CC4...Hows it goin?

[gibbo_ap]

Just working on the 3year dev plan, and we just thought we best factor in cc4. I wouldn't mind knowing how it is going for you all so i can decide when to plan this for.

 

cheers in advance!

[CHR1S]

Not in a position where I can discuss the details but ... very badly! PM me for more info.

 

Chris

[Guest Leonafj]

we were meant to get it during summer, it went wrong, they rolled back to CC3, that went wrong, since then we have just been fire fighting problems. We are due to try again in the Feb half term, to be honest im not looking forward to it and feel slightly bad that ive got a new job and hopefully the security clearance will come through in a few weeks meaning i can hand my notice in and therefore only have a few weeks with CC4 leaving my technician with all the problems we'll probably have. hopefully this will not be the case, i hope to leave a working network!!

[Butuz]

Do you have a current RM Support Contract? If so Sign up for RM Communites forum, there is a CC4 section in there which makes.... er.... interesting reading.

 

Butuz (sticking with a working CC3 network!)

[kmount]

If by interesting you mean painful you're on the right road.

[bossman]

Hi All,

Have it on good authority that it will be March at the earliest for a re-coded CC4.

Really feel for you guys that went early seems to be quite a few critical elements that needed re-coding.

anyone going through the pain if they would like to PM me (if they have the time that is) with the problems they have had, just to give me a clearer picture would really appreciate. :)

[gibbo_ap]

Hi All,

Have it on good authority that it will be March at the earliest for a re-coded CC4.

Really feel for you guys that went early seems to be quite a few critical elements that needed re-coding.

anyone going through the pain if they would like to PM me (if they have the time that is) with the problems they have had, just to give me a clearer picture would really appreciate. :)

 

same as bossman would love to hear some horror stories

 

will also be checking rm communities. i did hear that the roll out of cc4 was supposed to be a lot smoother than that of cc3, i guess not. glad my proposal for an early roll out of cc4 was rejected now, what a fool i would have looked!

[TechMonkey]

We were going to wait a year to implement CC4, have now (only partly due to stories we have heard) are putting it back to the year after.

[Theblacksheep]

Had a test server of CC4, decided against 'upgrading' our CC3.

 

The list of bug fixes every month and lack of core features confirmed it was the right idea. So much promise, so broken and not very compatable with CC3 (as in network 'upgrade' from).

[enjay]

We have other high finance projects for this summer, so will likely be doing it in Summer 2010.

 

I know that the early adopters have been massively burned, and I feel for you all, but I am reckoning that anyone doing installs this summer and beyond will be okay. Let's face it - RM *have* to have a stable and working product by then, or they're properly screwed!

[Butuz]

Let's face it - RM *have* to have a stable and working product by then, or they're properly screwed!

 

But are they? With each BSF contract being £multimillion - it makes me wonder exactly how important single schools are to their bottom line.

 

Butuz

[enjay]

They still have to put something into those BSF schools. Plus, if they get too much bad press for unstable products and not being able to address this quickly, they won't win the £million BSF contracts.

 

Also, sunk a huge amount of money into developing CC4, and I doubt they have the resources to abandon it and move on to CC5 as quickly as MS have dropped Vista.

[Sylv3r]

I would doubt any BSF contracts that RM have won will have CC4 installed in them. They will be the IT contractors with a vanilla network, I would think.

[Tallwood_6]

We had CC4 install in late July and its in a much better state now than what it was. I'd say go for it if you have a small network (100 or less) with relatively new machines 40gb p4 2.8 and 1gb of ram minimum. If you dont full into this bracket steer well clear for the moment. SR1 is due in late march which should bring some improvements but will still have some way to go.

I think you have to look at what you will again over going CC4, vista pre sp1 is slow and buggy, the application deployment is problematic which machines not recieving assignments 100% of the time and . RM tutor 4 is useless for staff until the location control is released and the rm recyle bin currently doesnt work and is awaiting a fix.

[russdev]

I would doubt any BSF contracts that RM have won will have CC4 installed in them. They will be the IT contractors with a vanilla network, I would think.

 

Some are cc4 some are not rm like all bidders quote on what LA ask for.

 

So some say vanilla, some say middleware and some say nothing at all and upto the bidder.

 

Russ

[Sylv3r]

Some are cc4 some are not rm like all bidders quote on what LA ask for.

 

So some say vanilla, some say middleware and some say nothing at all and upto the bidder.

 

Russ

 

Thanks for the info.

[yabbadabba]

So far I find CC4 buggy and restrictive, if something works under Microsoft it sure as hell wont under RM.

Even the simple things that have been working for years such as RA dont under CC4.

Not impressed.

[bizzel]

What did bossman mean by re-coded? Are we talking major parts re-written or just a slew of bug fixes?

[russdev]

I would say rewritten is wrong word bug fixes continue and they have got service pack. Then there are few other parts which have altered code so works better.

[bossman]

@russdev:

Re-written is what I was told and not just fixes but major parts, to be released as a new in March.

Hopefully everything will have been sorted by then.

[russdev]

@bosman

 

Yes I think parts are being rewritten to make then better but the whole product is not being written which something that should be made clear...

 

Russ

[bossman]

@russdev:

That's what I said Russ "major parts" which as you have said is "not all of it" which is correct.

[garethEds]

I just don't understand why there have been so many problems. Many moons ago I was part of the Customer Forum that went to meetings regarding CC4 (remember then Russ?) - they seemed so confident about the whole thing.

 

Of course, we never saw a working version in that first meeting. We saw a very early build in the second meeting.

 

Maybe they spent all their money on the new logo (urgh) which I criticised at the time.

 

We originally signed up to be a CC4 tester/early adopter but the decision was taken by the school to remove our CC3 network and move back into the LEA privision. At the time I was gutted but now after a few months using the LEA network and setting up our vanilla network I am extremely happy and I believe we have benefited from moving away from RM - and that's coming from someone who was a strong RM supporter.

 

I'm really suprised nobody has been sacked at RM considering the hassle CC4 seems to have caused schools. I'm also suprised that there have been no reports in the TES or TES Online.

 

I do hope they sort it out soon - not for RM'sake but for everyone's sanity.

 

Good luck,

 

Gareth

[Trurl]

I am an ex-RM employee and I must say CC4 was the most abysmal software project I ever worked on. It was severely understaffed, the requirements remained fluid. That's why it seems it's been slapped together in a hurry. The project itself was the reason I decided to leave the company.

 

I just don't understand why there have been so many problems. Many moons ago I was part of the Customer Forum that went to meetings regarding CC4 (remember then Russ?) - they seemed so confident about the whole thing.

 

It was all smoke and mirrors, The early demo builds were specially tailored for the demos. The developers knew full well what was going to happen when they released. Management chose to ignore that and released anyway.

 

I'm really suprised nobody has been sacked at RM considering the hassle CC4 seems to have caused schools.

 

I wouldn't count on it. The people responsible have strategically maneuvered themselves away from this disaster in time.

 

Best of luck and I hope they sort it out eventually.

Edited January 30, 2009 by Trurl

[Quackers]

Was CC4 not a natural progression from CC3 then? I would have expected them to get CC3, then try and build a Vista station using it, find what does not work, fix it whilst also adding new features to the existing package, much like Microsoft do with Windows, ie grab Windows Vista build and keep modifying it until it becomes 7.

 

Sounds more like they have started from scratch like they did with Connect 2.4 > Connect 3.