CEO asking where X is?

[DavidB]

What do you say when the CEO fly's in from interstate walks up to you and ask's where is X?

Then he tells you what a joke it is and he wants to know what he has got for his 2 years of Mainenace what can I say?

[cadcam]

you can tell him what he has gotton. Cracks me up as you all act like all have not received anything.

 

That the only reason you got maint was so you can get X then what you were going to stop getting Maint?

 

Just wondering my self.

X is coming sooner then you think so just hang a little longer.

 

I do suggest that all stay or get on maint.

 

Well as they say Roger & OUT

[DavidB]

Jay I'd say yes the only reason we got Maintenance was for X. Why else would you pay for it?

Im running MR0105 so that's a Feb update, its half way threw July?

[Bruce Caulley]

I feel your pain David. Our maintenance is due for renewal now.

[HevyMetl]

All credible software companies now have a maintenance agreement. You want the updated software you pay maintnenace. Do a search Dave this was covered very heavily by I believe Rek'd and Crazy.

 

CNC has provided updateS sense maintenace was implemented. I really enjoy the increases processing speed that the last two have provided on my surfacing toolpaths. FZT is awesome and the regen times on changes seem to be better on these as well.

 

Please no one flame me, but the STEP translator was a great update for me. The company would not pay for the step translator so I was having to convert iges surfaces to solids. Not always the greatest of information to translate. The step's now come in as solids, with wireframe.

 

I told our CEO that we never purchased maintenace for just X. We purhcased it to stay current on the patches and repairs. I also shared with him what I spent on maintence for Proe Proman Promold EMX last year. I also shared that we have not update since Wild fire and were currently one version behind because of the learing curve in engineering. The last time I updated it caused about a two month backlog, because all of the engineers were then forced to update. Anything I worked on in the new version forced them to use the new version there after. He smiled and walked away.

[Bruce Caulley]

I know other programmes have more expensive maintenance. We have about 5 different high end packages and pay maintenance on them all. Without rehashing the X debate too much, benifits gained versus benifits advertised aren't tallying up. I am not 100% sure, but I think David does similar work to myself and we have gained no real advantage so far from maintenance. Mould shops are happy with FZT. Others are happy with the STEP translator.

At the end of the day a lot of people are trying their best to explain to management what was gained by joining maintenance and then having the General Manager sigh and say: "In other words nothing!" (not my words, his)

 

It isn't just about the dollars.

 

Bruce

[HevyMetl]

Granted this has been a marketing nightmare. I will agree that CNC has done a poor job handling this. After this amount of time they need to give a firm date and stick with it. You can keep improving on things forever, but at some point in time you have to release and then have patches there after for maintenance coustomers.

[Dan Kintzel]

Maybe after the introduction of Maintenance to all it's customers, CNC Software should have provided Mastercam Art to all who signed up for the ploy. Even though, maybe not everyone out there could have used Art, it wouldn't have seemed like such a hard kick in the nads and the wallet for taking on Maintenance. THAT would have been a better approach in my eyes. I've been on Maintenance since day 1 and haven't used a single maintenance update to my benefit at all.

I used it to get X, period. Hope it works out when we finally get it.

Oh well, All I can say is I'm glad my boss has a fatter wallet than me and doesn't ask too amny questions.

[chris m]

Just tell him it'll be ready in July '04...

[Thad]

You could tell him that he is a fool if he paid for 2 years of Maint, if he only bought Maint for the X update. Only the first Maint payment was required to get X.

 

Thad

[cadcam]

So none of you plan on staying on Maint after you get X? Is This what I am hearing, is this true.

 

But you will pay the other software companys for there Maint? DO you feel you get more from them.

 

Really I am wondering about all this..

 

Thanks Jay

[Smit]

We pay a ton of cash for maintenance on Pro-e, unigraphics and vericut. Mastercam maintenance is cheap by comparison.

 

The latest update to MR0105 regenerates complex toolpaths much faster, converts step files, and seems to be quite stable. Plus it's easy to budget for.

 

I'm personally not unhappy with the maintenance.

 

I would like to see X delivered soon though...

[Thad]

We're in it for the long haul, Jay. Getting X with it is just an added bonus.

 

Thad

[HevyMetl]

Where did you get NONE of us where planning on continueing with maintenance after X came out? I felt like some us made it clear that we were in it and felt like maintenance wiht CNC was a bargain compared to our other cad systems.

 

Are you getting a little touchy about the brow beating CNC and resellers are taking because there "X" promises to date have been hollow?

 

Let me say again for clarification. Maintenance is a bargain with CNC if you want to stay current with all of the patches and releases. If you are happy with you current productivity stay off of maintenance.

[chris m]

Jay, please, I know that you're a reseller and obviously a loyal and experienced Mastercam customer, but even you have to admit that there has been a LOT of schucking and jiving going on with the version X release date.

 

C

[Lathe-Mill]

X is coming sooner then you think so just hang a little longer.

---------------------------------

how long is a little longer?...1 - 2 - 3 months?...I know 2004!!!!!

 

I just think they used X as an excuse to get people on the maintenance....cause after everyones get X not many people would get on it..

[Brendan P]

quote:

---

But you will pay the other software companys for there Maint?

---

No offense Jay,but there were no maintenance fees ,and point releases were free when my company bought our 2 seats.

Then the bottom fell out of this whole business and IMO,cnc software was not making much $$ selling their product cause shops were folding left and right.....

I am still waiting paitently for X!

[Jeff Kemper]

Tell him to talk to CNC, it's not YOU who have made X late. Pretty poor CEO who can't figer that out.

[mayday]

quote:

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a LOT of schucking and jiving

---

hmm.

what else puts out a 12 month calender of there product that isnt avalible yet. I took my X calender down.

 

got a little embarassing

[DC Gorn]

This whole thing was a big marketing blunder. Our local rep pushed the maintenance as a cheap way to get X to my boss also. Fact of the matter almost 2 year before that I told my rep he needed to come up with Maintenance since its easyer to just say "it cost 750 per year to maintain". That is so much better then trying get the upgrade cost approved every 18 months.

If you happen to have a copy of 9.0 and do any 5 axis work then you know what we have is worlds ahead of where V9 mill started. Its ashame we could not got back a year or two have a release of 10 (current engine) and be waiting on Version 11. Not 6 releases of 9.1. It would make the suits happy anyway Either way its better to have 18 month beta then to give me a software that can't make parts or crashes my machine.

[cadcam]

HevyMetl, You have made a good point. Not everyone is having this problem and thank you for pointing this out.

 

chris m ,

quote:

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a LOT of schucking and jiving going on

---

I can't say much about that but I can say.

I know it has been longer then needed but I know that it was better for sure on the delay to make for a better release.

 

quote:

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how long is a little longer?...1 - 2 - 3 months?...I know 2004!!!!!

---

I cant say excatly but I can tell you before the HOT summer is over you can have it in your hands.

 

quote:

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cause after everyones get X not many people would get on it..

---

Well I hope this not true as for the being on maint will for sure get them alott more out of the software as they are all ready plaining to add more on the Maint release's

 

quote:

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there were no maintenance fees

---

I do understand this and it's hard for alott to swallow after not ever having this before.

But this will help alott of companys to budget for the years to come and keep up to date.

 

Thanks all for your time.

[chris m]

Thank you Jay for the level-headed and honest reply; I expected nothing else from you

 

C

[HevyMetl]

Thanks Jay,

 

I do hope to have it before summer is over. I am still like a kid at christmas waiting for a new toy to open.

[DavidB]

Jay, I hope your talking about a USA summer and not an Aussie one

[cadcam]

DavidB,That is a good question

 

I was thinking California Summer myself.