Licencing

Basically, SW-Lookup® is licenced according to the number of PeerServers running concurrently. This means, you can always start off with one peerserver and add others if the number of accesses grows. The number of concurrent client connections is never limited.

Please note that the SW-Lookup® licensing scheme never implies anyrestrictions regarding the number of concurrent client accesses. This is only limited by the capacity of the PeerServers (which you should install on fast or not-so-heavily-used workstations). Because a typical SW-Lookup® workstation will not query all the time (you need to look at the data, too, or copy something out etc.), one PeerServer may often be enough.

SW-Lookup® is, like any other software, not sold, but licenced. Normally, a software product is licenced once and after a certain amount of time you have to pay a service fee in order to get regular upgrades and service (permanent licence). However, this approach inhibits the further development of software, because the income decreases during the product lifetime. Therefore, we prefer a kind of "leasing" the software, which we call one-year-licences, because we want to provide a solid product for a long-term period.

Permanent licence

Permanent licence means that you purchase the right to use SW-Lookup® for an unlimited period of time. Also included is the service and upgrades for 12 months after purchase, after these 12 months you have to pay a service fee in order to get further upgrades on ongoing service (see pricing).

If you should decide to no longer pay the service fee, however, you still have the right to use the last version of SW-Lookup® you have been using (without service).

One-year-licence

In case of a one-year-licence SW-Lookup® is leased for 12 months; this means you receive a licence each year and have the right for permanent upgrades and service as long as the licence is valid. This offers the following advantages:

• For the customer, entrance to the product is easier. In case friendlyGIS® neglects the further development of the product, he just cancels the licence for the next year, only loosing little money.
• For the developers at friendlyGIS® the incentive to keep the product up-to-date is much higher, since continous income is available - as long as the customers are satisfied.

If you look at the pricing, you will find that after roughly five years, the permanent licence / service fee combination will become less expensive than one-year-licences.