Is Trados support and maintenance a good investment?
Thread poster: Julia Esrom
Julia Esrom
Julia Esrom  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 06:52
German to English
+ ...
Dec 5, 2007

This isn't really a technical support question but is related to the use of Trados. So I hope this forum is suitable for my question:

I just got a notice from SDL to renew the premium support and maintenance agreement and trying to evaluate if it's worth renewing or not. I briefly used the updated version but had tons of trouble getting it to work together with Multiterm, all that on Vista. Vista and the new version have now been kicked out again, back to the old 2006 which works gr
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This isn't really a technical support question but is related to the use of Trados. So I hope this forum is suitable for my question:

I just got a notice from SDL to renew the premium support and maintenance agreement and trying to evaluate if it's worth renewing or not. I briefly used the updated version but had tons of trouble getting it to work together with Multiterm, all that on Vista. Vista and the new version have now been kicked out again, back to the old 2006 which works great on the old XP system most of the time.

First question: What are your experiences with the most recent upgrade of Trados? I have also been approached by an agency who was thinking about upgrading due to the fact that their translators were getting the new version. Are most translators upgrading now or soon?

Second question: What are your experiences with the actual SDL support? I haven't had to use it yet but Murphy's law says that I will if I cancel the subscription....

Thanks to all!
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Jerzy Czopik
Jerzy Czopik  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 06:52
Member (2003)
Polish to German
+ ...
I will renew it next year Dec 5, 2007

And will not regret that.
The support is quite good, even if not all problems could be solved to my full satisfaction. I must admit, that those problems were quite specific and I still hope the solution will be found - maybe with the next release.

So from my point of view, taken into accout, that I have not only support, but also one free upgrade per year, I think it is worth to have.

Jerzy


 
Giles Watson
Giles Watson  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 06:52
Italian to English
In memoriam
Trados 2007 and XP work fine Dec 5, 2007

Julia Esrom wrote:

First question: What are your experiences with the most recent upgrade of Trados? I have also been approached by an agency who was thinking about upgrading due to the fact that their translators were getting the new version. Are most translators upgrading now or soon?



Hi Julia,

I bought a new laptop earlier this year and made sure it had XP because Trados and DVX were having problems with Vista at the time. I find Office 2003 and Trados 2007 work pretty seamlessly together on the new system (a Lenovo ThinkPad).

The next hardware investment will probably be a desktop some time next year. My current model also functions smoothly with XP, Office 2003 and Trados 2007 and, to be quite honest, I am unsure what OS to plump for. So far, none of my customers seem to need anything Vista or Office 2007 have to offer.

I don't have a contract but my limited experience of SDL support has generally been rather positive.

FWIW

Giles

[Edited at 2007-12-05 11:43]


 
Marijke Singer
Marijke Singer  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 06:52
Member
Dutch to English
+ ...
Positive experience Dec 5, 2007

I have a contract that I renewed this year and they do assist within the given period they specify (24 hours).

 
RWSTranslation
RWSTranslation
Germany
Local time: 06:52
German to English
+ ...
Maintenance is really important Dec 5, 2007

Hello,

Maintenance is really important because you often need bug fixed versions.

Hans


 
Steven Capsuto
Steven Capsuto  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 01:52
Member (2004)
Spanish to English
+ ...
I never buy support/maintenance Dec 5, 2007

I've been using Trados since 2003 and have never needed tech support. The one time I contacted them was to ask what to do when my dongle from Trados 6.5 fell apart (answer: send us $444 and we'll send you the new version of Trados!)

As for maintenance... Does SDL have the gall charge for patches to fix defective programming? Or are we talking about a maintenance fee to get upgrades as they come out?


 
Jerzy Czopik
Jerzy Czopik  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 06:52
Member (2003)
Polish to German
+ ...
This is your personal decision Dec 5, 2007

Steven Capsuto wrote:

I've been using Trados since 2003 and have never needed tech support. The one time I contacted them was to ask what to do when my dongle from Trados 6.5 fell apart (answer: send us $444 and we'll send you the new version of Trados!)

As for maintenance... Does SDL have the gall charge for patches to fix defective programming? Or are we talking about a maintenance fee to get upgrades as they come out?

But we are not talking here about patches, but real upgrades, which means new versions. Until now they appeared nearly always yearly.
As I have to rely on this software nearly 24 hrs a day, the support contract is a good option to me, as sometimes you just need a hint to get it working, as yesterday for example. I've got a quite mysterious error message, so I called the support. I was simply asked if I have emptied my temp folders recently. Both were full, so after I emptied them the software worked again without any problem. And I'm in the middle of a huge InDesign job - if this would not work, I would have had a quite big problem.

J.


 
Julia Esrom
Julia Esrom  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 06:52
German to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
thanks all Dec 6, 2007

Jerzy Czopik wrote:

As I have to rely on this software nearly 24 hrs a day, the support contract is a good option

J.


Thanks to all for your input. Sounds like this decision is like buying an insurance package and trying to predict the future. I think Jerzy has made a very good argument for staying on the safe side. After all, this is what most of us have to rely on to pay our bills. Having the option of getting the new upgrades is an added bonus.

cheers
Julia


 


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