I've been a big supporter of simPRO
I've been a big supporter of simPRO, but my confidence in the direction the business is heading has taken a serious hit.
We recently attended an event showcasing simPRO Lightning, with a strong focus on how AI integration would significantly reduce administration and improve efficiency.
On the back of that presentation, we signed up, increasing our subscription costs by approximately 30%.
Unfortunately, the reality has been very different from what was presented.
Even asking the AI basic questions like "How much have we invoiced this month?" produces wildly inaccurate answers. We've since built our own API integration with Claude, which delivers functionality miles ahead of what we're now paying a premium for.
After raising our concerns with simPRO support, the response was essentially:
'We're sorry you feel that way, however, head office's direction is that the contract holds. If you wish to cancel, we can move you back to your old service, but it will be at the Lightning price, with expected annual increases of 15%.'
That's a pretty disappointing response to a customer who has invested heavily in the platform.
The bigger issue is that businesses like ours become incredibly reliant on these systems. Migrating away from simPRO would likely cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars in time, disruption and lost productivity.
And I know we're not alone. I've spoken with several other business owners who are already in the process of moving away from the platform.
I'm all for businesses investing in innovation and charging for genuine improvements. But there needs to be a balance between delivering value to customers and increasing revenue from a customer base that faces enormous barriers to leaving.
Customer loyalty should be earned through value, not protected by the cost of leaving.
I'd be interested to hear from other simPRO users. Are you seeing genuine improvements from Lightning, or has your experience been similar?

