[DUG] What is software assurance for Delphi

[Richard Vowles]

Bugs fixed depend on popularity of bugs - are you are getting upset
about bugs that you want fixed that no-one else cares about? 

Software Assurance entitles you to all major and minor upgrades within a
12 month lifespan for 30% of the product price. It is seen as a cheaper
way to get upgrades and ensure that you always have the latest version
of the product available to you should you need it. It also includes
technical support and you get (I think) 5 technical support issues a
year when you take it out. Tech support for IDEs under Software
Assurance don't ensure the bug will get fixed, but it will get
documented and rated for importance. Most software companies use
software assurance - some even require it as part of the sale of the
product to ensure that you have access to the latest upgrades and tech
support - most software companies would not exist without it as they
sell their software at only the cost of the r&d + a small margin. Most
organisations who depend on a particular vendor's toolset take out
software assurance - MSDN is an example of software assurance, which
also suffers from the same "problems" that Kylie is... Talking about,
but they have a slower release cycle than Borland. Borland with Delphi
is now on a 12 month release cycle and is as part of that attempting to
make sure you get value for money for your software assurance dollars.

If you don't have software assurance on your products, but you want it,
you can take it out by calling 04-9136060 and talking to Shane. It will
be back-dated until when you purchased Delphi, but with D2006 due later
this year, it is certainly a cheaper method of getting the new version
than upgrading.

---
Richard Vowles
Borland Solutions Architect
DDI: +64-9-9184573, Cell: +64-21-467747
email and IM/MSN: richard.vowles at borland.com
Skype: rvowles

-----Original Message-----
From: delphi-bounces at ns3.123.co.nz [mailto:delphi-bounces at ns3.123.co.nz]
On Behalf Of Kyley Harris
Sent: Tuesday, 14 June 2005 5:50 p.m.
To: NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List
Subject: Re: [DUG] Delphi 2006 snippet

Also, Software assurance does not promise that the fault in one version
will not still exist in new versions. in reality, an upgrade is only an
upgrade if new features exist. Packaging a bug fix as an upgrade is a
way of forcing new revenue out of people who never got what was promised
for the set fee. If you take out the software assurance you might get an
upgrade, but there is no promise that it will fix anything, or not just
be full of more faults.

The reason I did not take out Software Assurance is because I have seen
this happen already.