Faithlife Connect - Defining the issues & looking for a path forward

Isn't the solution to all of this simply having a system consisting of buying content with some base of functionality and then subscribing/renting the software at a sensible price?

All FL really needs to do is add a Features Only level in FLC for something between 100/yr and 200/yr that makes sense for everyone and lay out their cards that they need to charge more for greater functionality. If you don't need it or want it, don't rent it.  

Personally, I refuse to pay a monthly fee for any Logos toolset.  If I can't buy them for a reasonable price, I just do not need them.

But that is just me.  I am very fortunate to have built my Logos library before the push toward subscription based resources.  I am also fortunate to have little interest in more bells and whistles in my Bible software.  I just want the books, searchable and tagged, and the language resources.  That is all I need to be happy.

Except for my dozen grandchildren, of course.

Logos used to be the best Bible software.  I chose Logos over its competitors because I could acquire the best commentaries cost-effectively.  In addition, its original language ability was state-of-the arts.

Instead of focusing on its advantage, it chose to spread itself into areas that it has no expertise in.  To make it worse, it makes Logos users to fund their other investments.  As a result, Its cost for publishing new resources increased tremendously.  And therefore:

(1)  It cannot compete with other bible software in pricing.  I routinely find better deals in other softwares.

(2)  It cannot publish new important resources in a timely manner. Because it requires users to fully fund the pre-pubs prior to development, many important works languish.  In contrast, other Bible softwares now beat Logos in terms of the availability of new resources (e.g. Zondervan Story of God Bible Commentary Series.)

(3) The loss of Moody's resources a few years ago made many users diversifying resources into other softwares.

Because users were asked to help fund such projects as Faith TV, cost has increased and the quality/ repertoire/ speed of publication/ pricing has substantially deteriorated as compared to its competitors.  I know that was why I also run two other Bible software programs: why put everything in one basket when Logos no longer seems to care about producing the best Bible Software and publishing the best resources in a timely/ economical fashion.

The latest episodes showed me that they value revenue over user's experience. As a result, unless rectified quickly, they will lose users rapidly and it will no longer be the premier Bible software as it used to be.  Some of the leading supporters and users are already selling their complete Logos libraries.  This will result in a even smaller user base.  For the past few years, it felt like Logos tried to squeeze more and more money from a shrinking user base.  This episode will worsen this situation.

Since I have a large library in Logos, I don't want Faithlife to fail.  I urge Faithlife to split Logos away from the rest of its organization: Logos should focus on being the best Bible software. If you are not doing something well, dump it. Focus on what you are good at instead.  Instead of figuring out how to squeeze more money per users, you should focus on making your user base larger by cutting the cost of development to make your software attractive to new users.  Keep users from diversifying their resources into other softwares.  Instead of thinking "how to make more money?", shouldn't your goal be: "how to make the best Bible software with the best user experience?"

Great summary Greg. I was just thinking there are way too many posts on way too many different forums to wade through, but I want to keep up with the discussion.

I wonder if Faithlife needs to continue creating new datasets and other bells and whistles at such a fast pace. I was thinking about Microsoft Office 365 and what they've done with that subscription model. My Office software is always up to date, and I get helpful feature updates to make the software easier and more convenient to use. I don't get entirely new features never before imagined every time they release an update, not even for a major version update. A spreadsheet is a spreadsheet, and there are specific things people do with spreadsheets. Microsoft can make the spreadsheet software more slick and easy to use, give it more integration with other apps, utilize the latest in cloud functionality, provide more mobile and web-based options, make it easier for me to share documents and collaborate with others, but they haven't forgotten that the main reason we use Excel is to create spreadsheets. They've just tried to improve the user experience of creating spreadsheets.

I think this may be what Faithlife is trying to accomplish. I agree with Donovan that through all the change they need to make sure they focus on their core business. Usually when companies diversify too much they eventually end up divesting and refocusing at some point. Microsoft tried to move into the music selling and streaming business, but disconnected that...because they are a software company and there are plenty of other ways to buy or stream music. Faithlife needs to focus on creating the best bible study software user experience that utilizes the best in the current technology.

I thought Faithlife's core mission was to help people delve into the Word of God...so as they are figuring out how to move forward with the right business model they need to keep that core mission in view.

Paul Lee said:

urge Faithlife to split Logos away from the rest of its organization: Logos should focus on being the best Bible software.

I want to highlight this to be sure Bob sees it as a possibility.  Perhaps it is better not to lump everything together, but to have different products.  OF the making of books there is no end.  It is hard for me to think that the selling of books has an end point. Is Kindle not profitable? 

Paul Lee said:

The latest episodes showed me that they value revenue over user's experience. As a result, unless rectified quickly, they will lose users rapidly and it will no longer be the premier Bible software as it used to be.

Likely only a very few will go this route since they are so heavily invested and rebuilding such a library in any other system (if you could) would be very costly.

Paul Lee said:

Since I have a large library in Logos, I don't want Faithlife to fail.

None of us do. What FL is saying is that they want to keep growing their business (i.e. expanding) and therefore need to bring in more money. It's that simple. So they are trying to find ways to get new customers (which they must have) AND get heavily invested customers to keep investing. 

Thus, your point:

Paul Lee said:

Instead of focusing on its advantage, it chose to spread itself into areas that it has no expertise in.  To make it worse, it makes Logos users to fund their other investments.

is spot on because they want to grow as a business. 

Therefore, they need solutions for that, while invested customers need/want additional value before they spend more. That is the balance FL needs to work on, and they are obviously trying, but simply can't check all the boxes at this point. At least one thing they have done with this rollout is generate a lot of suggestions[:)]  

Disciple of Christ (doc) said:

Mark said:

  Back in L3, the model was abandoned because companies were not producing quality material.  But now FL has ebooks which are not of quality material. 

You remember that too Mark...

Some memories are painful.  With time there is healing.  But those wounds are being re-opened now.  What got me started with Logos, what made me abandon all other models was the fact that Logos was the engine and Libronix was the way any company could add content to the engine.  The reasoning in abandoning the model does have some sense.  But the reasoning often given was the poor quality companies produced and the lack of tagging.  Well e-books do not have tagging and are poor quality...