Next phase of subscription transition announced

[Richard Doll]

Dear Community Members, 

Following my recent Graphisoft Insights post on the Subscription transition update, we know how important this topic is for you as our clients and anticipate your comments and questions. To streamline communication, we’ve created this thread to gather everything in one place. We’ll also use it to identify topics that may need further clarification, which we’ll address on our FAQ page.

Please note that while we cannot respond to individual questions in the forum, your local representative is available for personalized support.

Best regards,
Richard

Link to Insights article: https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Graphisoft-Insights/Important-update-Next-phase-of-subscription-...

[StefanV_BCP]

So much conflicting emotions about this. 

One thing is for sure - I don't like this, because you are changing the dynamic between customers and the company.

Before, we had some mutual agreement, partnership if you will. Now I feel that you treat us simply like an ATM, which is ok if you are ready to take an extreme heat from the users.

The room for mistakes, and justification why something is not working or its missing will be almost none since is only fair that we demand the tool for our money worth.

Personally i believe that you should leave the choice to the user Perpetual+ SSA, or Subscription. 

Cheers,

Stefan 

[Florin Luca]

I have to say that I agree with most of what you said, except for the “taking the heat” part. They don’t care and we are not organized enough to take them on. Please forgive me if I am too jaded, and definitely don’t intend any offense to you Stefan, but how on earth are we going to make them feel the heat?

I have one issue: I find the proposed subscription model appalling. Why? Because if I stop paying I have no software and I have no way to use my files, and ultimately I have no business. I resent becoming an indentured servant! That’s just me, I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong. /s

I have a small residential firm, and if this is what it takes, I will go back to hand drawing. I don’t have that many years left anyway. But all the people coming after me, better consider this seriously. Varoufakis was right when he said we are in an era of techno-feudalism. And we all know how much fun the original feudal system was!

Before any of you jump on me, defending this great GS proposal, I would like to add that when the news about switching to a subscription model came out a few months back, the perpetual license holders were assured by the company, and by some moderators, that we are fine. That we get to keep our original agreement, we have nothing to worry, nothing will change.

Well, it doesn’t look that way, now does it? And no, I’m not that naive, I was sure they will find a way to nail us, but it feels good to point it out.

That being said, I actually have no problem paying a monthly fee — after all, under my SSA/Forward agreement, I pay $1,000+ per year to get new releases, which is another form of subscription. The difference being that I get to keep the software if I stop paying!

Why can’t we have a subscription model, albeit at a higher price then the current SSA, that allows us to keep the software when we stop paying?

Structure it such that it can only take effect after a set amount of time to avoid gaming the system (paying one month or so and then stopping).

Too simple a solution to consider? Thoughts?