This may be so, but I see far too many posts in the DM newsgroups from users who are looking for help and yet are still on v7, 9v, v12 etc of Report Builder. So not only are they looking for a back door way of getting free help, they aren't doing their bit in providing the revenue stream for DM that we all need to ensure that the product survives. Maybe if we all contributed to a "herd immunity", DM could afford to take on the extra staff needed to keep pace with Delphi updates, support FireMonkey, and generally keep up with our feature requests.
Most VLC providers for Delphi have gone under over the years, and now just a handful of main players remain. If we want there to be RB for XE8, XE7 etc then its not just Nard and Nico that need to get their finger out!
That's a good point - and would be made easier perhaps if DM offered a subscription model? Similar to that offered by Steema, DevExpress, TMS etc. The RB upgrade prices are often quite high in comparison to other suites, and I for one would be happier paying $299 per year (say) for the Enterprise edition than $699 every 2-3 years.
[This followup was posted to digital- metaphors.public.reportbuilder.general and a copy was sent to the cited author.]
In article <543e1a0b@mail.>, pault@navigator.co.uk says...
Hi Paul and all from Digital Metaphors!
I've also been waiting for the new version eagerly and I fully agree with Paul that times for free "never ending" support are over. Maybe it is time to shift your support to subscription model. I believe all professional developer would welcome to pay an acceptable fee to keep their product regulary updated and to receive great support.
I am used to pay for the Embarcadero All-Access Gold subscription (aprox. 3000 EUR per year), TMS VCL Subscription (800 EUR per two years) and I would pay for your product too. Because it helps me to earn money. I understand that not everybody can pay such fees, but not everybody need the source code, RAP etc. So if you would prepare some subscription plans, you could plan better your cash flow and could better fullfil needs of your customers together with support oriented to the latest major version of your product. I don't believe wasting of your skills to support five or six years old versions is really helpful.
I think it is a nice idea to keep support for older version of the IDE, but not the old versions of your great product.
I am a licensed user of ReportBuilder 15 Enterprise which costs 950 USD for a new license and 600 USD for an upgrade from version 14. I expect a year subscription fee for the same price would be acceptable if you would deliver new versions together with every RAD Studio release as soon as possible and all versions of Report Builder would be included in that subscription plan. And a two years option with some discount would be appreciated too :-)
[This followup was posted to digital- metaphors.public.reportbuilder.general and a copy was sent to the cited author.]
In article <543e3969$1@mail.>, richard@boe-systems.co.uk says...
Hi Richard!
I've just posted the exactly same idea. I didn't like the subscription model when it was introduced few years ago, but in fact it is the only model which allows those small companies to survive.
Agreed. And while reporting makes up only about 5% of the total functionality in our application, as far as our users are concerned its about 80+% of what they want from our application! What they care about most is getting quotes, invoices, POs, delivery notes, packing slips etc out to their customers, suppliers and staff, all looking nice, branded and professional. And then there's all the management reports for profitability, financial projections etc. Its practically all they care about, even though a monstrous amount of other code and design goes into our application to make it all happen. Without a top quality reporting engine we'd be up sh*t creek, without a paddle! So keeping Report Builder going is a very high priority for us, especially now that we have finally freed ourselves from the shackles of Crystal Reports
Comments
Alessandro Romano
Scriveva Alessandro Romano martedì, 14/10/2014:
This is the last tool for upgrading my applications to XE7.
This may be so, but I see far too many posts in the DM newsgroups from
users who are looking for help and yet are still on v7, 9v, v12 etc of
Report Builder. So not only are they looking for a back door way of
getting free help, they aren't doing their bit in providing the revenue
stream for DM that we all need to ensure that the product survives.
Maybe if we all contributed to a "herd immunity", DM could afford to
take on the extra staff needed to keep pace with Delphi updates, support
FireMonkey, and generally keep up with our feature requests.
Most VLC providers for Delphi have gone under over the years, and now
just a handful of main players remain. If we want there to be RB for
XE8, XE7 etc then its not just Nard and Nico that need to get their
finger out!
subscription model? Similar to that offered by Steema, DevExpress, TMS etc.
The RB upgrade prices are often quite high in comparison to other suites,
and I for one would be happier paying $299 per year (say) for the Enterprise
edition than $699 every 2-3 years.
Richard
metaphors.public.reportbuilder.general and a copy was sent to the cited
author.]
In article <543e1a0b@mail.>, pault@navigator.co.uk says...
Hi Paul and all from Digital Metaphors!
I've also been waiting for the new version eagerly and I fully agree
with Paul that times for free "never ending" support are over. Maybe it
is time to shift your support to subscription model. I believe all
professional developer would welcome to pay an acceptable fee to keep
their product regulary updated and to receive great support.
I am used to pay for the Embarcadero All-Access Gold subscription
(aprox. 3000 EUR per year), TMS VCL Subscription (800 EUR per two years)
and I would pay for your product too. Because it helps me to earn money.
I understand that not everybody can pay such fees, but not everybody
need the source code, RAP etc. So if you would prepare some subscription
plans, you could plan better your cash flow and could better fullfil
needs of your customers together with support oriented to the latest
major version of your product. I don't believe wasting of your skills to
support five or six years old versions is really helpful.
I think it is a nice idea to keep support for older version of the IDE,
but not the old versions of your great product.
I am a licensed user of ReportBuilder 15 Enterprise which costs 950 USD
for a new license and 600 USD for an upgrade from version 14. I expect a
year subscription fee for the same price would be acceptable if you
would deliver new versions together with every RAD Studio release as
soon as possible and all versions of Report Builder would be included in
that subscription plan. And a two years option with some discount would
be appreciated too :-)
--
Best regards,
Igor Gottwald
metaphors.public.reportbuilder.general and a copy was sent to the cited
author.]
In article <543e3969$1@mail.>, richard@boe-systems.co.uk says...
Hi Richard!
I've just posted the exactly same idea.
I didn't like the subscription model when it was introduced few years
ago, but in fact it is the only model which allows those small companies
to survive.
--
Best regards,
Igor Gottwald
Agreed. And while reporting makes up only about 5% of the total
functionality in our application, as far as our users are concerned its
about 80+% of what they want from our application! What they care about
most is getting quotes, invoices, POs, delivery notes, packing slips etc
out to their customers, suppliers and staff, all looking nice, branded
and professional. And then there's all the management reports for
profitability, financial projections etc. Its practically all they care
about, even though a monstrous amount of other code and design goes into
our application to make it all happen. Without a top quality reporting
engine we'd be up sh*t creek, without a paddle! So keeping Report
Builder going is a very high priority for us, especially now that we
have finally freed ourselves from the shackles of Crystal Reports
+1 for this
We're also on board if DM is switching to a RB Subscription ... and
we're also a licensed Rb user from 3.x on
--
Brgds, Yusuf