My personal review of MimarSinan InstallAWARE Studio 2005 SE as a
courtesy for everyone considering evaluating or buying this product.
There are many reviews out there praising the products features so I
thought I may add my own review, information collected while creating a
project in a live environment.
I've to say, at first glance this product has a lot to offer and seems
to be a better choice than InstallShield Professional which I evaluated
at the same time. InstallAWARE's pricing is also very competitive.
On overall, this is a product with some quirks. One will get used to
them quickly. I appreciate that no produt is perfect and apprecite when
a software vendor takes a greater emphasis on robustness rather than
the UI and I hope that this product becomes more UI compliant as a user
would expect over the years to come.
It's most powerful feature are with no doubt the script editor as well
as the flexibility in designing dialogs.
However, I've reservations and serious concerns about the level of
support being available and having received and if I had this known
before I certainly would not recommend this product despite its
features and price unless there's reassurance by MimarSinan that they
will improve in this matter.
The company seems to consist of only its founder, Sinan Karaca. At
least that is my impression as all support emails I receive come from
his email address. This raises concerns what the situation will be if
that only person becomes ill.
Another disappointing experience was the quality of support received.
As I mentioned, as a developer I appreciate that no software is perfect
as long as this is backed up by keen and pro-active support striving to
resolve any issues.
From my emails to support I didn't get the impression that the company
is actually too interested and an 'error by trial' policy seems to be
in place. I could tolerate this for complex problems and sure would try
this myself before contacting support but if it was in fact the company
founder who provided me with this level of support regarding issues
that seem to be obviously a malfunction in their application then I
start wondering how much they really appreciate their customers apart
from just paying for the product.
Before you contact support one might however consult the InstallAWARE
Help or Support Forum. Help provides basic information to most common
questions but I found that many object properties which I came across
on a regular basis are not listed. One of the biggest drawbacks after
support in my opinion. Consulting the support forum did not yield more
answers to my questions apart from not very detailed replies or the
information that this has never been reported before and therefore must
not be the products fault.
In general, most issues seem to be the customers problem and any of my
suggestions that it migt indeed a problem with the product and any
offered assistance in investigating this issue further were turned down
by InstallAWARE with the response that I can either pay for
professional consultancy or that I can find the answer in going through
their sample applications. May I point out that I never expected them
to do my project for me and as having worked in support myself very
well know what falls in the category consultancy/training or support.
Not satisfiying but tolerable if the sample I'm directed to actually
had addressed my problem. However, in one instance for a Button.click
event a Checkbox.Value sample was suggested.
Summed up, InstallAWARE support email responses might be quick, on
average instant to 8hrs but the quality of support, the help and online
forum has to be questioned.
Just as final point to add, one might stick to email requests as any
call to the company I made was answered by an answering machine and the
one request for a callback was never returned. Despite InstallAWARE
providing the option of phone support on their website.
I might also add, that I tried both numbers, the one in San Francisco,
California and the one in Turkey which can be found on the MirmarSinan
website during the countries respective business hours.
I hope that this is informative to anyone considerating or using
InstallAWARE. I certainly will keep you updated should I have more
information in the future and let you know of any improvements I
notice. Please note that my case might be just an exception and I
invite everyone to try for themselves.
Best Regards,
Martin N Feuersteiner
Invent2b - Innovative Property Business Solutions
