MM 8.6 and NotifyLink

[Raoul Armfield]

Hi all,

We are looking for folks who have taken the plunge and installed MM 8.6
and are using the Notifylink software to sync particularly Blackberries.
What are your thoughts?  How does it compare to intellisync?  We have
seen an issue with intellisync and v8.5.3 when there have been biweekly
recurring meetings.  Any information or thoughts would be very helpful.


--
Raoul Armfield
rarmfield at amnh dot org


* MMXP-TALK Web Page:  http://WWW.LISTSERV.Emory.Edu/Archives/MMXP-TALK.HTML

[John J. Press]

Hello everyone!

We are looking into moving to MM 8.6 but are very concerned by the lack of Palm OS synchronization which is currently part of MM 8.5 and now having to install/maintain additional software (NotifyLink) in order to continue to work as we have in the past.  Not only is this an additional expense for the software licenses, but NotifyLink tells us that they only support Palm OS 5 and higher and that licenses for wireless devices will cost significantly more money per license (and that they will NOT sync through cable/cradle connections).  We have a lot of concerns about these changes and wonder if other Meetingmaker users share these concerns. Any thoughts? -- JP

John J. Press
Systems Specialist
Slippery Rock University                 
Information Technology
1 Morrow Way
002D Maltby Center               
Slippery Rock, PA  16057

724-738-2867
724-738-4385 fax
724-738-2800 department office
Office Hours: 7:00am-3:30pm EST Mon-Fri

Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania
www.SRU.edu
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This E-mail message (including any attachments) is intended for the use of
the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information
that is privileged, proprietary, confidential and exempt from disclosure. If you
are not the intended recipient, you are notified that any dissemination,
distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited.
If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender and
erase this E-mail message (including any attachments) immediately.  Thank you!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* MMXP-TALK Web Page: http://WWW.LISTSERV.Emory.Edu/Archives/MMXP-TALK.HTML

[Mike Miller]

On Thu, 25 Jan 2007, John J. Press wrote:

> We are looking into moving to MM 8.6 but are very concerned by the lack
> of Palm OS synchronization which is currently part of MM 8.5 and now
> having to install/maintain additional software (NotifyLink) in order to
> continue to work as we have in the past.  Not only is this an additional
> expense for the software licenses, but NotifyLink tells us that they
> only support Palm OS 5 and higher and that licenses for wireless devices
> will cost significantly more money per license (and that they will NOT
> sync through cable/cradle connections).  We have a lot of concerns about
> these changes and wonder if other Meetingmaker users share these
> concerns. Any thoughts? -- JP

I wasn't aware of that until now.  Is MM doing anything positive for
users?  The things I'm seeing on this list have mostly made MM look pretty
bad.  We are stuck with it for now, but I am definitely exploring other
solutions, especially non-proprietary solutions.  The behavior of MM leads
me to believe that their business model is based largely on vendor
lock-in.

Mike

--
Michael B. Miller, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Division of Epidemiology and Community Health
and Institute of Human Genetics
University of Minnesota
http://taxa.epi.umn.edu/~mbmiller/


* MMXP-TALK Web Page:  http://WWW.LISTSERV.Emory.Edu/Archives/MMXP-TALK.HTML

[John Astleford]

We are also looking into the move to 8.6. However the concerns are the same,
wireless sync licenses are significantly more (dare I say up to 25x more).
The thought of bringing another server into our environment "just" to run
this syncing software seems a bit excessive. I would rather have the
software on a capable server already configured, but that's just me.


John Astleford
CTS Help Desk
Help Desk Consultant
412-396-1606
astlefordj@...
412-396-4357
1-888-355-8226
help@...
www.cts.duq.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: Meeting Maker Discussion List [mailto:MMXP-TALK@...]
On Behalf Of Mike Miller
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 10:10 AM
To: MMXP-TALK@...
Subject: Re: MM 8.6 and NotifyLink

On Thu, 25 Jan 2007, John J. Press wrote:

> We are looking into moving to MM 8.6 but are very concerned by the lack
> of Palm OS synchronization which is currently part of MM 8.5 and now
> having to install/maintain additional software (NotifyLink) in order to
> continue to work as we have in the past.  Not only is this an additional
> expense for the software licenses, but NotifyLink tells us that they
> only support Palm OS 5 and higher and that licenses for wireless devices
> will cost significantly more money per license (and that they will NOT
> sync through cable/cradle connections).  We have a lot of concerns about
> these changes and wonder if other Meetingmaker users share these
> concerns. Any thoughts? -- JP

I wasn't aware of that until now.  Is MM doing anything positive for
users?  The things I'm seeing on this list have mostly made MM look pretty
bad.  We are stuck with it for now, but I am definitely exploring other
solutions, especially non-proprietary solutions.  The behavior of MM leads
me to believe that their business model is based largely on vendor
lock-in.

Mike

--
Michael B. Miller, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Division of Epidemiology and Community Health
and Institute of Human Genetics
University of Minnesota
http://taxa.epi.umn.edu/~mbmiller/


* MMXP-TALK Web Page:  http://WWW.LISTSERV.Emory.Edu/Archives/MMXP-TALK.HTML


* MMXP-TALK Web Page:  http://WWW.LISTSERV.Emory.Edu/Archives/MMXP-TALK.HTML

[Ian Eiloart]

--On 25 January 2007 11:42:34 -0500 John Astleford <astlefordj@...>
wrote:

> We are also looking into the move to 8.6. However the concerns are the
> same, wireless sync licenses are significantly more (dare I say up to 25x
> more). The thought of bringing another server into our environment "just"
> to run this syncing software seems a bit excessive. I would rather have
> the software on a capable server already configured, but that's just me.
>

No, it's me too!

Heck, they don't even support any of the platforms that we use. They want
us to use a Windows server!?

--
Ian Eiloart
IT Services, University of Sussex


* MMXP-TALK Web Page:  http://WWW.LISTSERV.Emory.Edu/Archives/MMXP-TALK.HTML

[Steve Maser]

>From:    "John J. Press" <john.press@...>
>Subject: MM 8.6 and NotifyLink
>
>--=====================_11727390==.ALT
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
>
>
>Hello everyone!
>
>We are looking into moving to MM 8.6 but are very concerned by the
>lack of Palm OS synchronization which is currently part of MM 8.5 and
>now having to install/maintain additional software (NotifyLink) in
>order to continue to work as we have in the past.  Not only is this
>an additional expense for the software licenses, but NotifyLink tells
>us that they only support Palm OS 5 and higher and that licenses for
>wireless devices will cost significantly more money per license (and
>that they will NOT sync through cable/cradle connections).  We have a
>lot of concerns about these changes and wonder if other Meetingmaker
>users share these concerns. Any thoughts? -- JP

I've expressed these concerns (along with others) on the MM forums.

Because they aren't supporting Palm 4 devices (which we still have a number of) and the (IMO) outrageous expenses for even moving *wired* clients to MM 8.6, we're currently freezing our setup at 8.5.3.


The amount of additional money it would take to pay NotifyLink to host these wired/wireless clients (or to host our own server) to move to 8.6 has not (as far as I know) been offset by any reduction in our licensing costs!

Most of the campus here is not moving off of 7.5 to begin with.  We were one of the few stand-alone units who have kept up with the upgrades.

Probably not any longer.  

Many of those 7.5 users are going to end up on Exchange (as there's a robust Exchange server on campus as well).  Because of the added costs, there's *zero* incentive to move to 8.6 (or beyond).


While I fully understand PeopleCube had to do something to address the need for future wireless devices to connect to MM and (apparently?) couldn't handle it in-house, IMO, their existing customer base has just been given the big shaft with these hidden extra costs to move forward in partnering with NotifyLink.


If they had made *wired* Palm devices *completely free* and then indicated you'd have to pay through the teeth for new wireless devices -- we'd have moved to 8.6.   But for what was (and *is* free) in 8.5.3 to now be charged for in 8.6, is about as customer unfriendly as you can get.

- Steve
--
Steve Maser (maser@...)    | Thinking is man's only basic virtue,
Desktop Support Manager          | from which all the others proceed.
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering  |                          -- Ayn Rand


* MMXP-TALK Web Page:  http://WWW.LISTSERV.Emory.Edu/Archives/MMXP-TALK.HTML