NW Scheduler/Publisher - Updates, Support, and Suggestions

[Tortuga]

9 minutes ago, carlos said:

The support system comes across as patronizing and is definitely designed to make you feel that you are bothering them. It's commercial software that you pay for, but they try to present it as if it were freeware. Sometimes they give snarky answers to try and make you feel stupid for wasting their time.

Aussies, eh?

[Gary P]

Our experience is similar. Initial response is aloof and condescending. I agree with a recent post that said if we could find something that has the features we use we would move to it. At the risk of receiving more comments about the lack of good support and developing functions that are useful I continue to feel that there is a lack of community input. The developers seem to be in their own world. This is purchased software and users should be treated with a modicum of respect. I managed a group of developers for quite some time in my secular career and if my developer's responded as does NWS, there would have been consequences. 

[Marky]

I wish they would charge more.

This is global enterprize software that needs better development, support, etc. Their motives are good and the basic foundation of NWS is more stable now than I have ever seen it.

We pay $45 for one year and have 16 brothers as shared persons. I am not aware of any other robust global software that is this inexpensive. I commend NWS for trying to keep the costs to a minimum especially in poorer areas. There needs to be a recognition though that they are often not providing first-rate software and support. If an electrician or a plumber comes to my home and he is a brother, I don't expect a discount. He has to make a living.

Our entire servant body would happily pay a little more to avoid all of the time spent in troubleshooting and fixing things. Maybe it would be fair to charge the annual congregation fee but add an annual $1-2 dollar user fee for each brother that would be using it. That way smaller congregations would pay less and larger ones would pay more.

With some additional revenue they could consider adding another developer, some experienced beta testers so new versions wouldn't get launched with so many bugs, and a dedicated crew for a help desk. The last time I looked they mentioned all the developers were pioneer elders. That is great and very commendable but this is commercial software and needs serious business attention. Part-time workers can be great but only if you have enough of them to do the job right. If they need more money to do that, maybe they could poll the users of the software to come up with the best way to increase the fees.

Just some imperfect brainstorming...