I tried to respond to this email but of course I can't so I was forced to come to your forum to express my opinion. Please see the email I got from bentley, with my response following...
From: CONNECT Advisor - Support <CONNECTAdvisor-Support@bentley.com> Sent: Friday, September 7, 2018 2:29 AM Subject: CONNECT Advisor Security Update
Dear Bentley Software User,
Bentley’s CONNECT Advisor provides contextual and personalized learning including feature and workflow videos, personalized learning paths, hands-on workshops, and a collaboration platform enabling remote, global, and dispersed project teams to work together more effectively.
In the latest version, we have enhanced the security functions of the CONNECT Advisor. We would like to make you aware that you are currently using an outdated version of CONNECT Advisor. Because you are not using the latest version of CONNECT Advisor, you are missing out on these important updates.
Please note that on September 11, 2018, we plan to deprecate all previous versions of CONNECT Advisor, and you may experience limited functionality if you are using these versions.
To benefit from these improvements and to avoid interruptions in your access to CONNECT Advisor, please take a moment to update to the most recent version. Here’s how:
If you have personal authorization to install and download rights for the Bentley Fulfillment Center – see links below. Otherwise, your site administrator will be responsible for the downloading of Bentley products and updates. The site administrator is an employee of your company, not Bentley Systems.
If you are using v8i CONNECT Advisor
CONNECT Advisor for v8i Products
Update Existing Installation for V8i Applications
Manual Download
Manual Installation
Installation instructions for IT Admins
If you are using CONNECT Advisor for CONNECT Edition
CONNECT Advisor for CONNECT Edition products
Installation Instructions for IT Admins
If you have any questions, please write to us at CONNECT Advisor Forum
Thank you,
Your Bentley Systems, Inc.
CONNECT Advisor Team
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Dear Bentley Software Producers,
I actually think your connect advisor software is stupid and only serves to help you monitor me in some way. Your workflow videos and personalized learning paths only serve to interrupt my work more effectively. I don’t actually see any benefit to using it. I don’t like software that forces me to run extra useless software.
Please consider changing your software model. Microstation is a tool, it’s like a hammer. I use a hammer to pound nails, I don’t want the hammer to connect to my wrench so I can integrate bolt turning with nail pounding. Quit trying to “create an ecosystem” or whatever stupid corporate speak you’re using these days.
I want to simply use your software, and only the software I want to use, when I want to use it. The more seamless a process is, the more I like that tool. I don’t want any integration with your other products because I don’t want to turn bolts with my hammer.
Please note that on September 11, 2018, I plan to deprecate all versions of connect ADVISOR, and I will continue to experience limited functionality because I don’t use all your fancy functions now so it doesn’t matter!
I do have personal authorization to install software, but I don’t want to. And I’m going to ask my site administrator, who is an employee of my company, not to install useless software either.
If you have any questions, please write to me at YOU'VEGOTMYEMAIL@BECAUSEYOUFORCEMETOSIGNUPFORSTUFFIDON'TWANT.com
Your Annoyed Bentley User
connect ADVISOR Hater
P.S. Unless CONNECT is an acronym for something it shouldn't be capitalized.
Amen!
It's time Bentley starts listening to what seems to be a very frustrated customer base (at least within the Small Business community). I second the comments in this post after receiving the same email and having no idea if I have CONNECT Advisor for v8i Products or CONENCT Advisor for CONNECT Edition products.
Dear Brianne:
Thank you for your feedback regarding our CONNECT initiative including CONNECT Advisor.
We’d like to assure you that Bentley Systems in no way wants to intrude or change the way you use our software tools.
We are disappointed that you do not see the value of using CONNECT Advisor. If you desire, we will be happy to work with you to improve your experience.
However, should you decide to not use CONNECT Advisor, here are some steps that you can follow to sidestep it:
We hope that this will eliminate any inconvenience that you may have experienced.
Thanks,
CONNECT Advisor Support Team
Only just found this thread. Made me laugh!! I have also raised a query about CA from the very same email received from Bentley.
To be honest I have probably opened CA a couple of times to find out what it did. Have just opened it again to check.
What does 'Expert Advisor' do, as it wants me to open a project. I have a drawing open.
Also 'Contextual' says "Unable to find relevant content". What does that mean?
Along with the CONNECT Advisor, a user guide is delivered which gives a brief idea of how CA is expected to work.
You can go through that document. If you feel that the document is not organized properly and does not help the user, we can work with you to enhance the user guide.
The user guide can be accessed by clicking the help icon in CA or pressing F1,
alternatively, you can find the user-guide.pdf in the "Documentation" folder in the directory where CA is installed.