adobe robohelp,adobe captivate,adobe framemaker,framemaker,robohelp,technical communication,technical writing,Web 2.0,MadCap Feedback Server,workflow collaboration

Today’s an easy subject: Adobe’s Technical Communication Suite. This includes RoboHelp, FrameMaker, Captivate and Acrobat 3D.

I started off my Adobe day with a spot on Ron Miller’s site I linked to from within the HATT community. Ron’s got an open mind:

 When Adobe demonstrated RoboHelp 6 for me last winter, I was not impressed at all, but with some time to rework it, they appear to have answered all the criticisms I had of RH6 and then some with RH 7. What’s more they have integrated it with Frame to create a fully featured publishing environment.

While this is plenty to write about, it’s been a long week and I’ve been under the weather. So let’s look at other key influencers in the TechComm industry starting with Astoria Rich Media - Dan Ortega:

For example, all of Astoria’s customers are heavy users of technical documentation products, and a significant percentage of them are FrameMaker users. 

The problem for FrameMaker users is that they work in isolated silos, which is one of the characteristics of a desktop solution.  They may have workflow integration with other Adobe products, but they lack integration into the broader production workflow.
 
… What is required is full visibility into the documentation production process for teams that may be spread out across 24 time zones, operating in 30 languages, and delivering documentation to over 100 countries. 

The desktop-centric model just doesn’t work in this context.
 
If Adobe plans to succeed in the enterprise, they have to take a much broader view of how technical documentation teams work by moving beyond the creation perspective. 

They need to adopt a perspective that encompasses the entire production cycle, which by default means they need to incorporate a robust, muscular content management system that is delivered on-demand and optimized for rich media.   

Dan has also examined Wikis in the workplace which could help push reviewed material through collaboration. I’m curious and I’ve only recently started reading Dan’s blogging. They’re full of raw data and analysis which I totally dig so I highly recommend reading the site’s posts.

I would love to hear of workflow collaboration solutions with FrameMaker that give what Dan’s looking for.

Update: Astoria has a strong custom solution suite for these collaboration solutions.

I am still looking to review the MadCap Feedback Server this week or next, depending on when I’m feeling better.

According to the usage claims I’ve heard, Feedback Server demonstrates a Web 2.0 step in the right direction towards the production cycle by addressing the reviewer’s change requests with the ability to comment directly on each page.

Fair and Balanced Segment

Let’s talk about what other bloggers think of the TechComm Suite. Bill and Sarah are fairly influential in the industry. Besides, they don’t like me very much so we know that their thoughts are completely independent from what I might write.

Here are the thoughts from Bill Swallow, HATT list owner. Quoted from waxing techcomm: Adobe’s Technical Communication Suite: My Thoughts

Adobe uses a few catch phrases to describe the relationship between FrameMaker and Robohelp. The press release describes it as an “integrated solution“.

This to me indicates that the two tools are indeed working together or are assimilated somehow into each other in order to create a seamless work flow…

Totally hooked me. I’m always interested in workflow collaboration. I’ve quoted some of Bill’s previous blogposts here because he’s very savvy in that space. That’s what I’ve been focused on for the past year or so.

So what is Adobe telling me they’re going to give me that improves my workflow collaboration? Bill concludes:

…In essence, the pairing of FrameMaker and RoboHelp is still a repurposing solution, since once you import into RoboHelp, your FrameMaker source is not updated should you start making tweaks in RoboHelp.

Some may argue that WebWorks Publisher and such tools are not single source tools either since they too import .fm and .mif files to produce output, but the reality is that these tools are not authoring tools. They are conversion filters, which take a master content set (FrameMaker) and convert that single content source to an output. Any content changes MUST happen in FrameMaker.

I’m sure I’ll be getting my fair share of grief over this distinction (I’ve already been countered on a couple mailing lists in response to these single sourcing claims) but when you look at the model, the RoboHelp solution is still a repurposing solution.

No grief from me, Bill. I was hoping that this release would have much more innovation, but I’m once again disappointed.

One issue which could be considered collaborative would be whether one could use DreamWeaver generated files without RoboHelp breaking the code. That would be cool for updating / collaborating with others however I’m uncertain how this will work.

So, according to this review, I’m stuck learning a new GUI yet again if I’m a RoboHelp user who needs to update FrameMaker content, and vice versa if I’m a FrameMaker user.

That’s not very collaborative.

I was under the impression with Vivek’s blogpost that their Technical Communication would become more collaborative. He didn’t specify this, merely that they were offering …much closer integration.

Vivek’s conclusion:

Cross product integration is a long journey and with FrameMaker 8, we have moved significantly forward. For sure, we have many more milestones to cross.

I’m wondering why Vivek claims that cross product integration is such a long journey when their competition has done it with FrameMaker for about a year or so.

Therefore, it’s not seeming like RoboHelp is leading the market anymore, rather they are playing catchup. I could be wrong, but I really. Dont. Think. So.

Vivek concludes with:

Please do share your comments and suggestions.

Sure. But I don’t want to hold my breath with posting comments; last time I did that about the RoboHelp Server, it never showed up. One reason I started my own blog.

Another Fair and Balanced Adobe TechComm Suite Review

Here are some thoughts from Sarah O’Keefe who owns a company which is an Adobe Authorized Training Center, doing a lot of work with FrameMaker. Sarah is not very fond of me and insists that I not call RoboHelp 6 ‘SixOfRoboHelp’ because it’s disrespectful. I would say that her perspective is balanced and did I mention she’s not fond of me?

Yet Sarah is not impressed with much more than the price point drop of the bundle. Quoted from Palimpsest: Not So Creative Suite | eWeek analysis of TC Suite

Here is the unauthorized translation [of the article]:
This TC Suite is going to hurt our competitors, who are all providing point solutions. Even if you concede that, for example, Flare might be better than RoboHelp, when we put FrameMaker and RoboHelp in a single box with an attractive price point, it makes purchasing FrameMaker and Flare separately less appealing.

ePublisher Pro’s integration with FrameMaker is probably better than RoboHelp’s, at least for now, but licensing RoboHelp as part of the Suite is going to be much easier than justifying two separate purchases.

If we can piggy-back Captivate onto the big authoring tools (FrameMaker and RoboHelp), we’ll get incremental revenue from people who might have otherwise not bothered with buying a simulation tool.

So there you have it. Not exactly compelling, not exactly what the market’s wanting. But it’s cheap.And you get Captivate for next to nothing, undoubtedly the best part of the package.

Analysis

If Adobe truly understood collaboration and what the Tech Comm market needed, they would have also included Contribute in this package.

devblog,workflow collaboration,online collaboration,adobe captivate,technical communication,technical writing

I was asked recently about the concept of DevBlogging and unfortunately instead of a single hyperlink easily emailed I was forced to do a search of my site. I had initially mashed the DevBlog concept into a Best Practices post. :O

So by popular request here are the compiled DevBlogs on display by themselves in as coherent an order as I could manage without editing the content. Of course you can do the Technorati site search also if you wish.

From How Wikipedia Works (Or Doesn’t) | Can Corporations Use Wikis?

Knowledge Management Workflow

When it comes to refining a Knowledge Management workflow, I’ve been researching into collaboration tool adoption. I tend to look towards the internet for what the free market economy brings up.

There’s a sweet spot between the user familiarity of an email and the openness and collaboration capabilities of a wiki; I tend to use a DevBlog instead. DevBlogs, or development-based blogging, has an adoption rate of about 60% of my client base and allow remote collaboration and concept review.

Hence the DevBlog concept, and my adoption of the WordPress standard for Blogging. Most people can use the web-based Comments area because they have already adopted the technology by viewing or interacting on other people’s blogs.

I believe this is because of the subject structure, and most importantly, the ability to collate the information by relativism; nesting a family of knowledge within Workflow Collaboration such as this post falls into, allows me to communicate effectively with each part of my team since everyone knows where the related posts are.

Knowledge management could use wikis as a dream tool, however repurposing the content tends to be cumbersome.

—

From
Best Practices: DevBlogs and eLearning Content Development | eLearning under $1000

DevBlog Collaboration | eLearning Project Management

Here is a perfect example of what a DevBlog can work with. While doing ID work, I need frequent input from a SME. When the SME is able to see the work I’m accomplishing, the usual method of communication is through email. The challenge is in revisions of the work, with replied email strings becoming longer and longer some crucial details may be missed.

It is much quicker to open two browser windows side by side and view the work, stop the slide progress, and jot off a quick ‘Comment’ within the second browser window, noting the frame of the slide and their thoughts about how to improve it.This works quite well.

To recap the steps:

1. Host the Captivate .swf output file on an accessible and secure location.
2. Within your DevBlog start a Post and include the Captivate file’s hyperlink set to open in a new window.
3. Send an email to the SME with the DevBlog’s web address.
4. Ask the SME to Comment below your work description while they review the Captivate file.

—-

From
Goodbye Magazines, Hello Blog-azines…?

Is Web 2.0 At Its Tipping Point Into Help Authoring?

With the expectation of your audience changing into a more interactive view, the Help Authoring you’re performing will start shifting towards a more nimble creation. I’m envisioning a Workflow Collaboration that will blend review of the documentation within a blog.

I’m using that type of mix today and I call it a DevBlog. Each of my clients has access 24/7 to the latest tasks accomplished.

The trends in the next few years that I’ll be recommending will include blog-like Web 2.0 interfaces which add commenting capability directly into the help files. This will most probably blend Technical Support into hyperlinking relevant user forums subjects literally within the help documentation.

Most probable is that the feedback from online documentation will be swiftly implemented as change orders, and this will impact the development priorities, requiring quick editing and republishing of content. Using a single-source tool obviously helps this, as does XML-based help.

—

From
Blog Wars: The Results | Why Help Authors Should Blog

Why Would A HAT Author Blog, Anyway? 

Until I started approaching this Technical Communication field not as support, not as a Tech Writer, but as an analyst/consultant, I didn’t even have a self-titled blog. I reserved the name, but never used it. Too freakin’ MySpace for me; I am fairly private and maybe I’m too darn old, but I don’t need everyone knowing how I like my latte and who I have in my friends list. My life is not a reality show. 

I bet I would get great ratings if it were.  

However, as Cluetrain.org states in their manifesto to corporations, 

Markets are conversations… …
People in networked markets have figured out that they get far better information and support from one another than from vendors. So much for corporate rhetoric about adding value to commoditized products.  

Therefore, because I work in Communication, people should know something about me in order to add value to my services.My revenue streams are enhanced by posting my experiences and through helping others, not only as a consultant or when compensated. 

Blogging As Workflow Collaboration 

Recently I’ve been reaching my collaborative Nirvana. Using these techniques I’ve discovered makes things get done faster, better, and people save money. It’s a crazy concept, but I’m pushing collaboration and techniques to move us beyond stifling bureaucratic logjams found so often within corporations. 

I started using Blogger to track my personal project research and share it with my family. I did like the methods of posting links from within a browser, using a small button and highlighting text.I started blogging when I realized that my strengths are my social network and my reputation. 

The Tool I Want To See - Innovative Help Authoring 

My dream Collaboration tool would have the abilities of WordPress in importing blog content from multiple sources and re-utilizing it into workable / searchable content within a Help file format. I’m working on an open-source solution but I’m not a PHP programmer so it’s tertiary to my other projects, particularly since the 21st CFP is only a month or so away from completion of construction. 

Maybe this tool would simply be a bridge between a WordPress site built into the HAT. I would love the functionality of Flare used to edit my blogs. Security required for corporate clients would require onsite, behind the firewall hosting, so obviously an open standard like WordPress or an inexpensive TypePad program could be supported through their interface.

—

From
Workflow Collaboration Tips from TechCommDood

Analysis

Bill’s approach about getting in on the beginning should dovetail into working out a workflow collaboration method that the product manager can adopt. If a tech writer can, through the use of a simple devblog, keep everyone informed and stop the email forwarding that plagues software development, all will start off on the right foot. The tech writer becomes the golden child instead of the whipping boy/girl.

Should the PM adopt a method to track changes that is open and viewable to the entire team, everyone benefits from the transparency and ‘everyone gets the memo on the TPS Report.

I worked for a company that was less than functional in obtaining change requests for documentation. Needless to say, creative approaches were critical in getting the information in time for changes to the product to be represented in the documentation, particularly with a single help author / tech writer and eight different product lines!

—

Hope this helps!

framemaker platypus,adobe robohelp,adobe framemaker,madcap blaze,madcap flare,online collaboration,workflow collaboration,technical communication,technical writing

Raw Data from Astoria Rich Media Regarding Adobe’s RoboHelp / FrameMaker

Additionally, Dan from Astoria Rich Media looks into the Adobe Print and Classic Publishing space. For those of you who followed in from the HATT RoboHelp knife fight, we can not verify but generally assume these products to be in the Other category in Adobe’s SEC docs that exclude RoboHelp.

Adobe’s Print and Classic Publishing (PCP) division is explicitly going after the professional technical writer market (by our estimate a market that is worth at least $4  billion per year in recurring revenue), while the Creative Solutions business unit is targeting (for lack of a better word) “creative” types.

I’m guessing here (and a number of people who work for Adobe have told me it’s a good guess) but I’d bet the Creative Solutions BU and the PCP BU are not that tightly integrated (why would they be, they target different markets).

Wow. $4 billion is much more than the $36 million I was looking at. Of course, that includes FrameMaker’s market and more.

FrameMaker Platypus - If it walks like a duck and has a bill, it still may not be a duck

I have to tell you, I initially posted on Dan’s blog regarding my current hypothetical FrameMaker Platypus:

It may only be my personal skepticism, however my first inclination at Adobe’s Technical Communication Blog entry is that they’re dusting off the RoboHelp for FrameMaker product.

I would only give this about a 30% chance of occurring, but I’ll give it to you to evaluate.**Note: If I’m wrong, I’m wrong, okay?!?

1. Item: RJ Jacquez, current Adobe RoboHelp Product Evangelist was hired away from Quadralay by eHelp back in 2002 or 2003 in order to product manage RoboHelp for FrameMaker.
2. Item: It’s part of Adobe’s IP they inherited when they bought Macromedia.
3. Item: MadCap is coming out with Blaze that will directly compete with FrameMaker. They just announced hiring a FrameMaker industry expert as their Blaze Product Manager.

Here’s a link to the stats about it, including the still available help file which will detail some :
http://www.adobe.com/support/robohelpframemaker/documentation.html

Basically it would give FrameMaker that joyful phrase of ‘tight integration between Creative Solutions’ by being able to publish content formerly published only by RoboHelp.

Note that the capability to do this was discontinued in 2004.

Add to that mix Captivate for eLearning content development and PowerPoint conversion, and Contribute with some scrubbing for blog posting and you’re looking at a potential competitive mini-suite.

Berkeley Roots Showing

I am blown away at what a little quite websurfing can uncover.Just as I’m ready to log off for the night, I’m feeling like I just attended a sixties love-in fest.

Of course this is because of the recent sources I’ve found regarding workflow collaboration, corporate wiki use, if I’ve blogged about it, I’ve found it.

Regarding Workflow and Web 2.0 / Enterprise 2.0, I can’t say it any better than Dan Ortega. Quoted from Astoria Rich Media WebLog: Workflow holds the key to rich media’s enterprise success:

Rich media applications are getting piecemeal traction within larger corporations (mostly in the marketing and communications areas), but the gating factor to widespread adoption is not where they’re used, but how they’re used.

Corporations are all about production workflow, whether the end product is an automobile, a home mortgage, investment services, etc. Any large company is geared to follow a process that needs to be followed from start to finish. That’s how they create, manage, and deliver products and services that bring in revenue.

There’s more juicy data from Dan regarding Adobe… I’ll include it in a dedicated Blog post.

web 2.0,disruptive technology,blogging,technical writing,print publishing,first time author

Web 2.0 Impacts First-Time Print Authors

Some of my background research for Web 2.0 has recently included the development of blogs for self-publishers of books and periodical articles. One question was how to value the content delivered through blogs or through print media. That was easy - computer literate demographics went to the search bar first rather than Barnes and Noble.

The next question I needed to answer was - where the tipping point in blogging is to get into traditional publishing?

First Time Authoring: Blogs Highly Recommended

The print industry experts personally interviewed this year by our team have reinforced the first-time authoring launch strategy: build the blog first, and then launch the book after your audience can support it.

Here’s a parenting blog that I’m helping the book’s IP owner launch. Admittedly a book about parenting is a niche market with some fierce competition, so this blog is a logical step in generating interest and a vehicle in announcing regional speaking engagements and other marketing events.

2007: Blogging Disrupts Periodical Literature

Traditionally, first-time authors have been recommended to write small 500 to 1000 word articles for periodical literature in order to break into the industry. Looking into this venue shows that recently periodical print media has been strongly impacted in a classic example of Disruptive Technology by the interactive news posted in blogs.

Mathew Ingram has a great summary of blog fusion into magazine industry focusing on the recent Business2.0 collapse.

The inescapable fact is that if you’re interested in anything remotely time-sensitive — technology (and particularly the Internet), news about celebrities (where TMZ.com and PerezHilton rule) and even sports or investment-related news (Marketwatch) — then some kind of blog platform or Web-based magazine just makes more sense than print.

It’s not that the two can’t co-exist — they can, and Business 2.0 may have given up the fight too soon — but the Web is the most important part now, instead of just an add-on or afterthought.

…Maybe we should call them blog-azines

Here is another question featuring the same source information about Business2.0’s editor going to TechCrunch. Quoted from Is TechCrunch Still A “Blog”?:

In a bit of blogging-centric news, TechCrunch has recently hired Erick Schonfeld as its co-editor, Mr. Schonfeld being the former editor of the late Business 2.0 magazine.

It does beg the question with the hiring earlier this year of Heather Harde, who was then the SVP of Mergers and Acquisitions at Fox Interactive, how “mainstream” TechCrunch is really getting — and perhaps more to the point, if TechCrunch is really still a “blog”.

TechCrunch is also featured as a case study in Pearsonified.com’s article titled When Does A Blog Become A Magazine?

There are quite a few bloggers who are essentially running bona-fide publications, and some of them make good money doing it. In my opinion, a few of these sites have reached their tipping points, and they have become as much a part of our information pipeline as any reasonably successful magazine or newspaper…

…The one thing that will change about print is the way that publishers enter that marketplace. I talked about it earlier, but I’ll say it again here for clarity - print was once the starting point, but in the years to come, print will become the destination for those who prove their mettle on the Web.

Is Web 2.0 At Its Tipping Point Into Help Authoring?

With the expectation of your audience changing into a more interactive view, the Help Authoring you’re performing will start shifting towards a more nimble creation. I’m envisioning a Workflow Collaboration that will blend review of the documentation within a blog.

I’m using that type of mix today and I call it a DevBlog. Each of my clients has access 24/7 to the latest tasks accomplished.

The trends in the next few years that I’ll be recommending will include blog-like Web 2.0 interfaces which add commenting capability directly into the help files. This will most probably blend Technical Support into hyperlinking relevant user forums subjects literally within the help documentation.

Most probable is that the feedback from online documentation will be swiftly implemented as change orders, and this will impact the development priorities, requiring quick editing and republishing of content. Using a single-source tool obviously helps this, as does XML-based help.

tech writing,tech writer,skill sets,web 2.0,workflow collaboration,technical writing,technical communication

Brevity alert

I’m in the middle of my construction project for the next two weeks, you will see some brief reports from which I’ll have to go indepth later in a Part 2.

Yet another trend report about Technical Writing shifting towards employment of Web 2.0.

Quoted from Head Spins: Emerging Skills Sets for Technical Writers

This month, as I persued job listings on , Monster , Careerbuilder , and Indeed, I found some companies are now looking for writers who, in addition to the core skills outlined above, are also versed in web design and content management…I love using Wikipedia and have long kept a personal blog, but the idea of companies using Wikis and blogs to communicate with their employees, customers, and potential customers is new and intriguing to me.

I’ve been looking at how ready corporations may be for the use of Wiki in a recent article. The results may surprise you.

mind mapping,technical writing,tech writing,workflow collaboration,web 2.0,game designer

Internet Duct Tape is a great Tech Writing blog with a huge following. More great workflow collaboration tools and concepts quoted from Using Mind Maps to Explore User Interaction « Internet Duct Tape:

Mind mapping begins with a central keyword, but instead you can think of that as the first screen in your application. Each depth in the mind map will represent a user action. One you have mapped out all the actions you can see the overall cogitative load of your program clear as day. Take a second to look at a mind map I did of the WordPress.com blog interface.

Once the big blob of your UI is mapped you can at a glance look at the most common actions a user would have to perform and see how many interactions it takes to get there. You could even use a mind map to design how content is linked on your blog and how hard it is to use. Admittedly, drawing out a UI like this is nothing new, but using mind mapping software for it is so damned convenient.

Go take a look.

web 2.0,online collaboration,workflow collaboration

Sometimes I even amaze myself. Workflow Collaboration is the next new trend according to this survey. Quoted from Dow Jones VentureOne and Ernst Young Survey

…global deals having to do with Web 2.0 and Social Media (Social Networking, Social Bookmarking), are up a whopping fourteen percent in the first half of 2007.

Another area of the United States thats seeing large investor interest is Southern California. There was US$59 million invested in 8 Web 2.0 /Social Media deals in Southern California.

According to the Dow Jones VentureOne and Ernst & Young LLP survey, Most of Web 2.0 / Social Media deals completed in the first half of 2007 focused on the so-called Enterprise 2.0 area-companies that use Web 2.0 technologies such as mashups and online collaboration to improve traditional business functions- while deals in China, Europe and Israel had a distinct consumer bent to them.

Get this, Southern California. Loving it. Online Collaboration to improve traditional business functions. Loving it. Right place, right timing.

Other notable trends the data showed include:

Despite seeing a flat first half, the U.S. still dominated the Web 2.0 market, accounting for 66% of all deals worldwide and 77% of venture financing.

The Bay Area was the busiest region in the U.S. with 25 deals accounting for US$91 million. New England, the New York metropolitan area and Southern California are on pace to set annual records for Web 2.0 deals and investments.

Life will be good in the next few years.

adobe robohelp,adobe captivate,adobe contribute,corporate authenticity,adobe 3q,microsoft silverlight,adobe flash player,h.264

Layoffs are good for stock prices… Couldn’t resist.

Quotes are from Adobe’s 3Q Profit Beats Predictions: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

Adobe’s 3Q Profit Surges 117 Percent, Beating Expectations

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Adobe Systems Inc. third-quarter profit more than doubled, setting a record and beating Wall Street expectations as the company comes off its biggest-ever software launch.

Even analysts who’ve followed Adobe for years said third-quarter results were a pleasant surprise.

“This kind of high upside doesn’t happen too often with big-revenue companies,” said analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray & Co., who said much of the quarter’s success can be traced back to strong early sales of Creative Suite 3, which Adobe launched in April and includes updates to some of the company’s most popular programs, such as Photoshop and Illustrator.

“CS3 is a game-changing product,” Munster said.

CS3 is a killer method of tailoring Adobe’s flagship products to consumers, while bundling the less-compelling products in as a ‘fire for effect’ strategy to saturate the market.

If you’re not part of the bundled software, however, I get the feeling that your product is really left out in the cold to fend for itself. That would be the much-rumored ‘tiering’ method of product management.

Higher tier, higher profit products make the grade, and the lower tiers are… hanging on. It’s smart business to cut away the dead wood, which is what made the dysfunctional accounting for RoboHelp so compelling earlier this month.

Last month, Adobe introduced a beta update to its Flash Player 9, which includes support for the H.264 video standard used in Blu-ray and HD DVD high-definition DVDs and other satellite and cable TV set-top boxes. At the time, Adobe anticipated the final version of the update would be available in the fall.

This introduction was definitely strategic, placed right before the much-hyped Microsoft Silverlight release.

Walter Pritchard, an analyst at Cowen and Company LLC, said Adobe’s biggest challenge is staying ahead of competing products from Microsoft Corp. and of open-source software that rivals Adobe mainstays such as Flash.

We were talking about this last month, and even back in July examining where Captivate will be in a few years when Flash has more competition. As discussed, Silverlight is going to be very competitive, and even DivX has a killer HD format, according to the Wings and Beer update.

To maintain its stock price, Pritchard said, the company must maintain scorching growth rates as the product launch tapers off.

“After May 2008, they run into tougher comparisons,” Pritchard said. “The biggest challenge is then being able to continue this kind of momentum and not have investors think it has peaked.”

There’s going to be a lot of pressure on all divisions at Adobe to perform. This will be interesting to watch.

If stock prices start slipping, where are they going to make their cuts? I am predicting that it’s now or never for RoboHelp; if they don’t perform by mid-2008, resources could be pulled off for other products that make a higher profit.

Analysis - Lower Tiered Adobe Products

RoboHelp isn’t a wide market standard like Acrobat or MSFT Word however it does have a valued niche and market dominance. Even Adobe Contribute, what I’m writing this with, is bundled in the Web Premium and Web Standard bundles.

So the Help Authoring pie which has smaller pieces (not a growth market) has even smaller ones if RoboHelp’s developers aren’t compelling enough with their release to convince anyone to upgrade or… switch away from the competing products.

Will it make the grade? As long as people buy it. Will they buy it? If they already use it. But new markets are going to face a tough sell with the tech support focus MadCap’s taking. I remember having potential partners and clients doing pre-sales support calls just to see whether we knew what was up with the software or not.

RoboHelp right now is not convincing me that while Vivek and others insist they’re the market leader, they’re really not able to back that statement up. Some of the market intel on RH7 doesn’t show anything (revealed so far) forthcoming but features that the competition already has.

Well, at least what data I’m publishing right now. There are some tricks to RH7, we’ll see what makes the cut.

On the other hand…

eLearning focused products like Adobe Captivate have a great area to develop that is only growing in size. Schools from grade school on up are focusing on game-based learning, and Flash, even with competition, is formidable. Look at the adoption of Dance Dance Revolution in Physical Education, and more game-based learning a/k/a ‘Serious Games’ were a large focus at this year’s Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco.

The past five years have been good to RoboDemo / Captivate, and it’s a wise decision to pair Contribute, an entry level Web 2.0 engine with the eLearning heavy Captivate. The Flash Player update will give Captivate some much needed content repurposing legs. And there are plenty of other smaller products that can enhance this eLearning to make it really shine.

technical support,technical writing,technical communication,madcap software,adobe robohelp,high tech awards

Future Customer Support Tactics

The trend seems clear that MadCap is going towards the Tech Support angle for their business model. It’s an interesting angle of attack for smaller companies to chip away at the market dominance of large public corporations by using a cost center to do so.

Quoted from MadCap Software Selected as Finalist in 14th Annual AeA High Tech Awards: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

…said Kevin Carroll, executive director, AeA San Diego Council. “Not only has MadCap built a top-flight engineering team to deliver ground-breaking advances in content authoring software; it also has bucked the outsourcing trend and instead established a local technical support team to provide the superior service that fosters customer adoption and loyalty."

The question is, will this create a better user experience, and therefore, a better product? MadCap’s CEO thinks so:

“We’ve made it our mission to deliver the ultimate customer experience through next-generation content solutions and a locally based, highly experienced support team that understands our users’ needs. It is a great honor to be recognized as a 2007 AeA High Tech Award finalist for our success in delivering on that goal,” said Anthony Olivier, MadCap CEO.

In my previous article, I’ve been posting about what feeds this situation. Well crafted communication cuts down on direct support calls, yet there are methods that creative technical support engineers can use to multipy their efforts.

Sarah said it best in her Information Age article, and I really could not improve on her concept in my quote of her:

I think it’s helpful to look at communication dimensions:

• Traditional technical writing is one-to-many. One person/team writes, many people consume it.
• Wikis are many-to-many. Many people write; many people use the information.
• Mailing lists are many-to-one. Many people respond to one persons’ question
• Technical support is one-to-one. One person calls; one person responds.

Technical support is the most expensive option; it’s also often the most relevant. Technical writing is more efficient (because the answer to the question is provided just once), but also less personal and therefore less relevant.

I think it could also be expressed as another hierarchy:

Technical Writing using Web 2.0

One to many, results returned allow focus on trouble spots.

Tech Support using Web 2.0 - one to many, many to many (peer)

This could be expressed as dedicated tech support within forums, independent tech projects seeking out troublespots, beta testing, etc.

It could also include a dynamic of the technical support reviewing the feedback from the Web 2.0 technical writing effort and problem solving ‘live’ updates to the documentation which are pushed out to the product.

Having docs updated live as a call reduction method for Tech Support as the product rolled out would be optimal. This was the concept of having both a server-based help file and ‘Airplane Help’ at eHelp during the X3 to X5 stage.

Tech Support moderated / monitored Peer Support

HATT, Adobe ACE users, MadCap Forums - many to many (peer).

I’m not sure what level of tech support involvement occurs with other companies outside of MadCap (I see them posting on the HATT regularly) but a lot of corporate policy forbids posting on user groups without specific necessity.

Here’s a Cluetrain real-world example of how positive this can be:

If you could hook up a meter to the forum and measure good will, the needle reading for Shuttle By United at take-off was way over on the negative side. Luggage was being lost (three times for one passenger). Passenger loading was chaotic. Customers were unhappy.

Then one United worker (one of those “owners” United’s ads talked about so much at the time) jumped in and simply started to help out. The response was remarkable. Here are a few examples:

“Good to see someone at United interested!” (etc etc etc 6 more example quotes)

This kind of conversation moved the meter all the way over to the positive side, just because one company guy took on the burden of talking with customers and trying to solve their problems. One guy.

Can providing better service actually win customers over?

It’s too early to tell, however the tactical advantage lies immediately with the larger company holding more resources; if they have an unlimited budget it would be a simple thing to just start pouring money into the technical support division.

That’s where the public part of the public corporation comes into conflict with the strategic part. If a product is not seen as core content to the public corporation, resources are scarce. The effect on the working managers themselves is to husband those resources carefully, showing the best bang for the buck and becoming risk averse to new technology adoption.

In a nutshell, public companies have an inherent talent for carving their costs with Technical Support being the most popular area to reduce through outsourcing. This leads to Cluetrain-predicted results, as burned users vent online and even go unanswered in the corporation’s own forums.

Theory - Risk averse behavior leads to less innovation

This could show its face in features - take a risk on new features which are complex, and you’ll have to support them if they don’t work out just right. Keeping things simple and maintaining a status quo gives resource managers a mark of safety; risk too much and you could lose your job if the strategy fails.