Support for OpenQM
and other products

Purchase of a commercial-license copy of openQM entitles you to 2 months of free support from the date of your purchase. Use of openQM under the General Public License (GPL) does not entitle you to any support, though support may be purchased as provided for here.

After any initial entitlement, direct support to end-users of commercial QM and OpenQM is available one of two ways: either via annual contract, or on a time-and-materials basis. No distinction is made between versions operating on different operating systems. We may deny issuance of a support contract to machines not known to be "healthy" at contract commencement.

Users of OpenQM are not automatically entitled to support of any kind. Those wishing support must first purchase annual support contracts for all the machines they have running OpenQM, and comply with any contract acceptance requirements that we may have. Once this is purchased, additional services may be purchased on a time and materials basis. The reason for requiring coverage of "all" machines is because OpenQM does not have a serial number that would permit us certainty that we were providing support for a particular system.

This support program is not intended for resellers of commercial QM products. Resellers should review the program outlined in our resellers section. Resellers are supported under a very different support model, based upon their presumed higher average competence than the competence of end-users.

The following is not intended to supplant the support efforts of resellers or developers who will (a) generally provide equivalent or lesser priced services, or services which include applications support as well, and (b) may provide more complete support as they can provide some forms of on-premises support. Rather, it gives you a backup resource if you need it. If you are looking for a support entity, please contact us, and we will be willing to provide the names of Independent Contractors who may also help.

 

Annual Contract

We believe in holistic support -- that one cannot support just a database engine, but rather minimally must support the engine as well as the operating system that drives the engine, and that such support must include some ability to diagnose hardware problems, even if these must be repaired by third parties. Accordingly, we offer two flat-rate annual contracts to cover the above:

Business-hours telephone support for $1,199/year provides you with support for your openQM database, the O/S, and hardware diagnosis between the hours of 9am and 8pm eastern USA time, Monday to Friday, USA national holidays excepted. This price covers systems of up to 16 licensed users. Each additional 16 licensed users increase the price by $500.

7x24 telephone support for $2,399/year provides you the same support, but it is available any time, 365 days a year. This price covers systems of up to 16 licensed users. Each additional 16 licensed users increase the price by $1,000.

Exceptions and limitations: Support means just that -- assistance in fixing breakages to the specified elements. It does not include administration of your system, including configuration of new or upgraded systems, nor repair of systems that you may improperly configure or damage. Similarly, it does not include training of administrators in the operation of the system (though it does include answering simple questions from these), nor of end-users in processes such as logging in, applications use or similar processes, nor of individuals in programming openQM applications, whether the same is done directly or indirectly through a 4GL. Support for security and firewalling issues is also specifically excepted as such functions are normally handled on other machines. EasyCo will accept any openQM-based system for annual support if this is purchased at time of initial openQM system order and is continuously maintained. EasyCo reserves the right to refuse support contracts for systems in-use while not under support, or to accept them only under a different set of pricing or service criteria.

Priority and response times: Customers with support contracts receive support or assistance before all other customers. Support will begin within 1 covered-hour of a reported problem, and will normally begin immediately when a customer calls with a problem.

Time-and-Materials service

If you don't want to purchase an annual support contract, or want to purchase services outside of the scope of an annual contract, you may purchase these on a time-and-materials basis. The billing rate for such services ad hoc is $150 per hour, if provided during normal business hours (9am to 8pm Eastern USA time, Monday to Friday, USA national holidays excepted). If you request that service be provided at times other than these, the rate billed will be $300 per hour. Service is billed in 15 minute increments. In each incident where service is requested, a minimum billing of one hour will apply. Services provided by the day, week, or month may be less, depending upon the skills required, and fixed pricing for these may also be possible.

Any order for time-and-materials service must be accompanied by a valid credit card, which will be charged for all services rendered. Customers are liable for all time and incidental costs incurred by EasyCo in meeting their service needs. No express or implied warranty is provided that EasyCo can or will return a failed system to service, nor that EasyCo can complete the specific request of the individual at hand, as the same may involve many factors beyond EasyCo's control. EasyCo may decline any request for service.