White papers show the world you’re an expert
White papers are one of the most effective tools to educate customers and prospects, and to persuade them to use your products or services. That’s particularly true when you offer something that’s complex and that involves a lengthy decision process.
One recent survey reported that 84 percent of businesspeople felt that white papers influenced their decisions and 89 percent said they pass white papers along to others. I’ll help you develop white papers that present clear, concise and compelling cases to critical stakeholders.
My experience with writing white papers will allow you to enhance your credibility without becoming overtly promotional.
FAIR, Inc., Indianapolis
Objective: Address myths about issues related to school construction in Indiana.
Excerpt: Opponents to building projects often ask a question that – on the surface – seems valid: “Why are we investing in facilities when we should be spending money on teachers?” The implied message is that school corporations are somehow taking money away from staff costs to pay for building projects.
That may be true in other states, but it’s impossible in Indiana. State law mandates the use of fund accounting, with separate funds for different categories of costs. Under state laws (aside from some very limited exceptions), money from one fund cannot be transferred to cover costs in another.
Hylant, Toledo, OH
Objective: Educate clients
Excerpt: Consider a workplace injury that leads to a 911 call and hospitalization. The ambulance fee and hospital bills are part of the direct costs, but where do the indirect costs come in? Start with the likelihood that work came to a halt while the EMTs treated the worker, so productivity dropped off significantly. Supervisors had to oversee the situation and it’s likely that at least one supervisor had to accompany the worker to the hospital, forcing someone else to take over his or her role on the worksite.
Equss, Golden Valley, MN
(with Nancy Brandt Writing)
Objective: Educate industry
Excerpt: CPU/GPU virtualization allows companies to achieve significant reductions in hardware cost in two ways: they need to buy less of it and are able to use what they have more effectively. Another key advantage is that virtualization allows portability from the application side. Instead of being tied to the physical hardware, the application is tied to a hypervisor (also known as a VMM or virtual machine monitor). The hypervisor essentially acts as a moderator, shifting applications to available space on the hardware, and allowing the OEM to easily add new hardware, move existing hardware around, move applications to different hardware environments to improve efficiency, and make similar changes transparently.
Brightpoint, Plainfield, IN
(With Kathy Tully Design)
Objective: Explain benefits of Foreign Trade Zones.
Excerpt: Duties on commodities are not assessed until the items are actually imported. Because goods held in an FTZ are considered to be outside the commerce of the U.S., duties on those goods will be deferred until they are actually shipped outside the zone. At a practical level, that means a company will not incur duties until the goods are sold and shipped. That way, the company doesn’t have to pay duties up front for product that is going to sit in inventory for an undetermined length of time, enhancing cash flow and freeing up cash for other uses.
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