Coverwise Maintenance Contract: Support that is different

Why do I need a maintenance contract?

Support is important. When you buy a cutting edge piece of technology like Progenesis QI for proteomics, you need to know that you will get the most out of it over the years to come. As with an instrument, you don't want to buy something that becomes a ‘white elephant’ in your laboratory, gathering dust because it has failed to keep pace with the advance of technology. The great thing about software is that you can keep it constantly up-to-date at relatively low cost. We strongly encourage our users to stay in a support contract because science advances quickly and you need to have the most recent software version to stay at the forefront of omics research.

“We have worked very well with the Progenesis team for more than 7 years and have great support in terms of prompt response to everything from simple questions to complex features requests.”

Prof. Mark E McComb
Center for Biomedical Mass Spectrometry, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

What's included in my maintenance contract?

Software upgrades are included free of charge; we aim to have one major release of software each year. How do we decide what to put in each release? We make our decisions using information from:

• Our Scientific Advisory Board
• User surveys
• User requests
• Our field personnel
• Our support team

All feature requests are considered by development. We then prioritise what needs to be done and specify what needs to go into the next release. Then our team of developers and testers work together to produce the release.

“The release of any software, but especially a major release that could be a game-changer for researchers in the field, is an exciting time. Tense, admittedly, but exciting. You're always eager to see how it's received - to see that you've made a real difference to someone's day. Thankfully, the developers also have direct contact with our users when providing support, so we do get to hear that feedback. It gives us a great sense of pride to know that we're helping, in our own way, to advance life sciences research.”

Mal Ross
Principal Software Engineer

What's included in technical support?

At Nonlinear Dynamics, we value and respect our users. We consider technical support to be just as important as product development; in fact, the two go hand-in-hand.

“Another advantage of Progenesis QI for proteomics is the technical support team. My brute force, all-out frontal assault style of question-asking and attempts at ‘discussion’ are always met with a quick and thorough response, it's been extremely helpful.”

Paul Langlais
University of Arizona, Arizona, USA

Here are some of the reasons that we believe our maintenance contract offers you better support than any other company:

• Prompt response; users frequently express surprise at the rapid response of our team compared to the norm
• Quickly get to the root of a reported problem because support and development work together
• All users with a maintenance contract are automatically informed when there is a new release
• You are free to choose how to communicate with us (email, phone, web meeting options)
• Support team are allocated developer time so that the product is optimised for real user needs
• Support team respond to crash reports; they are not just used to help development. We care to let you know how to get the most from Progenesis, even if you don't ask!
• We have an applications science team to help you design your experiments properly and get things right from the start
• We can help you to collaborate with people doing similar work

“Providing the support for Progenesis QI for proteomics is great because unlike other organisations, we're actually empowered to make decisions and we're closely aligned with the development team, so we can make a real difference quickly. I love changing the view people have of contacting customer services and it's a brilliant feeling leaving work each day knowing I've resolved problems and helped people to get the most out of their analysis platform.”

Vicki Elliff
Software Support Specialist

How long does a Coverwise contract last?

The software is supplied with a free-of-charge Coverwise maintenance contract for the first year after purchase. After that time, you can buy a maintenance contract for as many years as you wish. People often buy a number of years in advance to cover a particular project. To upgrade your existing contract, please contact us.