Today we are announcing that from the 1st of June 2015 we will no longer be offering or supporting the free SPCAF Community Edition.
Since 2013 our aim at Rencore has been to make life easier for users of SharePoint, in particular for developers and architects. SPCAF has developed considerably since its inception, with many benefiting from the transparency and clarity we’ve added to the SharePoint development process.
We’ve also seen the SPCAF community grow hugely over these 2 years and we’re committed to continuing to improve the working habits of our users. As a result, a renewed focus is needed to ensure we maintain the standards expected by each of you.
Why is this happening?
With the tool becoming more and more popular, the demand for further improvements and updates has been noticeable. On one hand this is great. Having the SharePoint community push forward new ideas and ways of working which can improve how we do things is something we encourage. However implementing these improvements requires more time and attention at our end. This is time we increasingly don’t have. So we’ve made the difficult decision to withdraw the SPCAF Community Edition 1st of June 2015.
We’d like to highlight the three main considerations we’ve taken in coming to this decision.
1. A richer feature set
With our users placing more emphasis on the development of new features, the SPCAF Community Edition has seen less and less usage due to its limited functionality. We are seeing that new and existing customers prefer the additional capabilities of the SPCAF Developer and Professional Editions.
The premium features available in our Developer and Professional Editions provide users with a much more sophisticated set of features to analyse their code. They provide comprehensive reporting options which integrate with a host of different applications and 3rd party analyzers. You can see a full comparison here.
Software Assurance, which covers support and updates, is also part of the SPCAF Developer and Professional Edition and not offered as part of the Community Edition.
2. The Add-in/App Model
The popularity of the new SharePoint App Model has also proved significant. The uptake in the number of customers shifting to the App Model – which is only supported in the commercial editions of SPCAF – has seen our focus move to help and support these users.
3. Dedicated support
While the SPCAF Community Edition doesn’t include Software Assurance, we support those using the free edition through community forums, email and social media. With the decrease in Community Edition users and the increase in Developer and Professional Edition users, the time we spend helping those cases isn’t providing optimum value. We want all of our customers to see real value in our support, so we need to adjust our focus.
How much longer will the SPCAF Community Edition be available?
The SPCAF Community Edition will be available until May 31st 2015. From June 1st all previous versions will cease to work with immediate effect.
If you’re are using the Community Edition and wish to take advantage of the Developer and Professional Editions get in touch to see how we can help.
Need more help? Get in touch.
If you would like to speak to us personally about something we haven’t mentioned in the post then please do email us at support@spcaf.com and we’ll get back to you within 24 hours.
Matthias Einig, CEO and the Rencore Team
