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Started by Eric Thomas
Sun, 11 Sep 1994 23:26
Reduced time to market for unix(R) ports; 4 new supported systems
Author: Eric Thomas
Date: Sun, 11 Sep 1994 23:26
Date: Sun, 11 Sep 1994 23:26
154 lines
8726 bytes
8726 bytes
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NEW PRICE GROUPS AND SERVICE CATEGORY REDUCE TIME TO MARKET;
FOUR NEW SUPPORTED UNIX(R) SYSTEMS
September 12th, 1994
* L-Soft International, Inc. ("L-Soft") introduces price group C-1 and
service category II-B, allowing support for unix(R) systems not in the
"top 5" list to be introduced in a very short time frame.
* HP-UX and Irix(R) are now supported under price group C-1, with
immediate availability.
* Support for SCO(R) unix(R), Linux and others to follow upon the first
customer requests.
* New price groups A-X and B-X expedite the availability of support for
certain popular unix(R) brands. Products in groups A-X and B-X are
priced as per groups A and B, respectively, but with service category
II-B, and will eventually be reclassified under group A or B.
* OSF/1(R) and Solaris are now formally supported under price groups A-X
and B-X, respectively, with immediate availability, for a total of 8
supported unix(R) systems.
* Package offers valid for group A only are now automatically available
for group A-X as well; offers valid for groups A and B now extend to
groups A-X and B-X as well. The deadlines for selected package offers
will be extended to allow users of the four newly supported systems to
purchase at the introductory rates.
**************************************************
* Updated price group table for unix(R) products *
**************************************************
Group A: AIX(R) for RS/6000, SunOS 4.1 (sun4), BSDi
Group A-X: OSF/1(R) for AXP(TM)
Group B: Ultrix(TM) for RISC
Group B-X: Solaris (sun4)
Group C-1: HP-UX, Irix(R)
Group C-2: -
Contact SALES@LSOFT.COM for current pricing information.
**************************
* Background information *
**************************
In order to reflect actual support costs, maintenance for L-Soft's
unix(R) offerings is priced according to a "price group" classification,
where the "mainstream" unix(R) brands are classified under "Group A", the
"contenders" fall under "Group B", and the more "exotic" systems are in
"Group C". Occasionally, we adjust the group ratings to compensate for
circumstances affecting our support costs, such as the much lower cost of
ownership of PC-based unix(R) systems.
Traditionally, the main obstacle to the expansion of our unix(R) coverage
has been the fixed cost of either purchasing a development system, or
procuring dependable, guaranteed access to one. Unlike some of our
competitors, we provide support and maintenance, rather than a simple 'as
is' license with no warranty. Because we are agreeing in writing to try
and fix problems as they are reported, we need a written assurance that
we will have the means to do so (or, of course, our own in-house
development system). For the more exotic systems, purchasing a $15-20k
development system is not an option and, thus far, it has proved
difficult to obtain guarantees in writing for access to customer-owned
systems.
************************
* New service category *
************************
To expedite the availability of support for systems with a lower market
share, we are introducing a new "service category", known as II-B in our
updated maintenance agreement (GA-9408-2). This new category is identical
to the current "category II" (now renamed to II-A, to avoid confusions),
with the additional requirement that the customer must provide us with
free and suitable access to the machine on which the software is being
used, for the limited purposes of compiling, maintaining and otherwise
working on the software. Note that we do not need root privileges. There
is no penalty for closing off our access, other than losing the right to
receive service. We have found that most customers have no problem with
this requirement, as their lawyers are mostly concerned with
consequential damages. Since each customer under service category II-B
agrees to provide us with access to a system that is suitable for
servicing the product, we do not depend on any particular customer's
goodwill, and do not need to assess consequential damages in case our
access is terminated.
In practice, we will only use this clause as a backup. We will continue
to make private agreements with selected customers, trading access to a
comfortable, conveniently located development system for a rebate on
maintenance charges. The use of service category II-B simply means that
we can guarantee the continued availability of service for the product,
even in the absence of a formal guarantee from our service providers.
We use price groups A-X and B-X in cases where we expect to purchase a
development system in the long run, but want to introduce support for
that system immediately. For instance, all but a handful of our Sun(R)
customers run SunOS. While we expect that Solaris usage will increase,
the current number of licenses does not warrant the purchase of a Solaris
system. The use of price group B-X allows us to release the software
immediately, and without having to add a surcharge for the purchase of a
development system used to support only a handful of customers.
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L-Soft International, Inc. does not endorse or approve the use of any of
the product names or trademarks appearing in this document.
For more information about this or other announcements, write to
SALES@LSOFT.COM, or call us at +1 (301) 942-8886.
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L-SOFT is a trademark of L-Soft international.
Unix is a registered trademark of UNIX Systems Laboratories, Inc.
AIX is a registered trademark of International Business Machines
Corporation.
Alpha AXP and Ultrix are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation.
OSF/1 is a registered trademark of Open Software Foundation, Inc.
HP is a registered trademark of Hewlett-Packard Company.
Sun is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.
IRIX is a trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc.
SCO is a registered trademark of The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
All other trademarks, both marked and not marked, are the property of
their respective owners.
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