Question: MacCap's site lists upgrades as 'starting at $499' -- we'd
love to find a more cost-effective alternative to FrameMaker. The v9 >
v11 $600 upgrade was a real kick in the pants to start seriously
evaluating the cost of continuing to absorb FM's high upgrade fees vs
the cost of switching to a different program. We use unstructured Frame,
so most of the features added in recent versions of the program have
been of no use to us, thus we're paying top dollar for minimal
improvement. But $499 seems even higher than Frame's one-version
upgrades? Or is this only a better deal financially if replacing Frame +
RoboHelp?
Tori Muir
[email protected] | 650.430.8674
www.spot-on-creative.com
On 4/1/13 11:22 AM, Martinek, Carla wrote:
Syed -
I've been using Frame since 1991 (Frame 2.0.)
We've been evaluating MadCap Flare and were ready to switch, but when we looked
at FM11 and the new multi-HTML output that appears to be as easy as Flare, it
made us stop and take another look. We don't know which way we're going yet..
back into evaluation mode.
That said, MadCap being a smaller company is, in general, much more responsive
in regards to feature requests. Much like Frame Technologies (and DataLogics)
were in the early days with Frame. Their Platinum support plan is worth its
cost when you are first using it, and Flare imports Framemaker files directly.
However, my recent talk with an Adobe sales mgr letting them know we were
*seriously* evaluating a competitor seems to have gotten me better response
regarding some of the issues I've been having - more so than I've seen in
years.
Cost-wise, it may be worth it to you to look at the Adobe cloud-based
subscription model. That is supposed to include the latest versions whenever
released, but I haven't evaluated the overall cost on a yearly basis yet.
-Carla
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Syed Zaeem Hosain
([email protected])
Sent: Monday, April 01, 2013 1:02 PM
To: Syed Zaeem Hosain ([email protected]); Kapil Verma; Robert Lauriston;
[email protected]
Subject: RE: Where on Adobe is the info/link to renew my maintenance contract
for FrameMaker?
Hi, Kapil.
Okay, I just got off the phone with somebody "in the FrameMaker team". Her
statement to me was that the Update Plan for FrameMaker is indeed either dead, or
essentially not available anymore to anybody who has less than 10,000 points in the Adobe
systems.
The bottom line: all users with few licenses are essentially shut out.
So, it seems that I did *not* get wrong information from the Adobe sales rep I
spoke to before!
For me, this means that FrameMaker 11 is the _last_ version I will ever use
(after having been on the FrameMaker wagon since 1988).
Because the version upgrade pricing has gotten way out of hand - from my
perspective, _most_ (almost all) of what I paid for with the FM 10 and FM 11
upgrades were bug-fixes for version 9 really!
At $399 for the last upgrade, this is simply not acceptable anymore. Even my
purchase of the 2 year update plan was for naught (based on my sign-up date for
the Update plan, I had to pay for the FM 11 version upgrade _separately_
anyway), since I have not seen FrameMaker 12 come out in that time.
I have already begun looking for alternatives and will make do without
FrameMaker as soon as we can finish this project - I suspect that my last
purchase of any FrameMaker-related product will be for Mif2Go to get all
current FrameMaker documents into some other tool.
Regards,
Z
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Syed Zaeem Hosain
([email protected])
Sent: Monday, March 25, 2013 10:41 AM
To: Kapil Verma; Robert Lauriston; [email protected]
Subject: RE: Where on Adobe is the info/link to renew my maintenance contract
for FrameMaker?
Thanks for the response, Kapil.
Yes, I would like to get information - the last time, I bought a 2 year Update
Plan directly at the Adobe web site (may have been the Adobe store?) in May of
2011, but cannot find that link on the site anymore.
Please do let me know who I can speak to about this (as an FYI, I did get an
e-mail from somebody else on the FrameMaker team, but we did not connect on
Friday).
Z
-----Original Message-----
From: Kapil Verma [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, March 25, 2013 9:12 AM
To: Syed Zaeem Hosain ([email protected]); Robert Lauriston;
[email protected]
Subject: RE: Where on Adobe is the info/link to renew my maintenance contract
for FrameMaker?
Hi Syed,
This is Kapil Verma, Adobe Tech Comm Product Manager. Unfortunately, you have
been given wrong information. We continue to offer upgrade plans for both
FrameMaker and Acrobat. If you are interested in purchasing/renewing, I will be
more than happy to put you in touch with the right folks here at Adobe. Sorry
about the confusion.
P.S. It will be great if you can email me separately (off list) with some more
info on who you had talked to and how did you reach them
Thanks,
Kapil Verma
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Syed Zaeem Hosain
([email protected])
Sent: Friday, March 22, 2013 6:31 AM
To: Robert Lauriston; [email protected]
Subject: RE: Where on Adobe is the info/link to renew my maintenance contract
for FrameMaker?
Robert Lauriston wrote:
I had to phone them.
Ok-a-a-y ... I am confused now. I just spoke with an Adobe sales rep who claims
that they are no longer offering the Upgrade Plan for Acrobat and FrameMaker
... huhn!?!?
Even though, Adobe sent me an e-mail in late January reminding me that my
current one was going to expire soon (in May fortunately) and I needed to renew?
Does anyone know what is going on here? If Adobe is going to charge an arm and
a leg to upgrade to the next version of FrameMaker (like I had to do for
version 9 and 10 and 11), then that will be the last nail in the coffin, and I
will use version 11 till it croaks or find another solution.
The cost of FrameMaker has simply become too expensive to work for my needs ...
:(
Z
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