Lower pricing/renewal structure: Feedback

[dbiggers]

I like the idea of the 10 year price guarantee and offering CE classes.

Most importantly I would really like to see several plugins for third parties (maybe 2 or 3 of our choice) included in the price of the silver membership.

There are several plugins included in the base (free) version of Mercury. But, in some ways our hands are tied. It all depends on the contracts in place governing the plugins for third parties. Obviously, we do our own plugins like Mercury and DataCourier for free and we prefer that model. I'll see if there are ways we can get creative on the others.

Thanks for the CE and guarantee feedback.

I really, really like the 10 year price renewal guarantee. The market has been so volatile since 2006, and appraisers have had almost nothing that they can "count on". We think this will help allay legitimate fears.

Plus, with that 10 year guarantee including the core forms software (and we don't care if you prefer to use TOTAL or WinTOTAL -- it's the same to us), appraisers don't have to worry about the "next UAD", or whatever it may be, causing them to be held hostage for another forced up-charge from a vendor. I like that angle when it comes to peace of mind.

Of course, I'm giving up all the revenue I used to make off "selling software" to new users -- and don't kid yourself, it's a lot of money to give up. But it sounds like, from your comments and what we hear on the phones in testing this, making TOTAL and WinTOTAL free as part of annual service is the right way to go. It feels right, honestly. There's no fear on our end.

 

[dbiggers]

As an ACI user looking at my $545 renewal bill that does not include a web site, maps, aerials, flood, census, etc, why would anyone stay with ACI?

My total renewal with Mapping (Location maps only) is $545 + $99 = $644

Switching to a la mode would represent a 45% savings to me.

I'm not going to argue with that logic. ;-)

Honestly, I've never understood how they get away with charging for maps. Maps! Get real. Basic maps are a commodity in my mind.

We do have some cool improvements to our mapping on the table too, making them much less of a hassle. They'll just "be there" any time you go to a maps page, without having to manually launch a wizard or whatever. Stay tuned.

 

[dbiggers]

That depends on how local the classes are. Online classes are commonly available by many vendors, for a price. I like the video tutorials which I say puts a la mode ahead of others. So I for one would consider online CE if it were free. I prefer live local CE where I can interact with the instructor and peers.

We'd do both. We already teach all over the country, so we'd just layer on top of that existing infrastructure for local, live CE classes. And yes, we'll use the same sort of approach to online CE training, with high quality video production and interactive features, along with testing of course. We're getting very good feedback from the states on this plan.

And yes, to confirm, it would be free to a la mode users. There would be a limit to how many people can train under one account of course (you can't pay $349 a year and then bring 20 people to a local class for free...), but 15 man-hours or so of free CE per account would be what we're talking about.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

We'd do both. We already teach all over the country, so we'd just layer on top of that existing infrastructure for local, live CE classes. And yes, we'll use the same sort of approach to online CE training, with high quality video production and interactive features, along with testing of course. We're getting very good feedback from the states on this plan.

And yes, to confirm, it would be free to a la mode users. There would be a limit to how many people can train under one account of course (you can't pay $349 a year and then bring 20 people to a local class for free...), but 15 man-hours or so of free CE per account would be what we're talking about.

Sign me up! I am a one man shop.

P.S. I switched from ACI in the early part of 2012 to Total 2011 and discovered how much the savings were on a continuing basis. I am now running Total 2013 with confidence. Fantastic integration with Mercury Networks and Total Mobile. Love the General Purpose forms too (not available on Total Mobile). I do half my work with non-lending clients.

 

[dbiggers]

Dave --

That setup would work -- it seems very similar to the current annual fee for Silver.

Will you still be supporting the Aurora version for the foreseeable future ??

I forgot to answer this part of your question. Sorry.

Aurora will surely be supported through 2014 and probably 2015. Nearly a third of our Aurora users have already moved to TOTAL by choice, not by us forcing anything on them, and I doubt that will stop. My bet is that by the end of 2014, there will be only a handful of holdouts on Aurora anyway, so it's no skin off our backs if they stay.

I keep saying "TOTAL" in the $349 price, but we don't care which you use. It's just that we consider TOTAL to be the current product, and Aurora to be the legacy product.

Also, "supported" for Aurora means something different from TOTAL. TOTAL is rapidly passing Aurora in feature set, and of course it's where we spend our efforts. We'll provide tech support and stability and requirements updates to Aurora, but we're not in that code base adding new features. TOTAL gets 99% of our forms engine development focus as a result.

The one thing we are adding to Aurora is the TOTAL Store. That allows any vendor integrated into the Store API to have their products work seamlessly with either Aurora or TOTAL. In fact, the third party doesn't even need to know which forms engine the appraiser is using; it's a universal interface to them.

That also makes transitioning to TOTAL easier for Aurora users. When they do, their third party products, mobile tools, cloud services, and so on are all integrated into TOTAL with the exact same interface they had in Aurora.

So, yes, you can keep using Aurora. But no, I don't think you'll want to. There's so much to naturally pull people over to TOTAL as a better product, that we expect it to be a moot issue in a year or so.

 

[dbiggers]

Sign me up! I am a one man shop.

P.S. I switched from ACI in the early part of 2012 to Total 2011 and discovered how much the savings were on a continuing basis. I am now running Total 2013 with confidence. Fantastic integration with Mercury Networks and Total Mobile. Love the General Purpose forms too (not available on Total Mobile). I do half my work with non-lending clients.

Thanks! And BTW, we just rolled out the GP Residential form and the 1025 form on TOTAL for Mobile internally, along with other improvements (editable Critical Items list, stability changes, interface improvements, etc.), and we should see the update go public next week.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

Thanks! And BTW, we just rolled out the GP Residential form and the 1025 form on TOTAL for Mobile internally, along with other improvements (editable Critical Items list, stability changes, interface improvements, etc.), and we should see the update go public next week.

Great news for me! Thanks. Keep up the good work.

 

[Dale Floyd]

I'm thrilled to read this thread today, as my renewal with Alamode is up and I've been considering many things.... My present annual renewal is around $1,400, and I additionally pay $350 in a few months to cover my son, the trainee... I have no idea how I got here, and nobody wants to lose options because they choose the wrong pricing plan...

I had no idea that Mercury didn't require the xSite... I had no idea plugins would work without the xSite either.. Somehow, that has never been communicated with me...

It would be very helpful, if my option screen for renewal, would show the costs of all the options available, rather than just what I have... The salespeople that call are wonderful folks, but often talk in pricing versus needs...

I'm literally sick of spending $1,750 for my software, and I've been flirting with other companies with the intent of making a move... Telling me that "you get what you pay for" or "we do things nobody else does" or "they charge you more in the long run" have been said many times... I've been with Alamode since the DOS days in 1992, and I'm just sick at the thought about changing vendors... I've seen my package with the bells and whistles go from $900 to $1,400 since 2008 which have been the toughest years of most appraisal companies.... It would be very helpful to actually know what comes with this long list of components in addition to the silver, gold, platinum thing....

This thread is very enlightening to me.... I suppose I need to dig a little deeper first...

CE is not something I'm interested in... Most of us who are members of a professional organization, get our CE through them....

Thanks again for the thread... Perhaps there is hope yet...

 

[Mike Kennedy]

We'd do both. We already teach all over the country, so we'd just layer on top of that existing infrastructure for local, live CE classes. And yes, we'll use the same sort of approach to online CE training, with high quality video production and interactive features, along with testing of course. We're getting very good feedback from the states on this plan.

And yes, to confirm, it would be free to a la mode users. There would be a limit to how many people can train under one account of course (you can't pay $349 a year and then bring 20 people to a local class for free...), but 15 man-hours or so of free CE per account would be what we're talking about.

IMO, nothing beats Live - online, quality WEBINARS with interaction between the Instructor and attendees and downloadable PDF info. Second generation w/be live teleconferencing. Beats travel costs, overnite hotel and food costs (when necessary) etc.

 

[dbiggers]

IMO, nothing beats Live - online, quality WEBINARS with interaction between the Instructor and attendees and downloadable PDF info. Second generation w/be live teleconferencing. Beats travel costs, overnite hotel and food costs (when necessary) etc.

Agreed. Plan on us doing all of the options available. Some people need in-person, some want ad hoc online, and some want interactive online.