New Technical Support Policies

[Dividing Line Image]

Frontline Systems is moving to a fee-based system of technical support, for all users requiring personal assistance, starting January 1, 1997 -- bringing our policies in line with those of Microsoft, Lotus, and the majority of other independent software companies. There will be a charge whenever we respond to an individual request by phone, fax, email or other means, based on the amount of time we spend on the request. Our basic rate will be $3.00 per minute, with a minimum charge of $45.00 for 15 minutes.

Support for Users of the Standard Spreadsheet Solvers

A primary reason for making the move to fee-based support at this time is to enable us to provide quality support to users of the standard spreadsheet solvers which are bundled with Microsoft Excel and Lotus 1-2-3 97 Edition -- for which we receive no revenue per copy. We anticipate an increase in support requests when Excel 97 and 1-2-3 97 ship early next year. In the case of the Lotus 1-2-3 97 Solver, we will be the primary source of support assistance -- we expect that Lotus support personnel will be only generally familiar with the new Solver.

Support for Purchasers of Enhanced Solver Products

Users who purchase, or who have purchased any of our enhanced Solver products (at commercial prices) will receive a support credit which, in our experience, will be sufficient to cover the vast majority of support needs without any further billing. This credit will expire six months after the initial purchase, but may be renewed by participating in our annual maintenance program.

Pre-Sales Support for Enhanced Solver Products

For users who are considering purchase of one of these products and who have individual technical questions, we will generally provide the requested support assistance, and accrue a charge which will not be billed initially, but will be applied to the support credit if and when an enhanced Solver product purchase is made (any excess beyond the standard credit may be billed, but only with advance notice to the purchaser). This is at our discretion, and and we may impose reasonable limits on the amount of pre-sales support we provide.

Support for Academic Users of the Premium Solver

For instructors who have purchased a Premium Solver license for classroom use (minimum 10 copies), we will provide support on the same basis as for commercial users of our enhanced Solver products. Instructors who are evaluating the Premium Solver will generally be covered under our Pre-Sales policies above. We do not provide individual support to student users working under an academic license, but students are welcome to make use of this Web site.

Waiver of Charges for Software Problem Reports

If your support request uncovers a bug in our software which is not already posted on this Web site, we will waive any support charges. We'll also give you a free copy of our Premium Solver (a $495 value, currently available for Microsoft Excel only) with the same support credit we offer to our commercial paying customers. So if you believe you've found a bug, don't hesitate to contact us --provided that you've first checked the appropriate Known Problems page for the Solver version you are using.