We’re all experiencing unprecedented times with the global Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Firstly, if you’re an existing customer whose business is currently affected by the situation, we want to reassure you that we’re here to help! For more information, please see our recent blog post: 3 ways we’re supporting customer’s businesses affected by Coronavirus.
Now, here at MIDAS as we are a small and agile online business, and as such our operations haven’t been significantly affected at this time. For all intents and purposes, it’s “business as usual” here at MIDAS. Our sales team is still available online (via email or Live Chat) to answer any pre-sales questions you may have. Our support team is still providing prompt assistance to customer’s support queries (you can view our latest response times on our dedicated Service Status site).
As such, we’ve decided to press ahead with the release of our next update to MIDAS, v4.24, which is available now.
New: Optional “Reviews” addon – automatically collect feedback, ratings, and reviews from your customers
Improved: List of organizations in drop-down on Invoicing screen now limited to organizations with invoices
Improved: BCC to me option when emailing an invoice/receipt now remembers user’s previous setting
Improved: Individual client statistics now include count and sum of outstanding invoices and client’s current credit
Improved: When assigning the “Can Process Booking Requests” permission, MIDAS will indicate if the user isn’t currently a manager of any venues
Fixed: Cumulative roll-up of various fixes for issues discovered since v4.23
How To Get MIDAS v4.24…
New To MIDAS?
We are committed to fair and accessible pricing for all organizations regardless of size. We’re totally upfront and transparent about our pricing structure, and you can purchase MIDAS v4.24 securely through our website and be up and running in no time!
“Self Hosted” Customers:
Self-Hosted customers with ongoing Annual Support Subscriptions will be able to update to v4.24 in the coming weeks. It only takes a couple of clicks – simply log in to your MIDAS system and go to MIDAS Admin Options → Manage MIDAS → Update.
If no update is available, please check back again in a few days time, as we are staggering updates for self-hosted customers over the next few weeks.
“Cloud Hosted” Customers:
Cloud-Hosted customers don’t need to do anything! – All our active Cloud-Hosted MIDAS customers have now been automatically updated to this latest version of MIDAS
Thank you for your continued support of our software during this unprecedented period of global uncertainty. Please remember if you’re an existing customer affected by the current situation, that we’re here to support you!
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) is arguably the largest global health threat in modern times. Now classified as a “Pandemic” by the World Health Organization (WHO), and predicted to last for many months. It is having far-reaching consequences for organizations and businesses around the world.
We want to do our best to support our MIDAS customers in affected businesses however we can. That’s why today we’re announcing a package of support measures for affected businesses;
COVID Support Measure 1
Firstly, and exclusively for our customers in Medical/Healthcare organizations. We recognize the unprecedented demand that there is – and will be – on your services over the coming weeks and months. If your MIDAS subscription is shortly due for renewal, we will allow an extra “grace period” for you to complete your payment without risk of your MIDAS access becoming suspended. It’s more important for your focus right now to be on helping those impacted by the Coronavirus in your care than on paying bills. Therefore, we are happy to defer any upcoming renewal payment for your MIDAS service for up to six months. [1]
COVID Support Measure 2
Secondly, we want to support our customers in businesses and organizations which may have to temporarily close and suspend their operations as a result of Government guidance or restrictions put in place in response to Coronavirus. If your business/organization has suspended its operations, you’ll likely not be using your MIDAS system for a some weeks. We don’t feel it’s fair you should continue to pay for a service during such a period it would be redundant. If you’re in this situation, please contact us. We’d be happy to put a temporary suspension on your MIDAS system for a length of time you wish. Once access is re-instated, we’ll be happy to extend your current subscription period by the same length of time your system was suspended for. For example, if your school is forced to shut for two months, we can suspend your MIDAS system for this period. We’ll then extend your next subscription renewal date by two months. This ensures that you’ll effectively not be paying for your MIDAS system during the period your organization/business closes. [2]
COVID Support Measure 3
Thirdly, we recognize that many employees are now encouraged to work from home by their employers or government to reduce their risk of exposure to and fight transmission of Coronavirus. We also know that in many of our customer’s organizations, multiple personnel may share the same user account in their MIDAS system. This is often the case, for example, in part-time or job share situations. With more people now working remotely from home, you may feel that the current user limit on your MIDAS license makes it difficult for all your staff to still be able to access your MIDAS system remotely and effectively work from home. Therefore, we’re offering temporary user license increases for up to six months for organizations this would benefit. These license increases will enable more of your workforce to work remotely from home. [3]
We’re Here To Help!
If any of the above measures could support your operations during this challenging time, please contact us and we’d be happy to assist.
Notes: [1] Applies to both self-hosted and cloud-hosted MIDAS customers in medical/healthcare related organizations only. [2] Applies to cloud-hosted MIDAS customers only whos business operations have temporarily ceased as a result of government restrictions or other officially recognized guidance. Temporary suspensions won’t be “back dated” and will only come into effect once requested by contacting us. [3] Applies to cloud-hosted MIDAS customers who wish to enable more of their staff to work from home and still access their MIDAS system in response to the Coronavirus. After six months, the customer has the option to retain the new user license level by purchasing the license upgrade. Alternatively, they can revert back to their previous license level. In the case of opting to revert, any additionally added user accounts over the previous license level would be removed.
T&Cs: Please note that the support measures outlined herein are discretionary. We will assess eligibility on a case-by-case basis, taking into account – but not limited to – the above notes. The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented and rapidly changing, fluid situation. Therefore, we reserve the right to refuse, revoke, or amend any support measure outlined herein at any time without prior notice.
Four years after the UK narrowly voted to leave the European Union, the day has come when the UK will officially exit the EU. This will happen at 11pm UK time this evening, Friday 31st January 2020. There then follows an 11 month transitional period. During this transition, the UK will continue to abide by EU laws and regulations. At the same time, it will negotiate it own trade deals with both the EU and the rest of the world.
As we are a UK-based business we wanted to take this opportunity to again reassure our customers about our position and the impact on MIDAS during this transition.
We’d like to remind customers that all our administrative operations are based here in the UK. Our primary server infrastructure resides in the United States (with backup systems in the UK). We have no staffing or physical infrastructure in other EU countries. Therefore, the UK exiting the EU later today will not affect the day-to-day running of our own operations going forward.
Over 90% of our customers will reside outside of EU countries once the UK leaves the EU. Consequently, any subsequent volatility within the EU itself will have a negligible impact on our financial position.
We continue to do business across the globe – including with other EU states. Our current and future EU customers are no less valued than our customers in any other country. This won’t change after today’s Brexit.
Pricing and Exchange Rates
As you may be aware, we recently revised the pricing model for the cloud-hosted edition of our software. We have now, however, adjusted our prices as a result of the UK’s decision to leave the EU.
As we offer payment for MIDAS in a number of global currencies (including Euros), our prices automatically update daily based on global exchange rates. Previously these automatic updates were based on the exchange rate that particular day alone. Since the Brexit vote was delivered back in June 2016, and the fluctuations this caused in currency exchange rates, we’ve improved our exchange rate calculations. They are now instead based on an “average” of the exchange rate over the previous 8 weeks. This helps smooth out any short term “blips” that may occur from day-to-day. The result is a more consistent price is shown on our website for non GBP currencies, including Euros.
In conclusion..
We’re hopeful and excited about the UK’s future in the global economy. Whilst we are “Brexiting” today, our EU customers – both existing and future – won’t be treated any differently. For all intents and purposes, it continues to be “business as usual” here at MIDAS HQ!
It’s a brand-new year – in fact, it’s a brand-new decade – and we’re starting 2020 with an update to the pricing model for new cloud hosted editions of our MIDAS room booking and resource scheduling software.
We’ll explain more about that in a moment, but first a little background into the history of our pricing structure…
A Brief History of MIDAS Pricing…
When we launched the first versions of MIDAS way back in 2005, “hosted” applications (also known as “SaaS” or “Software as a Service”) were few and far between.
Initially, in the very early planning stages of MIDAS, we envisaged our software being something that customers could download and run on their own web servers.
In those days, our software was charged at a one-off fixed price for everyone. It quickly became clear however that there was also a demand for a “hosted” MIDAS solution in addition to a “downloadable” one.
Introduction of a “cloud hosted” software solution
We subsequently introduced a “remotely hosted” option. This was charged at the same one-off initial price as the “downloadable” version, but with an additional small “annual subscription” element. The subscription element covered the cost of hosting.
This worked well for the first five years. We were always conscious though that larger organizations, such universities with dozens – if not hundreds – of users and rooms were paying the same price for our software as the smallest of Churches with just a handful of rooms and a single administrator.
We didn’t think this was very fair. In an effort to address this in 2011 we introduced a “lite” version of MIDAS. This cut-down budget version didn’t include many of the advanced features – such as invoicing – that the full version had.
MIDAS “Lite”
MIDAS “lite” partially addressed this imbalance, but we still didn’t feel it went quite far enough. There were still some small organizations who didn’t have many rooms or users. But because they still wanted to use the invoicing features of MIDAS, they were forced to go with the “full” version of MIDAS.
That’s why in August 2012, we completely reworked our pricing structure. Gone was the “lite” version of MIDAS. Instead, we offered only the “full” version, but with a tiered pricing structure based on the number of “venues” (rooms/bookable spaces) to be managed and number of user accounts required. This went on to make MIDAS far more accessible to organizations of all shapes and sizes, and has served us well for over 7 years.
Throughout this time, the cost of MIDAS – whether “cloud” hosted or “self” hosted – still consisted of an initial one-off cost (i.e. “buying” the software), and an annual subscription element. The subscription element covering software updates and priority support was optional for “self hosted” customers. For “cloud hosted” customers, the subscription covered hosting, software updates, and support.
However, the rise of SaaS applications has sky-rocketed over the past 7 years. It’s now common place to find businesses which offer access to their application(s) for a flat monthly or an annual subscription fee, without having to ever “buy” the software itself.
We’ve also heard from our own customers, some of whom were put off by the initial high “one off” cost element when “buying” a cloud-hosted edition. Some of our customers would instead prefer to pay a simple monthly or annual subscription fee.
We’ve listened and that’s why from 1st January 2020 our pricing structure for new customers is as follows:
New & Existing Self-Hosted Customers:
There is no change to the pricing model for new or existing self-hosted customers. Pricing remains an initial “one time” cost (i.e. you’re “purchasing” the software). We still offer an entirely optional Annual Support Subscription, which provides access to software updates and Priority Support.
Existing self-hosted customers who wish to migrate over to a cloud-hosted system, would need to purchase a new cloud-hosted subscription, and contact us to arrange for existing data/settings from their previous self-hosted system to be migrated across.
New Cloud-Hosted Customers:
The cost of MIDAS no longer includes an initial “one time” cost element. Instead, simply priced monthly and annual subscription plans are now offered.
In essence, new cloud-hosted customers are no longer “buying” MIDAS, but rather “renting” it on a monthly/annual basis.
Comparative illustrative USD pricing example for a Cloud-Hosted MIDAS system (1 user / 10 venues) over 3 years:
…if purchased before 2020:
Initial Cost: $868 ($639 (one time) + $229) 2nd Year Cost: $229 3rd Year Cost: $229
Total paid after 3 years: $1,326
…if purchased from 2020 onwards:
Initial Cost: $339 2nd Year Cost: $339 3rd Year Cost: $339
Total paid after 3 years: £1,017
Addons & Upgrades for new Cloud-Hosted Customers:
Under the previous pricing model (pre 2020), optional addons and upgrades for cloud-hosted customers typically involved a single one-time cost. Under the new pricing model (2020 onwards), upgrading your license or adding addons will affect your subsequent monthly/annual subscription price. A small pro-rata charge would be levied in the interim.
Existing Cloud-Hosted Customers:
We greatly value our existing and loyal customers, many of whom have been with us for years. We have no plans to move existing cloud customers onto the new cloud pricing structure. Cloud-hosted customers who purchased MIDAS prior to 1st January 2020 will continue to see familiar Annual Hosting + Support renewal prices. These will in most cases work out lower than annual subscription prices for comparable new systems purchased from 2020 onwards.
There are no changes to addon/upgrade pricing for existing Cloud-Hosted customers who purchased MIDAS before 2020.
In summary, we hope that these improvements to our cloud-hosted MIDAS pricing structure will help make our software accessible to even more businesses and organizations, even those on the tightest of budgets. Gone is the initial high “one time” cost outlay, and instead we’ve introduced simple and straight forward low monthly and annual subscription pricing.
If you have any questions over the new cloud-hosted pricing model, please feel free to reach out to us, and we’ll be happy to assist!
In the meantime, we’d like to wish you a very happy and prosperous 2020!
Four years after