Articulate 360

Nov 09, 2016

I am confused by this new Articulate 360 and what it means for Articulate Storyline. Does this mean that no further development will occur on Articulate Storyline 2, standalone version? Will there ever be an Articulate Storyline 3? What about people who bought a platinum licence with an upgrade option who do not want to go to Articulate 360? Will they get a refund on the upgrade portion or will they be forced to go to 360 if they want to benefit from their upgrade purchase?

While I see that there is benefit, especially for new customers, to 360, I am still not sure that it is worth mine and my company's money to take a perpetual licence and change it to a subscription for what I perceive to only be minor feature enhancements.

I am open to be shown why the expense would be worth my while?

269 Replies
Mark Schwartz

Hi Lisa,

Thanks for your feedback. Adobe Creative Cloud is a great product suite. We know many designers who use CC. However, we don't know many folks who are using it to create e-learning. Captivate also has a broad base of customers. In fact, we work with many of them, as they're now happy Articulate 360 users.

Adobe CC and Captivate offer nothing like Rise or Review, key offerings of Articulate 360, which many of our customers tell us are worth the price of the 360 subscription by themselves! Further, our products do not require authors to go through any special steps or programming to create courses that look great on any device. Do you put a value on the time saved to create courses?

Only you can determine the value of what Articulate 360 offers you. Have you signed up for a fully functional 30-day trial of Articulate 360?

Should you not find Articulate 360 a solution that provides you an attractive ROI and choose to go another route, I wish you every success and appreciate your consideration.

Tiffani Nye

This is a non-answer and comes across as a pushy sales tactic. 

It does not matter how much I value saving time creating my e-learning courses if 1) my company already has a process in place for review that does not integrate well with Review, 2) we have specific requirements that make Rise useless for us, 3) we already have perpetually-licensed software to use for screen recordings, and 4) $1000 a year into perpetuity for our team simply does not exist in our budget. 

It is disheartening that every time a customer comes to you (and there are many of us in threads like this one) and says "I don't find value in these things, I need X Y Z. What is Articulate doing to address my concerns?" the only answer is to insist upon the value of the things we don't need.

We are not complaining because we don't understand what Review and Rise do - we're complaining because we understand what they are and still don't need them. 

What we want to know is what Articulate is doing to address our concerns instead of talking over them as if they aren't valid concerns in the first place. If you don't know what Articulate is planning to do to address users who don't find value in the whole 360 package, please just say so. 

Harry Carter

Mark, I didn't want to step in here but...

Many people are stating that, sure they like some of the things in Articulate 360, namely Storyline 360...but that they don't really have need for other things such as Review and Rise. In my opinion, most people would want either Rise OR Storyline 360 but not both.

I bought Articulate 360 subscription because of Storyline 360 and unless or until someone truly shows me how using Rise WITH Storyline 360 is going to add value...I don't see it. I think Storyline 360 is great but yes, the subscription price (for someone who only uses Storyline 360) is very high.

What I DO see (and this is why I felt a need to chime in) is the "well, that's the way it is, period" attitude by you and some of the other brass here.

Salesman: "Mr. Smith, here is your super dooper vacuum cleaner as well as a 2,000 pound bag of dog food."  Mr. Smith: "But I don't own a dog". Salesman: "Doesn't matter, it's the value that counts here."

Perhaps the resistance isn't loud enough or strong enough.

Daniel Myers

"I don't know what the big deal is on pricing. Everyone knows that training departments are loaded with cash and have huge budgets."

-No one ever

 I think the most frustrating thing about the subscription model is that while Articulate seems very in touch with what their customers want from their products, they seem very out of touch with the financial constraints their customers operate under.

If there was an a la cart option to pick and choose which features you'd probably have a lot more takers. 

Mark Schwartz

Harry, thanks for chiming in, and thanks for being an Articulate 360 user.

We understand what you and others seek.  It's just not something that we currently offer.  

We designed Articulate 360 as a comprehensive suite of offerings based on years of customer feedback.  And, while we know it's not for everybody, the success of Articulate 360 in the marketplace has exceeded all of our greatest forecasts and expectations. 

That doesn't mean we have a tin ear to those that don't like our current approach.  We continue to listen to our customers and will evaluate and make the best packaging decisions for our offerings based on continued customer feedback, marketplace and technology inflections, and Articulate's ability to scale and support diverse customer needs.  

 

 

Jake Hurt

An a la carte method would literally silence 95% of complaints about 360, even if only done as a PR move it would be beneficial to Articulate.

It's not even difficult to implement. You can offer each product separately, at different prices, and have the 'whole set' as the price the whole subscription is now. You could even then offer different 'bundles' for different people.

Most other software companies do this so it would make perfect sense.

Jake Hurt

This is true, although Storyline 3 is confirmed to be getting fewer features and updates than 360.

As well as Articulates stance on perpetual licences moving forward.

Much of the frustration is also with regards to the way things are being handled and the way we are being spoken to, rather than just specifically the product.

Matt Garratt

You also probably don't need to be a tea leaf reader to predict that when support ceases to be provided for Storyline 3, the a la carte option will be made available. They want people to try out and hopefully get used to all products before they offer this option.

Patience grasshoppers. Articulate 3 resolves the current concerns, and the a la carte option will almost certainly come with time.

Staff will have no choice but to stick to their strict internal 'no announcements (or hints) about future releases' policy. So I don't think its fair to blame them for being 'robotic' either. I personally feel they've done a pretty good job of replying to these and other threads (even though I sympathise with what has been complained about).

Matt Garratt

Harry,

At no point have staff suggested that a la carte would never happen. All they've said (repeatedly) is that they are listening and taking all feedback on board. That's the strongest hint you are going to get.

Will it happen? I think it probably will. But you could be right too.

The thing is, I don't really care that much right now as what needs to be said has been said. And I'm hopeful that the team at SL do listen as they say they do. Besides, right now Storyline 3 does pretty much everything 360 does. Do we really want to get up in arms about features in 360 that are lacking from SL3 that don't even exist yet?

Brian Allen
Harry Carter

As per Justin Grenier...

"As Storyline 360 continues to evolve, there will be new features that exist only in Storyline 360."

So, no I think.

Also, from the same post, Justin mentioned that SL3 is the same as SL360 without the 360 features. So....

As SL360 continues to evolve, there will be more integration tied in with the entire 360 suite of tools. Makes sense...

So if I'm using SL3, I really shouldn't care about not having the 360-related features. Seems reasonable...

At some point SL360 files *might* not be able to be opened in SL3. Ok, hasn't happened yet, but if/when it does, big deal?? Again, if I'm using SL3 I'm probably not going to care...

All of the responses I've seen from the Articulate staff have been on point, patient and courteous...

The direction of this thread is just confusing to me, and I'm normally not the dense type but again, what am I missing here??

Brian Allen
Harry Carter

Perhaps it's you who is missing the message?

That's exactly what I'm saying here, I must be missing something...

I've read the comments about cost, and I actually did read your dog food post, but I didn't feel it was "right on point" or even relevant at all, as Articulate isn't forcing people to buy stuff they don't feel they need. Your dog food post immediately followed an Articulate staffer suggesting people try SL3 if they don't need everything in 360.

So what exactly is your plight here?

People who want the suite: buy Articulate 360. People who don't want the suite: buy Storyline 3.

Seems simple and straightforward...

Tiffani Nye

The main issue is that many replies to users asking for some information on future perpetual updates are replies talking up the value of 360 vs. responding to actual concerns. 

I would love to use Storyline 3, and for now, yes, it is a good option for those of us who don't want the subscription model. What we're concerned about is the future and if we will eventually be forced to buy the subscription as-is with no a la carte options and no future perpetual releases. Some of the staff commentaries are unsettling in that regard, and it is frustrating to voice concerns and be told that the problem is that you don't understand the value of the product. 

If those are not concerns of yours, that's fair, but it does worry those of us trying to justify the cost of upgrading an entire team to SL3 when we may ultimately have to go subscription anyway.

We're not upset at the staff personally, but rather with the company they represent. My intent is not to verbally beat up on a staffer, as they are likely repeating talking points. Rather, the hope in posting is that the higher-ups see that the response is inadequate and come up with a better one.

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