That does seem to be the prevailing attitude in enterprise software.
I cannot help but look at the history of the big 3 Detroit automakers and their love of using service and support as a revenue source. It bit them pretty badly when Honda came along and made cars that didn't need the repairs.
I look at the example of the automakers every time someone tells me the proper business model for software is give away the program and charge for support, consulting, and training. I would much rather pay for software that I never have to call support about.
Agreed, but that's not quite how it works in Enterprise software, I think. Enterprise software is developed to cover a wide spectrum of businesses whose business rules, etc differ greatly. Because of this it's hard to make a product that "just works" for every organization. That's why CIOs buy support and consulting contracts. :)
The one we are using (names withheld to protect the guilty) is being used in a turnkey manner. No customization or custom code, just the base functionality. It is the pure gall of shipping a sql file as an update that is longer than most programs.
I cannot help but look at the history of the big 3 Detroit automakers and their love of using service and support as a revenue source. It bit them pretty badly when Honda came along and made cars that didn't need the repairs.
I look at the example of the automakers every time someone tells me the proper business model for software is give away the program and charge for support, consulting, and training. I would much rather pay for software that I never have to call support about.