CIDM e-newsletter Volume 3, Issue 11

CIDM e-newsletter
Volume 3, Issue 11
December 2003

A monthly e-newsletter from the Center for Information-Development Management (CIDM)
JoAnn T. Hackos, PhD, CIDM Director
http://www.infomanagementcenter.com

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fill out the subscription form, and choose the plain-text format.

News & Events

CM Strategies Conference

The Center for Information-Development Management is excited to bring you the 2004 Content Management Strategies conference to take place on April 19–20, in San Francisco, California. Find more information at

http://www.cm-strategies.com/

Tekom Conference Keynote Address

Read more about JoAnn's Keynote Address at the Tekcom Conference in Germany

Ratios White Paper

Curious about how much money in the budget should go toward documentation? Or the ratio of writers to programmers? This study was conducted via a questionnaire to our CIDM members.

Purchase today!
Call 303.232.7586 or email
CIDM Member price: $34
Non-member Price: $50

Best Practices Newsletter

You can subscribe to the Best Practices newsletter even if you aren't a CIDM member. The subscription costs $99 per year. For subscribers outside the US, the cost is $109 USD.

Upcoming Workshops
The CIDM sponsors the following workshops. Sign up now:

Minimalism: Creating manuals that people will use
JoAnn Hackos, PhD,
January 14–15
Waterloo, ON

Developing Online Information for Help and Web-based Delivery
JoAnn Hackos, PhD,
February 5–6
Greenville, SC

Managing Your Documentation Projects
JoAnn Hackos, PhD,
March 30–31
Waterloo, ON

For more information on these and other workshops, visit the Seminars in Usable Design Web site at www.comtech-serv.com/workshops/index.shtml

When Customers Bite Back
JoAnn Hackos, PhD
CIDM Director

www.infomanagementcenter.com

Is there a point at which customers reject the technical information that we provide? Will all the cutbacks in the quality of information lead to angry customers who make their displeasure known? When will the customers bite back?

Read the article

More articles
Innovator's Forum Update
Offshore Outsourcing—Are There Hidden Costs?
Another view of Offshoring
A third view of Offshoring
Solving Problems - What Problems?

Innovator's Forum Update
Tina Hedlund
Senior Consultant, Comtech Services, Inc.

The focus of the December 2nd Innovator's Forum meeting was about creating a sense of urgency and developing a vision for a planned innovation or change.

Read the article

Offshore Outsourcing—Are There Hidden Costs?
Bill Hackos
Vice President, Comtech Services, inc.

How much is your company saving by offshore outsourcing? Rates for information development in India run about one fifth of rates in the United States. Are you saving 80 percent on information development costs, or even anything on information development costs? Maybe not, says Stephanie Overby in “The Hidden Costs of Offshore Outsourcing” in the September 2003 issue of CIO magazine.

Read the article

Another view of Offshoring
Bill Hackos
Vice President, Comtech Services, inc.

McKinsey and Company has been doing lots of consulting related to offshoring. They help large companies move to offshore outsourcing. This abstract, "Who wins in offshoring?", is from an unsigned article from the McKinsey Quarterly to the CNET Web site, http://news.com.com/2030-7341-5096283.html, dated October 26, 2003.

Read the article

A third view of Offshoring
Bill Hackos
Vice President, Comtech Services, inc.

An article on the Zdnet Web site also relates to the costs of IT offshoring, The hidden Costs of IT Outsourcing, by Olga Kharif, provided to Zdnet by Business Week, October 29, 2003, http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/Hidden_Costs_of_IT_Outsourcing.html. In this article Olga Kharif uses a number of case studies to demonstrate that the costs involved with offshoring are about the same as work done in the United States if you consider the quality of work.

Read the article

Solving Problems - What Problems?
Vesa Purho
Development Manager, Nokia

You have a problem to solve, what do you do? Do you gather up a team of people and start thinking about the possible solutions for the problem, or do you try to solve the problem by yourself. My advice is that you do not do either of those but start by actually defining what the problem is.

Read the article

Feedback
Have you found this issue useful? Got a great story idea? We'd like your input and suggestions. Email our editor, Jen Linton, at .

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The Center For Information-Development Management
The Center for Information-Development Management (CIDM) is an organization of information-development, training, and support managers across the United States and internationally. The CIDM is directed by Dr. JoAnn Hackos, international leader in the management of the design, development, and dissemination of information to customers and employees. Under her leadership, the CIDM conducts benchmark studies among member organizations and elsewhere, sponsors research into information development and its management, and gathers and disseminates results and resources through newsletters, the Web, seminars, two annual conferences, and research white papers. The CIDM facilitates the sharing of information among the most skilled managers in the information industry.

If you are interested in reading more in-depth articles, you should consider subscribing to the Best Practices newsletter at www.infomanagementcenter.com/masterindex.shtml.