Visual Object Modelers Annual Maintenance Plan,
Technical Support and Update Policy

With an Annual Maintenance Plan:

Overview:

Maintenance (aka Support) plans can be purchased along with the product and are renewable on an annual basis.

Maintenance plans provide the following benefits.

1. Technical Support (as described below) for a period of one year from date of purchase.

2. Product updates (major, minor and maintenance releases - described below) at no additional charge, with notification of major upgrades, for a period of one year from date of purchase. This applies only to like product updates, not to upgrades from one product edition to another. Updates and upgrades will typically be made available for download from Visual Object Modelers’ web site, subject to verification of eligibility. A login name and password will be provided to enable access to a secure download area.

3. Access to Beta test program or Beta product releases if desired for a period of one year from date of purchase.

The cost of a maintenance plan is typically 25% of the product license price, with discounts available for multiple licenses.

Purchase of maintenance plans is optional for less than 5 licenses. Purchase of maintenance plans is preferred for 5 or more licenses. Purchase of maintenance plans is mandatory for 10 or more licenses.

A maintenance plan must be purchased for each product license purchased. It is not possible to purchase a maintenance plan for a single product license and apply it to multiple product licenses.

A maintenance plan is effective from the date of purchase of the product that it applies to. If a maintenance plan is purchased more than 30 days after purchase of the product, a 10% per month (or part thereof) surcharge will be applied to the cost of the maintenance plan. The effective date of the maintenance plan will be backdated to correspond to the date of purchase of the product license that it applies to.

If an existing maintenance plan is allowed to expire and is subsequently renewed after the expiration date, a 10% per month (or part thereof) surcharge will be applied to the cost of renewal of the maintenance plan. Plus, the renewal date of the maintenance plan will be backdated to the original expiration date.

Technical Support:

High quality technical support is provided via product specialists that have direct interaction with the product developers. This ensures quick, accurate, competent and efficient handling of technical issues, answering technical questions, providing workarounds, providing bug fixes, providing updates, etc. by highly skilled software engineers that are intimately familiar with the product.

Technical support is provided via email with response typically within 24 hours (usually the same day) on weekdays. Limited technical support via email is available (though not guaranteed) at evenings and weekends.

Support will be provided only to the registered user of the product. We will not provide support to more than one user of a specific product license. Our product is licensed on a per-user basis so a product license and maintenance plan must be purchased for each user. If we determine that multiple users appear to be using a single product license, we reserve the right to provide support and updates. In the case of multi-user or site licenses, support will be provided to a contracted number of designated contacts for the contracted number of product licenses purchased by the customer.

Support can only be provided on the installation, configuration and normal use of the product. We cannot support the product if it is used in an unusual software configuration, or on an unusually configured workstation, or on an unsupported operating system (we support the product used on typical configurations of Windows 98, ME, NT 4.0, 2000 and XP).

The standard support plan provides for up to four (4) “incidents”, that uses up to one hour of our time (in 15 minute blocks). These “incidents” may be questions about how to install, configure and use the product in a supported environment (see above). Problem reports (that are actual reports of problems and not questions about product installation, configuration or use) shall not be considered as “incidents” that would detract from the overall entitlement. Customers that need additional or extensive support for product installation, configuration or use (such as “How to…” questions) beyond what is provided for by the standard support plan will need to purchase additional premium or "consulting" support which will provide for a specific number of support hours and/or incidents.

We can provide only limited support for the product's interaction with other products. Users that need advanced support in this area will need to purchase additional premium or "consulting" support which will provide for a specific number of support hours and/or incidents, or be referred to the vendor of the other product.

We can provide only limited support for using or applying the UML (Unified Modeling Language) or other related methods. We are primarily UML product developers, not methodologists, and cannot address issues with the UML specification. Nor can we comment on the status or evolution of the UML. Even though we are members of the OMG (Object Management Group), the publishers of the UML specification, we are limited in the amount of information we have access to regarding the UML. Users that need advanced support in this area will need to purchase additional premium "consulting" support which will provide for a specific number of support hours and/or incidents, or be referred to outside consultants that specialize in the UML.

We can provide only limited support for "programming" of the product via its object model and automation interface. Users that need advanced support in this area will need to purchase additional premium "consulting" support which will provide for a specific number of support hours and/or incidents.

Premium and “consulting” support plans (which will provide for a specific number of support hours and/or incidents) are available for customers that need advanced support in certain areas of the product, such as importing and exporting models, team usage, interfacing with other products (such as Visual FoxPro, Visual Basic, Visual Studio.NET, Rational Rose, hyperModel, XML Schemas, XMI, etc.), VBA interface, programming Visual UML via its automation interface and object model, and other advanced aspects of the product.

Product Updates:

If a user reports a problem with the product, we will attempt to resolve it as quickly as possible and, if appropriate, provide a "hot fix" (maintenance update) that resolves it.

This applies only to problems that, in our opinion, are not contrary to the product's evolution, that provide value to the majority users, that do not adversely affect the product's use by other users, that do not adversely impact the product's stability, and that can be implemented reasonably quickly and easily.

The timeframe for implementing such a fix may be as short as a few days depending on other user problems that are also being accommodated. If a problem can be fixed relatively quickly and easily in a maintenance update, the user will be so notified and will be provided with the update as soon as it is available. If a problem can NOT be fixed relatively quickly and easily in a maintenance update, the user will be notified if the problem will be fixed in a future update and, if possible, an approximate timeframe for its availability.

Without an Annual Maintenance Plan:

The following limited technical support and updates are provided to users that have not purchased an annual maintenance plan with their product:

Free "startup" technical support for 30 days beyond date of purchase. This is limited to dealing with issues related to installation and configuration of the product only. This level of support is provided only via email. We will respond within 48 hours (often the same day) on weekdays. Technical support is not available at evenings and weekends.

We are unable to provide support for Visual UML's interaction with other products.

We are unable to provide support for UML or other related methods.

We are unable to provide support in the "programming" of the product via its object model and automation interface.

Maintenance version updates only for free, upon request, subject to verification of eligibility. Such updates will be made available for download from our web site. We are unable to send out update CDs.

Certain minor version updates as deemed appropriate.

No major version upgrades.

No guaranteed "hot fixes".

No guaranteed access to beta test program or beta product releases.

Note: Even beyond the 30-day "startup" technical support, we will attempt to support users that are reporting problems with the product and, if appropriate, we will provide workarounds, "hot fixes", etc.

Definition of Versions:

A major version upgrade is 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, etc.

A minor version update is 3.1, 3.2, 4.1, 4.2, 5.1, etc.

A maintenance version update is 3.01, 3.02, 3.11, 3.12, 3.21, 3.22, 4.01, 4.02, 4.11, 4.12, etc.

Restrictions:

We reserve the right to deny support to any customer/user that communicates with us in a rude, offensive, disrespectful, unprofessional or otherwise inappropriate manner.