Information Management News
Volume 4, Issue 12
December 2004
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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When Offshore Information Development Doesn't Make Sense
JoAnn Hackos, PhD
CIDM Director
www.infomanagementcenter.com
In the 2004 (Number 4) McKinsey Quarterly, Ronald Ritter and Robert Sternfels, in their article "When Offshore Manufacturing Doesn't Make Sense," provide examples in which offshore manufacturing is the wrong choice, despite the lower wages available in third-world economies. They demonstrate that many management decisions to move manufacturing offshore are based on gross overestimates of the cost savings and ignorance of the potential problems.
Read the article
More articles
Inside Microsoft Office Online Assistance
One User's Experience with Microsoft Office Online
The Heart of the Strategic Planning Process—Continuous Evaluation
Operational Innovations in Content Management: The Release of Vasont 9.0
December Best Practices newsletter
CIDM Members: you can now search the Newsletter Archives online.
You can purchase the Best Practices newsletter online even if you aren't a CIDM member. A subscription is $99 per year. For subscribers outside the US, the cost is $109.
**Please note that the printed newsletter and the eNewsletter do not contain the same content.**
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Table of Contents—December 2004 |
Article |
Author |
From the Director |
JoAnn Hackos |
Rethinking the Assembly Line: How "Documentspaces"
Can Energize Team-Based Technical Writing |
Michael Fergusson |
Automating Single-source Development |
Andrew VanConas |
Single Source Content Management
| Paul Trotter |
A Balanced Model For Product Usability |
Charlie Dowdell |
Film Review: American Jobs
| Lisa Finger |
Inside Microsoft Office Online Assistance
Jonathan Price
The Communication Circle, LLC
Microsoft's customer-driven publishing team recently won the CIDM Rare Bird award, which recognized their approach to user assistance as an inspiring model for other teams. But what lies behind their approach and how did they develop it? I recently talked by phone with Janet Williams Hepler, Group Manager, Office User Assistance, and Rob Ashby, User Education Manager for Microsoft Office User Assistance—Data and Discovery team.
Read the article
One User's Experience with Microsoft Office Online
Jonathan Price
The Communication Circle, LLC
When you ask for help in an Office 2003 application, you get a task pane over on the right with a section at the top called "Assistance" containing a Search box and a link to a Table of Contents. The next section highlights several new or popular articles on the Microsoft Office Online site, plus links to the Web assistance, training, communities, and downloads. At the bottom of the pane, a "See Also" section provides links to What's New, Contact Us, and more.
Read the article
The Heart of the Strategic Planning Process—Continuous Evaluation
Sue King
Independent Consultant
This is the second article describing the Strategic Planning Process—a simple, effective method to keep the future in the forefront. This article describes the basic method of evaluating various entities against the Strategic Framework (described in the first article) and various benefits your organization can derive from using this process.
Read the article
Operational Innovations in Content Management: The Release of Vasont 9.0
Suzanne Mescan
Vasont Systems
This past August, Vasont Systems released Vasont 9.0, the latest version of our single-source content management system. Our goal for this version was to provide more effective content reuse for organizations with multiple editorial groups, remote authors, or enterprise-wide content contributors. The system's most compelling new enhancements were created in response to feedback from current Vasont users. At our annual users' group meeting, Vasont users had three main goals in mind for the coming year: they wanted to further improve their productivity, meet their compliance requirements, and generally improve and update their overall editorial process. Our team responded with the following new enhancements and features of Vasont 9.0 to help users meet those goals as quickly as possible.
Read the article
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Feedback
Have you found this issue useful? Got a great story idea? We’d like your input
and suggestions. Please contact lisa.finger@comtech-serv.com about any comments you may have.
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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.
©2004 by The Center for Information-Development Management. All rights reserved.
Tel. 303-232-7586
Fax. 303-232-0659
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