Xref: utzoo comp.databases:1446 comp.misc:3591 Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!lsuc!dave From: dave@lsuc.uucp (David Sherman) Newsgroups: comp.databases,comp.misc Subject: Empress pricing policy Message-ID: <1988Sep28.150224.26393@lsuc.uucp> Date: 28 Sep 88 19:02:23 GMT Organization: Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto Lines: 35 I'm a little surprised at the pricing policy of Empress Software Inc. (formerly Rhodnius) for their Empress (formerly Mistress) database software. I'd like to know whether others agree with me. We obtained a license to Mistress version 1.13 in 1985. It runs on this machine, a Perkin-Elmer 3220, and cost about $4,500 at the time. We explicitly decided not to take maintenance at $1,300 per year, since we have a fair bit of in-house expertise. The version we have has a number of bugs, but we've been able to live with them and work around them. The database is used by staff for student records. All of the staff will shortly be moving to an AT&T 3B2/400, to reduce the load on this system. Thus, we need to move the database as well. Since no database applications will remain on the P-E, I was hoping to transfer our license to the 3B2 at some reasonable cost. Empress will only transfer the license if we pay for three years of RETROACTIVE maintenance -- pay for maintenance we never received. I understand that maintenance and support includes bug fixes and upgrades, and I'd be willing to pay a portion of this charge to represent the upgrades, but to suggest we pay for maintenance we never received seems ludicrous. The only alternative Empress offers is a completely new license for the 3B2. Either way it will cost us about $5,000. Anyone care to comment on this policy? (Yes, I'm going to take a hard look at some other packages now.) David Sherman The Law Society of Upper Canada Toronto (416) 947-3466 -- { uunet!attcan att pyramid!utai utzoo } !lsuc!dave