[clug] weird tender requirements

[Alex Satrapa]

On 27 Oct 2006, at 10:46, Paul Wayper wrote:

> Part of the problem here is that PDF is not that "open, readable  
> format"
> that we're looking for.  For Windows users who have MS Office, to  
> write
> a PDF takes special software that doesn't come with Office.  I know  
> that
> there are free PDF writers out there, but for these people that's an
> extra piece of software that they have to track down, evaluate,  
> install
> and use.

The real problem is people thinking that having the sales & marketing  
guys write up a document in Word and shipping it directly off to the  
client is a valid business process.

Only one person needs to be responsible for producing documents to be  
exported to clients, in much the same way that only one person is  
responsible for paying the company's bills. That person would have  
access to one or more of:
  - A print server that handles printing to PDF (eg: CUPS with cups-pdf)
  - A Mac
  - Adobe Acrobat (full version)

It seems that some companies put more effort into selecting an  
Espresso machine for their staff kitchen than they put into a  
document release procedure.

Do *you* know what version of a document you sent to your client?

Regards
Alex