Conference noted::polycenter

803.0. "CA vs Digital Business Practices for POLYCENTER" by ZEKE::BURTON (Jim Burton, DTN 381-6470) Thu Feb 13 1997 12:56

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|d|i|g|i|t|a|l|                                        MEMORANDUM
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TO:                               DATE:    February 13, 1997
                                  FROM:    Jim Burton
                                  DEPT:    POLYCENTER Product Management
                                  PHONE:   (603)-881-6470 (DTN 381-6470)
                                  EMail:   [email protected]

SUBJ:  Differences in Software Business Practices for the POLYCENTER Products
       DIGITAL Sold to Computer Associates

I am product managing all of the POLYCENTER products that DIGITAL sold to
Computer Associates in 1996.  You and your customers need to know how this
alliance will impact you as we move from DIGITAL manufactured products sold
under DIGITAL software business practices to CA manufactured products sold
under CA software business practices.  CA has different software terms and
conditions, different licensing methods, and different service terms and
conditions.  This memo is designed to help you understand what is happening
and plan for the future.  The first product to be impacted by this change is
AssetWORKS V3.0.

o   Software Terms & Conditions - CA's terms and conditions for software
    licensing are similar to DIGITAL'S in concept, but do have some sharp
    differences.  These differences include: 
    
            - CA gives a 90 day warranty from the date of delivery
            - CA does not warrant that the code will conform precisely to 
              the program documentation (SPD equivalent)
            - CA will not support software used outside the US that 
              was originally purchased in the US
            - You may not transfer or rent the program without written
              permission of CA
            - You may not use this software in a service bureau situation
	  
    If you want to review the complete text of the terms & conditions,
    please refer to the NOTED::POLYCENTER notefile, note 790.3 or you can
    contact Jim Burton for a copy (see below).
    
o   Product Packaging - In the server packages, CA ships a cover letter, the
    End-User License Agreement (terms & conditions), a CDROM, the hardcopy
    documentation, and a bill of material (BOM).  The client packages only
    contain the End-User License Agreement.  The hardware documentation is
    also sold separately in case customers need extra copies.  DIGITAL will
    be offering the exact same packaging as CA.
    
o   Product Licensing Tiers - Whereas DIGITAL sold POLYCENTER capacity
    licenses for the Enterprise, Departmental, and Workgroup tiers, CA will
    be offering POLYCENTER in only one tier and will be pricing it somewhere
    between the Enterprise and the Departmental tiers.  This means that
    customers who typically purchase licenses in the lower two tiers will
    notice a price increase when they go to purchase more.  Customers who 
    purchase support services will likewise see an increase in support cost, 
    but CA is handling these situations on an individual basis.
    
o   Upgrades/Version Licensing - When a customer buys DIGITAL software
    from DIGITAL, they get a permanent license, plus the rights to go to new
    versions if they purchase an update license.  With the exception of
    AssetWORKS, CA does not do update licenses.  A customer is licensed only
    for the version they purchased and the only way to go to new versions is
    through a service contract.  With AssetWORKS V3.0, both CA and DIGITAL
    will be offering and update license to take customers form V2.0 to V3.0.
    Customers should take advantage of this offer as soon as possible since
    it will not be available forever.  It is expected to go away as soon as
    V4.0 is offered, but there is no guarantee it will even be available
    that long.  For future updates, customers should seriously consider 
    purchasing license subscription and the packaged media and documentation 
    service from MCS to automatically received rights to new versions of the 
    product and media and documentation updates.
    
o   Service Differences - Software support services will be available from
    both DIGITAL and CA, but there are sharp differences between the two.
    DIGITAL'S offerings will follow the traditional MCS LPS and MDDS
    services for all POLYCENTER products with the exception of AssetWORKS.
    AssetWORKS customers should purchase help desk to obtain telephone
    support, license subscription for rights to new versions, and the
    packaged MDDS service. By offering the services individually, customers
    can choose the combination of rights and MDDS that best suit their
    needs.  LPS will grant the customer the rights to new versions as well
    as telephone support. MDDS customers will be automatically sent new
    versions media and documentation as soon as it is available from CA.
    Customers can purchase support from MCS for new licenses being added to
    their environment without penalty. 
   
    CA will sell one support service that grants the customer the rights to
    new versions, the rights to new media and doc and telephone support.
    Product updates are not sent automatically to service customers.
    Customers are notified of a new release and must request it from CA.  If
    customers do not purchase support from CA when they purchase the product
    and they choose to purchase service from CA later, they must put all
    similar licenses at the site under contract and must pay all the service
    fees dating back to the original purchase, plus a 50% penalty.  This
    means that customers who want to go with CA for support should seriously
    consider purchasing it at the time of license purchase.

    WOW! The policy in that last paragraph is uh... draconian to say the
    least. I'm trying to decide if the goal of it is:
    
    A. Make Digital Services the choice for service and support
    
    B. Intimidate customers into buying a CA contract.
    
    I'm leaning towards the latter....
    
    Regs,
      Dan

You forgot:

      C. Enhance service revenue.

Actually with the exception of the 50% penalty, CA's policy is not much
different than many of the other software companies out there.  Digital's
not tough enough on service customers.

Jim

    .2
    
    That' true,
    
    A lot of our service is for free, because nobody knows the contract
    status!
    
    Volker

You need to be telling our customers to purchase service contracts on their
POLYCENTER products if they want to receive the new versions that are due out
in March.  There will be no other way to get them.  The one exception is
AssetWORKS which will have update part numbers for customers currently running
V2.0.

Jim

I received a clarification on the licensing for the next release of all the
POLYCENTER products Digital sold to CA (excluding AssetWORKS).  These new
releases, when manufactured by CA, will contain a new LMF license PAK in the
product package and the service update kits.  Customers will need this PAK
to run the new versions of software.  The PAKs they currently have will not
run the new versions.  Customers running old versions of the software are
welcome to continue running those versions indefinitely using the PAKs they
have today.  As I stated in a previous message, the *only* ways to get the
next release of these products is to either be on a service contract or to
purchase the product outright.  

Jim

    
    Re .2
    
    Sorry to sound cynical.
    
    Also, I have had a rather alarming mail conversattion with a Digital
    field rep that did not know that service and support for POLYCENTER
    products could still be purchased from Digital! I really hope that
    this is an isolated incident. I really hope the field in general knows
    that POLYCENTER support is *very* alive and well here in MVCS!! We have
    done all we can to make sure that customers suffered as little pain
    as possible during the "transitional phase" of the these products.
    
    Regards,
       Dan

This is a question about
    
> o   Service Differences - Software support services will be available from
>     both DIGITAL and CA, but there are sharp differences between the two.
> 
>     DIGITAL'S offerings will follow the traditional MCS LPS and MDDS
>     services for all POLYCENTER products with the exception of AssetWORKS.
>     AssetWORKS customers should purchase help desk to obtain telephone
>     support, license subscription for rights to new versions, and the
>     packaged MDDS service. By offering the services individually, customers
>     can choose the combination of rights and MDDS that best suit their
>     needs.  LPS will grant the customer the rights to new versions as well
>     as telephone support. MDDS customers will be automatically sent new
>     versions media and documentation as soon as it is available from CA.
>     Customers can purchase support from MCS for new licenses being added to
>     their environment without penalty. 

Note the statement "MDDS customers will be automatically sent new
versions media and documentation as soon as it is available from CA."

If a customer has bought an LPS service from DIGITAL, how will these new
versions be sent to the customer?  Directly from CA or via the DIGITAL
distribution channels?  Will there be something like a CA-POLYCENTER CD-ROM?

Regards,
Nand.

>>If a customer has bought an LPS service from DIGITAL, how will these new
>>versions be sent to the customer?  Directly from CA or via the DIGITAL
>>distribution channels?  Will there be something like a CA-POLYCENTER CD-ROM?

They will be sent a CA update package (including a CDROM) directly from 
Digital.  Please contact Curtis Chase @OGO if you need more details.

Jim