TL;DR
The Vault Add On (VAO) is awesome and more people need to be aware of it and benefiting from it ❤️
My idea is to include VAO in the core Vault product. Don't have it be an 'add-on' any longer. It has awesome features that should be available to more people. Maybe not everyone needs it, so it could be an optional component when you're installing it, but let's get it out there! It would increase the number of users, make it easier to get expertise/support for VAO, and improve many company Vaults.
Here are details about what VAO is and why it should be incorporated into the core Vault product:
Hey Vault admins! Does your company use VAO (Enterprise Vault Add On)?
When I talk with other admins and even many Autodesk Partners, I find that many people are not even aware of these tools. Let me tell you, though -- they are very useful. Several of these components are huge time savers and I can't imagine not having them.
Here's the problem -- VA was originally developed by Autodesk Consulting -- not really part of the core Vault development team. They built a great set of tools for a few specific clients and thought, "Hey, maybe some other people would like these tools, too!" Since they were developed outside of the normal product development environment, they are handled very differently.
Years ago, it was difficult to even purchase VAO. Autodesk didn't have a regular SKU for it and most of the vendors didn't know they could sell it and if they did, they didn't know how to price it, let alone support it.
Then, once you bought it, it could be tricky to download it. You wouldn't find it in the usual media download spots like the Manage portal.
All that is much better these days. It has a real SKU and can be downloaded through the Portal.
However, it can still be tricky to find support for it.
When I have an issue (which, fortunately, is very rare), searching Google or the Autodesk forums is never any help. Based on the lack of search results, I suspect that not many people have purchased it or are using it. I think that's a real shame!
Last year when Autodesk completely changed their licensing mechanism, our VAO tools broke because we were on a previous version of them and the new licensing mechanism didn't support this version. Since VAO was outside of the 'standard' Autodesk product family, it wasn't given them same level of love and testing.
Let's get these VAO features incorporated into Vault instead of being an add on!
If you don't know anything about VAO, you can find a TINY bit of info here: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/vault-products/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2021/EN...
Like I said -- Autodesk doesn't really seem to be marketing VAO. This page isn't very exciting and doesn't even mention some of the best features. Data Exchange alone makes VAO incredibly powerful!
What about VAO sales? Wouldn't Autodesk lose those? Why "give away" VAO for free? Again, based on my experience talking to others about VAO and my searches, I get the impression that there aren't many VAO users right now. That should change! Adding these features into Vault could result in more Vault licenses sold, which would easily make up for any lost revenue from VAO sales. Vault sales teams, am I off base here?
Vault Community! Let's vote for these great tools to be part of Vault from here on out!
