Through what can only be assumed was a mistake, the draft release notes for October included a little (since-removed) nugget that noted access to Journey Orchestrator advanced programs would now be a paid add-on feature and that there would be a participant volume limit based on the number of customer records that have been purchased as part of the contract:

I’ve been told that as an existing customer I would be “grandfathered” into this plan and there would be no change in pricing to my current contract.

What about, though, when renewal time comes around?  

Proactively getting this out there that it would be a very bad look to start trying to charge customers for features they have been included in the product up until this point, especially for customers who have become quite reliant on them. 

Not to mention, JO - despite it’s painstaking complexity in configuration - is a differentiator. By putting JO behind a paywall, you’re taking away one of the core power points of the platform. If you have to pay extra to get JO, then what prevents you from going with a Gainsight competitor instead?  Personally I think it’s a very bad move.

I also heard that those of us who are “grandfathered” into this pricing plan will not get access to Simple Programs. Is that correct?  If so, why?!  You’re going to take away an attempt to try and simplify the use of JO because we’re not paying for JO? I cannot understand this.

I do understand that Gainsight is a business and is in the business to make money.  Great. Create new features and charge for those.  Don’t charge for existing features that have been and are central to the value proposition of the platform, and don’t hold back feature enhancements that are intended to simplify the use of those core features.