This question is directed at Jim Wilkinson, Jody Stiles and anyone else at SWX that is in such a position to answer.
In the past the Top Ten Wish List has been a very active place, but it has only been temporary. It opens sometimes around the rollouts (October?) and closes for new contributions in mid-December (I think), but the problem I see is that it completely vanishes from this forum around the end of SWX World. Why?
There have been many discussions on this forum asking for past Top Ten lists to be available to search. These lists not only have good ideas, but often they overtake the regular forum and become places where tips and advice are given. This helpful information is unavailable once the list is taken down.
In addition, these lists are inherently a solicitation by SWX to the user community to suggest improvements to the software. To me that sounds like a request for Enhancement Requests, yet it is not called that. I have to believe that all the suggestions posted in the Top Ten lists are considered by SWX as a defacto Enhancement Request, yet they are not logged into the formal ER system so there is no visibility and no tracking.
I've aired my gripes about the forum being a better place for new ideas and their subsequent formative discussions than the current ER system. The Top Ten list is an even more pointed example of that.
So my actual question is this: Will the Top Ten list disappear from our view after SW World? If the answer is yes can you help me understand why this is the plan?
I can understand the lists having their own section of the forum, but I think the information should remain available to the community. If it will not have a life of more than a few months then I can foresee many people double-posting on this forum as well just so their information doesn't vanish.
Thank You
Dennis,
Thank you for your inquiry and comments. Feedback from our customer is always very important to allow us to continuously improve SOLIDWORKS products and other areas, such as the forums and Top Ten lists.
We are considering ways to improve the Top Ten list, including making it available year-around. You mentioned our Enhancement Request system as well. Making the Top Ten list interface available all the time and directly linking it to our Enhancement Request system does have challenges and may change the nature of both systems in ways that have to be carefully reviewed.
The forum capabilities for the Top Ten list currently have several limitations.
Conversely, our current Enhancement Request system has all of the above, but lacks other capabilities.
With this in mind, the Top Ten list and the Enhancement Request system currently fulfill different roles. Just as we utilize the Enhancement Request system to help direct our plans over the long term, the Top Ten list offers a snap shot for what interests our customers over a much shorter timeframe. There are benefits to starting a fresh list of ideas populated by our customers each year. It allows us to take a pulse of what is currently on our customer’s minds. We are able to use this information to discover the importance of new needs and demands as they emerge. Also, SOLIDWORKS products change over time as well. It is not uncommon to have ideas on previous Top Ten lists addressed in the next release of SOLIDWORKS.
It is important to note that we still have previous Top Ten lists which we utilize as another point of input from our customers for our planning. We don’t just look at the final Top Ten ideas. We utilized the whole list in our research.
Although no system is perfect, we’re working to improve the enhancement process and hopefully have the best of both systems.
Thank you for the thoughtful ideas and stay posted for improvements.