RoadMap Feedback

Terra · 13th June 2008, 06:25 PM

Love the roadmap - especially the billing system! I guess Simon will also be glad when he can stop sending out each VAT invoice lovingly himself

And managing credit card changes should also be much easier going forward. Hope the integration goes smoothly! All the best - Edith

UH-Simon · 13th June 2008, 06:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Terra

Love the roadmap - especially the billing system! I guess Simon will also be glad when he can stop sending out each VAT invoice lovingly himself

And managing credit card changes should also be much easier going forward. Hope the integration goes smoothly! All the best - Edith

Yes, we can't wait to get the new customer portal online, it's going to make day to day tasks (for customers and ourselves) so much easier.

MrBen · 13th June 2008, 06:50 PM

Sorry, but how can you love the roadmap? To be honest there's nothing much to love on it?

A billing system - that's been coming soon for years now and I mean years... maybe 2008 will be the one! Customer CDP access was due pretty much this time last year and has been pushed back multiple times - currently to Sept '08. Then there's the MX bug - how can a third-party bug fix be a highlight for a customer roadmap!?

Moving on to 2009... We have the customer survey. I think the last survey was undertaken in 2005 and looking at the results that were posted on the forum then, not a lot was implemented so it will be interesting to see what happens this time.

The servers and infrastructure updates I'm sure will be related to the hardware approaching 4 years of age (UK hosting was launched Oct 2005) so will be due a routine refresh. I'm sure new hardware will bring about some performance improvements though - it always does.

All in all not a very scintillating roadmap for me. That's not to say I'm not happy with the service - I am. The service is on the whole stable and reliable. There is occasional downtime but that's what you get with a shared service. Support is always there too (although they may play silly buggers sometimes!) and they get issues resolved in a reasonable time which is what you want.

Ben

UH-Simon · 13th June 2008, 07:08 PM

MrBen,

I agree, the billing system has been a long time coming but I can assure you it’s not been a dead project, we have been working very hard to develop a bespoke system while testing all the off the shelf packages. With our business structure it's not just a case of picking up a copy of modernbill and away you go, it’s taken a lot of time but we feel we have now found a partner that can help us make this work. We're confident most of our customers will see the benefits when it launches.

The roadmap was really an internal document for our staff but we felt that our customers may also appreciate to see what our current plans are for the short/medium term. Going by the feedback we've been receiving regarding the roadmap the majority (possibly excluding you) are happy with our plans and are looking forward to benefiting from them.

We do appreciate your feedback though

MrBen · 13th June 2008, 07:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UH-Simon

I agree, the billing system has been a long time coming but I can assure you it’s not been a dead project, we have been working very hard to develop a bespoke system while testing all the off the shelf packages. With our business structure it's not just a case of picking up a copy of modernbill and away you go, it’s taken a lot of time but we feel we have now found a partner that can help us make this work. We're confident most of our customers will see the benefits when it launches.

Oh for sure a billing system will be of some benefit and further reduce the need for customers to have to actually contact someone - which is a waste of everyone's time if the task can be automated. I do wonder what's so complex about your operation compared to all the other businesses (hosting or otherwise) that has made it take so long?

Quote:

Originally Posted by UH-Simon

The roadmap was really an internal document for our staff but we felt that our customers may also appreciate to see what our current plans are for the short/medium term. Going by the feedback we've been receiving regarding the roadmap the majority (possibly excluding you) are happy with our plans and are looking forward to benefiting from them.

A roadmap is great and is something any business should be communicating to it's customers along with regular updates. I just question how someone can get excited about a "roadmap" that contains nothing new or really of any huge benefit - e.g. a move from PHP4 to 5 brings lots of new potential benefits to a customer in terms of what they can do - much like a move from MySQL4 to 5 would do; or as the addition of the anti-spam appliances has done. And going by the conversations I've had with other UH customers, I'm not alone in my views.

Quote:

Originally Posted by UH-Simon

We do appreciate your feedback though

Perhaps

We'll see won't we when it comes to survey time and what the real outcomes are compared to the results

Ben

MrBen · 13th June 2008, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UH-Matt

- Celebrate 10 years of business!

Does that mean a little party for the oldest customers!?

I've been here 5 years now

Ben

Samizdata · 13th June 2008, 07:56 PM

Quote:

Upgrade to new release of control panel

This is what I am most interested in.

The last version of Ensim was put together in a hurry before being sold to SWsoft/Parallels.

I do hope the new owners have fixed it.

...

UH-Matt · 13th June 2008, 08:47 PM

The roadmap was not intended to get you excited MrBen. It's just meant to let you know what we're focusing on in the short term. In the long term I believe its going to fold into something rather nice.

From the last survey we did implement a fair few things, but a lot are still work in progress, slow going I know but we have so many old legacy systems which are proving an absolute b*&ch to migrate that its unbelievable. Unfortunately a lot of billing systems don't handle dual currencies, and we do not want to run 2 copies of the same software just for USD and GBP. Its got to the stage where we have just bribed a well know billing package a lot of money to build in dual currency into their next release, something we just got a beta copy of and are testing as we speak with some data from our old system - going well.

So we are confident the new billing system (which has ALL our focus right now) will be out in Aug/Sept time.

If anyone has any suggestions they think should be added to the current or future roadmap then we are always open to hear from you - please tell us anything you think we missed, anything you would like added, etc..

UH-Tony · 13th June 2008, 09:08 PM

Additionally, we are putting quite a bit of effort into new knowledge-base/Tutorials which should be a great boon to everyone from shared clients through resellers and even dedicated server customers.

Terra · 13th June 2008, 10:15 PM

Hey - didn't mean to kick off a storm - it's just that I think I know which billing system UH will be using and I really like it. This is normally quite a friendly forum, so didn't think a bit of "yeah, like it" on a Friday evening would cause a backlash - chill guys.

UH-Matt · 13th June 2008, 10:18 PM

Its all good feedback, keep it coming however you prefer to do it people, also happy for any suggested additions to be requested.

richandzhaoyan · 13th June 2008, 10:25 PM

Quote:

If anyone has any suggestions they think should be added to the current or future roadmap then we are always open to hear from you - please tell us anything you think we missed, anything you would like added, etc..

Ok, Mr Ben, the gauntlet has been thrown down! What would you like to see on the roadmap?

Much as I would like to get excited about future developments, the absolute main reason I am with UH is due to the thorough way that they are running things from day to day. Uptime and support are the two priorities and I cant fault either in the 4 years I have been with them.

The only thing I can think of that people have proactively been asking for on this forum is mysql 5 and as discussed in the other thread, views are obviously split between those running osC sites and those not

Other than that I dont remember any particular requests (maybe billing software aside) that people have been asking for on the forums.

Mailfoundry was one great addition in the last twelve months that has made life alot easier for many people I am sure but even so, I dont remember too many complaining about massively excess spam prior to mailfoundry. The standard response to any complaints about spam were to ditch the catchall, but really spam was just one of things we all lived with prior to mailfoundry. Now its a thing of the past but the first I heard of mailfoundry was when it was trialled/implemented here. I dont recall any forum users asking about it before UH installed it.

Another feature to appear in the last 12 months is the backups. I appreciate it is not yet possible to access them through the control panel but having needed to use them once in anger, UH support were as helpful as ever, reinstalling a db backup, full site backup and single file backups from various points over the last few hours when I had one particular problem, until I was entirely happy that we had rolled back to the most up to date point without the problem. Saved me going back to my own backup that would have been at least 24 hours out of date. (A long time if you have been taking orders over a busy period)

I would definately suggest that if there are any things you can think of Ben, or any other of the more techie users of UH, then please let them know. If they can keep up the good work next year then that will do me, if they can come up with another couple of additions like mailfoundry and the backups, then all the better. That really is what I am paying them for, trouble free hosting.

Cheers,
Rich

Adam · 13th June 2008, 10:32 PM

Do we get an idea or inkling on what these will be before Q1 09?

Quote:

Originally Posted by UH-Matt

- Launch of some exciting new features, products and value added services

Adam · 13th June 2008, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Terra

Love the roadmap - especially the billing system! I guess Simon will also be glad when he can stop sending out each VAT invoice lovingly himself

I thought he really enjoyed that bit of it?

UH-Matt · 13th June 2008, 10:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adam

I thought he really enjoyed that bit of it?

Yes im sure they are tears of joy, not pain.

Vger · 13th June 2008, 11:13 PM

Quote:

I just question how someone can get excited about a "roadmap" that contains nothing new or really of any huge benefit - e.g. a move from PHP4 to 5 brings lots of new potential benefits to a customer in terms of what they can do - much like a move from MySQL4 to 5 would do

Ummm? Did you miss something in the roadmap?

Like ..... Quarter 1 2009 - MySQL 5

Vger

Tim · 14th June 2008, 12:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrBen

Does that mean a little party for the oldest customers!?

I've been here 5 years now

Yeah, but you're not invited any more

silver · 16th June 2008, 09:40 PM

My two penneth now.

Roadmaps... Great idea. How many other providers out there publish their roadmap for the coming quarter/year etc ??

So what if some projects come off and some don't. That's how business is run. I have a roadmap in my place of work but it does not necessarily mean that everything on the map gets done. Someetimes things do go back for one reason or another, but also sometimes you get the the opportunity to slip something in that if you had followed the map, you would not have had time for. Additionally issues arise that need attention or volume of calls etc, take over your time. The key is to not let the "now" service suffer for the sake of "future" service offerings. Continuity is key

Maps are guides, you can choose to take whichever road you wish to get to your destination, for those that don't like them or complain because they don't like the journey then they don't have to come along with the rest of us.

** What would I like to see **

When I first started looking around at the different providers I was torn between those that offered nice flash tools and up-to date software to those that offered stability and support.

I chose the one that was right for me, but what I would like to see is UH aim to attract those that may not see what I saw and had chosen to go elsewhere.

Whilst still keeping the quality of course

UH-Tony · 17th June 2008, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by silver

When I first started looking around at the different providers I was torn between those that offered nice flash tools and up-to date software to those that offered stability and support.

What specific tools do you mean?

geebee · 17th June 2008, 05:50 PM

It would be nice if the:

Reseller summary
and
DNS zone list

listed sites in alphabetical order by default.

It'd be pretty sweet if the reseller summary and the usage reports could also be sorted manually by "used (MB)", "quota (MB)" and "available (MB)" or by whatever the relevant headings are on the specific pages.