Soft and pricing 2005-05-27 - By Scott Stewart
Back
Well, not to sound too bitter, but 7k is a lot better than the 12k I
paid a few years back for my license; I was also freelance at the
time.
It is a lot of money, and yes, you might not be a huge operation, but
even so, you will be profiting heavily from their software, and Soft
is not likely to give you any discount whatsoever, unless you're
buying licenses en masse. Effectively, what you're asking, is to set
yourself up as a small shop (individual or not) at a discounted rate.
This isn't likely to happen.
What you really need to do is add the cost of your equipment to your
invoices to offset your overhead. If you are delivering final renders
to your clients, you've a right to charge them more than the other
freelancers that don't have their own equipment.
There are plenty of leasing companies out there that can help you
offset/defray the initial overhead costs. There are small business
loans, lean-loans, project advances.....etc....you see where I'm going
with this though...they are solutions that you, as a business person,
need to explore. It isn't up to Soft to custom price the software
based on your individual need. And honestly, 7k is a pretty amazing
price. Further, most small businesses take 3-5 years to pay off their
initial overhead investments.
Educational licesnes are cheap because they are for educational
purposes only. The individuals that use them should not be profiting
from them.
As far as support goes, you pay support and maintenance for the most
current versions of the sotware.....it isn't just about being able to
call tech support.
I think it's great that you intend to buy the software....but there a
lot of people on this list who paid a lot more money to do the very
same thing.
Best of luck with your decision.
Scott Stewart
On 5/27/05, tony@(protected) <tony@(protected)> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm trying to work out who the best person is to speak to at softimage about
> licensing and maintenance.
>
> I'd like other peoples opinions on this too.
>
> I basically want to get a good discount on render licenses and maintenance.
> At the moment, Soft (and most other vendors) have two distinct price groups,
one
> for the commercial sector (studios etc.) and one for the education sector
> (schools, students etc).
> The education sector enjoys massive discounts - a commercial license of xsi 4
.2
> costs $6995. compare that to $295 for a teacher/student/institution
(permenant)
> license.
>
> Now, I am freelancer. Since I earn my living using XSI, its only right and
fair
> that I pay for it.
> However, I not a studio, nor a big earner of any sort. Yet I'm a little upset
> that I'm expected to have to pay full whack for software, render licenses and
> maintenance contracts.
> I'm finding it increasing difficult these days to justifiy to myself why I
> should be paying maintenance since I really get all the help I need from
forums
> and list servers. Indeed, I don't think I've ever called soft support - just
> about the only benefit I get from having a maintenance contract is upgrades
and
> patches.
> I got lucky recently and got my hands one a rack of dual proc render units
for a
> really good price.
> But forking out for render licenses for it is going to cost a bomb (more than
> the renderfarm itself!).
> And these days lots of other vendors are starting to offer unlimited network
> rendering,
>
> So, what I want to ask the right person at Softimage is - what can you do to
> ease the financial burden on my shoulders?
> Is their any reward you can offer those individuals among us who did the
honest
> thing and stumped up loads of cash to buy your software for our work, rather
> than take the easy route and use cr@(protected) software?
> Could you add another price group - freelancer rates - to your portfolio?
>
> Anyone know who I should talk to at Soft about this?
>
> What do other people think?
>
> cheers
> Tony
>
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