Rev_rant part 4

[Dave]

On 15 Nov 2006, at 13:28, Bernard Devlin wrote:

> Dave said:
>
> >>
> The point is that all those technologies could be replaced by RunRev
> and the whole system would be much more stable. They are finding it
> really hard to find the right people because of all the different
> technologies and tools involved. In short it would be much better and
> reliable to use RunRev and would save them money and allow them to
> extend their system much more easily.
> <<
>
> If your development team really were convinced by you that Rev  
> would solve lots of their interoperability issues, staffing issues,  
> and save them money, then I don't see that they would have been put  
> off by the cost of annual update packs.  Maybe they are used to  
> using free scripting languages and compilers, so paying anything  
> for Rev might be a hurdle for them.  I noticed elsewhere in this  
> thread that you have added:
>

Cos they have been burnt before with other products I would have  
thought! Plus the instability of the Windows XP version. They just  
decided that they would put off doing anything for a while and then  
reconsider using it (or some other tool) when their next major update  
is required. I've been patching up their code and trying to make it  
work better for now.


> The problem is that when they read the sales small print (in this  
> case)
> and see support is not included.
> <<
>
> Can you tell us which other tools they use that come with free  
> support from the vendor?  I don't know of any.  Or is it really  
> just the withdrawal of 1 year of free updates as part of the  
> purchase price that is putting them off?

Most games and they cost a fraction of the price of RunRev! Also,  
PhotoShop, Mac OS X, plus loads of others! In fact all the apps that  
come with Mac OS X have free bug fixes available (as opposed to  
enhancements.
>
> Assuming that you did manage to convince them on the technical  
> merits of Rev versus their other tools, I find it hard to  
> understand how they have justified NOT switching to Rev on the  
> grounds of the cost of the annual updates.

Was all the above.


> Why don't you approach Runrev and see if you can get 1 year of free  
> updates for your team, and in return you could serve as a marketing  
> case study for Runrev showing how it solved all your department's  
> problems?

I did. It's too late now anyway.
>

> Can I also ask you: are you actually employed as a member of this  
> team, or are you working for this organization in some other  
> capacity?  I was a member of a development team that really did not  
> appreciate people from outside our team coming to us recommending  
> other technologies.  We would politely listen to them, then find  
> plenty of technical and non-technical reasons why we couldn't  
> follow the path they were suggesting.  Sometimes we were right to  
> do that, sometimes we were wrong.

They hired me to fix up their system now and hopefully do a new one  
later on. The system is a nightmare for them and they would rather  
have a third party be responsible for the development and support.  
None of the team want to work on it and they are very happy that I am  
there doing it, since they can get on with what they are good at.

All the Best
Dave