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So what does it cost???

Prospective customers always ask us two things: What is this going to cost? And, How long is this going to take? Both are important questions to ask and difficult questions to answer. Most teams start with two simplistic, but critical requirements:

  • Reproduce Functionality: The new system must, with few or no exceptions "do what it does now."
  • Upgrade the Technology: The new system must use .NET instead of VB6/ASP/COM and "use it well."


Reproducing functionality is primary and it is fairly objective. The idea is this: the existing VB6/ASP source code is a complete, formal specification of the legacy functionality, so IF one can rewrite it precisely and accurately, the resulting .NET code will produce the functionality "exactly". We know it's a big IF, but one thing we also know is that the precision, accuracy, and scalability of rewriting code with gmStudio and our tool-assisted rewrite methodology can meet this requirement much more efficiently than doing it manually.

Upgrading technology is also extremely important, but is much more subjective. One cannot know how far they will travel until they know where they are starting from and decide where they are going. gmStudio can help you understand and plan upgrade work, but teams must still understand what the new platform has to offer and agree on how to take advantage of it. Teams will want to try, test, refine, and apply technical design changes on a large scale and doing this with gmStudio is much more efficient than doing it manually.

gmStudio enables an agile Tool-Assisted Rewrite Methodology that helps
serious migration teams incrementally verify, improve, and customize an
automated, repeatable upgrade process to meet their unique technical requirements.

Using gmStudio can dramatically change how you allocate your upgrade project budget:

  • Spend less on functional requirements gathering: because you can get
    them in detail from your source code and rewrite them very precisely.

  • Spend less on coding: because most of the code is generated
    by a custom configured translation tool.

  • Spend less on testing: because the code is produced systematically
    it has fewer defects and corrections can be made efficiently by
    retranslating the entire application.

  • The bottom line is this: teams can deliver a lot more upgrade
    with fewer resources, and can spend a greater portion
    of the resources on technical design, optimization,
    and strategic functional enhancements.

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10 Comments

  1. Anonymous

    "How much does it cost?"  You guys pretty carefully didn't answer the question.

    1. Mark.Juras

      What I tried to say is: we believe a migration project will cost less if the team uses our tools and methods than if they don't.

      Ultimately the costs depend on the needs and expectations of the customer. We are always happy to help you estimate the cost of a migration project including the costs and savings of using our approach. We are also happy to discuss other business aspects of upgrade projects including defining scope, making a business case, and planning the work.

      Please contact us if you would like to discuss. http://www.greatmigrations.com/en/about/contact.aspx

  2. Anonymous

    I have a few VB6 apps I made for myself to help speed things up (e.g. a nice app that wraps around various doc generators and gives it a nice UI). Not enterprise apps or even saleable apps, just helpful tools I've created over the years for my own productivity. Now it is time to move them into the .NET environment but it appears all the migration tools out there worth any salt (and specifically the pricing) is geared toward enterprise (or deep pocket) companies migrating significant apps.  Would be nice to find a tool (or pricing scheme) that can do the same for my little apps. For example a developer license where the code is not commercial or used by other companies.

    1. Mark.Juras

      It is absolutely true:  we built, and continue to improve, gmStudio to help teams rewrite huge enterprise applications and commercial software according to ambitious re-engineering goals.   In those situations, our approach is by far the most economical approach, and the cost of our product more than pays for itself.  However, I can appreciate your situation as well, and we have pricing schemes that may fit what you are looking for.  Please submit your information on our contact form and we will follow up to discuss.  We also recently started offering a "gmStudio promotional license" through the MSDN.  

    2. Anonymous

      Also I believe its now free for < 10k lines of code: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/02/prweb11619510.htm

  3. Anonymous

    Let's bound the question to make it a little easier to answer: How much will it cost for me to get the tools? 

  4. Mark.Juras

    It depends on your situation. Please contact us directly to discuss.

  5. Anonymous

    forget it, sounds like you make up prices as you go. Moving on.....

     

  6. Mark.Juras

    Yes, our pricing model is flexible and negotiable.  Our customers appreciate that we are willing to work with them to fit their needs and budget.  And, they appreciate that our tools and methods end up saving time and money.

  7. Mark.Juras

    "What does it cost?" is a complex question.  We have published a planning "questionnaire" to help you answer it.  In most cases, the cost of our tools ends up being negative, because the overall project costs less when you properly use our  tools than when you do not...