Originally published: January 2003

Recent availability of new and improved processors from IBM mandated that software vendors adjust their approach to software licensing and maintenance fees. IBM itself has introduced multiple approaches to this issue during the last several years to address the needs of their clients (PSLC, etc.). Here at North Ridge, we've always tried to remain compatible with the fundamental IBM Licensing approach simply because it is most familiar to our customer base.

This is essentially why the NRS License Fees had been based upon what was called "Model Group" licensing. In short, the license fees for a particular Software License was based upon the capacity of the processor that the software operated on. However, as IBM has introduced the newer processors (zSeries, in particular) the identification of which processor fits in which Model Group has become problematic, as IBM no longer publishes the Model Group designation.

As a result, efforts to respond to client requests for what license and maintenance fees will apply to their situation has made the NRS Model Group approach unworkable. Thus, we have changed from a Model Group approach based upon defined IBM Groupings to an NRS Tiered approach based upon MSU ratings of the licensed processor (or the sum of the MSU ratings for PSLC arrangements). We believe this retains the simplicity required for customers to properly plan budgets, etc. and will remove questions about what the applicable NRS License Fees are.

The following table contains the NRS License Fee schedule that we have adopted. It is designed to be a revenue neutral change for existing customers, in that the license fees for a specific NRS Tier will be exactly equivalent to the older Model Grouping.

NOTE!!! These fees represent those extracted from the License Fee schedule that was in effect in January 1, 2003 and does NOT reflect fees set by Fee Schedules placed into effect after that date. You will find detailed and current pricing for The Network Center and The Network Director on the appropriate licensing pages.

You can compute the various License Fees and annual Maintenance Fees for the various NRS Products by using the License Fee Computation tool.

Other questions? Contact your Account Representative or send Email to Sales@North-Ridge.com.

We do plan to continue support for the DSLO, Site, and Enterprise licensing models we have used in the past with the same applicable discount rates, for those customers with those licensing arrangements. It is our intent with this change to simply eliminate the need to attempt to categorize the new processors by the old Model Group mechanism and replace that with an NRS Tiered (MSU capacity) grouping mechanism.