I’ve been told by my Navision Solutions Center that Microsoft has announced that they will no longer sell database and user licenses for the character product. Hence, my database can never grow, and if I want to add another concurrent user I can’t. Does this piss anyone else off? Our Navision solution center sold us this product in 1997. We have been barely using it for 5 years. We have been content with the fact that Navision has not done any new development on the character product since we purchased the product, as our Solution Center has always been able to provide consulting, enhancements, new licenses, etc. Now we are being told we can’t grow the software any more. Of you who are still using this product, do you feel as utterly screwed as I do? An upgrade isn’t in the cards for my business for at least 6 months, probably more like 18. Any legal scholars out there that can instruct me on my rights? If they are utterly scrapping the product, shouldn’t they open it up for me to its limits? Any and all feedback appreciated. -N
I suggest that the appropriate executive in your firm ask to meet with the appropriate and reasonably high level MBS sales executive to address your request and work out a solution. The actual meeting may not be necessary, but if you go high enough within MBS, I bet that MBS will make an effort to help. They aren’t really dumb, they’ve just gotten big and slow moving and sometimes myoptic.
Well… in fact about two or three years ago Navision officially announced the end on supporting 3.56, giving that two years marging time enough for thinking on upgrading to a new version and giving some advantages on the upgrade price to customers using the D.O.S. version of their product. I think that your only waiy should be as David says trying a more “diplomatic” approach straight to MBS and try to get a final update of your license by getting whatever mods you think you’ll need to buy. As i told previously, Navision himself was discontinuing the product, so as new owner of the old company the can probably find a lot of legal reasons for not being responsibles at all on giving you support for a product that was already discontinued when they bought the company. Regards,
quote:
Originally posted by apertierra
Well… in fact about two or three years ago Navision officially announced the end on supporting 3.56, giving that two years marging time enough for thinking on upgrading to a new version and giving some advantages on the upgrade price to customers using the D.O.S. version of their product. …
YEP! Both (the announcement & the advantage on the upgrade price) were two of the reasons for us to upgrade from 3.56(Blue) to 3.01(Attain) . bye André
To be honest, I can’t think of many software packages I was using five years ago that I am still using today in their current version. Nor would I want to. In today’s current IT market, I would say that 5 years was a good run for something like this. Software products have a shelf-life and most Navision customers upgrade every two to three years. Navision Blue was the ‘old’ version back in 1997, when the standard was Financials GB1.30. In the UK, there is no (Official) MBS support for Financials GB1.10 or earlier. The screen design of their web logging system will not accept anything below GB1.20. Navision GB2.00 is still supported at present, but this too will not last. We are currently phasing out all our remaining GB2.00 sites or earlier. Navision/MBS have given plenty of warning (two years) that Navision Blue has run it’s course and should be replaced, so I expect that you will find you have no case to argue. I don’t believe in upgrading just for the sake of it, and see nothing wrong with running a few versions behind the current version if it suits you, but Navision Blue is very, very old in ERP terms and you cannot expect to be able to use it indefinitely. Sorry to sound like a self-help guru, but I would suggest that you look at this as an opportunity for change for the better rather than refusing to move on. If you ask MBS nicely, you might have some success, but it will probably only be a stay of execution until you can replace the system, rather than an indefinite extension.
I appreciate everyone’s concern for my situation, but you’re neglecting to include one simple aspect of reality in my situation: Money doesn’t grow on trees. We’ve worked very hard to sustain and grow our business, but an upgrade is not possible right now financially. If someone wants to lend me the money interest free (and I mean truly interest free … don’t pad the sales price to recover the financing deal) and take the risk that our business will be viable over the next several years (and hence able to repay back the loan), CALL ME RIGHT NOW AND I’LL SIGN ON THE DOTTED LINE. I don’t have the capital, and I don’t want to offer 40% of my company to some commercial bank or loan shark for a loan. I don’t think what MBS is doing is fair. All I want is the ability to write a $500 check everyone month or so, so that some overpaid white collar IT professional can take 3 minutes and generate a new license file for me. Hmmm … $500 for 3 minutes … who wouldn’t want that business? Sorry if my tone is crass, but I feel that we’re being dealt with unfairly and I don’t see any other alternative to legal action if MBS truly decides to reject my request for new licenses. I guess time will tell. I’ll try being diplomatic and see what happens. -N
In my past experience, the higher the level within an organization to which I make my diplomatic request of the type you will be making, the more often I have had success. The lower level folks are often reluctant to make these kinds of decisions as they see them as personally risky (i.e. being too far from policy defined on high). Good luck.