Can we do a survey here with the following questions for anyone using Max 8?

1) What's your environment? (Product, number of users, industry/business)

2) How is stability from 1-10? (0=bad, 10-Rock solid)

3) How good are new features from 1-10? (0=no real change, 10=Incredible)

Thanx - R.

We have been using Maximizer 8 for several months now.

1. We are running a windows NT4.0 domain with Exchange Server 5.5
2. Stability so far 2
3. New features 7

We have had a ton of problems ranging form frequent crashes to features and functions within Maximizer that just do not work or work properly.

1) Maximizer Enterprise v8.0, 30 users, Software Sales
2) Stability is 3 (low)
3) Features 8 (lots of nice features)

They really need to fix the stability problems for this product to shine.
-Tim-

Running 8 with 2 users. Very finicky. Has a mind of its own. Instruction manual is ambigiouse. You have to me a maximizer expert to understand it. I am getting the feeling that this program is designed to make Maximizer money off maintenance contracts and support. You buy the product, and your 30 day complimentary support is limited to nothing more than installation and getting the SAMPLE data up and running. And nothing works properly. Every thing extra is $200 per hour for them to TROUBLE SHOOT and that could cost you the program 5 time over.

It has cost me hours and hours. I had an EXPERT in here for 3 and a half days just trying to get syncronization for 2 users happening via FTP. Finaly got it working and now the remote is crashing along with outlook. Go figure.

Using Max 8 with 35 users, placed in 8 different branches.

-Stability 4- after Service Release 1
-Features 8- A lot of good stuff

Frustrations-
Maximizer does have official support of their own, but rather through Business Partners, which means you sometimes have to wait for the answer. Why do they not have a proper knowledge base where we can posts questions etc.

The development module that they provide to integrate stuff, simply sucks. Everything has to be done one particular way, if not the app crashes. The hooks took us ages to get stable.


I got more answers from reading Maxtalk than their expensive manuals.

The way they use the pervasive database makes it very difficult to integrate data. They still read and write data via btrieve which often creates issues when you start writing with the Pervasive ODBC driver. Just try to write an insert data statement with the pervasive ODBC.

We've been using Max 8 (pervasive) for a couple of months. This is the first time we've used any Maximizer products.

1) Originally running with a mixture of Win2k and XP. Found a lot of crashes with Win2k so now all on XP. Less frequent crashes but still not very stable.

2) Stability is about 3. We have 7 users but they're mostly remotes (normally 2 or 3 users logged on at once).

3) Features are good. Can't comment on new features as no experience with older Maximizer versions. Lots of frustrations with features that don't work properly or need a high degree of database and/or networking expertise to get going.

Entirely agree with Danny and Tobie about documentation (almost useless) and support (non-existent unless you have very deep pockets)

Response to post by Tobie Heyns:

>Maximizer does have official support of their own, but rather
>through Business Partners,

If you meant to say that "Maximizer does not have official support of their own", that is incorrect. Their direct service options are outlined here. However, they prefer that you establish a relationship with a Business Partner (BP) and work with them because the BP often has a more complete understanding of your particular circumstances and therefore can provide better service.

>Why do they not have a proper knowledge base where we can posts
>questions etc.

They do have a Knowledge Base. If you mean a discussion forum where users can post questions, there are many software vendors that don't provide that option directly.

>The development module that they provide to integrate stuff,
>simply sucks.

Compared to what? I must admit that I'm not completely up-to-date on the customization offerings from the other CRM vendors, but Maximizer has always been committed to giving their users and BPs the tools to extend and integrate the product.

>Just try to write an insert data statement with the pervasive
>ODBC.

As discussed elsewhere on this board, that's not the way to do it.

Thanks for putting some issues straight.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Tobie Heyns,

Stability: 1/10
Features: 7/10

Environment: Windows 2003 Server, Win XP/2000 clients, 15 workstations.


As IT manager here I have never seen a more unstable product release in my life. Maximizer Enterprise 8 has been the thorn in my side since we have upgraded, users always crashing which translates to MIS people's lives being hell. Im sorry that I had to put it that way. Perhaps I am un-skilled and it is my fault, perhaps something I did wrong in the install, perhaps this or that. Perhaps. If this is the case, fine - BUT this product should not be difficult to get up and running well. As an MIS guy, I dont want to have to hire a Pervasive or Maximizer guy at $300/hr to set this CRM product up when it should be a breeze for someone like myself.

There are a number of very loyal long term users on this board, and a larger number of relatively new users who could be converted to "very loyal long term users" if the people at Max read, pay attention to, and respond to what they read here. The Max folks also need to realize that this is a public board, and their competition can read the comments as well - and can also direct prospects here to read the same comments. For the sake of the software my business depends on, I would like to know the Max folks monitor this board.

Please note that this issue is not exclusive to Max - every software developer in the world has to face it.

Anyway, can anyone confirm/deny Max presence on here? And if it's a confirmation, it should be from an official Max representative. We deserve no less.

- R.

Just upgraded from max 5.0 to max 8. The ONLY reason I upgraded was to use maxlink for my tungsten C as I want to get away from the pc and use the palm 99% of the time. My fault but I expected an "app" on the palm... not a conduit. Palm is rebooting at the end of a sync. I'll give it a few days and if the techs and I cannot solve it I'll be asking for a refund. <sigh> None of this would be happening if Maximizer made available a demo of the maxlink.
Well no refund available. Anyone want to buy my downloaded ver8.0 upgrade? Still about 26 days of support.
"I" managed to get it working. Had to backup, delete any and all apps from the pc, do a hard reset and install maxlink while my palm was basically empty. Then reinstall apps on the pc and restore data. Once I was on hold for so long that a voicemail lady came on, stated the support hours, said they were now closed and disconnected me. This was at 11am PST.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: maxlck,

Maximizer definetley needs to work on their customer service themselves. Tech support has been very poor even with a brand new version, 8.0. It takes an hour to talk to a person who has probably been trained for less than half an hour in the support arena.

They have some bright support staff, but heck if you get to talk to them on the free 30- day support line.

ps - as to whether maximizer monitors this board, I dont think they do. However, Gord (the guy that sticks up for Maximizer) is the closest thing to a relationship with Maximizer. I believe Gord is with maximizerconsultants.com

That's a different Gord but don't worry, people have gotten us confused before (eh, Alicia? ).

Hey Gord,

That sounds a LOT more interesting than anything else on this board! Go on, tell us more!!

- Pasta

I must say that after installing SR2 for Enterprise 8, the application is much faster and seems more stable.

My users seem quite happy as well.

We have been using Maximizer Enterprise for 5 or six years.

1. Currently MAx Enterprise 8 SR2 with 20 Users Pervasive SQL on Windows 2000 with mixed clients.)

2. Stability 3 (very poor)

3. New features 5 (when they work)

With each incarnation this product seems to become less stable and more difficult to support. Maintaining 7 remote users is practically a full time job and extremely frustrating. Maximizer support is simply awful - when i had sync problems I was asked to e-mail im detailed logs but they lost these - I guess they must use maximizer to record customer contact.

The recent Version 8 SR2 release is a 700MB download.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: CABC Support,

Hey MacStout,

Sounds like you have a lot of problems with Max8. Tell me more about your Max Server: what hardware is it running, and is it running anything other than MaxEnt?

20 users on Pervasive peer-peer sounds like quite a heavy usage. What does Task Manager say about CPU usage and spare memory?

- Pasta

It's a new Dell 2000 Server with 1GB RAM and other than storing a few files does little else. As i mentioned before its using Pervasive SQL not peer to peer. I have to schedule stop/start of the pervasive services each evening otherwise it just eats all the RAM. The CPU is rarely busy even when creating Max refreshes,

Are you using the Campaign Manager at all? If you're not using that functionality, nor the email notifications, try turning off the Maximizer services. I did that on my server and noticed a boost. I don't use campaigns, so losing those services was not a big deal.