RE: Annual Maintenance -- MIDRANGE-L

Thanks Don... that was my point exactly.

I did question it profusely. But at the end of the day, we'll just have to pay it.

This particular application could be replaced completely by calls to external APIs (I've already replaced part of it that way). I can't really say more without identifying the vendor application (which I would rather not do).

But even with API replacements, at some point someone has to maintain those.

-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Don Brown via MIDRANGE-L
Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2023 10:47 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Don Brown <DBrown@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Annual Maintenance

<vendor>
We provide an an accounting system specifically for the Taxi industry and
froze maintenance fees during Covid. Normally our increases at in the 4-7%
range. After Covid we had a 9% increase, first in 3 years. That was less
than the increases in electricity, rent, fuel, wages, food etcetera.
I would find 35% exceptionally high and would question the increase and/or
justification of such an increase.
My 2 cents.
Cheers
Don

Sent from my iPhone

On 15 Nov 2023, at 20:18, Brad Stone <bvstone@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

<Vendor>
I've increased our prices a little each year (5% or so) due to inflation
(which in the last 2-3 years has been nuts and undeniable) and partially
due to adding new features.

Another thing we look at is the amount and type of support we are giving
outside the scope of our products. The last few years as the experts
retire they are replaced by people who obviously aren't trained. If I

have

to explain to a customer how to add a library to a library list or create

job log and send it to me, that's extra time on my part that I shouldn't
have to do. (Actually, I'm thinking about changing how we offer support
because of this... ) This probably doesn't apply to anyone on this
list... but any ISV will probably agree this is sort of an issue and only
getting worse.

It's also a reason I created a free application that they just run a
command and it will automatically create the job log and forward it to my
system.

Everything is going up in price. 35% seems a little steep, but not
outrageous from what I've seen with other items/services. I'm seeing
anywhere between 15-25% or so with expenses. Once in a while I see
higher. Electricity and NG along with other fuel, food, etc have spiked

lot.

My mom is a huge "price is right person" in real life and she mentions

the

inflation every day. She remembers what she paid for eggs, bread, milk

and

fruit, etc every year. :)
</Vendor>

On Wed, Nov 15, 2023 at 8:33 AM Greg Wilburn <
gwilburn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Over the past several years, ONE of our software vendors has increased
their annual maintenance more than 35% (2021-2024).

When I asked how they justified this increase, they pointed me to the
"Services less energy" Consumer Price Index (one of the higher indexes).
Regardless, the maintenance was supposed to be 20% of the actual cost of
the software. When I asked for the current prices of the modules we

own,

they provided a number that "backed into" the maintenance that they

billed

me, exactly. I know it can't be right, because we bought a module in

2021

- the price they quoted now was 55% higher.

I'm not posting this to grip (well, maybe a little) - just wondering if
anyone else is seeing increases like this?
Is this the only software vendor increasing maintenance costs at these
rates?

TIA
Greg

[Logo]<https://www.totalbizfulfillment.com/> Greg Wilburn
Director of IT
301.895.3792 ext. 1231
301.895.3895 direct

gwilburn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:gwilburn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

1 Corporate Dr
Grantsville, MD 21536
www.totalbizfulfillment.com<http://www.totalbizfulfillment.com>
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