Altium rethinks support options

An Altium product story

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Sep 18, 2002

After complaints from long time customers, Altium is to scrap its current Altium Total Support programme and make all service packs for its products freely available to all customers.

After considering complaints from long time customers, Altium is to scrap its current Altium Total Support (ATS) programme and make all service packs for its products freely available to all customers.

"In our haste to generate a more predictable revenue stream, we adopted the conventional 'pay for bug fixes' model, so rampant in the EDA industry.

In doing so, we lost sight of our primary focus", commented Nick Martin, Joint CEO and founder of Altium.

"The concept of ATS was a mistake on our part and represents an embarrassing departure from the core values of our company".

Kayvan Oboudiyat, Joint CEO Altium, added: "Withholding technology and product fixes from our customers does not fit with the spirit in which this company was founded.

We have realised our mistake and are taking measures to correct it.

Altium's business model is based on providing true value to all customers by offering a real alternative to the rigid structures imposed by the larger EDA vendors".

Altium will offer customers increased flexibility with choices for hotline phone support and prepaid upgrades for those that require direct access to product support specialists, and/or predictable annual software costs.

There will be no disadvantages for customers that prefer to maintain their software on an upgrade-by-upgrade basis.

All current ATS contracts will be honoured in full, with ATS customers continuing to receive both hotline phone support and product upgrades.

For more information, customers can contact their local Altium Sales and Support Centre.