Micheal, I've been asked the exact same question. In the past I took a hard ass position (yearly support and maintenance contract *only*) and lost both a yearly support *and* the potential hourly service income.
I think the way I may handle this in the future is to offer both options, but limit the hourly support option to just support vs. upgrades ... and then raise my upgrade price to twice the rate of our annual support and maintenance contract. If a support issue requires a software upgrade, I will offer the customer the choice of paying an upgrade fee or a fixed priced choice of fixing *just* the problem at hand. A key point for me: Making sure to separate the costs of support vs. the costs of maintenance (which include company overhead and software upgrades). Lessons I've learned: 1. We've got to move beyond the pricing paradigms of the 90's. 2. Look for the win-win solution vs. being a stubborn fool :) 3. To paraphrase Ted Roche ... "Its all about options". BTW: A great question - I'm looking forward to hearing how others are dealing with this challenge. Malcolm _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: ProFox@leafe.com Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/1239637876.15155.1310256...@webmail.messagingengine.com ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
