Could someone explain Sybase's pricing strategy in this case. To illustrate this, let's consider a case:
License Fee (one time) CLASS A SQL-Server $3,750
Yr 1 Support & Maint, Fee 7.5% of lic fee 282
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Total $4,032
Note: Annual support and Maint. fee may escalate 10%/year
Not completely un-reasonable at this point. But let's say this is a new primary license... Add $7,000 / year for two contacts! And here's the way it looks over 5 years:
Year Lic Fee Annual Support Contacts Annual total
1 3,750 282 7,000 11,032
2 310 7,000 7,310
3 341 7,000 7,341
4 375 7,000 7,375
5 413 7,000 7,413
This is a fairly simple analysis, but it doesn't take much to see that this strategy makes Sybase less financially attractive. The problem is not so much the license fee or the annual support, but the *annual* contact fees.
One solution: Would Sybase consider selling a secondary license where no primary exists, or where primary licenses on other platforms or classes already exist? This might make the product much more financially attractive.
