communicators?

Communicates technical information on products and services to a targeted audience.

Technical writing is interpreting.Technical writers translate and interpret the thoughts and ideas of engineers, programmers and marketing managers. We translate their complex concepts and procedures into simple English; we interpret the complex.


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Aka...

Technical writer Information designers Information engineers Documentation specialist Information developer


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What do they do?

Create– manuals– online help– EPSS– marketing collaterals– tutorials, training material


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What do they do?

In 1994, Peat Marwick conducted a telephone survey of 300 companies in Winnipeg, Canada, to explore their needs and attitudes towards technical communication. All 300 companies claimed to require technical communication services:

– 34% have produced online documentation

– 40% have produced software manuals

– 44% have produced multimedia documentation

– 59% have produced technical reports

– 60% have produced product documentation

– 66% have produced training guides

– 70% have produced policies and procedures

– 72% have produced brochures


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What do they do?

…Continued - Peat Marwick Survey... 74% of respondents said that good documentation tends to lower their

servicing costs 83%. said that quality documentation contributes to the company’s

profitability 91% said that a quality document adds value to the product or service of their

company

10 most important skills for technical communicators:1. Interpersonal 6. Creativity

2. Problem-solving 7. Logic

3. Organization 8. Clarity of thought

4. Flexibility 9. Quick learner

5. Eye for detail 10. Time management


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What do they do?

10 most common tasks performed by technical communicators:1. Writing

2. Stylistic editing

3. Substantive editing

4. Design and layout

5. Research

6. Interviewing

7. Project management

8. Formatting

9. Audience analysis

10. Requirements analysis


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What don’t they do?

Test users for effectiveness Research markets and users before project

commences Conduct technical training Understand product internals


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Survival Summary



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Why Change?

Demands of the Information Age Traditional vs new trends eCommerce Demands


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Demands of the Information Age

100 million interconnected computers encompassing users from all walks of life

Static text-based medium understandable by few to graphically rich, interactive medium serving a fast growing global commercial market

Email, global resources of libraries, corporations and media, virtual communities, corporate intranets

Revenue for the Internet companies through ecommerce Information is money, key to business Information overkill vs captive user attention Focussed information Inbuilt Intuitive deliverables Mandatory database-backended web pages as opposed to existing stockpiling

of static HTML web pages


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Traditional Vs New trends

Traditional– Print output– Market defined– Customer base

predictable– Tools– Cost

Newbie– Print is old

– eCommerce market undefined, unpredictable, changing

– Seamless customer

– Diminishing display real estate


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eCommerce Demands

eCommerce today Content management Web management Customer expectation management The eCommunicator


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eCommerce today

Cyber shopping eTailing eTrade and brokering Portals Information and advertising Empowered customers Content targeted to large audience Persuasive selling


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eCommerce today

Most visited web properties:» % Reach

AOL websites 54.5

Microsoft sites 48.4

Yahoo 48.2

Lycos 46.5

Geocities 33.4 % Reach - % of consumers who visited

Netscape 30.9 the site at least once during the month

The Excite Network 29.2

Walt Disney Co. online 23.9

Infoseek 22.1

Bluemountainarts 21.7

Amazon 16.1

ZDNet sites 12.6

eBay 9.9


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Content Management

A combination of well-defined roles, formal processes, and supporting systems architecture that helps firms contribute, collaborate on, and control page elements such as text, graphics, multimedia, and applets.


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Content Management

“Death by a thousand cuts” Bring order to content

– Contribute Site assets– Collaborate across organizations– Control delivery


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Not enough resources 44%

Updating content on time 38%

Getting content from organization 22%

Workflow/version control/multiple authors 22%

Broken links 12%

Managing content for multiple browsers 10%

Moving from static to dynamic 10%

Synchronizing multiple sites 6%

All others 16%


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Web Management

Nonstop ecommerce with 99.99% uptime Webcasting events Higher bandwidth with 3-D product shots Global access, with localization Storage requirements increase by a factor of 10 over the

next 2 years - driving up data server hardware costs by 5 times

Leading edge customer service accompanied by guided selling


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Tools used to Manage Web content

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

All others

MS SQL

SiteMill

Oracle

Webnalyser

Informix

Manual process

1997


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The eCommunicator

eCommerce today Content management Web management Customer expectation management


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Survival Summary



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What’s my Role?

Portfolio vs Plateau careers Content Management Managing Customer expectation


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Portfolio Careers

Plateau career– climb the

organization ladder

– promoted on years, experience, current value-add to company

– face extinction…!

Portfolio career– develop a range of skills

– apply skills to a series of “jobs”

– cross-disciplinary profile

– writing, editing, graphic design & layout, SM expert, Tool expert, project management, product design, usability testing, marketing research


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Content Management

Structuring work Understanding the business needs Understanding the customer base Providing avenues to instruct and troubleshoot

customers Using standards and processes for web

management Database repository and shared access


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Managing Customer Expectations

Web sites with assistance/customer service Transaction sites (storefronts)

– Pure plays

– Brick-&-mortar

– Catalogers Personal info as negotiating tool Switching brand Informed impulse buying


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Survival Summary



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Changing Markets

Self publishing Reduced real estate for information

screening Managing the empowered customer Technical wizardry Understanding the customer, market and

business to exploit it within budget


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Survival Summary



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And Finally...

People don’t buy technology. They buy what it can do for them.

Brevity is the soul of Technical Communication. Thank God for Hyperlinks…!

Documents

Survival of the Fittest. Raji Santhanam Manager - Software Operations VeriFone - A Division of Hewlett-Packard Company