White Paper Pundit

It’s been said that the definition of a fanatic is someone that doubles their efforts while losing sight of the goal. If you believe in that saying, then the Inside TEC blog certainly earns this moniker.

I say this in response to what has now become an online challenge to my disagreement over their #1 Most Ambitious Buzzword of all Time, “solution“. But hey, I up for the challenge, so bring it on.

As I indicated in a previous post, TEC’s choice of a replacement word for their #1 most ambitious buzzword, “solution” was “tool” which, in my opinon, connotes a specific type of solution aimed primarily at the software development community. My point was that the word “tool” does not rise to the multi-purpose, generic level of functionality that “solution” provides. Therefore a “tool” is a type of “solution“. You solve a problem (needing to build a house) with a “solution” (carpentry). You fix a specific problem, (the need to drill a hole) with specific solution, a “tool” (a drill). Replacing the word “solution” with “tool” in a white paper will simply confusion readers especially when the paper is directed towards a combined technical and business professional audience.

In their response to my post entitled “How to Buy an Enterprise Thingy”, TEC begrudingly agrees with my assessment of the word “tool“, but goes on to justify their position that “solution” has become outdated by using Google Trends as their validation. As stated in their response:

“Google Trends shows that the term “software tools” has consistently outperformed “software solutions” by a margin of nearly 2 to 1 over the last 3 years. Why? Because that’s what people are looking for.”

So according to TEC, the fact that Google Trends shows a greater number of hits with the term “software tools” than “software solutions” is not only justification that the two terms are somehow related, but that the people using the term “software tools” are choosing to do so over “software solutions“. Really?

There is a considerable amount of naïveté going on here. First, it makes sense that anyone using the search critieria “tool” is actually looking for a tool, most likely software developers. But let’s get real here. Who among us actually uses the term “solution” in a Google search? For example, if I was searching for a CRM solution, I wouldn’t be so simple-minded to include the term “solution” in that search. I’d search for specific criteria such as CRM+”per seat server cost“, or CRM+”customization“, or CRM+”scalability“. To include the word “solution” as part of a Google search is akin to adding the word “automobile” when searching for a Chevrolet Corvette. It’s understood to be part of the search criteria. So it’s no small wonder that the term “software solution” has received a smaller number of hits than “software tool“.

Secondly, assuming that the use of the term “solution” in a Google search is the same as when it’s used in a white paper is another example of flawed logic. Google users are looking for very specific answers over the shortest amount of time and in the quickest path possible. White paper readers on the other hand are looking for answers to complex business challenges. They understand that finding a solution to their business problem is the result of reading several pages of facts, analysis, and examples. In fact, they might read several white papers before they reach a final conclusion. The word “solution” is part of that discovery process, not an impediment to it.

Finally, TEC’s response is a great example of what’s wrong with many so-called “experts” the technical marketing field that have become overly-dependent on statistics and analytics to make common-sense decisions. Sometimes it’s better picking up a telephone and talking to people to find out if a particular position is accurate or off-track.

So that’s exactly what I did. I picked up the phone and actually talked to human beings on the subject. What a concept!

I’ll let you know the results of this mini-poll that was conducted with several software and marketing executives on this subject in my next post. Stay tuned…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008 at 9:13 pm and is filed under White Paper Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.