The end of NCVForms - Now what

[Fargo1]

Here is a shocker I just saw posted by JD over on another thread. This really caught me by surprise as I was expecting a win for JD.

I just want to say that things did not go well for me in court. On technicalities, they were able to get a summary judgment and I have no hope of a trial by jury, which I would win in a heartbeat. My former attorneys completely failed to get extremely relevant information and the timeline for me to do so had already expired.

There is no more fight left in me.

Thank you for all your support.

John-David Biggers

So it looks like the end of the line for NCVForms. This is a sad day. I really had high hopes and expecations for what NCVForms was becoming. I wish the best to Mr Biggers in whatever he pursues from here.

I expect that JD will continue to support his users as long as he can, but it looks like eventually we will have to look for new software.

 

[TN Pro]

Err, yeah. You didnt see this coming?
I really liked the software, and i used it for probably three years. I loved the simplicity of it, but it brought me a lot of hearthache with all of the small issues. I had to eventually change, theres only so many times i be delayed in sending reports out.
However, i actually was going to renew NCV just last week as a back up of sort. Guess thats not an option.

 

[Fargo1]

Err, yeah. You didnt see this coming?

I knew that JD was planning to slowly drop support for NCVForms. I was shocked at the results of the lawsuit. I expect this means support will have to be dropped sooner rather than later.

 

[JoeB]

There were too many issues to continue using the software with all the different transmission errors and various conditions which hindered completion of many of my reports. I don't know about the present, things may have changed. Tech support became very lax and I lost confidence in the software and made the change months ago.
When I first started using NCV i thought it was a great program, but with all the changes and UAD, along with JD legal issues, destruction became imminent! I feel bad for JD because I believe his intentions were good. Good Luck in the future!

 

[BRCJR]

I was going to renew when I noticed I was a few days late. I emailed asking if he would still give me discount.

No reply, so I feared renewing. I used if 4 or so years and wrote 8-10 reports with it.

Wish there was some "eternal" activation code so I could still create a new report.

 

[Fargo1]

Yeah it would be nice to have an 'eternal' activation code. Although eventually the forms will change and the software will become obsolete. I imagine the details of the lawsuit could have effect on that too. If the final decision was that Bradford Tech owned the rights to the software, then I don't think JD would be able to support it any longer whether he wanted to or not. And if I'm not mistaken, I think thats what the lawsuit was all about. I think Bradford claimed that JD wrote the software while working for them and they owned the rights to it. Or something like that. It would be nice to know what the final verdict was.

What did you guys switch to? Although I was pretty disgusted with Bradford taking JD to court, I have to reconsider them. Since they won the lawsuit, maybe they actually had some real merit to their case. For me it will be a toss up between Bradford and Total. I've used ACI in the past and liked the software well enough but their pricing is way out of line. I've sampled WCA but I didn't like how everything open up in a new window. So its pretty much only Clickforms and Total left.

For me the final decision will be based on what I can get to work the best with Linux. I'm tired of using a virtual machine and trying to get something to work under WINE. Clickforms comes very close to working so I may have to give it a serious look. Even though I have some questions about the company.

 

[JoeB]

What did you guys switch to?

I switched to TOTAL and have been very pleased with the software. Keep in mind the initial fee is reasonable, but like most other software companies they charge for extras like AI ready and if you want to use Apex instead of their own sketch program. Their sketch program is easy to use and the software change was very little effort!

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

I dropped a few months ago. I don't need software anyway. I do everything on narrative. I feel sorry for him that it that it went under.

 

[Fargo1]

...I feel sorry for him that it that it went under.

Yeah, JD worked really hard to bring us the software he did. I have a feeling the lawsuit was won because Clickforms had deeper pockets and got better lawyers. Thats so often the way it goes. I will miss the software, but it was more than the software, it was also the person behind it that really made me like it. So I wish the best to JD in his future endeavors. NSCForms might be done, but I don't think we've seen the last of JD.

 

[dobie]

There is definitely a need for a simple, low cost alternative provider in this space. I think the prospects are slim because the startup costs are probably prohibitive.