Software company aquired by rival

3dsteel

I've been using some CAD software since 2005 called Strucad. This cost me 19k euro at the time and I've been paying them 2 to 3k per year maintenance (depending on the sterling exchange rate).

Last week Strucad were aquired by Tekla, who are Strucad's main rival. Tekla will stop supporting strucad in 2 years and I will be forced to switch to using Tekla.

This will result in a huge loss of efficiency for me since I will have to re-train to the new software and change all my procedures to suit. Tekla maintenance is also more expensive than Strucads.

I'm looking for information on what are my rights in this situation? Any advice appreciated.

ch750536

This happens with software. We have a 3yr agreement with ours so our clients know they are safe for that time. In your case it seems the new owners are honouring any service agreement and have notified you of product retirement in advance.
You could continue with the retired software but I would advise against it, most software like that becomes aged quickly.
Bad news, move on.

seamus

Typically in this scenario the company will offer a free upgrade to the other software, or a massive discount to switch, if you keep up with your maintenance payments. They're very aware that customers like yourself are tempted to switch to a different software in this scenario, so they want to hold onto your €2k/year.

Unfortunately you don't have any real rights in this situation. The maintenance payments are for ongoing support and updates to the software. They can choose to end all support contracts if they wish; you can continue using the old software, but you'll be unsupported.

No harm to discuss your options with them; if you can run both pieces of software concurrently for a few months, this should minimise the hassle of changing over. You can start new projects on the new software and still refer back to the old software if you have something urgent to do.

Spacedog

You should have adopted an open source CAD application and spent the money on developing the software to your businesses specific needs. You would have had free unlimited support from a community of other users and businesses actively using the software, while contributing something to society and collaboration with like minded individuals and businesses.

Instead you paid a fortune to a cowboy who sold out his customers for a one off payout. Live and learn.

dudara

Not a Consumer Issue. Moved to Business & Entreprenurial Management.

dudara

antoinolachtnai

It is a long shot, but you could contact the local equivalent of the Competition Authority wherever the acquired company is based and ask them if they have considered the effect on the market. You could contact the European Commission too, on a similar basis. The Department of Justice mainly deals with such things in the US. But really that would be a lot of effort and you would realistically have to engage solicitors. At the end of the day, it is a very specialized thing, and the authorities are unlikely to engage on it.

For the above to have any chance at all, a lot will depend on whether strucad was sufficiently profitable. If it is was not profitable or had low profitability, you will not have much of a case.

AIB took a slightly similar case against Oracle lately in the Irish courts, in relation to support for DB2. It did not end well for them. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/28/aib_oracle_flexcube_lawsuit_settlement/

If you are able to work with other people in your industry, you might be able to develop a case, or you might be able to convince the company to work with you.

As it is now, you want to buy something that these guys don't want to sell you anymore. In the end you'll have to find a way to move on, one way or the other.

srsly78

Spacedog wrote: »

You should have adopted an open source CAD application and spent the money on developing the software to your businesses specific needs. You would have had free unlimited support from a community of other users and businesses actively using the software, while contributing something to society and collaboration with like minded individuals and businesses.

Instead you paid a fortune to a cowboy who sold out his customers for a one off payout. Live and learn.

You are assuming that a viable open-source alternative exists.

Spacedog

You are assuming that software developers are mythical creatures.

Take closest open source alternative for free,
Spend the money you wasted on vaporware on developers to tailor the software to your businesses needs well beyond that of off the shelf products.

merge back non-business critical software to the code base, and contribute funds back to the original developers, who will provide you with proper support (as opposed to bugging you for license, or asset numbers) if anything goes wrong.

TsuDhoNimh

Spacedog wrote: »

You are assuming that software developers are mythical creatures.

... an assumption that is strangely, yet often, shared by software devs themselves.

Spacedog

TsuDhoNimh wrote: »

... an assumption that is strangely, yet often, shared by software devs themselves.

If I choose to dress up as Gimley from lord of the rings in my own free time that's my business.

onedmc

3dsteel wrote: »

I've been using some CAD software since 2005 called Strucad. This cost me 19k euro at the time and I've been paying them 2 to 3k per year maintenance (depending on the sterling exchange rate).

Last week Strucad were aquired by Tekla, who are Strucad's main rival. Tekla will stop supporting strucad in 2 years and I will be forced to switch to using Tekla.

I'm looking for information on what are my rights in this situation? Any advice appreciated.

if your licence is a perpetual licence then you can continue to use the software without maintenance. If you are paying an annual recurring licence fee dressed up as maintenance the you can't use actually use the software. The lartter is common in software that has regularity or compliance related elements.

Herbalist

In most cases like this the acquiring company will be aware that you may be reluctant to move and would prefer to keep you as a customer than lose you. As Seamus advised, In the two years to follow I would be surprised if this company did not offer discounts and offers increasing over time to incite you to move from your existing product to their own offering.
If you have a perpetual licence this means that the company cannot simply turn off or deny access to the software but continuing with an unsupported product can have it's own consequences down the line if you encounter technical problems or if legislative changes come in that affect the type of software you are using.
This may be a good time to contact the company to find out what they are willing to offer - would some training included in the price of migrating software reduce the cost and effort of re training for example? It could also be worth looking at what competitor products there are available and what their capabilities are.

jennysw

is there any way of protecting or getting another dongle in case ours breaks ect,we are staying on strucad,gone over to gratec too but hate it.so want to keep on with v14 of strucad.

gctest50

You can get them duplicated, but you'd want to lock it up safely in case someone takes a liking to it and brings it home / puts it on ebay.

3dsteel

jennysw wrote: »

is there any way of protecting or getting another dongle in case ours breaks ect,we are staying on strucad,gone over to gratec too but hate it.so want to keep on with v14 of strucad.

I would strongly recommend backing up your dongle. This week Tekla announced that they will NOT replace broken dongles after this month.

I've used this site: www.dongleservice.com

It only cost about €270 excluding vat and with early payment discount. Money well spent for the peace of mind.

jennysw

thanks,I spoke to tekla they said no chance whats so ever in getting a spare or replacement dongle,even though they are surposed to help until this Friday,

3dsteel

In fairness, it would be stupid of them to give out spares? But they should supply replacement dongles indefinitely. Even at a cost.

jennysw

true,i asked them what happens if it breaks after the end of june and was told that it wouldn't be there problem anymore.even if it breaks before the end of june,they still can't replace it as they have ran out of dongles.