Site FeedPalimpsest has moved. Please visit our blog in its new location for the most recent posts from Scriptorium.
Palimpsest
Deja vu all over again
Tuesday, September 11, 2007 — posted by Sarah
The recent discussion about RoboHelp's presence (or lack thereof) in Adobe documents, along with discussions about staffing changes, feels awfully familiar.But first, a clarification. In an earlier post, I wrote this:
The "Other" segment, which includes the infamous "Classic Publishing" (aka "We Don't Give a $#$#@ About These Products"), accounts for just under 10 percent of total revenues. Source: Adobe presentation, PDF format, page 10)I should have been more specific. Page 10 of the quoted PDF says that “Other” accounts for less than 10 percent of total revenues. (No mention of RoboHelp as being part of that group. The bit about RoboHelp being part of Classic Publishing came from elsewhere. Note that the same product management team runs FrameMaker and RoboHelp.
Meanwhile, I took another look at the business segment chart that Mr. Jeter mentions. He's quite right that RoboHelp is not on the list. But take a look at Adobe's complete product list. There are many, many more products there than on the business segment chart. RoboHelp is not the only product omitted from the business segments. (One interesting note, though -- in the product list, RoboHelp is listed under Developer Tools, and then shows up again under eLearning and Technical Communications.)
Back to deja vu.
In 2005, Adobe announced the creation of the "Print and Classic Publishing" business unit, which would be run by Adobe India. Some time before that (I think around 2000, but I can't find specifics), Adobe had moved FrameMaker development from San Jose to India.
There was much anxiety around the product -- would development continue? Was FrameMaker dead? (See Microtype's FrameMaker press site)
The discussion around RoboHelp right now feels exactly the same. (And I should note that I'm probably a little more objective about RoboHelp because I rarely use the product -- and I don't know the engineering or tech support team personally.) I had dinner with Lee Richardson (formerly FrameMaker engineering manager) just after his responsibilities were, um, reassigned. He seemed to be handling the change quite well, but I was upset on his behalf. When you are acquainted with the people whose careers are being shuffled about, it's personal.
In the RoboHelp case, it doesn't help Adobe's cause that MadCap Software has a marketing strategy that revolves around issuing cheeky press releases.
With the benefit of several years' perspective on the FrameMaker issues, it looks to me as though Adobe is using the India office to continue development on products that are not commercially viable with US-based (i.e., more expensive) software developers.
I've built relationships with the new FrameMaker team, but given the choice between their jobs and the development of FrameMaker 9, in say, China, I'll take FrameMaker 9. (sorry, guys!) (And, for the record, it was the Adobe India team that build Unicode into FrameMaker 8, which is a remarkable achievement.) For those of you looking at the RoboHelp situation, you have to decide whether the same is true for you. Does your personal loyalty to the former RoboHelp team outweigh your need for the product?
Labels: FrameMaker, robohelp
11:19 AM Permalink |
|
<< Home
