Announcement

**lpopejoy** · May 10, 2014, 05:33 PM

Re: Some Candid Comments

...and add to that list... The ability to run reports and use the program at the same time. When you have to run a report and verify data frequently, it would be very helpful to be able to easily switch back and forth between the application and the report view.

**lpopejoy** · May 10, 2014, 05:40 PM

Re: Some Candid Comments

Elaborating on my comments above regarding the report viewer: I think the limiting factor here is that we can't do calculated fields in a report and we are unable to specify our own queries (or customize them at least). I would love to be able to write my own SQL query for a report.

I know ReportBuilderPro is cabable of doing WAY more than it is "allowed" to do as provided with CommitCRM. Maybe an advanced reporting license would work? I'll buy it today.

**Support Team** · May 12, 2014, 06:11 AM

Re: Some Candid Comments

Thank you for posting this. We always appreciate feedback from users, and definitely from advanced users like yourself, so your post here is no exception! Like always, all will be reviewed and considered.

One note though: Your 'raise your prices' suggestion... Interesting, though we're not sure everyone will agree with you on that one... :-)

Thanks.

**AN-Tech** · May 12, 2014, 08:35 AM

Re: Some Candid Comments

I agree with everything that Luke has said in his posts including raising the prices. I would be surprised if the majority of us wouldn't mind increased prices knowing that development of what we need in the product would increase.

For many of us we just deal with the shortcomings of the product knowing that what we need/want may never come or at least not in any reasonable amount of time. I have come to accept that at one point in the future I will need some of the items I have been asking about over the years and at that time I will need to leave CommitCRM.

I've quit asking for change because over the years I have not seen the items that I need addressed. My requests are usually met with suggestions that will not resolve what I need to accomplish or the typical we appreciate feedback response. I'm sure I am not alone in this feeling.

Development appears (to me at least) to have dramatically slowed since I first signed on with CommitCRM 6 years ago. There needs to be change and if that change costs me more money I am ready to pay. It would be cheaper to have price increases from Commit then to start over again with another product.

**Support Team** · May 12, 2014, 08:53 AM

Re: Some Candid Comments

@ascendnet thanks for your feedback. For what it worth, we've never spent that many resources on product development as we are these days.... (we're way more successfully these days than many years ago), I think that our lastest major version, released only a few months ago, shows that.

Thanks for your personal feedback regarding @lpopejoy's price raise, suggestion.

**rfbalmer** · May 12, 2014, 08:54 AM

Re: Some Candid Comments

I am curious... What would you be willing to pay to get some of the features you asked for?

I submitted a change request and offered to pay for the cost of development. That was 4 months ago and I am still waiting for the quote.

I do agree with your summary by the way. I am just curious how much additonal people would be willing to pay and how much you would get for your $$$.

I would like to see a proposal from Commit that says (for example) we can double our releases per year however in order to do that we would need to raise everyone's support fees by x dollars.

**lpopejoy** · May 12, 2014, 09:03 AM

Re: Some Candid Comments

I would write a check for at least $5,000 today if all of the features I mentioned above were developed. They would probably need 10-20x that to fully fund development of the above.

If I switch to any of CommitCRM's competitors, I would have to pay that and more. I don't look at this software as an expense - it is an investment. It has measurable ROI - and that's what I want to maximize.

The EXPENSE, that I would like to avoid, is having to train 8 people on a new PSA platform and re-write our integrations with various vendor API's. That's a terrible waste of time, that could be avoided if Commit would raise their rates and scale their product accordingly.

I'm also aware that perhaps my long-term company objectives, and Commit's long term plans for their software may not mesh. ...and IF that is the case, I would like to be told that (or discover that for myself by reviewing their road-map) and move on sooner rather than later.

I'm not asking for a faster development cycle, necessarily. In fact, slower dev cylces and more fully developed features would suite me just fine.

Anyway, that's my .02 - again. :)

**lpopejoy** · May 12, 2014, 09:09 AM

Re: Some Candid Comments

@rfbalmer, do you mind if I ask what the change request was?

**Support Team** · May 12, 2014, 09:11 AM

Re: Some Candid Comments

@fbalmer - thanks for your feedback too. As we may have discussed by email, we do not do custom developments (whether for a fee or not) but rather only product related ones that everyone can use and benefit from, taking money for custom developments, even product related. Anyways, if there's anything open in regards to this please drop us an email so we can discuss this further. Thanks.

@lpopejoy - thank for your additional .02.

**rfbalmer** · May 13, 2014, 08:09 AM

Re: Some Candid Comments

@lpopejoy - I requested Commit to add the ability to create a quote from the assets directly and offered to pay for it.

We sell software that is renewed on an annual basis. - About 650 licenses which translates into 650 quotes per year. I was looking for a way to stream line that process.

We would also be willing to contribute $5,000+ for a defined set of changes, plus entertain an increase in our annual maintenance fee to support more ongoing changes.

The CommitCRM product has a lot of good features. The support is great and really when you look at the release cycle it is relatively bug free.

That said, would the Commit folks be willing to entertain a discussion like this with CommitCRM users?

I feel there is genuine interest from some customers in helping and funding the growth of the product.

If the Commit team wants to continue on the same path I respect that decision however it would be beneficial for everyone to know what they are thinking on these issues.

**sudogreg** · May 13, 2014, 10:20 AM

Re: Some Candid Comments

@lpopejoy
@rfbalmer

I'm on the same page with you guys - we are always looking at streamlining workflow and have similar needs. Often times we get frustrated to the point of looking at other systems, but with ~3000 clients, its a hard switch to make.

**Support Team** · May 13, 2014, 12:43 PM

Re: Some Candid Comments

@rfbalmer thanks. We appreciate your feedback and kind words.

RangerMSP is moving fast forward with plenty of enhancements with each release.

We get a lot of feedback and the number of ideas suggested by our users is very large (mmm, that's probably one of the benefits of having IT pros. as our users).

We tend to prioritize on features that will have the maximum effect, meaning, will help most users. Though, each release also includes stuff that may help a narrowed audience (like some suggestions suggested offered by forum members).

Many times different customers prioritize their requirements totally different. While @rfbalmer may really benefit from batch quoting idea implemented, it is possible that @lpopejoy will find it as a 'nice-to-have' feature, wanting other stuff implemented first.

From the posts above and some additional feedback we've received in other channels, it is clear that some of you require a specific feature sooner rather then later and are willing to pay for it.

Following this thread we plan consider opening the door to only a few (at least initially), carefully selected, offers to speed up the development on specific feature/s for a fee. Our selection process means that we will only accept a limited number of such offers, ones that we would have considered to include in the product at a later time anyhow (e.g. ones that may help many other users too). We will also verify that allocating the required resources will not have any effect on our plans for the following release at that time. Implemented correctly this may help in growing up the product even faster on some fronts.

Thanks!

**lpopejoy** · May 13, 2014, 01:25 PM

Re: Some Candid Comments

@CommitCRM, sounds like a move in the right direction. I'm all ears!

**raymond** · May 14, 2014, 01:22 PM

Re: Some Candid Comments

Gentlemen (and ladies!), like you, I have a business to run and efficiencies are what make things profitable or not. I have also thought about asking Commit what it would cost to develop a feature but have not done much beyond the thinking phase.

I can’t imagine how many feature requests Commit gets on a monthly/yearly basis but I’m sure it’s a lot! The thing about this is that we have to be careful how we prioritize and “pay for” these features. While a lot of what lpopejoy has listed is in my list of “things we need”, e.g. custom contracts, rounding issues (really can’t believe this hasn’t been fixed yet), rich text, dashboard and reporting improvements, timesheets (we finally moved this out to toggl.com) etc., there are a number of items that are not important to us, such as improved quoting (our quotes are complicated and are done in a custom app). Others have requested tighter integration with google... I’m about as far from that feature request as you can get (I wouldn’t trust our company data or our client data in that cloud system to save my life). Ant this list goes on!

On my hopper of “things we need”; more fields and multi-select boxes for contacts (let’s actually make this a CRM product!), linking multiple assets to a ticket, better exchange integration, create another layer of management at the account/ticket level (duplicate the “account manager” field/functionality and call it “lead tech”), and a projects module, etc. Interspersed in all this are dozens and dozens of technical “tweaks”...

The issue with opening the door to having folks pay to fast track certain projects is that someone with a lot of $’s could simply railroad the product and make it less useful for the rest of us (meaning not a product that current or future purchasers would want, thereby causing the commit user base to implode) OR indefinitely push out features that are important to the majority. Imagine if I went to Commit and said “I’ll give you $100K to develop an inventory module that works with the Accpac accounting system” (...not that we use accpac). I’m guessing all development on other features would come to a screeching halt. What’s that? You don’t want a module to plug into accpac? So sorry... (!)

On the flip side of this, commit could slip into the model of “pay for feature”. How would you feel if every time you wanted something fixed, the vendor would come back to you and say “well that feature is going to cost you X, do you want to pay for it?”... that is not a good way to go.

What I’m suggesting is twofold:

1) Commit needs to create a better way to submit feature request. These feature requests need to show up in a list and commit users then need/get to vote on them. This would naturally bring the most requested (important) features to the top. In this voting system, it would be best if it was weighted on number of licenses in use/purchased.

2) Increase the cost of the product and add more developers to help accelerate product development. Yes, we see a lot of product advancements but the faster we get these features integrated, the more profitable we can be...

Thanks!

//ray