Desktop Books

It's not too early to start thinking about Christmas gifts! And that one person you always have such a hard time buying for will be easier this year! Not your spouse, your boss! If you have been trying to get your boss to listen to your crazy ideas about SGML or want to let a new boss in on what all of that acronym stuff is - SGML, the Billion Dollar Secret fits the bill.

Wait! If you think your boss won't read it - there's pictures! Cute little cartoon picctures that show the publications process as it relates to a busy executives job. The pictures are cleaned up versions of the ones we have all hastily scrawled when we try to show our friends, family, and bankers what we do.

Chet Ensign has written the book we all need when talking to the mass market about SGML. The book outlines, in business terms, what SGML is, why someone would want to do it, and what a business can expect to gain by using SGML. Mr. Ensign does a grand job of taking all of the technobabble out of the industry and explaining in clear business terms the problem with information in corporate documentation and how some companies have solved it.

And what companies! The real strength of this book is right in the middle of the book. Chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6 are dedicated to in depth case studies of Sybase, Grolier, Sikorsky Aircraft, and Mobil Corporation. Each business case is organized in it's own chapter with a great little executive summary on the first page. The executive summary is invaluable because at a glance you can see if you want to continue reading the business case. Each business case presents the problem the company was trying to solve, details of what they did and the challenges they faced and then the tangible benefits they saw. Each business case is presented in a great narrative style so that we meet the people who made it happen and share their frustrations and triumphs. This very human approach to technology kept me reading even though in some cases, I already knew how it was going to turn out. If all of this sounds a little chatty for your audience, remember, the executive summaries are first and only one page long!

You are sure to recognize your company as you go through these business cases. Mr. Ensign has done a good job of not only giving us various industries to study but also various implementation strategies - in fact, the only thing these case studies have in common is that they all saved money - big money - using SGML. Grollier changed out their authoring environment, Sybase didn't. Each case gives a compelling reason why or why not. For those of us in the consulting business, these case studies are a gold mine!

One problem we have had with SGML is convincing companies that the up front investment was worthwhile. And we all knew people who were saving big money with SGML but our non disclosures kept us quiet - and most often our customers were unwilling to talk - even to non competitors. Mr. Ensign somehow navigated the legal and political waters that the rest of us were unwilling or unable to chart to bring these case studies to light. I, for one, am eternally grateful. There is an added bonus in chapter 6 when we learn the inside story of the Semiconductor Pinnacles initiative. As a member of another standards organization, I remember the dismay I felt when the Pinnacles group was able to accomplish in one year what our group had only begun after 4 years. Our company hosted a meeting in Dallas for the Texas instrument session of the Pinnacles analysis and the description of how the lonely semiconductor "peaks" find each other and share their common dream made me smile. Descriptions of the analysis process as "Mud, Bricks and Mud 1" is good preparation for any manager who doesn't understand why analysis takes so long. I like the metaphor so much, I plan to start using it with our customers.

The first two chapters give an overview of why you might want to read this book and describe a hypothetical company (Typicorp) that is trying to integrate their electronic data into a new delivery mechanism sans SGML. The successful prototype is followed by the nightmare of true system implementation. We all know companies who have undergone this sort of effort but with the explosion of the World Wide Web and the continual changes in HTML, I suspect Typicorp's problem is even more prevalent today.

Chapter 8 contains references to other places to go for more information and chapter 9 contains guidelines on how to know if your business could benefit from SGML. Chapter 9 also brings some common lessons learned together from the case studies and describes how to use these case studies to gage impact on your organization. That's it! The book is done and your boss is wiser. Many of the sticky questions that you would have had to face when presenting your business case have been answered. (See the three part business case article in the last three issues of ) Chet Ensign has made everyone's life easier who needs to sell SGML. This book will definitely be in my Dad's Christmas stocking (he's still worried that I should have gotten that Civil Engineering degree.......)

Carla Corkern is President of ISOGEN INTERNATIONAL CORP. She lives and reads in Dallas, TX.

1 attributed to Tommie Usdin

There are also useful references to resources on the internet and good tips. The writing style is easy to follow and there are many good illustrations. This is not only a fantastic book for Dreamweaver MX, but a great web development book as well.

I buy a ton of tech books every year and don't give top reviews easily. This book definitely earns its 5 *'s.

Style Meister puts an end to that annoyance and confusion by giving you all the tools and advice you need to build your own style guides, customized to the needs of your organization, your audience(s), or your market. Style Meister itself is not an authoritative style guide in the vein of Strunk and White or Associated Press. Instead, Style Meister helps you choose and manage styles that best fit the purpose of your documents. No matter whether you write fiction, edit non-fiction, or work for a bureau with hundreds of clients and hundreds of different styles, this book walks you through all the steps necessary to become your own authority on the best styles for your documents.

The narrative sections provide excellent advice on choosing appropriate usage for hundreds if not thousands of style points. These sections compare recommendations from a variety of sources, and note variations for formal, informal, and other usages. The quick reference sections provide hands-on forms for everything from selecting punctuation styles to tracking style items in your current documents that must be searched for and replaced.

In summary, I have rarely seen a more useful book for anyone who writes or edits for a living. With Style Meister, you can throw out all your so-called "authoritative" style guides and create your own personal style authority, customized specifically for your needs. Goodbye, Strunk and White! Goodbye, Associated Press! Hello, Style Meister!

(1) The business-case first approach that the author takes is straightforward and provides step-by-step procedures for determining the true business value of web-enabled technical support vs. traditional call centers. I especially liked the discussion of first, second and third generation site models because it gives you a target model and shows both the business and technical value of each. I also liked the way ROI factors and ratings were used to determine ROI potential. The factors are management, functions and tools, and the ratings are a simple Good or Poor. This is placed into context with a table that shows the combinations of factors and ratings and their associated potential and gives you a structured decision tool at a glance.

(2) Scope approach given in the book is complete in that it takes into account all stakeholder views (business, technical support and users/customers). This forces you to take a realistic look at goals and objectives and, using ROI information, begin making intelligent and informed trade-offs.

(3) Site creation map is consistent with good project management practices in that it uses a task and associated details approach. The details provided include deliverables and what the deliverables should contain. Project planners and managers will find this section particularly valuable.

(4) Support processes and procedures are well thought out and can be used as a benchmarking tool as well as planning and implementation guidelines.

(5) I like the way the section on site management is goal-driven and traceable back to ROI. If this approach is followed you will have processes that are designed for continuous improvement.

(6) The use of tables and lists throughout the book provides a wealth of information on nearly every topic.

There are a few areas that were weak: no mention of portal technology, which can be employed to create user-customizable features and incorporate advanced knowledge management functionality into a web-enabled support system. Also, there was no discussion of configuration control over content or legal issues that need to be considered when providing technical support to customers (as opposed to internal end users).

Overall this is an exceptionally valuable book that is among the best on the subject. Highly recommended to IT help desks and product technical support center managers.

As in her other books Ms. Czegel begins with an examination of business factors and a discussion of how web-based technical support has evolved quickly to what she calls a third-generation model. I like how she sums up the business factors with a compelling discussion of the business benefits, including an example cost-benefit analysis.

The second chapter gives a roadmap for site creation and management. It provide a comprehensive list of necessary tasks that can be used to develop a work breakdown structure and project plan. It segues into the next chapter on establishing the scope, and leads you through the foundation of defining your goals and business expectations. Scope includes possible services to provide through web-based support, and which services are the most cost-effective to provide. I liked the examples, provided in tables, that rank requirements and the resources required to satisfy them. Ms. Czegel next addresses staff selection, providing roles and responsibilities and the necessary skills to move to web-based support. This information is valuable to help desk professionals because there are major differences between traditional help desk requirements and those of web-based support organizations.

Functions, tools and implementations are covered in great detail and is must reading because web-based support brings with it specialized tools and requirements that will leverage a traditional help desk's tools to provide self-help to users. Because this book does touch on product support to external customers I felt that the lack of content management and change control tools was a notable gap. These are important to internal and external support, but are far more critical when you are dealing with external customers because out-of-date technical information or the wrong software for download can seriously detract from your company's image (or worse). If your focus is product support to external customers I recommend augmenting this book with Customer Service on the Internet by Jim Sterne.

Designing your site is briefly covered with good advice; however, the heart of this book is process and implementation, and site management. Ms. Czegel thoroughly covers all issues and gives valuable information using tables, checklists and examples. These two parts of the book are essential to implementing and managing an effective web-based support function. I especially liked the metrics and examples given.

Summary: web-based technical support is one of the most effective strategies to improve the level of support to customers using self-help and other preventative measures to reduce issues. It also gives users an ability to track their open issues, which improves their level of satisfaction as well as reducing follow-up calls to the help desk. This book provides a clear roadmap to defining a web-based support strategy, and its implementation and management. As far as I know there is no other book that addresses this subject for internal IT help desks, making it all the more valuable. If you are a help desk manager who is either exploring web-based technical support, or are in the process of implementing it this book with save you much grief because it lays out what needs to be done from business case development to daily operations. If you are currently supporting users with web technology the site management chapter will provide you with excellent advice on how to efficiently manage web-based support.

One major flaw is a result of a great idea - gone wrong. Text is presented over image backgrounds. This makes for tired eyes at the end of a long read. In a few cases, there is black text on very dark background. You have to want to know what it says to put the effort into reading it. I'm sure there will be many negative comments on this aspect of the book.

However, I'm sticking with my 5 STARS. I believe the content was that good. There was only one chapter that I found ordinary. Great insights on almost every page.

Don't trust me? Do a Google Groups search on '"graham wideman" book 2002'. This guy is the guru, and also very helpful on the groups, which I find commendable.

I'm sure most serious Visio developers have this book, and I just can't figure why none of them have posted a review before (well, I can think of _one_ reason - they bought it elsewhere)!