Why RFEs don't work

["Thomas Michanek" <thomas.michanek@xxxxxxxxx>]

[ Feel free to forward this message to the FrameUsers
  mailing list. Let me and others know if you do so. ]

A month ago, there was an interesting discussion on the FrameUsers
mailing list about Adobe's perceived lack of interest, marketing and
improvement of FrameMaker, especially considering the new 6.0 release.
Many long-time users took the opportunity to moan and groan...

BUT, there were also voices raised that instead of complaining you
should continue sending in Requests For Enhancements (RFEs) to Adobe,
and stating them as business cases. The email address
framemaker-feedback@adobe.com was mentioned for sending in comments.

LET ME EXPLAIN WHY THIS WON'T HAVE ANY EFFECT:
----------------------------------------------
I have used FrameMaker for more than 10 years. Over the years, there
has been repeated suggestions and requests for specific new or improved
features from the FrameMaker user community; all of them have been sent
in to Frame Technologies or Adobe. Some of these have become known as
FREs (Frequently Requested Enhancements); many of them have been
requested repeatedly for more than 5 years.

Of course, the repeated failure of meeting these requests in new 
releases of the software resulted in discontent among long-time loyal
customers. Over the years, efforts were made to get Frame and Adobe
to explain how RFEs were treated, evaluated and considered for 
implementation. Not surprisingly, no clear statements were issued,
and we were encouraged to continue to send in our RFEs.

Nearly two years ago, I gave up my hopes and decided to try to do 
something about it. I gathered about 40 professional, long-time users 
to come up with a joint effort to influence Adobe and explain the 
needs of the framers community. The discussions were held via a secret
mailing list in the strictest confidence, since people with strong
ties to Adobe and good knowledge of their inner workings were 
participating. In the course of these discussions, especially in 
private emails, I came to the following insights:

* Unless you have literally thousand(s) of licenses behind you, your
  wishes and requests are virtually ignored by Adobe. This is not
  necessarily a sign of Adobe's disrespect for their customers, but
  simply a matter of listening more to the biggest license holders
  (due to the dollar value of these licenses).

* If you work at such a big company, there is probably an individual
  appointed to speak for your company to Adobe. Some of these meet
  regularly with Adobe product management. Unless you let this person
  forward your requests to Adobe, there's a risk they won't be regarded
  as representing your company, and thus will be "ignored" (see above).

* Large license holders can fund features, known as "pre-purchasing"
  licenses. These customers pay in advance for licenses, and in return
  Adobe commits to implement the features they want. (This was much
  more common during the Frame Technology time, but it still happens.)

Simply put, MONEY TALKS. No money, RFEs are treated politely at best.
You know of features you requested that were implemented? You can bet
that someone else requested them too, or even payed for them.

A month ago, someone claimed that Adobe was to put FrameMaker in
"maintenance mode" (= letting it die) directly after the 5.5.6 release.
The only thing that saved FM was one of the major license holders
threatening to completely discontinue their usage of Adobe products.

CONCLUSION: sending in RFEs to Adobe is a nice pastime, but don't
expect anything if you don't accompany them with lots of $$$.
I don't have any, so I simply continue to use and argue for my
favourite software. Whatever improvements I can think of, I either
keep them to myself, or implement them as a MIF script...

End of this flame bait :-)
--------------------------

What happened to the joint effort? Due to the wisdom gained, my own
enthusiasm cooled, and we had a hard time agreeing on what to do, 
when and how, as well as finding the time to write down our requests.
A few months later, some of the people were approached by Adobe
attourneys for sharing confidential information, as the discussions
had leaked to Adobe... I understood that I could become involved in
this, so I took a secret mailing list archive and web page off-line.
Adobe took this seriously, apparently for a reason...
Lesson learned: you can't work this sort of effort out on-line; you
must meet in person and have the time to spend.

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Thomas Michanek, [Michagon], Linkoping, Sweden
       FrameMaker/UNIX/MIF/scripting expert
EMAIL: mailto:Thomas.Michanek@telia.com
WWW:   http://go.to/framers , or go directly to:
       http://w1.133.telia.com/~u13304072/framers
       *  U P D A T E D   O N   J U N E   2 6  *
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