For several years now the company where I work as been on an Software & Maintenance for Rad Studio. The key benefits that I really like are:
- Support Incidents for when we run into a bug that we can not find a work around. They work with us to find a solution the problem at hand. Sometimes it's been a quick and easy problem for the support team and some time more difficult, ultimately we end up with something that works. One time we ended up with special version of the compiler to solve our problems so we could stay working. To be honest we don't have to contact support very often at all but it is nice to know it is there.
- New version just arrive without having to deal with a purchasing nightmare, the budget stays relatively fixed so it's easy to plan the budget around the cost.
- My entire team can participate in beta tests.
The Support and Maintenance program was recently was renamed to Update Subscription, and some of the terms have changed. Ultimately I believe these changes are good thing, but has some hurdles to get over, that some customers may not like. Specifically that customer need to be on Update Subscription to the full set of bug fixes. But some of the new terms allow for the following:
- Ongoing maintenance for up to 2 yrs for major version and up to 3 concurrent major versions. This really means that our XE6 and XE8 should be getting some of the bug fixes from XE8 coming to it. This is really helpful as we can't keep our entire code base current.
- Webinars and web content that is just for Update Subscription customers.
We chose not to upgrade to XE8 as we have projects going on right now. These projects can't afford a delay that would come with an major upgrade the development tools. But under Update Subscription have value coming for XE6 and XE7 which we do use. I look forward to those releases but do wish we had an idea when they may be coming.
So in short I like the Update Subscription.
Visual Studio delivers FREE service packs to their products no maters when subscription expires, for 5 to 10 years, even the products is no more sold, that’s a major difference what implies respect to their clients and loyalty on long term from them.
ReplyDeleteIn my activity I give to my customers free updates for 2 years (2 years warranty!), but I also have complex software products for 6 (six) or other 9 (nine) years with bug fix support because of respecting, satisfaction and have peace. Some of my software products have ALL bugs reported fixed.
Generally 99% of my reported bugs are fixed for free and for the rest I give my clients workarounds for free!
Because of this policy from my company I am able to pay my Delphi licenses. If I would adopt your policy I would be out of business long ago already. I live from selling licenses and additional services, but NOT any kind of any subscription and I don’t pay any subscription to anyone. And I also have limited express, free edition of my software, that my potential clients to learn, play and view data.
Anyone has financial restriction but this not means I should put my clients to pay for my product’s defects.
With SIX MONTHS release cycle and FIX BUG SOLD AS SUBSCRIPTION you could irritate more, the remaining clients and PUSH them in the arms of Visual Studio. And none is not coming back to Delphi from Visual Studio. Even Microsoft, with 100x resources than you is releasing versions at 2-3 years, because it’s not engineering possible the make improvements in 6 months, test, refinement, proper documentation, printed books, etc.
I would NOT use a tool that’s obsolete in such short period of time even you give me for FREE, because I should lose time and invest more money to install Delphi and 3-rd party, test my old code instead of perfection and become productive with what I have. But I would love to buy a well tested, documented and with bug free a Delphi from 3 to 3 years.
There is NO MOTIVATION to learn, develop, write books about a tool that has no warranty and will disappear in 6 months.
I also have a question for some time, what is Embarcadero response for the arrival of Visual Studio Community (free) edition? Is Bug fix as a subscription, bigger prices, forums down, no linq, ancient db controls, ancient toolbar, redundant controls, 15 year behind to .net, etc. ?
Use the right tool for your work. Evaluate options and make a decision. We use both Delphi and C#. Embarcadero is hardly the first to go the subscription route. It almost required to stay up on the mobile world.
DeleteUse the right tool for your work. Evaluate options and make a decision. We use both Delphi and C#. Embarcadero is hardly the first to go the subscription route. It almost required to stay up on the mobile world.
DeleteUse the right tool for your work. Evaluate options and make a decision. We use both Delphi and C#. Embarcadero is hardly the first to go the subscription route. It almost required to stay up on the mobile world.
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