Start strong with archicad Collaboration - questions.

[Barry Kelly]

Referring to this post ... https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Graphisoft-Insights/Start-strong-with-Archicad-Collaborate/ba-p/...

@Emoke Csikos ,

Is this subsrcription to Archicad Collaboration for new customers only?

Can you clarify if this means a new user does not need to purchase Archicad at all?

i.e. they can use Archicad only while they pay for the subscription - basically renting Archicad (& BIMCloud).

This subscription seems confusing for someone like me that has already purchased Archicad and is paying for support/upgrades.

Is BIMCloud SaaS included only for those paying for this suscription?

If that is the case, what is the deal for those (like me) that have purchased Archicad (many licenses) and now pay an annual Select Service Agreement (others have a Forward agreement?), but as far as I know, this does not include BIMCloud Saas.

Do we still need to purchase BIMCloud Saas as an additional cost?

Please don't get mew wrong here, I am not complaining about missing out.

Personally I don't use BIMCloud as I have no need for it, certainly no need if I have to pay extra for it.

And the costs I am paying for my SSA is not as much as the subscription costs mentioned in that post, so I can understand I would need to pay extra for BIMCloud, but I have also already purchased Archicad at a substantial cost - so it all kind of evens out.

There has been some talk recently about moving to a subscription only system and that there will be no more perpetual licenses for Archicad - I have no idea if this is true or not as I am sure most of the posters about this don't know either.

I just thought that we could do with some clarification here about Archicad licensing.

So what is the actual deal here?

Can we still purchase Archicad outright and be assured that we can use this with no problems in the future, with the option for SSA or Froward and BIMCloud subscriptions?

Or is it only a case that all new Archicad licenses are subscription only (now including BIMCloud), and that as soon as you stop paying the subscription, the user is no longer able to use Archicad?

And if it is only a subscription service now, are those of us that have 'perpetual' licenses for Archicad, still going to be able to use Archicad in the future with the option for SSA/Forward agreements for support and upgrades.

If you could give some clarification on licensing/subscription, I am sure that will be appreciated by many here.

There seem to be a lot of rumours about licensing floating around, and post like this about subscriptions don't help to clarify anything - just adds to the confusion I think.

Or should we just deal with our local distributors? (If a user has one or not is another matter judging from some other posts).

Thanks (and sorry),

Barry.

[Marton Kiss]

Hi @DGSketcher we can't predict the future, but at this time we have no plans or expectations to remove the perpetual option from our offering. We see this being the preferred way for many of our customers and it is clearly  a competitive differentiator for us.

m

[DGSketcher]

Hi @Marton Kiss Thank you for that statement and your observation. I do hope you are able to retain that position long into the future.

It feels like GS is starting to listen and act on our feedback. 😎

[Karl Ottenstein]

Good to have all of this clarified.  I appreciate everyone's questions and the answers from @Marton Kiss 

I have a question not asked yet that I've been able to see:  the fine print for subscriptions of "with annual billing".  I wonder if another great differentiator for Graphisoft wouldn't be to become the Netflix of BIM collaboration by offering instead easy, month-to-month, cancel after any month, subscribe at any time subscriptions?  This would be like the old 'rental' license on steroids and would allow firms to be dynamic in their staffing, hiring as-needed additional on-site or remote contract workers or interns and providing subscriptions to support those workers on an as-needed basis during peak work.

Just as Netflix and other streaming services are typically month-to-month, as is Adobe's Creative Cloud software subscription, a month-to-month offering at only the industry standard 10% premium over annual could be a great help to many firms, small and large.

Is anything like that envisioned, @Marton Kiss ?

[Marton Kiss]

Yes Karl, we are validating the idea to add various term options (monthly/yearly/multi-year) to Archicad Collaborate, likely later this year.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Thanks for a fast response, Marton!  I think this will appeal to many.

[mthd]

In retrospect of all the above comments. Perpetual licensing with Archicad will remain for now but that is still no assurance that it will continue indefinitely despite it's being labeled as perpetual.

The company involved will look at the revenue from all it’s CAD products and analyse the results for itself. Then they will decide how they will offer the products in the future. They have made some changes as outlined above and they may make more in the future.

I would expect that revenue will control what happens in the future with how the products will be offered. 

I would like to see Archicad go against the trend and still offer perpetual licenses indefinitely. But I think that is just wishful thinking on my part and maybe on the part of others ?

I agree with Barry, in that you shouldn’t be forced into having a subscription along with a perpetual license as well.

[jl_lt]

Yes Mr. Kiss, we can actually predict (or at least guess with a nice level of confidence) the future based on your decisions as a company in the near-future, that is of course, assuming all current situations remaining equal, including but not exclusively the slow developement process Archicad has presented in the last 4 years):

A) If you stand to reason and the wish of an overwhelming majority of users, which is mantaining a perpetual licensing agreement, probably paired with all the aditional suscription and services schemes you want for the people who need it, youll probably be on firm ground into to the future, which includes us, the users, by extension.

B) If you cancel the perpetual licensing and become suscription only, its reasonable to expect a slight increase in revenue for you for a couple of years, followed by a massive exodus of users towards other software that offers cheaper/better options (two years would be my estimated timeframe for all these users to try and implement other software before ditching Archicad). We, as devoted Archicad users will experience some short lived pain of course, but will still be on firm ground after we select another software. 

But i really, really hope option A is the one that happens.

[mthd]

In my own particular business model, I am very happy to keep using Archicad.

Most of the other suitable CAD products that I could choose are all subscription based only at present.

I am happy to take Graphisoft at its word to keep perpetual licensing going.

I think this could be a big winner for Graphisoft over the competition in the near future.

It gets complicated when you have a big number of professionals to support in the AEC industry.

So slicing up Archicad was going to be inevitable especially with regards to teamwork use.

So I hope a robust product is still available for us who do not need teamwork but need a very good in the box rendering solution for low rise residential work. I don’t really need any MEP modelling capabilities in my line of work but others do.

Archicad Solo is not quite there without a PBR system in it.

[jl_lt]

Of course! we wouldnt want to change either

for example, now that we finally learned what teamwork can actually do and saw a live demonstration of it, we will be more than happy to pay for it when we need it in a per month OR per year basis. Same for many other things they could offer to catter different needs, so i really dont see the need to annoy everyone with forced suscription schemes on licenses, even from their money-making point of view. MEP is nice to have but we very seldom use it, and have absolutely no use for the structure module, but probably someone somewhere might need it... in the future.

Keep perpetual intact, ssa optional, and add quality services/modules that each user can rent or buy. To be fair, as i understand it, its what is actually happening now.

Graphisoft: you have always innovated on software, and i think everyone here wants you to succeed, so its not a question about people not wanting to pay.  Innovate in this too instead of copying those other vulgar and short-sighted companies. Offer better services at fair prices while keeping flexibility and people will pay. Just dont take the perpetuals away.

[Martin Jules]

I like this kind of positive experience with ArchiCAD @Marton Kiss:

ArchiCAD clients are very satisfied with the perpetual license. Keep it up please!