FileMaker Maintenance VLAs

[bdam]

Just wondering what those with larger customer base (100+) do in regards to VLA Maintenance?

Here's my thinking based on a recent renewal quote:

The pricing works like this: pay 50% for renewal every year or 100% each time we decide to upgrade. So yearly maintenenace renewal is only cheaper when you plan on upgrading every year. If you upgrade every other year it’s a break even situation but you have the benefit of spreading the payments. Anything over 3 years then is a waste of money. It took my company 5 years to move from 5.5 to 8.5 although I was only hired in the last year and a half.

But what about these great new features that are bound to come out? Well, FileMaker 5.5 met our needs for 5 years and I get the feeling that we can get at least two years or more out of 8.5.

There are a few things I would like to see changed in FileMaker but they are all changes to existing features. Like many software companies, changing old features (ex. dynamic filtering of portals) typically takes a back seat to new, exciting features (ex. Web Viewer). So while I have a list of things I would love to have and ahave submitted official requests for them I have no guarantee that FileMaker will deliver. In fact, I don’t even know if FileMaker agrees that such changes would be useful.

So if I don't know that I will get the features I want and I can last at least two years or more without them, why bother paying the maintenenace?

Edited August 23, 2006 by Guest