There are few freelance B2B writers active today that have written more about ERP software than I have. There are more than 500,000 words in print under my byline. While I don’t know the exact percentage, I would guess that more than half of those words have been dedicated to the topic of ERP.
As a journalist, I covered ERP for Manufacturing Systems, Managing Automation, Software Strategies, Start (Microsoft), and many other publications.
As a freelance writer, I’ve ghost written white papers, case studies, feature articles, and other marketing documents for such leading ERP companies as Epicor, Microsoft Dynamics, IFS, Cincom, SSA Global, IQMS, and several others.
When it comes to ERP software, I’ve written enough material to fill several volumes on the subject.
At the beginning of the decade, 0n the cusp of the rise of cloud computing, I was asked by an editor to write a story about the pros and cons of using the cloud for enterprise applications. At the time, the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server was considered foreign and more than a bit scary to many in the enterprise computing space. That article was my first foray into writing about cloud computing, but it wouldn’t be my last.
Since that first cloud computing article, I’ve written dozens of case studies, blog posts, and white papers on the topic. In 2014, for example, I was asked by a major publisher of technology-related content to produce an eBook series on cloud computing. More recently, my clients have asked me to produce blog posts on specific aspects of cloud computing as the practice has become more ubiquitous. Even as far back as 2011, I was writing about cloud computing’s impact on K-12 education.
When it comes to the cloud, I’ve been on it since 2010.
By far the hottest topic amongst my client base over the past 18 months has been enterprise digital transformation. The digital transformation, as many of you may be aware, is a profound and accelerating transformation of business activities, processes, competencies, and models to fully leverage the changes and opportunities of digital technologies and their impact on society in a strategic and prioritized way. It’s a fascinating subject.
I have written at least a half dozen white papers on the topic for a variety of enterprise software companies. Due to non-disclosure agreements, I can’t provide examples in this post or mention my client’s by name. But I can provide the titles for a few of these white papers, including:
White papers are not the only marketing materials I’ve created on the digital transformation. It is also been the topic of countless blog posts. I act as a corporate ghost blogger for several companies, and they’ve all asked me to touch on the topic of enterprise digital transformation numerous times from a variety of angles.
When it comes to the topic of enterprise digital transformation, I have as much experience of any freelance writer that you’re likely to encounter.
This is the first post in my series about my experience as a B2B business writer.
I decided to start with metal fabricating because I was asked this week by a prospective client if I had ever written about it. The prospect was referred to me by my editor at The Fabricator, a publication I’ve contributed to for many years. (I’ve also contributed to The FABRICATOR en Español). Last year, in fact, I wrote the entire contents of the FABTECH EXPO show daily, North America’s largest metal forming, fabricating, welding, and finishing event.
My experience with metal fabricating goes back to the late ’80s when I began my career as a marketing manager for Panasonic Factory Automation (PFA). (I left Panasonic in 1992 to launch my freelance business). One of the divisions within PFA sold welding robots, and I wrote a myriad of metal fabricating case studies for the group, including one about cylinder fabrication that made the cover of the very same Fabricator magazine that I would later serve as a contributing editor.
While metal fabricating is far from my largest area of concentration, it has certainly been a topic I’ve visited repeatedly over the past quarter century.
When prospective clients ask me questions about how I work, the one question I’m always asked is: Do you have experience writing about my specific industry or product? After 25 years writing about enterprise technology, from the shop floor to the C-Suite, there is seldom an instance when my answer is no. Since this question is perennial, I’m going to write a few posts over the coming weeks that focus on specific technologies that I have written about over the past 25 years. I’ll talk about the product or service or software I’ve written about and provide an example or two.
So, stay tuned. I’ve written about a lot of very interesting companies with remarkable technologies during my career as a freelance B2B business writer.