Cost of software licenses

[mowens]

We just got a quote for another seat of Vericut Composite Programming and Simulation that included a year of maintenance. I'm not sure of the ramifications of posting publicly what the quote was but holy shit! I will say it makes me wonder if they include all of the bugs with each release so they can justify the cost of maintenance. (17% maintenance fee)

[YoDoug]

IMO, as a business software licensing and maintenance should be looked at as a productivity tool. We have a $25k annual maintenance bill for our CAD/CAM software. We design parts and program 20 machines with it. Per machine that is only $1250/year for a tool that helps keep those machines producing sellable products. We probably spend more money on coolant in a year. However if you just look at the maintenance bill alone it seems huge.

[gcode]

17% maintenance fee

you're getting a break
it's usually 20% of retail cost ... of course that one of a kind module you are using
probably costs as much as the GDP of a small country 

I was expecting a large price increase when we renewed maintenance late last year.
It was higher but not as bad as I feared it would be,

I also got a quote for adding a seat of Force lathe and mill to our license last year.
It was so bad, my manager refused to present it to upper management

[riverhunter]

I agree that the cost seem to going up pretty darn fast. As Yo Doug said, when you zoom out and apply those numbers to the whole scheme of things its really not that much.  still aggravates me , but......

[mowens]

Yeah, I remember a quote years ago that was a 12% maintenance fee. The maintenance fee + 1 seat of programming and one seat of simulation now is just under $200k.

That may not be as out of line as I thought. Maybe I'm just having a "get off my lawn" moment.

[JParis]

Between Mastercam, Cimco DNCMax & NCBase, Vericut, MagicsRP and EOSPrint we're approaching $65k in software maintenance, just on the stuff I use for manufacturing.

[beej]

the price of maintenance isn't really what bothers me, it's what I get for that cost that frustrates me. It seems like update after update and I'm still dealing with the same bugs new version after new version.

[JParis]

the price of maintenance isn't really what bothers me, it's what I get for that cost that frustrates me. It seems like update after update and I'm still dealing with the same bugs new version after new version.

When you find the "perfect" piece of software, let me know 

It can be maddening, what is important to one user is a minor annoyance or not seen by another user...it can be frustrating...have to look at the larger picture though.

[mowens]

I think new bugs get introduced to distract us from the bugs we used to worry about.

[Bucky Cornstarch]

What's a seat of BobCAD cost these days? I guess I can just call and ask....

[neurosis]

I think new bugs get introduced to distract us from the bugs we used to worry about.

I can't tell you how many times I've seen bugs fixed, only to have them pop back up in a future version.

I think they called those "regressions"?   

[mowens]

When I first started with this software, it was still in development. There was one guy who was the author; he wrote it in FORTRAN. There were 3 of us using the software and on more than one occasion I talked with the author about various issues. He would send me a new file and I would install it and run it and then give him feedback. We did this until the problem was solved.
I miss those days.
He retired and the software was rewritten using python by people who didn't have a thorough understanding of the original software. With the last program I wrote, at least half my time was spent trying to work around software issues.

[Jeff]

When I first started with this software, it was still in development. There was one guy who was the author; he wrote it in FORTRAN. There were 3 of us using the software and on more than one occasion I talked with the author about various issues. He would send me a new file and I would install it and run it and then give him feedback. We did this until the problem was solved.
I miss those days.
He retired and the software was rewritten using python by people who didn't have a thorough understanding of the original software. With the last program I wrote, at least half my time was spent trying to work around software issues.

You'd think they would give you some sort of a discount since you were there at the beginning.

[Incogneeto]

You'd think they would give you some sort of a discount since you were there at the beginning.

You Mean like a "SENIOR Discount"  LOL!!!!

[mowens]

You'd think they would give you some sort of a discount since you were there at the beginning.

Yeah... Ha Ha...no.

It was fairly new technology then; Spirit capitalized on it pretty well.