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The last company I worked at refused to provide the source materials for
clients, because if something inadvertently got changed that had
disasterous results, they did not want to be liable for it. That was the
reasoning then...I'm not sure if it's changed.
Chris
>----------
>From: Ron Rothbart[SMTP:ron -dot- rothbart -at- DOCUMENTUM -dot- COM]
>Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 1997 5:25 AM
>To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
>Subject: Providing source files
>
>Some of our GUI client products are highly customizable. We provide an
>application developer's toolkit to support customization. It's clearly in
>the company's interest to support customization, because this helps
>customers deploy our products. We produce manuals and online help describing
>the out-of-the-box version, but some of our corporate customers naturally
>want to modify the documentation to fit their customized versions of the
>software.
>
>In the past, sometimes we have provided source files upon request on an ad
>hoc basis, sometimes giving them away, in one case charging a hefty sum.
>Often this has eaten up time and has sometimes resulted in a number of
>further requests from the customers for information about the files,
>publishing tools, etc. We are now trying to standardize and routinize the
>process, making certain source files official products on our price list and
>setting policy regarding how we deliver and support them.
>
>The reason for putting the files on the price list is not so much to
>generate revenue (although we'd like to cover costs) but so that we can
>distribute them efficiently and relatively effortlessly through a telesales
>system. We also want to protect our copyright and minimize the time we spend
>supporting customers in modifying the manuals. I think our general aim here
>is to support customization while minimizing any drain on our resources.
>
>Anyone have experience with this sort of thing? I would appreciate hearing
>what has worked or hasn't worked for you, what you provide, what you charge,
>and so forth...or why you simply refuse to provide source files.
>
>
>
>
>
>Virtually yours,
>
>Ron -dot- Rothbart -at- documentum -dot- com
>\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
>Documentum, Inc. \\\\\\
>5671 Gibraltar Drive \\\\\
>Pleasanton, CA 94588-8547
>(510) 463-6920 ////////
>///////////////////
>
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