 |
|
|
|
Q1: What are the advantages of a consultant over hiring an employee?
Ans: You save time and money, without increasing your overhead, because:
- Locating a consultant can be faster and you avoid the costs of recruiting an employee.
- Consultants possess specialized expertise and in depth experience that may be hard to find in employee candidates.
- Bringing in a consultant can be an effective way to deal with temporary work overloads, one-time and part-time projects, and projects that arise unexpectedly.
- Consultants are results-oriented and manage their own time under contract, but hiring an employee adds to your supervisory workload.
- Consultants already have an office with their own equipment, software, telephone and internet connection, and tech support. For an employee your company has to provide space and equipment at your facility, as well as tech and administrative support.
- Consultants pay for their own training, but your company pays for employee training (salary during training and trainer expenses).
- Consultants take care of overhead costs themselves. They don't bill for holidays, vacations, contributions to retirement plans, education expenses and the other benefits paid to employees.
- Consultants typically don't charge for idle time. If a project is delayed temporarily for unforeseen reasons, the consultant switches to work for other clients but an employee continues to receive a salary.
- After completion of a project, the consultant departs and billings cease, whereas an employee either stays on the payroll or else has to be laid off and paid a severance.
|
Q2: How does a new documentation project get started?
Ans: Call (408) 274-0203 to arrange a cost-free initial consultation.
|
Q3: What topics are discussed during the initial consultation?
Ans: The topics usually include:
- Intended purpose of the documentation
- Profile of the expected users (e.g., training, work environment)
- Availability of source material already on hand
- Anticipated amount of research and original writing required
- Desired completion date
- Cost budget
|
Q4: What is the next step after an initial consultation?
Ans: If a project with a mutually agreeable schedule and cost budget can be defined, we will next submit a time-and-materials written quotation.
|
Q5: What is typically included in the quotation?
Ans: The quotation will contain a description of the work and end item deliverables, number of Direct Labor consulting hours and an hourly rate, and an estimated completion date.
|
Q6: How much of the project will be covered in the quotation?
Ans: For projects shorter than one month, it can encompass the entire project. For longer projects, the quotation covers the first phase of work (usually the preparation of a detailed outline of the proposed documentation). Subsequent quotations would deal with the remainder of the work.
|
Q7: What equipment and software do you use?
Ans: See the list on our TECHNOLOGY page (click here).
|
Q8: Where do you find the sources for illustrations?
Ans: First we look for illustrations that are already being used in company product brochures and on data sheets. Next we examine engineering drawings. In many cases we can work from existing CAD files, by extracting portions of drawings and simplifying them to create line art illustrations. We also edit existing digital photos and take new photos. When documenting software, we work from screen captures and edit them to accompany the text descriptions.
|
|
