Lifecycle

Lifecycle

All products are born, and good products die to make way for even better products. This is the lifecycle of products.

At HERO PM, we understand that some people are early adopters, some are cautious adopters, and some are help-I-never-want-to-adopters. To accomodate everyone, our products generally have long lifecycles. Once you get used to something, you are rarely required to upgrade until the product is simply no longer compatible with Internet technologies or good sense.

To help understand the lifecycle of a product, we'll offer definitions of the major steps.

1. Introduction
   
   The glorious day that a new product or version rolls out the door is its introduction date. We introduce most products into a beta release, which means they may still have bugs, they may not have full documentation, and they may not have full support. However, they may have features that you love so much you want to upgrade, or you may be a participant in our beta program because you love to help us shape the product into a perfect solution for your company and property managers around the country.
    
2. Production
   
   Once a product has been through its beta period, it moves into production. The production product (or version) has all the kinks worked out, is documented, and is fully supported by our legendary support team. This is the time that most people will upgrade, and the time that this version becomes the default version for all new purchases.
    
3. End of provisioning
   
   Once a product has outlived its useful life, we take it off the shelf and you cannot buy it anymore.  However, if you already have it, you can continue to use it.
    
4. End of support
   
   At some point, the old product is so inferior to its alternative that we cannot, in good conscience, help you use it anymore. Think Ford Pinto.  At this stage, if you are adventurous enough to continue to use the product on your own, we won't stop you, but we can't help you either. Usually products reach end of support when the foundation they were built on is no longer compatible with the available generation of technologies. For example, a product that was built to run swell on Internet Explorer 6 just won't go well on Google Chrome. When it reaches the point where continuing to use it is more detrimental to your business than beneficial, we stop providing support.
    
5. End of life
   
   Eventually, a product just stops working properly with current technologies. Think Betamax VCRs. Eventually, they need to die, and we purge them from our servers and systems. If you're still using a HERO PM product at the end of life, it's an indication you might have missed all the warning signs that time was up, and you may be partying with Bernie at his Hamptons beach house.