Explanation:
In the last 12 months, one of our University Annual
Maintenance
site licences decided not to continue making their Annual
Maintenance payment. Concerned for their SW/SWP users losing
the protection of the Scientific Word/WorkPlace Annual
Maintenance contract (primarily providing Tech Support and
Licence security), we created the individual-user replacement
outlined below for those who chose to take up our
offer.Please see this excerpt from the Email we sent them, to
decide whether you also would like to accept the offer we
made available for them:
A further issue is
that the publishers of these programs, MacKichan Software,
closed for business in June 2021: Barry MacKichan retired
when he turned 80, but undertook to keep the licence server
going for 2 years. It’s now been 3½ years; Barry is 83, and
at some point nature will take its course and the licence
server will go offline.
- Licensing to
use Scientific Word v5.5 through your network Floating
licences is
permanent.
- But if you’re
using the 12-month ‘home-use’ Fixed
licences for
computers not licensed through a network, we can’t be
sure if/when they will cease to arrive (whether that’s
from not renewing the Annual Maintenance or from
MacKichan’s server going offline).
- And once the
licence server goes offline it will no longer be
possible to re-Register Scientific Word/WorkPlace
licences on new computers.
Hence the value of
the Licence Security which we include for our Annual
Maintenance sites; see Item 1 from our Annual Maintenance
mailing of 16/5/24 below. Once the [university] site licence
expires next [date], you will not have any security against
issues arising in your use of Scientific Word or Scientific
WorkPlace (although in practice we will allow a 14-day grace
period):
- We will be
unable to provide you with our Unbeatable
Expert Tech Support
based on our 35 years’ experience of this family of
software
- We will not
be able to help if/when your requested licensing fails
to arrive
- [Crucially]
When MacKichan's licence server goes offline, our
commitment to move site licence users to our own
Floating licence will not apply.
We therefore recommend
the following combination for your users:
- Technical
Support: The Individual Annual Maintenance
(insurance policy for occasional Tech Support): £114 +
VAT
- Licence
security (licence server failure cover
– see excerpt from our May 2024 mailing below): £250 +
VAT
Total per person (named
individuals): £364 + VAT annually.
Alternatively, for more extensive Technical Support, choose
the 5-hour Support Package or Support Contract – though this last is probably a
sledgehammer to crack a nut for most of you. Either of the
options above includes the Licence server failure
cover for as long as the contract is maintained.
In our April 2024 mailing Item 1 we undertook to continue
making our Technical Support and Training available until at
least 2028 (with no intention to stop then). We apologise for
this current inconvenience in respect of [university]'s
Scientific Word/WorkPlace users; we look forward to hearing
from you to put the required cover in place for your users.
Do please let us know how we can help secure your Scientific
Word/WorkPlace investment:
- If you are
still using Scientific Word/WorkPlace, please get back
to us as soon as possible (today?) to discuss your
requirements for Tech Support and Licence security (as
highlighted above). We recommend you don't put this off
to do 'sometime'; the licence server could go offline at
any time leaving you vulnerable.
- If you are not
still using Scientific Word/WorkPlace then, for
individual Fixed licences, you might be interested in
our Buyback scheme:
"For any Scientific WorkPlace licence
– even those not bought from us – which the user certifies is
no longer required/being used (in either its v5.5 or v6
form), we would be willing to buy it back. We are paying 25p
in the pound for all Buyback licences – Commercial,
Educational or Student – based on the prices shown on our Licence
Calculator;
this can be paid to the user or to their nominated
charity."
Please let us know if your Scientific
Word/WorkPlace licences are no longer being used; we'll look
forward to hearing from you.
Excerpt
from our Annual Maintenance/Support Contract mailing of
16/5/24
1.
Licence security: Following our Annual Maintenance /
Support Contract mailing of 27/11/23 (Item 3), we include
below the Email we subsequently sent to a small number of
sites which had allowed their Annual Maintenance to lapse in
the past 10 years or so:
Even
though you are no longer included in our Annual Maintenance
scheme (last invoice attached), we wanted to update you as to
the current status of the Scientific Word/WorkPlace licence
server.
Last
summer: In our Annual Maintenance mailing
last summer (15/6/23) we wrote:
Licence
server (update): We thought you would
welcome some reassurance two weeks before the second
anniversary of MacKichan Software closing their doors on
30/6/21.
You may remember that this was the original end date, up
until which the licence server was guaranteed to keep
running. It's an important point, because the licence server
is required for a fresh installation of Scientific
Word/WorkPlace on a new machine, whether that's a Fixed
licence or a Floating licence server.
We have had some further discussions about the licence
server, with Barry MacKichan saying that:
"I
continue to think of acceptable ways of having responsibility
assigned if I am no longer able to handle it."
While
the exact details are still to be determined, it is clear
that the licence server will continue to be available beyond
the forthcoming 2-year point. If in future the licence server
should move to alternative hosting in the UK, we will be sure
to give our Annual Maintenance / Support Contract sites the
relevant information well in advance.
Since
then:
Unfortunately, Barry MacKichan has resisted all our creative
suggestions for transferring the maintenance of the licence
server to us. Barry is now well into his 80s, and at some
point nature will take its course – which will mean users can
no longer Register Scientific Word/WorkPlace on new machines.
Current
situation: We’re protecting our Annual
Maintenance sites from MacKichan's licence server going
offline, as outlined in our Annual Maintenance mailing of
27/11/23 (Item 3) <snip>: the promise to companies and universities
on our Annual Maintenance scheme is to transfer their
licensing to our Floating server in that case.
(Our licence server is for Scientific WorkPlace only, but
that incorporates Scientific Word and Scientific Notebook so
no-one will lose functionality.)
Please note that, in that eventuality, our Floating Licence
server will likely be over-subscribed and we will give
priority to companies/universities who have been paying to
maintain their licence; we will not be looking to take on any
new subscribers at that point.
Please let us know if you would like a quote to re-join the Annual
Maintenance scheme
at the revised 12% rate in order to obtain the licence
security described above (you will also get access to our Unbeatable
Expert Tech Support as bonus).
Alternatively, we are still offering 25p in the pound under
our Buyback scheme if you would prefer to sell us back
some/all of your Scientific WorkPlace licensing (and 10p in
the pound for Scientific Word). Note that this offer too will
no longer be available once the licence server goes offline.
All the best.
