We’ve had quite a bit of confusion (at least in our sales force) around our shipping policies and the recent handling of LabVIEW 2009 Service Pack 1. The short answer is – Yes, we are sending media to all LabVIEW and Developer Suite customers active on service. If you have not received yours yet, I have been assured that our shipments should have started hitting your docks last week (we were delayed even more due to the volcano in Iceland).
Here’s the long story as to why (in case you have an inquiring mind):
We recently rolled out a new internal system for managing our software packaging and shipping that is much more flexible for us. By flexible, I mean the new system will take us from having over 1100 part numbers that we stock, forecast, and manage, to around 400 part numbers. As you can imagine, this will simplify our manufacturing and stocking issues significantly. The new system also makes it much easier for us to manage customer services and subscription contracts – meaning you can add other products to your contracts, align renewal dates, and add multiple year support to your purchases.
We went live with this new system in late February – right when we normally are turning over our inventory for service packs and shipping them out to our customers. LabVIEW 2009.1 released to manufacturing in late January. Rather than scrap all 1100 part numbers in stock, re-release them with 2009.1 and put them back into stock, only to then revise the system – meaning all 1100 part numbers get scrapped again – and re-release 400 new kits…. we chose to save some trees and minimize our risk by making sure the new system was up and running before we moved over. March is off-limits for any significant changes to our systems because its a big month for our business and as a public copmany we don’t ever put that in jeopardy.
Rather than hold the software until April for release, we made the Service Pack available for download – so customers who really needed it could go download it immediately as soon as it was ready. Once we rolled over to the new system (April) we would then ship everyone their physical DVD media. (Of course, a volcano got in the way as well, which made early/mid April turn into late April). A number of our sales people were concerned that their customers may not be able to download the software due to bandwidth limitations or policies about internet access at specific locations. Although we are investing in making the download process better for our customers, we are also continuing to ship feature releases and service packs to our customers on service. We hope to make that configurable in the future. For now, enjoy LabVIEW 2009.1.
I can understand then volcano delaying delivery, but how did it delay shipment?
Never the less, nice update
Good question. Let me clarify terminology – The software was “released to manufacturing” in January. The software was “manufactured and kitted” in March (after the new system was in place). The software kits were “shipped” in April – but that shipping and delivery process was delayed a few weeks by the volcano.
Thanks for clarifying, its easy to forget how involved even just mailing a disk can be when you have to do it on such a large scale.
Thanks again for keeping your blog updated, I’m definitely a fan.
Hi John,
A suggestion: I’d love it if the Developer Suite release names were the software year and service pack (e.g. 2009 SP1) instead of DVD shipment year (e.g. 2010 DSx). I’ve posted my suggestion to the LabVIEW Idea Exchange, here.
Thanks,