Interesting post Malcolm.
I have one question for Richard and you... what is the best way to make sure we find out about all discounted upgrade or purchase offers? I get some but Ive also had a few times in the past (probably not recently so maybe it is fixed) where offers have come and gone before I found out about them. Cheers, David. From: delphi-boun...@delphi.org.nz [mailto:delphi-boun...@delphi.org.nz] On Behalf Of Malcolm Groves Sent: Monday, 21 September 2009 1:26 p.m. To: NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List Subject: Re: [DUG] A change in upgrade policy coming from Embarcadero Hi all, Ive just read through quite a few of the messages in this thread (not all, I admit) and there are a few things in here I should respond to. > Actually, afaict Embarcadero have been absolutely silent on the > matter. The policy change has leaked out only via *some* resellers. Nothing has leaked. Official announcements are coming, but I notified our Asia sales staff and asked them to notify our partners and customers last week so we could give people as much notice as possible (also for another reason, see the end of this email). I posted advance notice to the ADUG list here in Aus, and would have posted on this list except Richard asked if he could post it. As our local representative in NZ, it made sense to me that he do it. Nothing underhand going on. Also, the reason I havent responded sooner is that I only check the lists every week or so, unless someone alerts me to something that needs more urgent attention. Ø I still feel cheated that at no time were those of us who bought Delphi 2005 which still has many unpatched major problems Ø given the opening to more reasonibly ($) upgrade from it. Im sorry you feel like this, but this is not accurate. Multiple times a year we offer discounts/bundles/third-party value-adds, etc to upgraders. Ive got a partial list here and it shows that since 2006 was released weve done at least 6 such offerings in NZ, and I havent bothered going through the rest of my email archive to see if there were more. Now, the offers we made may not have been enough to make you accept, thats a separate issue, but saying weve made no offers to previous users is plainly wrong. In terms of updates, we havent really changed our policy for a long time. Leaving aside people who pay for higher levels of support, we typically release update packs during the first 6-12 months of the products life (eg, 3 update packs for 2005, 2 update packs for 2006 + 11 hotfix packs, etc) but once a later version has come out, these typically slow down or stop entirely. That may not be what everybody wants, I appreciate that, but despite multiple attempts over the years its proven difficult if not impossible to get update packs for older releases on the schedule. So, despite wishing it were different, I doubt were going to be able to change that. Ive probably missed some questions, feel free to tell me if I have, but let me finish on a slightly more positive note. In addition to giving people as much notice as possible, part of the point of letting people know about this change in advance is so that I could gauge the reaction. Today we treat someone who last invested in a Delphi license 14 years ago with Delphi 1, exactly the same as someone who invested 1 year ago with 2009. I firmly believe we should give people who spent money with us recently some benefit, especially those who spent money with us during the years when you couldnt have blamed them for keeping their wallet in their pocket. So, while I support the spirit of this change, the detail of where we draw the cutoff line is still a topic I think we can adjust. In talking with customers and staff and watching the discussions on various groups around the region and I think Ive seen enough to go back to our internal discussion and suggest we need to change our current proposal. So, your feedback is being heard, despite what you might believe from some of the comments. Lastly, can I just make a request for a fair go for the current Embarcadero team? We are well aware that we cannot ignore the legacy of decisions made by Borland Executives over the years, and we are trying extremely hard to walk the line of investing to take the product back above the historic levels of quality and innovation you came to expect, and at the same time keeping it a profitable business for our owners. I think the local team are very open to accommodating requests from customers when they are brought to us (I think Ive approved most of the requests for special consideration Ive seen in recent memory) and hopefully some of you have experienced that. I understand that some of you feel like you may have beaten your heads against a brickwall at Borland for too long, but can I just ask that if you have an issue, you bring it to us and see if we can work out a solution. If we cant keep you happy, of course you should criticise us, but given everything that seems to have changed for the better over the last 12-15 months, Id appreciate it if you could give us a chance to fix the issues before shooting us. My contact details are at the bottom of the email, you should absolutely feel free to use them. Ill try and take a more regular look at this thread for the next few days. Cheers Malcolm Malcolm Groves Senior Director, Asia Pacific Embarcadero Technologies, Inc. | <http://www.embarcadero.com/> www.embarcadero.com Level 2, 100 Clarence Street, Sydney, NSW 2000 <mailto:mgro...@codegear.com> mgro...@embarcadero.com Mobile: +61 416 264 204 | Skype: malcolmgroves USA: (510) 962 5736 | UK: 020 3289 1788
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