RE: Download manual from site (was: Booklets or anything saddle-stitched)

["McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>]

Erika Yanovich [mailto:ERIKA_y -at- rad -dot- com] wrote:
> Kevin and all,
> 
> We faced a very similar situation and at the end we dropped the entire
> idea of printing QSGs by packers, not because it is difficult but
because
> of the sheer amount of administration of a few hundred QSGs on our
side.
> We can get away with this as usually there is a business partner
between
> us (the vendor) and the end user, who installs the equipment.
> 
> Now we want to eliminate the CDs (that eliminated the printed manuals
a
> few years ago), by download from our site. And here the 'situation' is
> back again because you can't ship a product without absolutely no
> instructions in the box, right? We feel that printing QSGs will defeat
the
> purpose of the saving, so we are considering a 'universal' sheet that
just
> points the user to our site for downloading the manual (perhaps
together
> with product registration for activating the warranty).
> 
> This download approach is probably not acceptable for products you buy
> privately for home usage, but our customers are large corporations,
such
> as mobile operators or utilities.
> 
> Your thoughts are appreciated.




My thought is that I'm going to suggest this at my company.   :-)
A single sheet that covers a large number of products and that rarely
changes is a much easier thing to manage (Bills of Materials) and
cheaper, too!
That said, I would like to know:

a) if anybody else is going the route of supplying most/all of their
documentation AND software via download - so no CD/DVD
b) how that's workin' for ya; what the customer response has been.

So, Erika, be sure to report back in a year or so to let us know the
degree of success that your company experiences with this initiative.

Thanks,

 - Kevin


Kevin
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