Articulate 360

FYI - If you're having issues with anything in Storyline 2, Articulate is now starting to push towards upgrading to 360 in lieu of supporting users currently on Storyline.

For months we've been encountering an issue where we can't embed audio or video into projects. And if it is embedded in an existing project, we can't publish it. Our IT team has been working with articulate support to try to troubleshoot and since they can't solve, they're saying Articulate recommends moving to 360 to solve the problem.

So instead of Articulate making the software work, we're supposed to buy like 11-15 licenses for the low, low price of only like $50,000 over 4 years, just so we can support our previously built modules.

We really should have moved to Captivate a long time ago.

Sincerely, 

A former fan & advocate of your products.

I disagree, keeping this topic open is important so that Articulate can continue to gauge community thoughts and communicate with them about it.

It would be far more damaging to their reputation if they simply silenced any negative feedback.

The 360 software itself is great and I would encourage anyone who hasn't used it to use it, but similarly I would encourage anyone considering to move to it to thoroughly test and review it first given how much of a commitment it is.

Hi Michael,

I'm in a similar boat.  I'm still subscribed to the thread.  But I'm also with Jake.  I think it's great that Articulate keep this thread open and don't try to kill it.  The 'moderators'/staff have dropped off over time.  Initially they were reeling out the marketing spiel, which I didn't find at all helpful, but they backed off from that, and are just dropping in occasionally now. 

I hope that Articulate use this thread as part of their data in future decision making, so that people like me are heard, and taken into account when making decisions around packaging of products.  As I've mentioned in a previous comment, I just want the Big Mac, not the McMenu.  And all my clients are the same.  They use a single product to make small tweaks/changes in a collaborative way, and I would never recommend a full suite product or ongoing subscription for my collaborative partners.

I would highly recommend 360 to individuals who don't have much experience, or design skills because I think it will help them produce commercially acceptable products fairly easily.  From that perspective, I think 360 is a great product.

Surely not for smaller companies. Much too expensive.

I disagree here, I would argue that it is far easier for a small company or single-person company to justify the cost over a larger company.

You can relatively easily justify 1 or 2 licences at $999 a year, but when you get to 15 people on a team licence at $1399 a year each. It's a pretty substantial difference.

Yes you can get a 10% discount for bulk purchases but I don't think it's enough. I also don't think the team version offers enough of an incentive - it seems to mostly make paying the bills easier, surely that's something more beneficial to Articulate than users!

I agree with you Jake, I think that the cost of the "Team" licenses does not have enough benefit to justify the large difference in price. A seventy five to a hundred dollars a year per license more a year for the convenience, maybe. Where you create a state where I pay for four licenses and only get three, but get a very basic management tool, this becomes hard to swallow. What happened to the idea of increasing the benefit of paying more?

I know that we are holding off on five licenses until a real need arrises for us to have to upgrade, and that decision is above my pay grade. We like much of what we see, It's just cheaper to stick with what we have and build accordingly and use other sources as need be for images and characters.

We'll see, like I said, ultimately the decision is above my pay grade, but with the typical tight budgets in L&D...

Joseph Frascella

If someone from Articulate could chime in here actually, it is something I honestly don't understand. I can and have been able to justify 360 costs, except for one part which is the teams part:

Let's assume a team of 10 people. If you get 10 single licences that's $9999 per year (let's ignore any kind of discount for now)

If you go for 10 team licences instead, that's $12,999 per year.

So you are paying an extra $3000 per year for... the ability to move licences and pay bills?

It's a 30% increase in price, it certainly doesn't seem like you get 30% extra stuff. Please do provide some details around this as I just don't understand the cost vs. benefits.

Thanks
Jake

Agreed! And neither do the finance folks.

Joseph Frascella

I could be wrong here, as I am not part of the Articulate team, but I think the team licences are meant for a situation where you have 10 developers but only 7 would be using it at one time. You would then by 7 team licences and allocate them as needed to the team members?

Yes, but how is that worth the extra cost?

You could just have 7 single licences and give the people using them the logins.

I think single licences are meant to only be used by a single user. This is probably not the case in the real world. Ethically speaking, a person buys a single licence whereas the team licences can be swapped between members. Adobe has a similar option to buy a more expensive, transferrable licence.

First off, we’re delighted you’re considering Articulate 360. We’ll continue to work hard to try to demonstrate the price to value differentiation between Articulate 360 Individual and Teams accounts, but should it not resonate with you, we’d be thrilled to have you as an Articulate 360 customer.

We’ve attempted to establish Teams as the go-to subscription for organizations as there are elements of Teams vs. Individual plans that appeal to different constituents within an organization. For example:

Procurement
- Purchase orders accepted
- Annual billing with in term seats added to expire coterminous with the base subscription
- Volume discount options

End-User
- Unlimited storage
- Priority email support
- Live chat support
- Success Team health checks

Management / IT
- Teams administration
- Seats Management
- MSI packaging and silent install options

Based on the usage you describe, under an individual plan you are not permitted per the Articulate 360 Terms of Service (section 4) to share an account. One of the benefits of an Articulate 360 Teams subscription is that you can reassign seats when your business needs change. For example, when people change job roles, leave your company, or go on leave, you can reassign their seats to others. Or perhaps you have subject matter experts who create courses a couple times a year or students who matriculate and no longer need seats. In these cases, you’ll be able to easily reassign users to those seats.

Over time, we’ll be introducing additional product features with 360 that will only be available for Teams subscriptions. For example, we’ve already announced Rise collaborative authoring under a Teams only plan: https://articulate.com/360/whats-new.  And, there will be more to come.

Hi Lawrence! Just wanted to give you a heads up that responding via email includes your signature here in ELH. You are welcome to visit the forum discussion and click on the "edit" below your post to remove that information. No worries on our part - just in case you don't want your information publicly!

Thanks Mark, based on the above would this be correct then?

Company A has 2 licences for Storyline 2. These 2 licences are in use by 2 staff that leave and are replaced by new staff. They are able to use these licences as they are applied to the computer.

Company B has 2 (single) licences for 360. These 2 licences are in use by 2 staff that leave and are replaced by 2 new staff. These new staff require 2 new licences and the company has had to pay for 4 licences until the original 2 licences expire at the end of the year.

However if Company B had paid the 30% team fee they could just move the licences over.

I just want to check whether or not this is correct or not before moving on further.

Thanks

Hi Jake.

Your assumption about Storyline usage is actually incorrect. Storyline licenses are licensed to a User, not a computer. However, in this scenario, and upon request, we would most likely approve a one-time transfer of the licenses if the previous licensees left the organization and did not take the licenses with them.

Your scenarios around 360 are correct as stated. Teams offers unmatched flexibility.

Hi Jake,

Among the many benefits listed above for 360 Teams licences, I see transfer ability as one of the key components to consider in your "Small VS Large Team" cost analysis.  Teams subscriptions are self managed and transferable to other staff in your organisation as people move in and out of authoring roles or the organisation.  Organisations with a large development team would have previously needed to purchase a new licence for every staff member in an authoring role.  This flexibility and convenience offsets the slightly higher price of the Team licenses and is a significant cost saving in reality.   It's important to note that Articulate do stipulate that it's not permitted to frequently swap multiple people in and out of the same seat.

Anyway that's my take, hope it helps!

Hi Simon,

I would get confirmation on this from Articulate sales.  I asked the same question.  'Without limitation' was not the exact answer I got.  I was told transfers are not limited at this time but could be in the future if abuse is detected.  This would limit the ability to transfer between faculty members who only use one week/per year for example.  I don't want speak for them though so I'll leave it there.  

The new features are great though.  

With the way this sounds it sounds like:

If Company A takes on 5 new Instructional Designers they would buy 5 licences for Storyline 2.

If those 5 Designers leave the company and 5 new Designers join, the company would have to buy 5 brand new Storyline 2 licences and the original 5 licences would just 'disappear into the ether'.

It makes slightly more sense for 360 because single licences are registered to an account but sounds a little extreme for previous CD key versions of Articulate.

You are correct Jake.  But, as I indicated, in the Storyline scenario, we will consider transfers upon request.  So in the scenario you describe, we'd most likely allow that.  The good news is that with Articulate 360 Teams, there is no request required.  You've got the ability to manage it under the 360 Teams Admin panel.  https://community.articulate.com/articles/articulate-360-teams-overview - It's so easy.

I understand that teams is good if you have 20 designers but 7 would only need it at a time, but if you have 10 designers and all 10 need it to use it concurrently the extra $300 per person per year is effectively only paying to remove the need to buy another licence should someone leave the business.

At that point you can analyse it like this:

Cost of 10 licences $9999 per year

Cost of 10 team licences $12,999 per year

As long as fewer than 3 members of staff left the business and were replaced per year it is actually better value for money to keep buying the single user version.

Which is completely and utterly stupid.

Hi Jake,

Based on your thoughtful analysis and the use case you describe, buying 10 individual plans may well be the right choice for you.

I've previously shared the other benefits of Teams plans, and if you don't see the value in those attributes, the good news is that we offer both plans. We'd be grateful to earn your business as a 360 customer - be it under an individual or Teams subscription.

Note, also, that we will be adding additional Teams only product features.  Already announced, and expected soon is collaborative Rise authoring.

Please note, however, that you should pursue 360 individual accounts and your use model changes and/or you find the new Teams only features compelling, we do provide the ability for you to consolidate your individual seats and upgrade your accounts to a Teams subscription.

Thanks Mark,

That was something I was really confused about actually, I imagine it would be on a case by case basis but if you were to buy 12 licences (1 a month) and then move over to teams it could be confusing as to how that would actually work!

I don't know how we will proceed with 360 at the moment, whether we get a certain amount of single licences or fewer team licences for flexibility will depend on our projected workflows. We only have a certain budget so we really need to plan carefully.

Thanks

Jake

Jake, for 360 Teams in the scenario you describe here's how it would work under this made up example: 

- Purchase 1 360 Teams seat January 1st.  That seat expires December 31st.  Billed for 12 month term.

- Purchase a 2nd 360 Teams seat for that existing Teams subscription on February 1.  You would be billed for 11 months (remaining term of base subscription) and that subscription would expire on December 31st.

- Purchase a 3rd 360 Teams seat for that existing Teams subscription on April 1.  You would be billed for 9 months (remaining term of base subscription) and that subscription would expire on December 31st.  

And so on.  So in this sense, Teams also provides you ultimate flexibility - not only with seat management, but also the ability to add additional seats, without committing those seats to a full year subscription.  Instead, they assume the remaining term of the base Teams subscription.

At renewal, we apply any qualified volume discounts to your renewal based on your total seat count.