Howdy,

Jim has touched on one of my (more_or_less_well_known)
unfavorite subjects.  I do not like tier pricing.

One possible alternative is the use of  "development" and "runtime"
licences.  This facility is "as we speak" involved in trying to get this
scenario straightend out.  We have 2 ( at a time ) "devleopers" and
80 + "runtime".  So we've got jobs croaking from lack of licence
and it's a third party app that's doing the croaking.  Ummmm....
who's the "developer" and who's the "runtime".  Ain't fun.

Jim (if this sinous business don't go away I'll rip off my face) Trudeau

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From:   Therm-O-Link
Sent:   Tuesday, November 25, 1997 12:35 PM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        Tiered Pricing - Revisited

Not to start this whole subject up again, but one of the alternatives to
tiered pricing was user-based pricing.  One of the well-known HP3K
utility software companies offers a two-user version of one of their
products, which I bought, thinking that because we only have two
people in our IS department, it would be ideal for us.  Well, I
didn't find out what they considered a "user", and it's
biting me on the butt, big time.  They count each "execution"
of their product as a "user".  Thus when my associate had two
NS/VT sessions going (in separate accounts), running the product
in each session, and I come along and try to execute the product,
I get an error about exceeding the user count.  So, it looks
like we'll have to spring for the unlimited user license (which
is only another 1.67 times the price of the two-user version),
because they don't offer anything in between.  So, in this case,
tiered pricing might have been better.  Maybe. :-)

Sadder, wiser, and soon-to-be-poorer,
Jim Phillips                            Manager of Information Systems
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]      Therm-O-Link, Inc.
Phone: (330) 527-2124                   P. O. Box 285
  Fax: (330) 527-2123                   Garrettsville, Ohio  44231