To RM or not to RM, that is the question...

[PiqueABoo]

and end up with a really good competitor

 

The first obstacle is getting a sufficiently lean/mean team in what I feel would be unusual agreement over technical strategy, with the considerable time/resources required to make it competitive. And sadly, to make it competitive, I think you'd be forced to make some shiny central management app, event though ADUC with a tweak or two is perfectly adequate.

 

Then of course people also buy those commercial systems for the support from the vendor (you get lots of documentation, you can pick up a phone and call them during office hours, they do logmeins to fix things, they decide what KBs you ought to install so you don't have to, and so on ) and their nature makes it less likely that "people who know best" will fiddle and make it unsupportable.

 

I've made an automated off-the-shelf-in-1/2-day vanilla that I'm very pleased with. Some random observations as a result:

 

-To make it achievable you have to draw a lot of very firm lines for the requirements/implementation (AD, file system structure, policies, security etc.). AFAICT vendors like RM doing essentially the same thing is precisely why some people don't like them.

 

-I haven't borrowed any edugeek tools. No offence intended folks, but they either don't do what I want, or are just to umm.. peripheral.

 

-GPO scripting is mostly dead now, because of GPPs.

 

-Native s/w deployment just isn't good enough (no reporting/status, no easy way to deploy EXE installers).

 

All a bit cynical I'm afraid, but these are the kind of things you'd need to knock down or address first.

[synaesthesia]

Someone D: Out of interest, any idea if it's just CC4 or CC4 with SR1?

If thing's aren't logging in, whoever's responsible for implementing CC4 on your network there wants stringing up

[d-taylor]

I felt CC3 was by the end of it a very good and stable product and would've recomened it, but I don't think RM will sell you it anymore. I would not recomend to ANYBODY going down the CC4 route due to the problems we've had (and are still having) and the massive impact it's had on our ICT Support team. Still trying to clear a massive backlog of jobs, not helped the mess some of the things such as our package build tools are in.

 

I am also really not happy with RM company ethos- at the seminars they go on about how much they care about their customers and their networks- but they seem more bothered about starting new projects and bringing more money in than delvering missing features that were promised with CC4 or fixing existing problems!

[Theblacksheep]

If thing's aren't logging in, whoever's responsible for implementing CC4 on your network there wants stringing up

 

RM

[rad]

I felt CC3 was by the end of it a very good and stable product and would've recomened it, but I don't think RM will sell you it anymore. I would not recomend to ANYBODY going down the CC4 route due to the problems we've had (and are still having) and the massive impact it's had on our ICT Support team. Still trying to clear a massive backlog of jobs, not helped the mess some of the things such as our package build tools are in.

 

I am also really not happy with RM company ethos- at the seminars they go on about how much they care about their customers and their networks- but they seem more bothered about starting new projects and bringing more money in than delvering missing features that were promised with CC4 or fixing existing problems!

 

AGREE with it all at the moment.

I could go on, and just deleted a whole load i just wrote about CC4 doesnt about the fact it doesnt do this that of the other.

 

What's going to get me through the month, only Ben and Jerry's knows as its what they throw in their Ice Creams.

Edited September 8, 2009 by rad
edit cos i cant write english

[verygreenpc]

Hi all, have been following this thread with gusto. Although it's serious stuff I've laughed out loud more than any other blog, thread or post I've followed in a long while. Being a vendor we have to be careful what we say. I was reading an article in Computerworld and thought it had relevance to this. Link is here Dirty marketing tricks - Supplier Relations - ComputerworldUK Pay particular attention to page 3 "The customer Headlock" Could it apply here?

[saihaynes]

Has anybody got any documentation from their move away from RM back to Vanilla network? Im pushing to migrate from cc3 to Vanilla come next summer.

[bossman]

Over the holidays, my school upgraded to CC4.

 

That was the one to watch for, all of those who went down a similar pathway from RMCC2.4 to RMCC3 had the very same problem.

 

I on the other hand went with a fresh build on new equipment 8 years ago and have never looked back, I am at the moment building a new CC4 platform on new equipment which i will test and retest until satisfied it is fit for use then I will create all the users accounts from new and transfer their work over.

 

While testing I will be creating videos from screen captures for learning purposes to push out to both staff and students to give them a better knowledge base on which to build.

 

By then I would have hoped SR2 will have been made available which should have sorted most of the teething troubles.

 

I have always been happy with RM but I do rather feel they should have done more testing before releasing of CC4 as it did cause problems to a lot of schools.

[d-taylor]

Has anybody got any documentation from their move away from RM back to Vanilla network? Im pushing to migrate from cc3 to Vanilla come next summer.

 

I do wonder if a freelance IT person/ company could make a lot of money selling a one off migration like this to disgruntled RM customers!

[saihaynes]

I do wonder if a freelance IT person/ company could make a lot of money selling a one off migration like this to disgruntled RM customers!

 

Indeed, Ive got to my wits end with RM having come from a Vanilla network to CC3. However we are taking the DIY approach here and looking at combining virtualization with a move back to Vanilla come this summer............

 

RM have a good deal though, sell a product with issues, charge for a support contract to get flobbed off about such isssues.........genius.

[sparkeh]

RM have a good deal though, sell a product with issues, charge for a support contract to get flobbed off about such isssues.........genius.

 

Hurrah more RM trolling rather than constructive advice

[saihaynes]

Hurrah more RM trolling rather than constructive advice

 

I`d write you a list of constructive critism however sadly Im dedicating the time to fixing issues with their own software for them.

[sparkeh]

I`d write you a list of constructive critism however sadly Im dedicating the time to fixing issues with their own software for them.

 

If you get the time please do, comments like yours above are meaningless without some evidence to back them up.

 

For instance, if I say "Program X is rubbish!" it means nothing.

If I say "I don't like Program X because if I try to do Y then Z happens" then perhaps people may come along and say "Yeah when I try Y, Z happens to me too." or perhaps "Hang on, Z happens because you haven't done A correctly". Either way we build up a concensus with what is good and bad and either you are correct or you learn how to fix your problem and do things in a better way and everyone wins.

Edited December 9, 2009 by sparkeh