CompuServe Thread

#Minimizer Fault?

2 messages in this thread
#18757From: Tom Slee [Hypercube]Jul 8, 1992 12:38 PM
Stan, Your comments are useful; thank you. There is no announced schedule for updating the force field, but as I indicated we are currently working on the issue, and I anticipate that there will be some improvement in this regard in the next release of HyperChem (no release date announced yet, though). It sounds from your message as though we are similar in price to other software (at the full price). I am surprised to hear this. The serious modeling programs I know of start at a much higher level than $3,500. It does sound as though you slipped through some cracks in the support mechanism. If you would like to e-mail me privately (70761,3021) in more detail concerning your problem I will see what I can do about making sure it doesn't happen again. So far we feel that the dealer-support mechanism provides local support with knowledge of your particular setup, and that with the dealer having access to support to backup their knowledge of the software, the specialised questions should be handled reasonably as well. My impression is that this is working fine to date, your case notwithstanding, but ongoing feedback is important. Tom Slee, Hypercube
#18795From: Stan OkrasinskiJul 8, 1992 7:45 PM
The support issue is an interesting one to us and I've always hoped that this was a "start-up" problem that would get ironed out in time. Just a little worried that there are too many intermediaries in the way before a technical person could be reached. Thanks for your offer of help, I may make use of it in the future. For now, we'll probably arrange for an on-site demo of the software (have two copies in-house now – need to further gauge how much interest we have in pursuing Hyperchem whole-hog) and will raise support issues with people doing demo. My original note was 1/2-way intended to get a dialog going. As to price – you know it is very hard sometimes to compare software at full price – one package was available at $2500 although full price was listed at $12,000. Also, in a large organization employing full-time modelers (I am not) its sometimes quite reasonable to add users to existing software packages. Price is always relative and somewhat situation dependent. Unfortuantely it is sometimes difficult to gauge "value" without considerable pain and effort.