ARGUS Enterprise discussion
Have you made the upgrade, if so, why? And for those on the other side of the fence, what are your reservations? I'd like to hear your thoughts! 
[{"id": "cxmzv9r", "text": "I have it, but don't use it for most clients (appraiser here) because it's not backwards compatible with Argus 15 and they want the file, not just reports.  On the other hand, I have other clients who require it now.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "cxn0qmm", "text": "I have been putting it off despite the Argus rep telling me that \"all of the brokerages are using it already\". It costs a lot of money and I haven't received a single file from a broker that I couldn't open in DCF.  Unless they fixed their backwards compatibility issues (doubtful), his statement sounds like bullshit to me.  I also don't care about all their extra asset management, improved debt modelling and budgeting features.  I am not going to use any of them.  Other people in my company know Excel but nobody else knows how to use Argus.  It's not worth teaching them and buying an extra license just to do a waterfall calc that can easily be done in Excel.  As you can tell, I'm also a bit hostile towards Argus.  While Enterprise may be a big change from their previous versions, the other updates did basically nothing to actually improve the software.  They just have a captive market, so they haven't had to fix the flaws in order to compete.", "replies": [{"id": "cxn9j25", "text": "Investor here (have worked for big banks and currently work for a small firm). Interact and receive models from the big brokers (JLL, CBRE, HFF, etc.) on a weekly basis. None of them use Enterprise and none ever will. \n\nRecently ran into a former CEO of Argus. He said they were \"pushing to make the switch to Enterprise.\" He is either a great bullshitter or way out of touch with his client base. \n\nWhat's interesting though, is we just hired a new associate, and we were signing him up for DCF 15 training. Two lessons were cancelled because they said they couldn't get enough people to take those classes, since people were transitioning over to Enterprise. I really hope that's some Argus propaganda, but it is getting increasingly difficult to take DCF 15 classes.", "replies": [{"id": "cxqlt2a", "text": "what can Argus do that a good Excel model can't? ", "replies": [{"id": "cxqmaex", "text": "Excel can do everything Argus can - and more effectively for the most part, except for one thing. Generating the operating cash flows. For office buildings especially, where you are dealing with a variety of tenants, a revolving door of those said tenants, and a myriad of covenants for each tenant (free rent, TI's, Leasing Commissions, Reimbursement revenue, renewal probability). Those deal specific cash flow items for each suite in the building takes MUCH longer to do in excel. The one thing Argus does well (in my opinion), is its user-friendliness in laying out all those different covenants for each space. It then bifurcates each suites' (tenant's) cash flow stream and organizes all of them for you. Like I said, this CAN be done in excel, but that brain damage would be so immense, and any change to the deal structure could take a long time with a lot of room for error.\n\nArgus has the capability to compute financing and valuation, but no better than a good excel model. It's the cash flows that is really Argus's bread and butter.", "replies": [{"id": "cxrkswn", "text": "Thanks! I rarely saw office deals in my brief foray on the front end back in 2007. I think I saw 1 Argus file in the entire year. It was retail, and didn't really give me anything that we didn't have in our excel model. ", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}, {"id": "cz68q3n", "text": "They are definitely a monopoly... I just learned today how much they're charging for each license, it's ridiculous! ", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "cxn0zok", "text": "We are putting it off until our financial brokers start using it, and their plans are to ride 15 until it's no longer supported.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "cxn73ty", "text": "I work for a large investment fund manager and while we've been testing AE for the last three years we haven't yet made the switch.\n\nThe lack of backward compatability (we're seeing data loss when moving files between platforms), the required training (I'm tech savy and I don't find it intuitive), as well as the risk of going from a team of DCF experts to a team of AE noobs dissuades adoption.\n\nLike others, we're using the investment sales community as a bellwether for adoption. Argus has claimed that CBRE is on board with AE but we've found that only a niche portion of their European group is using the software. Until we can be sure that our AE files will be treated as the norm among investment offerings - we're certainly not going to pull the trigger.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "cxn7mo5", "text": "Lender here. Our organization made the switch and I have no idea how to use it. Our best clients send us both file versions so hasn't been an issue but I'm scheduling a training class for our team very soon. ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "cztng4b", "text": "We're working on launching **modern** software for underwriting and forecasting.  Several years of development, and we're getting close to a release.   I'd be interested in feedback.  Take a look at [LeaseLinks](http://LeaseLinks.com)  I can set you up with a free account in exchange for feedback. ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]