Re: How do you feel about the 365 Program?
Ok - I'm here to drop my few cents in the fountain that is this thread.
Said earlier (maybe Acorn, maybe someone else): Flip the Update Service to we can keep all updates in the year, forever.
For the 365 model, this is the most important thing to me. Reality is that each year, provided that the updates over the course of the year have been worthwhile, I will upgrade both of my licenses - and on and on. Whether on the 365 model or the year-to-year one, it's likely that the upgrade is going to have something in it that is worthwhile to my business.
We do website design and development. I use Joomla to realize our designs by building custom templates from Xara designs. I use Xara to export the pieces and parts and assemble them in the Joomla template-ing, using the Joomlart T3 framework. It's very efficient.
We rarely use Xara to produce an end-product website (though it happens here and again), but we provide mockups of the designs with it and having a somewhat living version (with hovers on menus and moving graphics or the occasional parallax demo), versus the static images, and sometimes just grey-box outlines that a lot of competitors use, gives us a definite advantage. It also makes it a lot easier to get from design into actual development when the client SEES what a slider looks like - that images will move in this section or that. Maybe not exactly like the final version, but a good representation. This lets them give the sign-off a lot faster than if we require them to use their imagination. If they were "creative minds" they might just be making their own websites!
Simple additions, like the Pixabay integration, add a TON to our productivity. Yeah, we could go to pixabay's website and get the images, copy them, paste them or download them or whatever, but being able to just click a number of colorful images into a layout quickly saves a pile of time for getting a design concept across quickly. This feature alone has saved us enough design/layout time in the past several months that the profit of that time compared to the pricing of the designs has probably covered the cost of the upgrade for both of us pretty readily. And the 365 model allowed me to have this enhancement without having to wait until spring to get it.
I don't like that the features will go away though, for many of the same reasons that folks are posting here. I think that my commitment to the year of updates should allow me to keep that year of updates if I opt not to continue to pay. If Xara wants my money next year, they should prove that THIS year was worth it.
The way they do that is with trust and production. When this whole 365 thing started, I pointed out how Cakewalk (producer of music software, Sonar, specifically) is handling their "subscription" (*if you will let me call it that). Every single month, they have a release of new features and bug fixes and documentation to go along with that release. It keeps their customers engaged. Are there unhappy clients there too? Of course - there will always be. But Cakewalk has typically come through on delivery of new stuff that they said that they would do. And they have been doing it now for at least 2 years straight.
Take a look at the ongoing list of updates that are done here: http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SON...ts-New#2017.01
It's an impressive list to scroll down that page and see how many enhancements have happened. Scroll up from that point and you see what they currently have "in the oven". It doesn't hurt that they had a short period of "lifetime updates" as a bit of a combination of loyalty reward and cash grab, so I get updates from now until December of 2038 (at least).
To me, this method of keeping people informed of what's going on and doing it consistently is how Xara will win over the loyal users and pick up new ones. With Cakewalk, this isn't 3 new features once or twice - this is several new features EVERY month. And some of the features are significant. Some are things for the new folks, like templates and starting points, and simpler getting started menus and such (that the old guard complain about because they don't need them), but some are also deep features that people have wanted for a long time and bug fixes for things that have tormented people through older versions that are VERY welcome by the users who have been around for a while.
I suppose what I'm saying is that you have to look outside of just the graphics market. There are a lot of other areas where software is going down this same path and there is a lot to be learned about what works and what puts companies out of business.
Overall, I think that the 365 program is a good idea, so you can put me in the positive column. With a few tweaks, more updates, more communication, and a better "your updates stick" if you were around when they came out, this could be a very successful endeavor. Without these things, Xara could easily become "that obscure program that no one has ever heard of". I can tell you that in this area - North Metro Atlanta - not one single person I know has ever heard of Xara and when I bring it up, I have to defend it because it is unrecognized and immediately considered unprofessional, non-standard, a toy. When I show it off, lots of people think it's great, but it is not getting noticed. Period.
And - shameless plug: If anyone needs Joomla help - let me know. I was the first Certified Joomla Administrator in the United States as of October 2016, so I think I know a pretty decent amount about it and how to utilize Xara Designer Pro and Joomla together to get quality websites out with a ton of functionality.
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Originally Posted by slavelle
Acorn - installed Xara software: Cloud+/Pro+ and most others back through time (to CC's Artworks). Contact for technical remediation/consultancy for your web designs.
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