Alerts stopped working

Alerts stopped working

It appears that sending alerts to the record owner is now only available in the Enterprise edition.  I have been a Professional user for years and have used this feature.  Now with no notice it is telling me I need to be an Enterprise user.  I have seen no updates on any changes concerning this issue.  The change apparently happened on 1/1/2013.  Can anyone address this issue.  It is causing my company delays since no one is getting email updates.