ActivTrak's Deprecation Process & Policy

Overview

Feature deprecation is an inevitable part of an innovative software development life cycle. In order to improve our technology’s performance and consistently provide the most value and ease of use for our customers, it is sometimes necessary for us to deprecate outdated or underutilized features, functionality, or products. In this article, we will outline our feature deprecation process & policy to ensure the impact on our valued customers and partners is minimal.

Why does ActivTrak deprecate features?

There are several reasons why ActivTrak may decide to deprecate features, functionality, or products. Here are a few of the most common:

• ActivTrak’s technology team continuously improves how our product works, with a focus on our customers’ evolving needs and use cases. If a feature or functionality is no longer serving our customers effectively or efficiently, we may choose to deprecate it.
• Over time, certain features may become too complex making the product hard to use. At the same time, ActivTrak may identify or design a better alternative method that achieves the same result in a simpler way.
• ActivTrak strictly adheres to the highest standards for security and legal compliance. As such, ActivTrak may be required to deprecate features or functionality that do not meet regulatory or compliance standards.
• Third-party operating systems or software that the ActivTrak platform runs on or connects with may implement updates or announce deprecations that prevent certain features, functionality, or products from working optimally, or that make it difficult for ActivTrak’s teams to provide ongoing customer support.

Key terms

It is important to note that deprecation is a process, and thus, the terminology used within this article and future deprecation documentation and communications are used to indicate specific stages within the deprecation timeline. Here are a few of the most common:

• End of Sale: The last date when a product or add-on is available for sale by ActivTrak. 
• End of Support: The last date support services for an ActivTrak feature or product are available. After this date, no new enhancements or bug fixes will be released for this product or feature.
• Deprecation Date: The last date an ActivTrak product, add-on, or feature is accessible to customers or partners. 

ActivTrak reserves the right to stop selling a product or add-on at any given point in time without advance notice. ActivTrak will normally provide advance notice for the End of Support and Deprecation milestones. When possible, ActivTrak will offer an alternative product, add-on, or feature. See details below.

Deprecation notice & timelines

In most cases (with emergencies or special circumstances as the exception), we will begin communicating feature or functionality deprecation no later than 90 days prior to its deprecation date. For the deprecation of certain high-impact features, full products, or add-ons, the timeline will be extended to provide additional advanced notice.

Deprecation communication

Account Administrators (or feature users for certain deprecations) will be notified in advance of any planned feature, functionality, or product deprecations through a variety of channels to ensure the message is received by impacted customers as soon as possible. Communication channels may include but are not limited to, email, in-application notifications, outreach from account representatives, release notes, knowledge base articles, and announcements on our corporate website. Communications will include key information explaining:

• Why we are deprecating the feature, functionality, or product.
• The deprecation timeline.
• Alternative functionality and/or workarounds to minimize the impact to our customers and partners.

Learn more:

• See all the latest deprecations