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RE: Post current product user docs to company website?
Subject:RE: Post current product user docs to company website? From:"McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com> To:"Julie Stickler" <jstickler -at- gmail -dot- com>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 13 Dec 2007 15:07:52 -0500
On Behalf Of Julie Stickler said:
> At my last job we had a page on the support Web site that included the
> doc set for each release of the product. Putting it on the Support
> site meant that our customers could log in and access the docs, but
> our competition could not.
In most industries, competitors just PURCHASE samples of the other
fellow's product, which comes not only with docs, but with SUPPORT! :-)
That means that (say) nCipher can purchase one of our boxes, get all the
software and docs that any other customer gets, and get Technical
Support if they're too lazy to read the docs. Similarly, we can check
out their comparable offerings by buying a sample of their product and
getting official access to their docs and their Tech Support team. The
same with any of our other competitors. They'll even help us set up
benchmark comparisons. It's assumed. It's expected.
Also, in a world of search engines, security-by-obscurity doesn't work,
especially not in the information-security industry.
A lot of companies are very successful by being _proud_ of their
products and their documentation, and making the latest versions
available on the web, without access restrictions.
Documentation that's usable and that works is also a selling point, so
it's in our interest that people be able to access it who are only
potential customers and have not yet purchased anything.
Kevin
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