Description
Prime Always Up-To-Date (UTD) is an optional, service package that means your newly installed version of Prime is always the most recent version. You make a yearly payment and Prime is kept up to date. This means you don’t have to go through a period conversion process. Rather, your changes occur in the background or with a very brief down time. Also included, are any bug fixes.
What Gets Updated
The user interface (i.e., the front end – with reports, forms, queries, and code) and the database (i.e., the back end – holding all your data and information) are updated as necessary. Optional modules and updates to optional modules are not included in the UTD; however, you can always choose to add those to your system.
Declining Updates
You don’t have to have every update that is offered. We will notify you of an upcoming update and give you the option of opting out of that update if you don’t want it. If it is clearly a critical update, we can talk to you about it to determine what effect declining that update may have. However, it is impossible to consider every possible future change to the system and a future update may be dependent on some past updates—meaning a future update may not be possible to apply to your system if you declined a necessary, earlier update.
Your organization must give us contact information for a person authorized and responsible for reviewing updates and determining whether to decline any particular update. We will depend on that person’s decision when updating your system.
Customizations
Our updates are built to be pluggable, meaning we might have to add some new fields, forms, reports, etc. to your system. In some events, some customizations that you have made to the system may conflict with new updates. For example, you might have added a field to a table that has the same name as a field that a new update uses, or you might use an ActiveX control that is incompatible with a new update. Because Prime is completely open for you to modify, we can’t foresee every possible instance of customizations that an organization might make.
Where an existing customization interferes with our ability to add a new update, we will inform you of the nature of the problem. You’ll have the ability to decide whether to modify your existing customization or decline the update.
List of Updates
We will maintain a list of updates that are available together with whether your organization’s system has been modified with each update.
Frequency of Updates
The frequency of updates will depend on the availability of updates, but in no case will updates be more frequent that once a month.
What Prime Versions Are Compatible
Always Up-To-Date was offered starting with Prime version 16.3.02. UTD, as an optional package, must be selected and paid for starting with the installation of or upgrade to the newest version of Prime. It cannot be purchased separately at a later time, due to the updates that may have already been made from the time of installation/upgrade to present. You can, of course, upgrade to the latest version of Prime and then start the UTD service.
Understanding the Updates
For new updates that require it, we will provide free, online training regarding the update. The training may be attended by anyone with the service package. We will also have documentation available.
Hosted vs. Self-Hosted Installations
For organizations hosted on Venture, we are familiar with the setup and layout of the system, have access to those systems, and are able to modify your installation with no need to have your staff available.
There are several logistical issues related to self-hosted installations. Self-hosted installations may be set up in any number of different configurations, with us having no access to those systems without a staff member being available and able to help us. Additionally, where an update might require an installation or upgrade to software or other features on the organization’s system, we can provide those requirements on Venture, but cannot in self-hosted environments.
As a result, self-hosted environments will require a staff member’s assistance with all updates to the system. The staff person must be provided and have appropriate knowledge of the organization’s setup to provide access to the master/administrative copy of the front end, and access to the SQL server and database. Additionally, any update requiring an installation or upgrade of software or other features can only be postponed for a short period of time while the organization makes the arrangements necessary to install those requirements.