Succession Plan?

Markfre1

Support wasn't clear in the first email but this later email is a good solution as far as I am concerned. If I'm growing, multiple servers, etc., to spend 2 or 3k is well worth it to have this solution and would satisfy me and any investors. This was not clear to me for the last couple of years using AIM. I wish I knew this before as when the issue was brought up previously about a year ago, it was never really clarified. Very satisfied with this solution. 😃

Mark F.

BenHayat

Suppose, Awaresoft is not accessible, what will happen to those customers who did NOT pay $2/3K legal fee? How will they be able to get new keys?

Since the solution only covered for those who pay legal fee up front, it didn't cover about those who didn't pay up front.

Markfre1

Good point. If I released a serious SaaS app, or even intranet app, I guess this would be the first thing I do. I would consider it a cost of doing business. I also look at it in that AIM saves me a lot of money and time if I used another tool, so I could reason out, I'm really ahead of the game. But it would be nice to have another solution, such as a designated user group who would receive access to the licensing based on certain events. I think that would be the only solution other than the escrow solution as it stands.

Mark F.

aware_support

But it would be nice to have another solution, such as a designated user group who would receive access to the licensing based on certain events.

If we go out of business we will make sure that some customer(s) we trust get the ability to generate keys, but if you want to be absolutely sure pay now and set up the escrow.

MichaelQ

Just for the record, roughly how many staff are there at Aware IM? Or is it just Vladimir?

customaware

I may be speaking out of school, but....

I am not 100% sure and of course Vladimir is the driving force but I understand there are about 5-6.

From my past discussions with Vlad at both of the last two conferences Vlad has shared with the following view, which I totally endorse.

He absolutely refuses to be swayed by the financial gains that I am sure must have been offered in the past for someone to buy out the business or grow so large
that the direction of the business is then dictated by a Board and Shareholder. He has seen to many companies lose direction and mistakenly shift focus out of the Board and
Shareholder blind drive for growth and Profit. Examples... Apple in the late 80's early 90's, MSE to name two.

Keeping the Company small and tight means Vlad and his team DO NOT EVER have to cow tow to the whims of The Board. The have total and complete control not only over the direction
of the product but also their focus on developer / customer service and support.

For those who have been in the Aware IM community for some time... I am sure you can all attest to the following.

Yes at times Support can be stubborn and portray the impression that they don't get it. In my experience, just saying "this doesn't work" and expecting a sensible answer is unrealistic. Step into support shoes and help them to help you. BUILD A DEMO BSV OF THE PROBLEM - preferably with self generating data so that Support can quickly and easily replicate the problem. Additionally accompany it with decent explanation, notes, screenshots and diagrams. DO NOT send a two line grizzle and expect Support to spend hours trying to work out what you are on about.
Follow item 1 and 9 times out of 10 your will be pleasantly surprised at how fast your can get a response. If what you are pointing out is indeed a Bug ( I have lost count on how many times I have wasted Supports precious time just because of my own stupidity - I seem to have a never ending ability to humiliate myself) London to a Brick, if it is fixable, it will be in the next build.
Ever have a problem with a license? Support will move heaven and earth to get you back up and running quickly.
Hold an Aware IM Conference that if focused on adding REAL Value for you the Developers.... Vlad will attend in person. How good is that. Quality one on one time with the mastermind behind this extraordinary product.

As I mentioned before... my previous 25 years in the Magic community was nothing like this. In fact they treated Developers like crap and then charged us to death. Awaresoft is totally, 100% focused on Developer success.

Example. on the 30th August I discovered a bug when trying to display a dynamic style colour on a Shortcut in a Query. Built a self data populating demo bsv and described the issue and how to replicated it and accompanied by the Browser inspector code that showed the error.

On the 31st August..... like the next morning..... not a month later or a week later...... The very next morning.... Build 2180 released with a fix for the bug...

https://awareimdevelopers.com/news/2181-new-build-released.html

I am not aware of a software vendor on the planet that will react that fast.

Does it happen ALL the time. Of course not. Not a single Developer here would be able to respond to EVERY single customer complain you have in that amount of time EVERY time.

Anyone who expects "perfection" all the time is a tosser.

mrbdrm

From my understanding for this thread.
the main issue is not support (which is great)but the manual processing of license related issues.
customers need 'automated and quick' way to get the system up in case of an emergency or upgrade on the customers server.

replay within a day is not a valid option(couple of hours downtime is a disaster)

customaware

Note my point number 3.

I have NEVER had to wait a day for a license issue problem.
The help and assistance to resolve is virtually immediate.

intra

I've had multiple key changes both in my production and development environment (AWS migrations, developer license changes).

It has never been a problem, Awaresoft happily (as far as I can tell) have been available via email and online chat to resolve it issue immediately!

If customers need 100% mission critical support then expect to pay for it in some form or another. Failing that it might be an option to go back to good old coding and not benefit from the speed/simplicity of development which is AwareIM.

Nothing in life is free and nothing in life always goes to plan. Escrow option to me is the senabile option, infact its cheap insurance for your business!

As a customer, I don't need online activation. Happy with the support options to date.

RLJB

For what it is worth I raised this issue with Vlad over 3 years ago, his recommended solution was the same back then as it is now, ie you can choose to enter an escrow agreement at your cost.

Based on my experience selling enterprise software in insurance and healthcare industries (in a previous life) this is standard practice, it being at the customer's (i.e your cost) is also standard practice, in fact we used to mark it up at an extreme cost to discourage it. The only thing unusual here is that it is priced so reasonably that anyone with an income generating business could cover this cost.

A thought... just because the solution provided doesn't fit your preferred method of delivery doesn't make it less valid, if the server/key generator was provided at $3k then it wouldn't be a better solution, an escrow agreement provides you access to more than just a key generator - which you WOULD need if you something adverse were to happen.

mrbdrm

currently i am happy with support response time to license related issues
No trouble here

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