TopView general license agreement
The TopView license of use template, and surrounding material applies to the entire
TopView product range: ShipView, RangeView, StoryView, PrimeView and PointView.
Here's the templates for our standard agreement:
For new customers the test agreement gives the necessary mutual assurance. It will
be required for test-only purposes unless covered by other agreements:
Notation in templates: Text replacement areas are enclosed in double brackets
(e.g. [[
text]]). Your final contract will have your organization name,
your selected product edition, your fees, and possibly other selected options.
Agreement division: To navigate easier, please observe the 4 sections in
the contract template:
- Definitions used in the agreement
Contains definition of terms, just to ensure consistent and accurate expressions
in the sections to come. It is really not long and will make things a lot easier
to read and understand, in the license of agreement and any addenda. - Scope of the agreement
Summarizes what you get. - Cost of the agreement
Specifies what you will have to pay. - Implementation of the agreement
Specifies how the contract should be interpreted in daily use, with necessary details.
It will list responsibilities both for the provider and for the customer. This section
will more precisely enlist the content and meaning of the two previous sections.
Optional agreement extensions
These are samples of addenda used with customers. Each will mean some extra cost.
Please ask for details if you think it is right for you, at any time before or after
entering a license contract.
-
Remotely managed hosting services
NetStorm can perform installations and upgrades on a TopView server on your own
network, using remote management tools of several choices. We may also agree on
other server maintenance, like database administration etc.
-
Hosting agreement for enhanced services
For example, you may want us to set up and administer production and upgrades with
a third party web application host.
-
Extended user support
Regular guiding on use is not covered by the service agreement, except for cases
of system maintenance needs or accidentally missing common documentation. Should
users still prefer guiding, over reading and trying, you may want to consider an
agreement in advance, as it is far less expensive per hour.
Frequently asked questions on using license agreement
The agreement is meant to be a tool within the system, for everybody's use. It is
meant to be assuring and easy to read, from the buyers and users point of view.
It should allow for the best use and optimum results for your organization, requiring
little assistance from technical or juridical personnel.
While the agreement should have "your direction" all the time, we would still like
to point out the full advantages and practical meaning of some sections.
The IT guys said we should ask for our preferred form based "contract of IT delivery"
NetStorm recommends that you use such standardized form or template based contracts
as a guideline when checking our contract. Maybe your organization even
has a checklist to use instead of the templates.
We feel that it is important that NetStorm is the one offering you an agreement,
since we are offering the product, not vice versa. Otherwise your organization would
find it hard to see and utilize what we offer, to the full extent.
Upgrades
Maintenance upgrades are free. All other upgrades, i.e additional functions upgrades
between product editions, are "loss-free". You pay the price less what you already
have paid. For example, buying the standard edition, and later deciding to upgrade
to the same generation enterprise edition, means that you only will have to pay
the amount in difference.
Why do we need the "test agreement"?
We know form all our experience that your product evaluation (i.e. testing TopView)
is much more efficient if we can give you access to some of our "business secrets"
in documentation etc. Also, it assures that you can safely send us sample reports
revealing some company information, to get pinpoint advice on use and functional
coverage, for your precise needs. While you may "anonymize" a spreadsheet report
by changing titles and names, which is a good idea anyway, some information is usually
left. Your safety advisors may dislike it, unless covered by an agreement.
You would quite soon come to one of the points mentioned. So we think it is best
to take care of the test agreement at once.
License agreements and history of product names
Products evolve, and so does the need for meaningful naming of product names, editions
and additions.
A signed license agreement states the exact name of the product and extras that
you have purchased. As you in addition to maintenance fixes are offered both free
(steady improvement and some functional additions) and paid (significantly bigger
feature package) upgrades, you will eventually use a product that is named more
or less different from the agreement.
This section is a summary describing "what you got and what you paid for", with
historical versions of the TopView products, and how you can look up and compare
old features in new product versions.
The simple principle is that "you always keep what you already paid for". While
this seems obvious, and we all want it that way, care must be taken when migrating
to updated versions. New versions usually include more functionality,
different functionality or improved functionality, usually in
a mix.
Improved functionality is always welcome, and please note that we never
have had a single incident were different functionality has posed a problem to users
ShipView
Enterprise/3 or E3 is the base enterprise edition, named by numbers just for our
convenience. E3 includes at least the same functional content as the "Enterprise
Edition" (without number) of previous ShipView versions.