So in the past 18 months we've lost Bug Tracker, Community Site, CVS repository and now the Virtual Image. It just comes across as Digital Agency with Custom CMS now.
So what next?
My prediction is that;
- SLA prices will dramatically increase and support ticket will continue to increase as there is no competition and customers will be locked into the eco system.
- It will become even more difficult to hire someone with Squiz skill and training new employees is going to be hard sale considering most will be coming from Open Source development.
- For organisations loosing someone with Squiz skill will be massive hit on resource due to the process of hiring and training in the future (takes 6 - 12 months at least!!)
- Upgrade lead times is going to get worse from average of 4-6 months to probably a year, otherwise it will be optional additional payment similar to Edit+ model
- Existing advocates of Squiz will move on and there will be no community left.
- There will be so many frustrated web managers / developers as the closed system does not allow easy way to test developments without paying for extra server/build at considerable cost.
- Squiz core platform will forever play catchup game vs other CMS.
- Personal C.V with Squiz CMS does not hold any weight when it becomes proprietary platform.
Here is wishful thinking
Squiz to open up its platform to wider community and businesses with various subscription models; e.g Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum.
Bronze subscription - slightly older build (1 version down) and free for anyone under GNU.
Silver subscription - latest build version at £30-50pm (hosting not provided)
Gold subscription - latest build with recommended stack and Edit+ hosted with Squiz platform from £100pm (configurable server setup at extra cost)
Platinum subscription - latest build, edit+, funnelback and hosted with Squiz from £200pm (configurable server and search at extra cost)
Optional purchasable extras include Squiz Plus, Edge, Support Tickets and SLA.