OT: OneGate Pricing (was: Re: filePro upgrades [was: Encrypting credit card data])

[Fairlight]

The honourable and venerable Kroboth, Joe spoke thus:
> As for your OG. I think it's a great product.  I'll love to get it but
> I wouldn't be pushing 50K transactions a day. More like 5 so I can't
> justify they cost.  Just like you can't justify the cost CS4 because you
> are not in the graphics industry.  I did buy your HTML2PRC.  It did the
> job and the price was right.

And I appreciate the custom.  Thanks!  :)

As for OG pricing...  You know, that's list price, but I'm actually open to
being flexible if someone comes to me and can prove that it's really not
driving a significant amount of their presence/business.  

I have places that are basing huge amounts of their revenue-generating or
application or support infrastructure capabilities upon the product.  In
those cases, there's no justification for a price break.  It's running in
an enterprise-level production environment and role.

In the case of someone that really could use the functionality, but it's
not going to be a big part of their bread and butter, I'm willing to
evaluate any reasonable proposal and quite possibly reach a confidential
agreement with them for a custom price below list.  I really just have to
be informed of what the plans for the product are, and be fairly confident
that it's not going to be a bait-and-switch where someone says, "Oh, I
can't afford it and it won't be doing much anyway," and then 4-6 months
later it's suddenly heavily supporting 75% of their online business flow.

But I mean, let's be serious.  As Alan Mazuti has pointed out--any of us in
the software industry are "selling air".  Yes, we put in the time.  Yes,
we have to eat.  List price is there to try and recoup ROI (especially on
low-volume items), and to make sure we can eat, pay the bills, etc.  But at
the end of the day, if someone can make a serious case for $495, or even
$295 (possibly even lower, depending on the use, although that's pushing it
a bit--but still feasible), and I'm -reasonably- confident that they're in
earnest...I see it as x% of >0.00 is better than 0% of list, since those
are sales that would otherwise be -entirely- lost at list price.  Case in
point, your argument for not being able to justify the cost, Joe.  I'd be
willing to talk it over and hear you out to see what we can do.

I don't usually -advertise- that I'll do this, by and large.  Who would
shoot themselves in the foot like that?  But I have accomodated people in
the past.  Serif does it with their software.  CoffeeCup has done it.  Lots
of companies do.  Including mine.

(Adobe, I should note, does not. :) That's one of the reasons I got into
it with them--they weren't even willing to -consider- considering being
reasonable for special cases.  In fact, I've tried hunting, and unless
you go the questionably legal OEM route, you can't generally find a >$20
price discrepancy between resellers.  And their margin is -huge-.  They're
selling air as well, and look at their educational discounts.  I almost
guarantee they're not taking a loss even at those cuts.)

But back to the point...  If someone's interested in OG (or any of my
products), and simply can't afford/justify the list price but can make a
compelling case for special consideration for themselves--by all means,
pick up the phone, or hit me in email and -ask-.  The worst that can happen
is that I decline, in which case no harm, no foul.  But I -will- consider
special cases and requests.  

I just don't make a general habit of giving away the homeworld.  :)

mark->
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