$50 per additional simultaneous Administrative User

[alphabet]

Re: $50 per additional simultaneous Administrative User

'Shop as customer' feature in the Customers Tab

Doesn't the admin share the customers sessionid?

I'm not sure how it works but I am wondering if the admin would have an additional sessionid to pay for?

[Rick Wilson]

Re: $50 per additional simultaneous Administrative User

'Shop as customer' feature in the Customers Tab

Doesn't the admin share the customers sessionid?

I'm not sure how it works but I am wondering if the admin would have an additional sessionid to pay for?

Sorry, now I understand. No this will not require any additional seats, or be impacted at all. Nothing on the "shopping side" is changing one iota.

[gjt]

Re: $50 per additional simultaneous Administrative User

I'm a merchant and a developer and have some comments that might be useful.


As a merchant with 3 Miva stores...


I won't be paying double the price I'm already paying to add an additional seat because I don't need a second seat badly enough to justify doubling(!) my costs. Occasionally, I do have more than one person logged in and this would have to end. This would be an inconvenience ranging from minor to major. I would not be happy about getting less for the same amount of money.


As a developer...


My life just got significantly more complicated. I'm in and out of client Miva sites all day long. I don't even want to begin to think about how I'm going to coordinate it all and remain efficient.


I do not begrudge Miva wanting to charge more for true enterprise level users. In fact, I support it.


Russ said in his letter that Miva wants to "ensure that we are able to deliver enterprise level features and performance without pricing smaller customers off of our platform." To which I would say, two seats does not an enterprise make.


I'm with Leslie on this, let's hope Miva sees the light and offers a two-seat minimum, at least.

[papi34]

Re: $50 per additional simultaneous Administrative User

... let's hope Miva sees the light and offers a two-seat minimum, at least.

Yest, it would be nice if we could run our Miva product Synchro without having to logout of our admin session first so that Synchro can login and do its job.

From the FAQ - You don't "have to" have a second seat license in order to run a product like StoneEdge or Synchro. However if you only have 1 seat license, then everyone will need to be logged out for those types of products to be able to login and do their job.

[Datagg]

Re: $50 per additional simultaneous Administrative User

I do multiple tabs all the time. Even at times using IE on left monitor and FF on right. There are 2 of us here, 2 computers, same IP. So would this invoke the $50 extra fee if im logged in and my wife is on the other computer, as this is usually a typical scenario. In all honesty in these troubled times an extra $50 fee of any kind (2 sites) will unfortunately make me have to re-evaluate things immensely. This letter is quite shocking to be perfectly candid.

[Rick Wilson]

Re: $50 per additional simultaneous Administrative User

Dan,

Multiple Tabs within the same browser will not trigger a need for a new license.

Multiple Browsers (FF and IE for example) simultaneously would though.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Re: $50 per additional simultaneous Administrative User

<soapbox>

**************
IMPORTANT:
**************

While we are all trying to sort through this change, and offer our opinions (BTW: thanks Miva for listening carefully) could we all...

PLEASE CAREFULLY READ THE FAQ

Many folks are speculating on things that things that are already answered by the FAQ and having Miva respond to them hear I fear will make the actual meat of suggested changes soggy at best.

</soapbox>

[Rick Wilson]

Re: $50 per additional simultaneous Administrative User

Thanks Bruce.

I'd like to add something to this discussion specifically related to Bruce's post.

We are listening carefully.

People don't like having their workflow disrupted and people don't like price increases. We (and I) understand and empathize with both of those points.

Ultimately we don't make business model decisions lightly, nor did we make this one lightly. We make (sometimes difficult) decisions to allow us to further our path toward the fulfilling the vision we hold for our company.

At this stage of the process, the best thing we can do is listen carefully; release Version 9, observe real world usage of the new model and adjust to best serve our customers under the new paradigm.

We've lived through emergencies in the past (such as USPS changing their API without announcement during the holiday shopping season) and in those cases we get a fix out the door usually within 1 day. If by chance, we've miscalculated and we create an emergency of our own doing, it's a 5 minute fix in out database to provide unlimited seats while we solve the emergency.

What would be a bad thing to do, would be for us to become reactionary and make changes to our new model, prior to it even being released and basing rash business model changes entirely on F(ear) U(ncertainty) (and) D(oubt).

So please know we're listening and attentive through this process.

[Datagg]

Re: $50 per additional simultaneous Administrative User

Dan,

Multiple Tabs within the same browser will not trigger a need for a new license.

Multiple Browsers (FF and IE for example) simultaneously would though.

Rick,

First let me say we all appreciate your discussion with us on this matter. Now let me ask, my wife and I, her on her comp, me on mine, same IP, the same browser, 4 feet away from each other. Would another license be needed in this case?...

I agree with many here who have stated a 2 seat model would be great. There are times she logs in at other locations to add things while im doing my thing also. Thanks for the ear guys.

Edit: Reading Faq, it appears this would be the case.

"However, you can also have a second user name: Ringo and as long as Paul and Ringo never log in at the exact same time, you will not need a second seat license."

[Rick Wilson]

Re: $50 per additional simultaneous Administrative User

Dan, you're correct. If you both need to be in at the exact same time, you'll need to have a second seat.

However you can choose not to buy a second seat, and if you're both admins, just "kick each other out" as needed and share 1 seat.

[Rick Wilson]

Re: $50 per additional simultaneous Administrative User

Also worth noting if anyone on the Beta wants to do some testing, email me with your license number and I'll set a restriction so you can see how it works in "real life".

[papi34]

Re: $50 per additional simultaneous Administrative User

Dan, you're correct. If you both need to be in at the exact same time, you'll need to have a second seat.

However you can choose not to buy a second seat, and if you're both admins, just "kick each other out" as needed and share 1 seat.

We're hosted with Miva and have created a 2nd Admin login just to run cron jobs overnight for template datafeeds. Will the access to run the cron jobs automatically logout so we wont have problems logging in as admin in the morning?

[Rick Wilson]

Re: $50 per additional simultaneous Administrative User

We're hosted with Miva and have created a 2nd Admin login just to run cron jobs overnight for template datafeeds. Will the access to run the cron jobs automatically logout so we wont have problems logging in as admin in the morning?

Yes. There's a parameter you'll want to add to your CRON to auto log it out (Brennan will post details elsewhere later, it's a super minor change).

Even without the URL change though, as an Admin you can kick out any lingering sessions and just login.

[josiahjg]

Re: $50 per additional simultaneous Administrative User

I can appreciate Miva wanting to find ways to increase margins and cover costs, however this will price us out of Miva. This does not seem like a way to appeal to enterprise customers, as $50 per session is more expensive than most other shopping cart options. Which I was hoping not to have to look into, however if $50 per active session is the only option, we have no choice, as this will add up to over $8000 per year for us (our CS reps and technicians are logged into Miva throughout day working on orders).

I can't imagine I am the only one with more than 10 active concurrent sessions. Perhaps I am, and if so, that would solidify the fact I have used Miva too long, and have out grown the platform.

I hope Miva will consider options for long time customers (been using Miva for 13 years I think), discounts for dedicated server clients, volume discounts or some other program. I'd rather not change platforms within the next year, but it is now on my radar.

I look forward to some good news updates.
Josiah

[Rick Wilson]

Re: $50 per additional simultaneous Administrative User

I'd rather not change platforms within the next year, but it is now on my radar.

Here's what we see in the market.

1. There are a few "big names" who've raised a ton of VC money (100's of millions) who are combined losing more than $100 million per year from what we hear behind the scenes. There pricing is generally going to be lower than ours, but highly unlikely to be effective for someone with enough employees to need $8k per year in seats. Those types of pure SMB SaaS products tend to not be very flexible. In other words you can have it any color you like, as long as it's black.

In addition all markets cycle and when the "easy money" dries up for those VC financed companies, it's usually not a good outcome for the clients depending on those platforms. I've lived in both the ecommerce world and tech world long enough to watch this cycle multiple times and the hangover when VC money runs out is downright ugly.

2. Magento Enterprise is likely the right solution for someone who would appear to need 14 licenses ($8k per year in seats). Magento Enterprise is $18k per year in licensing fees alone, plus hosting on top. Usually hosting for Magento is far more expensive than Miva hosting since it's a significant resource hog.

Here's a recent article on what Magneto sites cost to build: http://sherodesigns.com/magento-webs...t-to-look-for/

3. The percentage of sales model is also common. Yahoo takes 1% of all sales, even big companies like GSI and Demandware do too (but they're not really competitors to Miva). People hate this model, and without knowing any details about your business specifically, I assume 1% of your sales would be much more than $8k per year if you need 14 seats.

So while we understand you've got a business to operate, therefore you'll need to evaluate which options are correct for your business.

From our end, in order for us to keep growing and fulfilling our vision for our company, we need to have a scalable and sustainable long term pricing program.

Companies in bucket #1 above do not meet that requirement, we considered a model like Magneto Enterprise "bucket 2" but felt our per seat model was far more equitable and didn't kick out the low end of the market and we simply don't think #3 is a better option than the path we chose.