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There is no better way to insure the value of your software investment with GFi, than to purchase annual software maintenance. It is unfortunate that some resellers sell you what you ask for, without explaining all the facts, including the availability of the money saving GFi Maintenance Agreement.
The first thing is to explain is what the contract covers, and what it does not. I'll be using some real world scenarios here; so let's get started.
Let's say your company is in the market for GFi MailEssentials V 12, and order through a GFi authorized reseller. Now let’s say you order a 100 mailbox package. Great, within a day or two you receive your new license keys, install the software and away you go. Now your investment of $1135.00 (current MSRP) entitles you to the following, provided you did not purchase the MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT. 1. 90 Days of e-mail/Phone support from GFi 2. Updates to Version 12 of MailEssentials application. That’s it. If you want support on the 91st day, well that's going to cost you $250.00, and if you want to upgrade to MailEssentials 13 (I wonder about that moniker though) well, the upgrade price is about 60% of the retail price ($725 as of this writing). Now had you purchased a MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT with the above example, it would have only cost an additional 20% to the price of $1135, or $1362.00, however you would be entitled to the following: 1. Unlimited E-mail/Phone support during the covered MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT contract 2. Updates to Version 12 of MailEssentials application 3. Free Version upgrade to MailEssentials 13(?)Provided it was released during the MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT contract period. In this scenario, the MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT clearly pays off by providing you with the most current technology from GFi, at an affordable price, plus the ability to get additional support with no additional expense. Recently I had the opportunity to explain to a customer who failed to purchase a FAXmaker V11, MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT, and who needed 2 additional lines, with support, why he couldn't simply buy a two line add on, and purchase the MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT on those lines, and get support covered by the new MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT. It works like this. If you buy the current version, sans MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT you can’t wait a year or two, and purchase a Maintenance Agreement for an out of date version. Most companies, including GFi, don’t offer Maintenance Agreements on out of date software, and if your software isn't out of date, the MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT is retroactive to the purchase date. If your current GFi software is out of date you must do a version upgrade, and then purchase a MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT for the upgrade product. You cannot purchase an add-on to the core product, along with a MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT for that add-on and expect to get support or version coverage for the core product as well. The moral of the story is to purchase your GFi product from a Certified Reseller, who is knowledgeable in the GFi products, and policies, and avoid unpleasant surprises. |
