Describe in detail the
Software, Where to find it, the download and install
instructions?
The Software we selected for this project is Rational Rose by Rational Software.
Rational RoseŽ, the world's leading visual modeling tool,
allows developers to define and communicate a software
architecture, resulting in:
- Accelerated development, by improved communication among
various team members
- Improved quality, by mapping business processes to
software architecture, and
- Increased visibility and predictability, by making
critical design decisions explicit visually.
Click Rational Rose to find the URL for this product,
also the actual site at http://www.rational.com/products/rose/index.jtmpl.
Rational Rose software can be downloaded for an evaluation
period of 30 days for free. The download procedures are as
follows:
- Click TRY IT or the TRY IT button in the page given above.
It will take you to a page where it gives you the
information of the latest Rational Rose software with
varoius links to get to the Evaluation copies, Online
tutorials and and the Product Information pages.
- Click Evaluation Copies or click the Evaluation Copies hyperlink on the
TRY IT page given above. This will take you to a screen
which will display information about the Evaluation
Edition of Rational Rose.
- Click the Download Rose Evaluation Edition
hyper link which takes you to Download Rose page. The executable takes abount 23mb of your
hard disk. This asks some simple questions before you
download the software.
- Then click the Submit Button to download
the software.
The General Issues in terms of
Support & Maintenance for this type of Software
- The Software downloaded for free could be outdated and
could be unsupported. The user of such software would be
in lot of trouble if the system he built using the
download software crashes and there is no support from
the vendor to fix it.
- There could be no maintenance support offered by the
software company for evaluation editions which might lead
to frustrate the user and drop the product from buying
even though it might be a great product for him if bought
as a professional edition with all the maintenance
support. This could be a loss for both the customer and
the software company.
- The software company can setup newsgroups and FAQ easily
available for the users so that there will be information
flow and possible solutions for already adddressed
problems saving time and money for both the customer and
the software company.
- The information about support and maintenace should be
made easily available and visible for potential clients
by the software company probably on the same Web page as
the download. This will also play a major role in the
success of the software.
The General Issues in terms of
Support & Maintenance for Software distribution in this
manner
- The free software products available can be downloaded by
many users and the Software company can loose track of
the number of copies downloaded. This will create a
problem in allocating resources for support and
maintenance of this software because the company will not
know how many users have downloaded and how many are the
real users of it. Therefore have a record of the exact
count of the number of copies downloaded can help the
company in estimating the resource allocation.
- The calls from the users with requests of problems can
range from a novice to an expert and the problem can
range from a simple one to a major one. Allocating
resources and making available around the clock for
experts to fix major problem will be a challenge and
expensive for the software company.
The ramifications of needing
people to install patches
- People installing patches who are at best
novices can istall patches in such a way that it might
stall the whole software to work. Also it might create
havoc for users to install patches who have never done
before. If anything goes wrong after installing the patch
to other sotware products on the computer the users might
assume that the patch might have created that problem.
The users might be frustrated and will stop using the
download which inturn is not good for the company's
reputation.
- The patches might carry virus infections
which can destroy the users computer.
- Asking users to istall patches might not
reflect good impression for the software and also for the
company as a whole.
The General Issues in terms of
Public relations and market share for Distributing Software this
way
- The company might not know if there are potential severe
bugs or problems in the software released for free which
might give a bad reputation for the software and the
company producing it, directly effecting the growth of
it. Therefore it will be better if the software is Beta
tested before its release.
- The Software downloaded for free could be enough for some
users and will be content with the evaluation edition.
This will not prompt them to buy the professional
software edition. This can be prevented one way by
offering the software for usage over a time period and
making the software inactive.
- This software distribution faces all the legal problems,
but there are a few problems which assume special
importance for businesses of this type. These include
copyright protection for software products, trademark
issues involved in product and company names, and issues
dealing with the online domain in which much of the
industry conducts its business.
- The software company distributing software as "try
and buy" or with a 30 day usage license will more
likely improve its audience if it joins some
organizations such as the Association for Shareware
Products where your product will be available and also
releases a news item about your product with new
releases. This will boost the usage of the software by
getting the word around.
The General Issues in terms of
Public relations and market share for Maintaining Software this
way
- The maintenace offered by the company for evaluation
copies can actually reflect on the company's commitment
to customers as a whole. If the company offeres good
support for maintenance you might attract a potential
buyer or might loose a potential buyer because of
offering bad maintenance. This leads to rise or fall in
sales of the software and the market share of the
company.
- By allocating too many resources for maintenance and
support of the software the company might lag behind in
the other development areas might lead to the downfall of
the company's market share. Therefore companies should
balance between both to succeed.
Three Other Issues
- Downloading of free software can be a major source of
Virus infections.
- Sometimes there can be an adverse affect on giving a free
download of your software for evaluation as word about
software problems can get around fast and affect the
software sales.
- Most of the time the Evaluation copies given as free
downloads can be just a subset of the actual product and
may not be as appealing to a potential buyer and
therefore losing him as your future customer.
References
Rational
Software