Vista Maintenance Policy

Updated Mar 23, 2007

To service the various needs of our customers, we have two types of maintenance contracts available.  The first is the Vsystem Standard Maintenance and Support Service and the second is the Vsystem Custom Maintenance Agreement. These contracts are available to all Vsystem users upon the purchase of any Vsystem component or at a later date through direct negotiation with Vista Control Systems^®, Inc.

Vsystem Standard Maintenance Support Service:

• Standard Technical Software Support

• Automatic Upgrade

• Base Operating System Matrix (please note changes in the matrix as of February 2004)

• No charge license transfer to another computer of the same performance group and the same operating system/computer family combination.

• Licenses maintain value for credit or exchange (typically 50% of either old or new licenses) when moving that product to a new operating system and/or computer family.

• When product is moved to a higher-performance computer in the same operating system and computer family, the difference in price in the current price list is payable.

Standard Technical Software Support consists of direct interaction between a customer and our development engineering team to resolve a specific software condition. This interaction can take place by phone, fax, e-mail, web, or remote and/or direct connection to the customer's computer system. This service is intended to provide assistance to our customers on routine questions with respect to the use of our products. Our personnel are available on business days from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, New Mexico time (Mountain Time)*.

*Extended Technical Software Support for "7 by 24 by 365" is available as a purchasable option to the standard coverage defined above.

Automatic Upgrade to new versions of Vsystem, with right-to-use these new versions and media and documentation support, consists of shipments of new releases of Vsystem as they are available to market to all customers under maintenance agreements. This will include all release notes and online versions of revised documentation. Printed versions of the revised manuals must be purchased or maintained separately. These shipments will continue for as long as the maintenance agreement is maintained in good standing.

The Base Operating System Maintenance Matrix is the Vista Control Systems^®, Inc., statement of which combinations of versions of Vsystem and  versions of operating systems are included in the Standard Maintenance Support Services defined here. This BOSMM is included in the management guide and the release notes, and is updated with the shipment of every new version of Vsystem. Versions not covered by the BOSMM can be supported through a Vsystem Custom Maintenance Agreement.

Many of the new features of Vsystem are based upon the evolving software technologies in the later versions of the base operating systems. Because of this, and because of our continued commitment to all of our customers, we have not discontinued maintenance support for older, vendor-obsolete versions, but have had to modify our standard maintenance support contract to include the following Base Operating System Maintenance Matrix. For versions of base operating systems and Vsystem versions not listed in the BOSMM, please contact Vista to discuss a Vsystem Custom Maintenance Agreement.

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* We strongly suggest that before committing to an operating system or Vsystem upgrade, customers contact Vista support to review plans and discuss any known issues.

A Note About VMS 7.3
VMS 7.3 is not listed in the BOSMM as supported for Vsystem 4.2; however, Vista will  answer support questions and run point tests for any customer problems encountered on VMS 7.3. If we find a Vsystem bug, we'll fix it.

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Vsystem Maintenance Support—Sample Options:

For your current and future planning assistance, we have developed the following sample maintenance options available to you. These are not intended to be an all-inclusive listing, but only an example of the flexibility and creativity available to you through your working relationship with Vista Control Systems^®, Inc. Please contact us to explore any of the following, or to design a specific variant to your needs.
 

You intend to stay current with both Vsystem and the underlying operating system:

• Your choice is to keep your Vsystem licenses on standard maintenance with Vista Control Systems^®, Inc., and keep your operating system under contract with your operating system vendor.

• You can keep your Vsystem licenses on standard maintenance and update the underlying operating system when and if it becomes necessary to support new features that you desire or need. Our cover letter, as well as the release notes on any new version, will outline if there is a need to update the base operating system. When an operating system vendor defines a system obsolete and/or retired from its standard support, we will also review our support of Vsystem under our standard maintenance contract and notify you of any changes in those same release notes or cover letter. Maintenance support will always remain available under a custom maintenance contract that could be established between us through negotiation.

• You can negotiate a special custom maintenance contract to support the older version of the underlying operating system. This contract could include a focused support, to support just the Vsystem tools that you use in the way that you use them, thus saving unnecessary certification of the new Vsystem release on your older version of the underlying operating system. An example might be that you use Vaccess remote on only one combination, with no database mapping. 

You intend to freeze your versions of Vsystem and the underlying operating system for a considerable period of time:

• You could keep standard Vsystem maintenance with the right to use new versions of Vsystem until the base operating system obsolescence or retirement and the resultant movement of our Vsystem support from standard to custom occurs. At that time, we would need to develop a custom maintenance support contract. We will continue to provide telephone support and attempt to fix bugs that arise in Vsystem. However, our response time may increase, because we will often have to load the older version on our machines. Bug fixes would be limited to either simple changes that do not require full certification or work-arounds. Some bugs might involve such extensive changes that upgrading to a newer release of Vsystem is the only practical solution. You can negotiate a maintenance contract that does not include the right to use new releases. In this case, if a new release is needed in the future, it will have to be purchased at the then current update rate.

• You can choose to not have a maintenance contract with us at all and optionally have a time-and-materials contract with us for any telephone support or other support that you might need. Here again, the points mentioned above regarding response time will apply.

 

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Updated July 25, 2011