FreeDocs is a free database editor for technical documentation.
I'll start a little with the story:
Being engaged in the spread of information and reference systems for 10 years and taking part in creating their own document databases on the platforms of leading companies in the regulatory and technical documentation market, they were repeatedly surprised that having sufficient financial resources, leaders do not have a convenient and developed database creation tool.
Apparently, the reason is that their own databases of organizations do not compete with the paid products of the company itself and do not flow into free databases. Although in our experience these concerns are not valid. This is due to the fact that paid products are kept up to date, and their base is created, as a rule, from its own documents and rare standards accumulated in the technical libraries of organizations for many years.
')
Of course, the question arose whether to create a new product? Is the skin worth the dressing?
The decision came unexpectedly and at first glance it seemed absurd - to give the tool for free!
But how then to recoup the development and support and at the same time also earn?
The answer is to create two versions of the program: paid and free FreeDocs .
By implementing this approach, we hope that we have chosen the right direction to promote the product.
Arguments in favor of the chosen direction. which we were guided by:
Why is it free - many small organizations are not ready to lay out tens and hundreds of thousands of rubles for a value program that they do not yet feel and see no advantage over the ZIP archive listed in Excel. At their own expense, they do not want to experiment.
For large companies, on the contrary, the price is not significant, and most importantly support, scalability and the possibility of flexible changes in the program logic for new tasks.
Therefore, we decided to take such a step as providing a fully functional FreeDocs product completely free of charge and for an unlimited period.
And who will pay it? It is reasonable to assume that after receiving a free full-featured tool that no one will pay anymore. Partly yes, but based on our many years of experience in communicating with the target audience, we have provided options in the paid version, which should encourage customers to switch to the paid option (although we may be mistaken).
The free version of FreeDocs is local, and the paid version provides for working over the network in one database of an unlimited number of users. This is relevant for medium and large organizations where it is necessary to deposit a large amount of accumulated documents and use a database of more than a few dozen users online. In a small organization, it is enough to install several local copies, but to arrange everything in a large one and monitor the relevance of tens and hundreds of bases is expensive.
Another not unimportant feature in favor of the paid version is the prohibition of the connection of own databases of documents with a free shell. After all, who will like it if the newly created long time is interrupted or the workers spread it. Although, in turn, the paid version will easily connect freely distributed document databases created on FreeDocs .
Also, users of the free version of FreeDocs will be deprived of individual technical support, they will only accept requests and comments, which may be taken into account in future releases.
It is interesting to know the opinion about the chosen monetization strategy, if anyone can throw new ideas or share their experiences. We will be very grateful.
Upon request, I will try to describe in more detail the tool created.
Currently, the FreeDocs editor is designed to create and maintain up to date the accumulated enterprise (or an individual, which is not excluded) various regulatory and technical information, coupled with a large number of design tools, drawings, descriptions and reference books.
This is not just a piggy bank with search standards - it is a complete environment for storing and presenting information in a convenient way with attachment of files.
It uses its own compression system (dozens of times) of documents for compact storage of both texts and scans.
Further development of the functionality is planned, but only after the users have mastered the existing one.
In more detail, you can answer at the same specific comparisons with paid competitors or on the wishes of people.
Further
Being engaged in the spread of information and reference systems for 10 years and taking part in creating their own document databases on the platforms of leading companies in the regulatory and technical documentation market, they were repeatedly surprised that having sufficient financial resources, leaders do not have a convenient and developed database creation tool.
Apparently, the reason is that their own databases of organizations do not compete with the paid products of the company itself and do not flow into free databases. Although in our experience these concerns are not valid. This is due to the fact that paid products are kept up to date, and their base is created, as a rule, from its own documents and rare standards accumulated in the technical libraries of organizations for many years.
')
Of course, the question arose whether to create a new product? Is the skin worth the dressing?
The decision came unexpectedly and at first glance it seemed absurd - to give the tool for free!
But how then to recoup the development and support and at the same time also earn?
The answer is to create two versions of the program: paid and free FreeDocs .
By implementing this approach, we hope that we have chosen the right direction to promote the product.
Arguments in favor of the chosen direction. which we were guided by:
Why is it free - many small organizations are not ready to lay out tens and hundreds of thousands of rubles for a value program that they do not yet feel and see no advantage over the ZIP archive listed in Excel. At their own expense, they do not want to experiment.
For large companies, on the contrary, the price is not significant, and most importantly support, scalability and the possibility of flexible changes in the program logic for new tasks.
Therefore, we decided to take such a step as providing a fully functional FreeDocs product completely free of charge and for an unlimited period.
And who will pay it? It is reasonable to assume that after receiving a free full-featured tool that no one will pay anymore. Partly yes, but based on our many years of experience in communicating with the target audience, we have provided options in the paid version, which should encourage customers to switch to the paid option (although we may be mistaken).
The free version of FreeDocs is local, and the paid version provides for working over the network in one database of an unlimited number of users. This is relevant for medium and large organizations where it is necessary to deposit a large amount of accumulated documents and use a database of more than a few dozen users online. In a small organization, it is enough to install several local copies, but to arrange everything in a large one and monitor the relevance of tens and hundreds of bases is expensive.
Another not unimportant feature in favor of the paid version is the prohibition of the connection of own databases of documents with a free shell. After all, who will like it if the newly created long time is interrupted or the workers spread it. Although, in turn, the paid version will easily connect freely distributed document databases created on FreeDocs .
Also, users of the free version of FreeDocs will be deprived of individual technical support, they will only accept requests and comments, which may be taken into account in future releases.
It is interesting to know the opinion about the chosen monetization strategy, if anyone can throw new ideas or share their experiences. We will be very grateful.
Upon request, I will try to describe in more detail the tool created.
Currently, the FreeDocs editor is designed to create and maintain up to date the accumulated enterprise (or an individual, which is not excluded) various regulatory and technical information, coupled with a large number of design tools, drawings, descriptions and reference books.
This is not just a piggy bank with search standards - it is a complete environment for storing and presenting information in a convenient way with attachment of files.
It uses its own compression system (dozens of times) of documents for compact storage of both texts and scans.
Further development of the functionality is planned, but only after the users have mastered the existing one.
In more detail, you can answer at the same specific comparisons with paid competitors or on the wishes of people.
Further
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/102804/
All Articles