Conference 7.286::digital

I too would like to know why there are so many publications being sent to 
engineers these days. I usually keep the publications in a drawer, so I'll 
list the ones I find on the top of the pile:

1.  Excellence
2.  Real Times
3.  DECWORLD
4.  DIGITAL THIS WEEK
5.  NEW HAMPSHIRE VIEW
6.  Personal Times
7.  Market Research Center Memo
8.  JAPAN REVIEW
9.  SEMINAR PROGRAMS Catalog
10. DIGITAL EMPLOYEE PURCHASE CATALOG
11. EUROPEAN TECHNOLOGY NEWS
12. Seminars From Educational Services
13. the VECTOR

In The VECTOR on page 1 under "Editor's Comments", it says: "Not another
publication?! Yes. But it's different."

Right.

Jack

.1 forgot Decuscope + the many publications that Decus mails out such as
Realtimes.
ed

Gee, I don't get half of those!  (But then, I've only just hit my second
anniversary.)

I thought that these were just the sort of things that were going to be
cut back.  The last thing I got from the employee purchase program people
indicated that they were going through some sort of cut-back, though:
at least that's what I gathered from the brevity of the newsletter and the
info about how you can only by products in certain inflexible packages.

If I get hardcopy about things I'm not interested in, if there's an email
address I write and ask to be removed from the mailing list, and I've always
done this.

RE: .1	I get most of those. Strange person that I am I read them all.
	Most of the items on that list (.1) are by subscription. If you
	don't want/need/read them ask off the list. What's the big deal?

Alfred

At last count, there are over 140 publications sent to sales reps in the
field. The cost to the company is not the paper. Rather, it is the fact that
with this much, the reps ignore it. Hence the real messages do not get to
the field. The loss is that therefore, we do not effectively communicate
our sales strategies and tactics.

It is rumored that Ken and Shields are banning all these publications except
Sales Update and DECsell.

    Yeah.  Each additional publication lowers the impact of all the others.
    This can get to the point where the overall value of a publication is
    negative.

    If you look at the real purpose of many of these publications, it turns
    out to be the internal marketing of some service group.  The company's
    external marketing is minimal, but dozens of internal groups compete
    with  each other for your attention, your loyalty, and your cost
    center's support!

    Cut 'em back.  The real customers are external to DEC.

    Dave

At a minimum, each publication should periodically audit its subscription list.
Include a card in the publication, and if it is not returned by the subscriber,
stop sending them. Most of the free trade mags do this to periodically weed out
the dead wood on the subscription lists. many of the DEC publications that I get
are by subscription, and I want and need them. I do get many others that
I never requested. It seems when they start up, they take a guess as to who
would want their publication, and grossly overestimate their audience. They
then continue to send all of these out for each issue. This is what needs
to be eliminated.

Cutting down on the number of copies of something that is really important that
an office receives has some problems. We tried getting one copy of many things,
and routing them around. Unfortunately, many people are frequently out of the
office, and the routing list gets bogged down. Also, someone will toss the
publication in a stack for later, and forget about it. We have had some
important materials disappear for a year before they finished the rounds in a 10
person group! 

RE: cancelling subscriptions,  I have tried to do that before.  It doesn't
work. You know, the story about computerss and data bases, thats the story I
was given.  after 3 months of all out trying, I finally got off the distribution
list.  that was five years ago.  Guess whats appearing in my mailbox again as
of 2 months ago.  Your right.  I give up.  I got a bigggg wastebucket.
ed

re .1
. what is "Excellence" about?

Where would I get a copy of Market research memo and European Technology
News?

There are other publications eg Kanji Software review, DECUS SIG,LUG 
newsletters.

I have mixed feelings about these publications.   It's nice to get information
about what is going on in the company.   Communications in this company are
not particularly good.    There is duplication eg DECWORLD is duplicated
by US FIELD NEWS and to some extent by DTW.    It is also true that there
is a lot of marketing flim flam aimed at the most receptive audience to be
found amongst users/potential users of DEC kit, DEC employees.

I'd like to see greater use of the net for these publications eg put them
in a notesfile or on Videotex.   This would save paper and expensive
typesetting and also alleviate the load on Infernal mail.

Howard

The DECUS and SIG/LUG publications don't count in this category.  Those are
publications by customers for customers.  Lots of DEC people subscribe as
a way to keep a finger on the pulse of the customer base.  The publications
are paid for by DECUS fees--it doesn't cost DEC a penny [except DECUS fees
for employees, I guess].

"Excellence" is the Network and Communications Engineering Newsletter.

RE:  subscription lists for these rags

A lot of the publications seem to work on the "tar baby" principle.  If your
work touches any aspect of the group that publishes the newsletter, it sticks
to you.  I got on the subscription list for "Real Times" because I once gave
a seminar at IDECUS.  I've tried to get off the list and I've been told that's
not feasible.

The ones that REALLY bother me are things like "Personal Times."  I don't
own a DEC personal computer, and I have no interest in ever owning any of
the current crop.  This advertising is totally wasted on me.  Meanwhile,
we hear war stories about how we can't get the message about our products
out to our real customers.  It's because we spend so much time tyring to
sell stuff to employees.

--PSW

Don't forget that if the company cuts back on the number of publications
(as rumored elsewhere in this note), then those that are distributed will
probably become larger -- as the groups that sent out their own publications
will want to put their materials in those that do get sent out.

john

From a field point of view....the best thing we've got is the handbooks
that we hand out.  If a customer receives an 8 1/2x11 color glossy, it's
mostly glanced over and pitched in the circular file. If they receive
a 1/2 to 1 inch thick handbook, it's put on a shelf for later reference.
I think it would be good to have each marketing segment put out one handbook
and update it every 6 months or so.  Say, one for LDP, one for GSG, etc.
Also, keep the general ones like terminals, vax software etc.  It's great
to walk into a customer and see a rack of old DEC handbooks that they
treasure as their 'collection'.

I heard once that this was how KO felt.  He could print 600,000 handbooks
for the cost of 30 seconds of superbowl ads....but that's a different
argument...

Gil

re:.10
To get off distribution list, try sending mail to Damsel::Baine (the editor).
I think you've been given a line that it's possible to put you on a distribution
list but not take you off it.   I suspect that the list is maintained by
Datatrieve (common in DIS) and nobody wants to make the effort to delete
your entry.

I concur that there is excessive marketing to employees
       
Howard