It is that time of year again (Maintenan

[tommypurple2]

My maintenance is due and the price has gone up. I was wondering if anyone out there on this board deals in ProE maintenance? I think we get our maintenance through PTC, but in the past we have went through secondary companies to get it. By doing that we can get a better deal on price.


Anyone out the interested or know of someone who might be?

 

[dr_gallup]

I always deal directly with PTC on maintenance. Every year they send a ridiculous quote & every year after multiple emails & phone calls I beat them back to last years price. Good luck.

 

[dgs]

I'm dealing with it this year for the first time. Wow,what a racket. We've got 8 seats of Enterprise SE and 9 seats of SolidWorks of various flavors, 5 are SW office pro the other 4 are lesser seats. Our PTC bill is nearly triple the SW bill.

I like Pro|E and find it's superior to SW in many ways (let's not debate that here again, there are other threads for that), but it's not 3x as good. We've got to use what our clients do, so we need both, and we've got to be able to upgrade when our clients do, so we need mainenance.

Here are a couple of interesting tidbits I've learned:
<ul>[*]If we want to downgrade, we cannot just start paying maintenance on less functionality. We have to abandon our high end seats and re-purchase the lower end seats. So we have to pay for the priveledge of giving somethign up.[*]If we decide not tp keep all of our seats on mainenance, PTC might deny us support if we have 50% or less of our seats current. So it's all or nothing.[*]We have no use for any of the data management products, but to get ISDX and AAX, which we use all the time, we have to get Windchill PDM Link and pay maintenance on it.
[/list]I've been a big supporter of PTC products and staying current on mainenance, but after getting involved with it I'm far less enthusiastic. With release schedules pushed out to longer than a year between releases, mediocre tech support and very high mainenance fees, the ROI on mainenace seems pretty low.

 

[dr_gallup]

If you push them you can decline maintenance on packages you do not use. It is very difficult but it can be done. We bought each license one at a time over many years & it was always the PTC flavor of the month. That was before we learned that PTC love to throw in some "free" modules so they can soak you for maintenance for the rest of your life. At one point we paid to get them upgraded to "foundation" + assorted addons. That in itself seemed like a total rip off as we had paid more for the initial licenses, paid maintenance for years & still had to pay to upgrade them to what a new customer could buy for less. Anyway, in the process, we dropped maintenance on a whole host of modules. The really irritating thing is that PTC bill us every year for the whole shebang & I have to spend weeks haggling them to honor their previous commitment.

 

[kbrault]

Interesting thread.<?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />


We had not paid maintenance for three years and then was forced to upgrade by a customer (life would be so much simpler without customers). I was surprised when the PTC rep told us about their

 

[dr_gallup]

kbrault - Wow, never heard of that option. Maybe we should drop maintenance too! I'm sure PTC don't want too many people going that route!

 

[a3_bham]

Yes there is a win back option but you have to mean critera for that option i.e. be off maintenance for several years, in some case is can be more expensive that way and easier to buy a new seat on Pro E.


PTC or if your dealt by a VAR you will not get support if your not on maintenance, this will include upgrading to % when it comes out soon. Any Support Issues that you may have. Maintenance min which is tip and tricks for yours guys.


At least PTC arn't like Unigraphics were if you dont pay your maintenance Catia if turned off!!!!


Yes it has been mentioned that releases of Pro Engineer can be more than 12 months but will be hearing about Wildfire5 soon, which has had loads and loads of enchancements and is well worth just keeping on maintenance untill that comes out.


Also please notices that PTC have now created a facebook account were you can ask questions etc.


If your having problems with the cost of maintenance please contact your VAR or PTC if your a direct customer and im sure that they will help you out with any Issues you may have.

 

[[-Skint-]]

I have just signed off our maintenance for 2 seats of foundation pro-e... wow its expensive, especially if you only call up a few times per year !! Glad im not paying it

I reckon Paul ( up there ^^ ) owes me a beer lol.... i should be calling you on a daily basis and making your life a misery haha.

 

[a3_bham]

hi Wayne,


You can ring me as many times as you want, thats why you pay maintenance.


Thats is the going rate for two seats of Foundation XE., I'll buy you a bear at PTC World if your still coming?


If anybody wants to know what PTC are doing with you Hard earned maintenance cash. Please feel free to come along to PTC world which is a free event. Please see the following link.


http://www.ptcworld.org/

 

[jeff4136]

> At least PTC arn't like Unigraphics were if you
> dont pay your maintenance Catia if turned off!!!!


I don't have orhave access toCatia. What version(s)?
I have often seen references to this vs. buying a 'perpetual' license.
I have never seen a Dassault document (license agreement?) that verifies it.
Does anyone have a link to one?

 

[[-Skint-]]

hi Wayne,


I'll buy you a bear at PTC World if your still coming?





http://www.ptcworld.org/

I certainly will be

 

[dgs]

If your having problems with the cost of maintenance please contact your VAR or PTC if your a direct customer and im sure that they will help you out with any Issues you may have.

Paul, I've contacted PTC directly and two different VARs about our maintenance nearly a month ago. So far, only the VARs have responded and only with general and vague info.

As a bit of perspective, last year we paid $1,500 in maintenance on each SolidWorks Office Pro seat and $4,000 on each seat of Pro|E Enterprise SE. I know Pro|E very well, SW not as much. If I was going into business today, however, I'd likely buy SW.

Also, we have no need for any of the Windchill solutions but we are forced to pay for them because we do need 2 additional modules above foundation. So we are required to buy and pay to maintain a completely separate software package we don't need in order to extend the functionality of the one we do. That's like going into the Honda dealer to buy a new Civic and being told that because we want the CD player and a sunroof, we need to buy a new motorcycle as well.

Maintenance is a no brainer if you'e a user, I know I was there. Now that I know the costs involved, I have a better appreciation of why management wants to stop paying it.