It's an expense other companies will face in moving from Win95 to Windows 2000. It's a different story in the ERP market, where competition is spurring price wars and flexible contracts. Office furniture manufacturer Herman Miller Inc. in Zeeland, Mich., gained favorable terms on its Baan implementation, which is under way now. Herman Miller didn't have to start paying maintenance until it went live on the system, significantly reducing its upfront costs. The three-year deal applies to licenses of more than 5,000 desktops.
Smaller deployments cost more.
Computer Associates is also breaking out of old licensing molds. For example, Exodus Communications didn't pay anything up front when it bought Unicenter TNG and other CA software. This type of licensing tied to a company's revenue is now standard practice at PeopleSoft. Once we agree on the price, we don't have to worry about how many users are using this thing. A handful of CA customers also pay an up-front, flat fee for software.