Re: Collecting data for article on Software Migration on new Hardware

As an ISV I don't (and never have) charged for support and maintenance.
When customers ask about it I say "Its included in the price of the
license".

I also don't charge for version upgrades (unless the feature is so large
that I need to make it a separate product/addon).

I WANT customers to stay current. I WANT them to report bugs and request
new features to add.

That's why I make the latest versions easily available for download.

But the paradigm created by most other ISVs has my customers staying on 10
year old versions (or older!) and asking me every year what they owe for
maintenance. When all along they could have easily installed the latest
versions. When I tell them they can upgrade for free their heads spin.

Quite an environment we've created...

Maybe I'm missing the cash cow by not making customers pay for
"maintenance" and "support".

Brad
www.bvstools.com



On Fri, Aug 19, 2016 at 9:01 AM, mlazarus <mlazarus@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

Rob,

Why should there be back maintenance or a penalty to generate a new
license key? We're not talking about someone getting a new version of the
software. We're talking about updating some paperwork/database for
something they have already paid for and would like to continue to use.
The software company did not provide the maintenance services nor the
updates, so why would those charges be fair to the customer?

-mark

On 8/19/2016 8:39 AM, Rob Berendt wrote:

I think those who have dropped support from their vendor and still expect
freebies or the users who have continued maintenance to be penalized for
doing so are wrong. IOW, if you dropped maintenance on your ERP package
and you now want a new key for the new hardware do not be surprised if
they want back maintenance plus a penalty. Better they should "rape" the
people who didn't write them a check for a long time and probably won't
after this upgrade than they should "rape" those who dutifully pay their
maintenance.

Does the fact that someone dropped maintenance on a software contract show
up as a red flag during a SOX audit? It should. Look at the potential
liability they've exposed their company to if their existing hardware dies
and they need to run it on new hardware.
Having recently been purchased by a public I can see how that would easily
be in there, with all the rest of the pain we're going through.


Rob Berendt

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