license update or maintenance agreement

Discussion in 'SolidWorks' started by bill allemann, Feb 27, 2008.

  1. I've been working off an old release for a while.
    What's the situation for getting current again?
    Do I pay the usual annual maintenance fee plus a penalty?
    If so, are all VAR's required to charge the penalty?

    There's no reason I couldn't use a VAR anywhere. Tech
    support, etc at the local one is of no value to me.

    Thanks,
    Bill
     
    bill allemann, Feb 27, 2008
    #1
  2. bill allemann

    clay Guest

    Bill, Depends on the VAR. If you push real hard they may give you some
    amnesty. Depends also on how long you have been off. Think about this
    for a minute. If you have been off for a long time, that is a long time
    you haven't given any maintenance either. So if you are now willing to
    sign-up, then the probability of staying signed up is greater revenue
    for them. The Vars have extended amnesty from time to time, if enough
    customers drop off in a short time window. my experience anyway. Also
    you can relatively easily transfer your license to another VAR. There is
    even a SW form for that. Check with a competing Var, they will be happy
    to sign you over. About the only real leverage you have, unless you have
    lots of seats.

    I am a strong advocate for maintenance, but it frustrates me when you
    have very little recourse if the maintenance program doesn't have much
    benefit for your situation. I am all for maintenance, when it is used
    for just that, improving things that don't work well, or don't work at
    all. Not for new icons, and other UI cosmetics, or demo features that
    are added to sell new seats.

    ca
     
    clay, Feb 28, 2008
    #2
  3. bill allemann

    j Guest

    And then they have the nerve of INCREASING maintenance costs 200.00 per
    this coming year and still wont fix all the old bugs that have been
    around for 3 or 4 releases.
     
    j, Feb 28, 2008
    #3
  4. bill allemann

    zxys Guest

    it's going to get worse before it gets better.

    this company is all about satisfying their investors, the vars and new
    customers,.. not old customers.

    their business is/was about new customers so, how do they treat old
    customers.... they don't.

    hmm... can we all smell a classic functioning dysfunctional business
    sitting high on the hog?

    ...
     
    zxys, Feb 28, 2008
    #4
  5. Dassautodesk?
    Solidwautocad?
     
    bill allemann, Feb 28, 2008
    #5
  6. bill allemann

    cdubea Guest

    You can get amnesty, but VAR's don't make that call. The SolidWorks
    regional manager does.

    If you don't have a strong requirement for upgrading, there really
    isn't any reason to do so. I'm still on v2007 (even though I'm paying
    for maintenance) and based upon what I'm reading about v2008, I might
    never upgrade. If I did I would also have to update my computer
    hardware.

    Will I pay for support in the future? That's a tough question.
    Luckily my employer picked up the subscription cost for my personal
    copy of SolidWorks last year. I'm not certain I can look them in the
    face and say it was a worthwhile investment.

    After being forcibly switched from the VAR I had used for over 6
    years, because I relocated, to a VAR who was 'highly' recommended as
    one of the BEST, I've not heard a peep. No e-mail address for
    support, nada, zippo, zilcho. At least before when I infrequently had
    a question (which was usually a bug) at least I had an e-mail address
    to a real person who would respond. Gives a person a real warm and
    fuzzy.

    Y'all take care
     
    cdubea, Feb 29, 2008
    #6
  7. My reason for upgrading would be entirely about using files from customers
    and library sources that are from newer releases.
    There hasn't been anything in the last several releases that is of any value
    to me.

    For strictly files of my own origin, I've been thinking lately about seeing
    if I can find my old disks from sw2001 and the SP files.
    In 2001 version, I did a pretty large assembly and drawing set that I'm
    pretty sure would be so slow on sw2007/8 that it would be unusable.
    It was sluggish then, but I was using a P3-750 with 256 RAM. The same
    project and sw2001 should scream on my machine now.
    As I remember, the final couple of SP releases were quite stable.
    The lack of features added since then would probably impact my working time
    by maybe -2%, but the speed difference would improve time by about +20%, I
    would think. Imagine if all the 15/30 second rebuilds were reduced by 90%.
    A person might be able to remember what they were going to do next :)

    Anyone lately tried working with a wayback release?
     
    bill allemann, Mar 1, 2008
    #7
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