Sure, money talks and under the right circumstances I'll put mine on the table. But fundamentally, the Aware IM team has to be cognizant of the overall value of their product and remain in a continuous improvement mode. And I believe they do that well. The report writer gets its share of raspberries here and it's up to them to determine whether that's bringing down the product value. I came to Aware IM because the product met my immediate need and provided a clear value. My expectation was that I would pay for occasional new releases that added value - like just about every other tool I have. So far I have received many improvements at no additional cost, so this pleases me.
While I would like to see improvements in the report writer, I would hate to think that it's not going to happen without customer funding. To me, it's just not a good model. I would be happy to pay an annual or occasional upgrade/update fee or even a special fee for a module or feature so long as the value is commensurate with the cost. Chipping in with other customers for a product improvement doesn't seem like a good business model and I'm not highly inclined to participate in such an endeavor.
If the Aware IM team is unable to provide continuous added product value at a competitive price, then they have a fundamental business problem. The report writer exemplifies one problem; they seem unable to dedicate the necessary resources to update this module - they're somewhat painted into a corner. I hope they someday find a way out.
I'll close by saying that Aware IM is still the most powerful web development platform I have ever used, and based on my research, there is nothing that comes close for rapidly creating a business application.
