Buy now or wait for version 3 release

Looking for some thoughts from fellow potential customers.
With version 3 release around the corner, are you introducing a new aCollab to your team and clients now?

While activecollab is offering free upgrade to 3 if we buy now, the biggest expense is introducing and reintroducing a system to team and clients.

Also, ac3 has lot more functionality which you can get in ac2 only through expensive modules such as todo, planning.

I am thinking to stay with the camp till ac3 is introduced. What's the reason for aC promoting buynow for free upgrade? everyone suppose to get first year free upgrades. May be everyone is holding back just like me

@online_investor: This is a great question, and I think the answer may be different for everyone - I have actually been talking to some other potential users about the same thing and have a blog post on the topic coming soon.

It sounds like Ilija is saying that your support subscription doesn't start until the new version releases -- that's great. I think too some people may not read the fine print about the 1 years of updates, so I think it's good they have made the answer to a popular question more prominent front and center.


Here are a few things to think about with regards to waiting vs starting now...

1. Is the reason you are looking for a new system, worth making the move now -- i.e. what are the pain points that brought you to activeCollab in the first place. Is the investment in training/introducing worth it if the current version solves problems and increases productivity today? This is even more important with larger teams, because improvements are multiplied across all users.

2. Based on the timeline the activeCollab team has given, does it make sense to put your plans to migrate/get started on hold for X time. If they are say, the end of the year... do you want to be one of the first to use it in Production? If not... how long until a Production non-beta version is ready as well? ... if it is 3 months from now ... how do you feel? 4, 5, 6 etc.... this is an important part of the waiting process. (Ilija also addressed his thoughts and I agree a tried and tested version 2 that thousands are already using is a good place to start.)


3. What's the cost of the 3rd party module vs the value or time saving it provides -- Return on Investment.... If a $100 module saves you 10 hours per week, 1 hr of your time = $X .... what's the result? Does this make getting v2 and the addon module viable based on the potential time you'll be using it even before version 3.


Hope these thoughts are helpful --- Most of the developers offer 1 year of free updates along with their modules, so you'll be eligible for updates to the modules too when v3 comes out to add even more value.


Thanks for sharing your question!

Nathan



P.S. -- For transparency reasons, I wanted to share that my company offers a variety of modules and services for activeCollab -- but we are also aC users in our business and have purchased a number of other 3rd party modules from our fellow developers out there too.

No problem at all, glad to help in anyway --- you've got to make the decision that's best for you, at the same time it's always good to have some outside insights on the issue too.

Just a couple comments on your reply....

1. Terminology is changing from what I've been seeing too, but there are some ideas too on how to deal with that if you don't want to "confuse the heck out of users" .... I have a blog post that's actually going out tomorrow on this exact topic strange timeliness as this is the second conversation I've had today about naming features. To get it, you can signup to our newsletter or I'll post the link here tomorrow when it's posted. Essentially I'm just referring to how the Localization feature can be cleverly used to rename any features.... why not rename the existing features to match the coming changes? So they don't have to learn the naming twice. Or even rename them to match your own needs.


2. I UNDERSTAND all too well :) Corporations have enough challenges with workflow and adoption of systems in general... without changing terminology and architecture. At the same time, you can minimize the negatives and with the right approach by getting the users involved in the transition process in a way that makes them feel good about the transition or at least not frustrated by it.... and maybe even excited about it! I mean we can dream right? But in our experience we've truly seen doubters transition to people rallying the team to use the system.... you just have to be willing to invest in making it work for them not against them.... I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir :)



>> want to do it right so that aC becomes primary PM application for long long time.

I hear you 100% on this --- I think aC has a very good chance of being a long term solution because in addition to the updates from the core dev team's versions. You can customize the heck out of it to shape it into what you need in a modular way, so it's still upgradable and that ability to extend the features is what makes it viable for the long term. Plus you've got a nice community of developers growing that are releasing 3rd party modules and services.... meaning even without the cost of custom development, you can always expand to fit your needs.


If there's anything I can do to help let me know, we have helped new users getting started with planning their roll out and we've also helped Basecamp users find a smooth transition into the features of aC.