SGML: The Billion Dollar Secret [Facsimile] [Hardcover]

Chet Ensign (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0132267055 | ISBN-13: 978-0132267052 | Publication Date: January 9, 1997 | Edition: 1

Helps corporations use SGML to create and exchange information in ways that are dramatically more cost-effective -- and offer significant new business opportunities.Introduces new ways to think about documents -- and how SGML uses this new paradigm to reduce costs and present new opportunities. Shows the limitations of word processors and desktop publishing systems, and how SGML helps overcome them. Presents detailed case studies at Sybase, Grolier, United Technologies' Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, and Mobil Corporation, as well as the SGML implementation used by the semiconductor industry's Pinnacles Initiative. Presents the lessons that can be learned from these case studies, and shows where to go from here. For document managers, project leaders, CIOs, directors of MIS, and anyone responsible for managing large amounts of information within an organization.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Learn how visionary companies have used SGML to turn document "jungles" into high-value business assets. This book will help corporations use SGML to create and exchange information in ways that are dramatically more cost-effective. It will also help them identify and take advantage of new business opportunities that SGML makes possible. Learn new ways to think about documents, understand the limitations of word processors and desktop publishing systems, and discover how SGML helps overcome them. Detailed real-world case studies are presented, including Sybase, Grolier, United Technologies' Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, and Mobil Corporation. The SGML implementation used by the semiconductor industry's Pinnacles Initiative is also covered in detail. Learn the lessons that can be learned from these case studies, and make a plan for implementing SGML. For document managers, project leaders, CIOs, directors of MIS, and anyone responsible for managing large amounts of information within an organization.

From the Back Cover

22670-4

Dramatically improve the way you manage information—and save a fortune!

There's a black hole sitting quietly at the heart of your business, devouring money and resources. You spend a fortune developing documents. . . and then you do it all over again whenever products change, new markets or new media emerge. What's worse, even after you“ve spent all that money, the information's almost never there when you need it!

SGML is the solution. SGML: The Billion Dollar Secret shows you exactly how SGML can help you take control over your documents—and more importantly, take control of the information in those documents. You'll learn how companies like Mobil Oil, United Technologies, Sybase and Grolier are using SGML to:

• Organize information so it's always there when needed
• Deliver information in print, on CD-ROM and over the World Wide Web efficiently and cost-effectively
• Reuse content instantly, without retyping, reformatting, and reworking
• Improve customer service and product support
• Make sure everyone's always working from current information
• Improve response time to bids and new business opportunities.

Through case studies, you'll learn how other world-class companies evaluated their existing document production systems, identifying costs that SGML could eliminate—and discovering business opportunities it could make possible. You will learn how those companies managed their migration to SGML—for example, how they incorporated their existing word processing software into their SGML applications, or how they choose the appropriate SGML systems. And you will find guidelines on how you can do the same at your company! As a businessperson, you wouldn't stand for a transaction processing system that worked as poorly as the systems most companies use to manage their documents. Yet your corporate information resources are equally critical to your long-term success. It's time to solve the problem. SGML: The Billion Dollar Secret shows you how.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 1 edition (January 9, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0132267055
• ISBN-13: 978-0132267052
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,439,087 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Printed in TAG, the SGML Newsletter, October 30, 1997

By 

Carla Corkern (Bellevue, Wa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: SGML: The Billion Dollar Secret (Hardcover)

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 <TAG>) 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

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The guided missal for SGML evangelists!, May 2, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: SGML: The Billion Dollar Secret (Hardcover)

O.K., I'm biased, since I'm the Series Editor, but I really love this book. It is a non-technical book for generalist executives, and if it can't convince them that they are wasting big bucks and missing golden opportunities, they're not long for their jobs. The Amazon.com description says this book is for MIS and publishing professionals, and yes it is, but mainly for them to use as a weapon for persuading management. Product vendors and consultants will welcome it for the same reason. It's a guided missal for SGML evangelists! And it's full of cute graphics, pithy quotes, and genuinely fascinating anecdotes. In a word, it's more fun than any book about SGML has a right to be. If your enterprise produces documents, you are sure to benefit from $GML: The Billion Dollar Secret