“Jutta Steinhoff” <j-steinhoff@web.de> wrote in message
news:3D495E75.E62BF289@web.de…
Debbie,
you are talking about Standard Support and Maintenance Program.
When it’s a “Maintenance Program” it should have that name and should
also be listed in the price lists that customers know in advance what
are their total costs!
I’m not sure what price list you are referring to, but I will notify
sales/marketing to ensure that it is listed on outgoing pricelists or
quotes. It is not our intent to ‘hide’ this cost.
Did I understand correctly that customers who are interested in bug
fixes (updates) have to pay annually 25% of SE or PE as well as for
Runtimes ??
This program is primarily for development seats.
Runtimes are covered under the customer’s specific OEM contract, and is
usually tied to a particular release of their product and version of the OS.
However, if the customer has the Standard Plan, they are capable of shipping
later versions of the software on ‘new’ versions of their product. Going
back and retrofitting systems in the field still requires a new OEM
contract.
There is a difference between updates and upgrades and IMHO you should
offer bug fixes (updates) for free!
Interim updates will continue to be no charge and downloadable.
Updates to newer versions (ie. 6.1 → 6.2) is covered under the S&M Plan.
Again, their used to be a fee to update, I believe it was 50% of the cost of
the new version. Now it is 25% of purchased product and includes technical
support, etc.
BTW, what kind of technical support (and from whom) is included with the
Maintenance program? Do you think technical support is beneficial for
companies which are already unsatisfied with their local QNX support ??
Customers can contact any QSS office they choose. Contact info is provided
in the Standard Support Plan User’s Guide at:
http://www.qnx.com/support/sd_techsupport/QNXstandardsupportplan.pdf
Does the semi-private newgroup qdn.private.standard belong to each
support offer which comes with a request for updates? I never heard
about from customers…
Again, this is documented in the User’s Guide and is available to all
Standard Support customers, they use their support plan access to get
through the authentication.
Listing of all newsgroups: http://www.qnx.com/support/sd_newsgroups.html
Isn’t it possible to separate Maintenance and Support Plans??
You wrote: “This program is particularly beneficial for customers who
would like to upgrade from QNX v6.x to QNX Momentics SE.”
Are you aware that many companies doing prototypes with the n/c RTP
version are saving money compared with companies which bought already
the RTP version for prototyping? Many companies are still in the
prototype phase, so they are punished now with the “update fee” because
of already buying RTP…
What is the reason for a support/maintenance program when a customer
buys SE and wants later the “rest” to PE for the price difference?
SE and PE are different products. It is not an upgrade from one product to
another.
However, I believe you are credited what you paid for SE when you choose to
move to PE.
The S&M Plan then allows you updates to that product line.
I see at our customer base that these foggy new QNX policies lead to
unsatisfaction and in some cases staying away from QNX in the future.
Customers don’t like financial surprises (often a main argument to look
for anything else but M$) so it would be great to get information about
the QNX maintenance policy before deciding for QNX.
This is unfortunate. I will inform the Sales team (NA and International)
that this may need more visibility on this.
BTW, who is staying with QNX for years is also surprised because of
there was never any anouncement about changed update policy.
In the last years for QNX4 was offered an additional fee of 25% to get
the option to update… and there was much trouble in Germany because of
nobody knows in advance if it makes sense to update a plant when it’s
running. Customers was told that there is no way to update some years
later when there is not payed the update fee in advance. So some
customers pay the additional fee although they never updated and will
probably not do in the future.
If a QNX4 customer wanted to upgrade to another version, they would have
always needed to pay an upgrade fee.
It is now called Standard Support and Maintenance Fee.
A very important marketing argument in the past was that QNX updates
(not upgrades!) are free of charge!
They are as they always have been.
Don’t be surprised when QNX becomes less attractive for some companies
in the future.
Like most organizations, our Standard Support and Maintenance Program
ensures that customers have access to updates/upgrades as they are
released.
Please be assured that this program is not mandatory. However, in order
to
ensure that our customers receive the best customer service and
satisfaction, we encourage the purchase of this plan so that customers
get
the full benefit of all the features included in the program -
patches/updates/upgrades, technical support, and access to support and
R&D
resources through a semi-private newgroup qdn.private.standard - all of
which are not be available to those without plans.
Keep in mind that there has always been a charge to upgrade to a major
release; this program now includes this fee, which is 25% of the list
price
of the product purchased. This type of maintenance fee is a common
business
practice as it tells the customer buying support that there is value in
it,
in particular the technology available in the updates.
This program is particularly beneficial for customers who would like to
upgrade from QNX v6.x to QNX Momentics SE. By purchasing standard
support
plan, they get the upgrade (and future upgrades) for no charge, and also
provides them with access to Standard technical support for the year.
Debbie Kane
“Jutta Steinhoff” <> j-steinhoff@web.de> > wrote in message
news:> 3D46CC0D.19B0FED3@web.de> …
Hi all,
just I talked with a QNX 6.1 customer and asked him to update to 6.2
Hmm, he told me that it’s too expensive for his small company …
After the engineer did a good job to convience his boss to switch from
Linux to QNX6 they have bought the commercial version of QNX 6.1 (RTP)
incl. some Runtimes.
Recently he asked his QNX sales for an update to QNX 6.2 and he was
told that the update is only available as bundle with support for
~ $1,200US (exchanged amount from his currency)
He doesn’t need direct support from his QNX sales and is going to stay
with QNX 6.1 now. His boss is a little bit upset about hidden costs,
so it becomes harder to justify QNX for next projects > 
Are update bundles a new QSSL stragedy or is it a single case??
[It’s our first customer with this strange experience ]
Jutta
P.S.
That customer is very happy with Rob’s Neutrino book and the only
“update bundle” he would accept has to come with the video trainig
from Rob. … anyone listening from QSSL-Sales ?? > 
An important marketing