Sgml: the Billion Dollar Secret (Charles F. Goldfarb series on open information management) [Facsimile] (Paperback)

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