RB6 for D7?

rbuser

I purchased the full version of RB Pro 6.03 for use in my company's software
projects in April 2002. I am now upgrading to Delphi 7.0 Pro. Will the
current RB 6.03 version work with the new D7 Pro? If not will there be a
6.03 version published for D7, and if not why not?

After a long decision process my company only recently decided to go to your
RB product from QuickReports. While there is no question it's a nice package
it is rather pricey when compared to QuickReports and the price of Delphi
Pro. If now just a few months later we have to pay again just to simply move
to D7 Pro it begins to make our decision to move to your product loook like
an unwise one and one we may regret due to the cost factors involved.

We are confused based on comments we read in this forum on this matter. Can
you straighten things out?

Regards;

Bob Dalton
President, Digital Logistics Software Development Company

digitalmetaphors

No, RB 6.03 will not work with D7. We will release RB 7 for Delphi 7 when
we get our Delphi 7 cd. We should release a version within the next few
weeks.
If you purchased on or after July 1, 2002, you may upgrade your edition of
ReportBuilder to the latest version for free. All upgrade fees apply to
licenses purchased before July 1, 2002. You'll have to pay $175 to upgrade
your RB 6.03 Pro to the latest version of RB 7.0 Pro when it is released.



Cheers,

Jim Bennett
Digital Metaphors

rbuser

> No, RB 6.03 will not work with D7.

To say we are displeased with this policy statement is a massive
understatement! We did not know at the time of our RB6.03 product purchase
in April 2002 that it was your company's policy to not have a product we
purchase extend past the current version of Delphi. We are happy with 6.03
and see no reason we should be forced after only a few short months of
ownership to upgrade just so we can use it with D7.

If we had known this would be the case we would have waited 5 months until
D7 was released instead of buying in April and saved ourselves $175.00 in
the process or possibly not bought at all since your product - based on your
statement - is only good for the current version and not beyond. Your policy
is guarantees that the total cost of ownership (TCO) is much higher then it
initially appears at time of initial purchase. This is good for you and bad
for us....

Regards;

Bob Dalton
President, Digital Logistics
A very dissatisfied customer

digitalmetaphors

We have to support an entire new release of Delphi, which takes development
effort and Digital Metaphors resources to do this. The $175 upgrade price is
not a win/lose situation. You win because you are helping ensure we stay in
business to be here tomorrow to help you with any problems you run up
against using ReportBuilder to solve your reporting needs.

Cheers,

Jim Bennett
Digital Metaphors

rbuser

So other developers will be aware of this "policy" I have posted all the
threads verbatim on this subject (except for this one) to the
borland.public.delphi.thirdparty forum. I think prospective RB customers
will find it most interesting....

I expect you will get your $175.00 from us because since we just purchased
D7 we are up the proverbial creek unless we do make that forced upgrade.
Other then that upgrade we will purchase nothing further from you.

Regards;

Bob Dalton
President, Digital Logistics
A very unhappy RB customer

digitalmetaphors

Yes, we've read your post in the Borland newsgroups.

We are supporting a new version of Delphi and have spent a tremendous amount
of time improving ReportBuilder over the past year. The development time we
spend to build this version is not going to be for free. In perspective, we
have to pay Borland for upgrades, just like you do:) We understand that we
have to buy an upgrade from Borland and this is part of moving forward. For
us, moving to Delphi 7 is part of doing what it takes to build the best
product out there! With your $175 upgrade purchase, you are getting Delphi 7
support, new features, numerous bug fixes, and also enabling us to continue
to provide gold star tech support!

We have won Best Reporting Tool and Product of The Year from the Delphi
Informant's Reader's Choice Awards four years in a row, because of our loyal
and happy customers! We want to make it five years in a row! We are
confident that ReportBuilder is going to do what you need it to do in order
to make your product successful! We stand behind our product and will
continue to support you and answer any question you have about ReportBuilder
and what you need ReportBuilder to do for you to make you happy. If you run
into any problems, just ask us, we're here to help you!


Cheers,

Jim Bennett
Digital Metaphors

rbuser

Just curious, Bob, what are the specific new features in D7 that aren't in
D6 that caused you to upgrade?

Michael Gregg

rbuser

Hi Bob,

I don't know what hourly rate you are on, but if you look at the time you
spend complaining about $175, or at the time wasted looking for alternative
report writers or working around their bugs, then I would definately pay
$175 and get on with the job.

I am not a ReportBuilder customer yet, but I will be very soon. I have
waisted some time looking at other report writers and I have even considered
waiting for Delphi 7 and Rave, but it is just not worth it. Get a good
report writer and get on with your job. You can't save money you haven't
earned yet !

Samuel.

rbuser

> We have to support an entire new release of Delphi, which takes development

What is new for version 7?

--
Thank you,

Craig
craig at pbyc dot com
do not use SpamTarget email address

rbuser

Hang in there - although you are new to RB, Digital Metaphors has
released many updates without charge in the past. They have to charge
for an upgrade sometime, and since they have rewritten RB for version 7,
this is as good a time as any.

I for one am happy to pay for this upgrade, and I'm grateful for all the
free updates before.

rbuser

Please note that I have no issues with your product per se (we like it) and
my Borland post was as even handed as I could make it all things considered.
I even went so far as to make sure you were posted verbatim and not just my
side. We also made a quite clear in our post that your product is good one.
We are upset with your policy but still wish to remain fair in this case.

Upgrades are a fact of life in this business and I of course realize it and
we have to do it periodically just like everyone else. The normal cycle from
point of purchase to obsolence (the point where you must upgrade your
components or you can't use the product further with Delphi) has been
roughly 1-2 years or so on the average based on our many years of experience
with the fair number of components sets we have purchased for Delphi.

The cyle for your RB Pro product started with our full purchase (not an
upgrade) on April 7th and will be reached when we receive Delphi 7.0 in the
next few days - a little less then 5 months. That's the issue with us. If it
had been a year or there abouts you would not be seeing this reaction from
us. A five month obsolence cycle even for this industry is a bit much IMHO.

Someone mentioned the cost being peanuts. Perhaps in the boom years of the
90's you might have been right. Unfortunately controlling costs is a major
issue with most industries now - even ours. Those who are not controlling
costs are going out of business. Take the airlines for example where
controlling costs has become such a major factor that they now are only
offering half a cup of soda to passengers! . Most high tech business that
are no longer around did not heed this new reality. What the market will
bear is a lot lower then it once was with high tech and software and a heck
of a lot more competetive. Even Borland was forced to offer D7 Pro upgrades
initially for $100 less then they planned ($299 versus $399) as to many
customers looked like they were going to pass on D7 at the original price
they wanted. Something to consider....

Regards;

Bob Dalton
President, Digital Logistics

rbuser

Perhaps the problem is that DM has not adequately explained the issues
in bringing out the D7 version so the effort is not being appreciated
by some.

Also, I don't know about everyone else but I am surprised that D7 came
out so fast. I'm just getting going on D6 and many 3rd party
components are still being debugged for D6.

rbuser

Just found the thread where new features are described.

Seems to me that early adopters like me got one heck of a free ride of
updates for which we are grateful and I'll be buying 2 copies of the
update immediately upon availability. But I can sure understand how
some people who just bought it a few months ago and are still working
on converting dozens of QReports to RB and haven't shipped anything
yet could be a bit upset with things. Not that my opinion counts.

rbuser

> The cyle for your RB Pro product started with our full purchase (not an

I'm not pretty sure about this: i purchased RB Pro 6 before August 2001. It
makes the major version life-time longer than a year.
RB 6.03 was a free upgrade for us so the version 6.xx had a free upgrade policy.

The fact that you purchased on April doesn't mean that the product only exists
since then, it's an older product.
So paying for a major upgrade seems fair to me.
Best of luck
--
Guillermo Castaño Acevedo
Gerente de Sistemas - Grupo Millennium Ltda
GuillermoC@GrupoMillennium.com
http://www.GrupoMillennium.com

rbuser