1.1. New Purchases: Software Maintenance for Software and Licensed Materials is available to all APEX software customers for a period of one year from the date of purchase unless specifically excluded from the purchase agreement. Date of purchase is the date Software License keys were issued to customer in fulfillment of a purchase order or other purchase transaction.
1.2. Maintenance Renewal: Customers will be automatically quoted for renewal of Software Maintenance within 90 days of the expiration of an existing Software Maintenance period. Should CUSTOMER choose to renew Software Maintenance, they must do so no later than 30 days after the expiration of current the Software Maintenance period to avoid penalties. Upon renewal, the term of the renewed Software Maintenance period will be the day after expiration of the expiring period and will extend through the period purchased by CUSTOMER (one-year minimum).
1.3. Software Maintenance Re-purchase: CUSTOMERS may repurchase lapsed Software Maintenance by purchasing “back-maintenance”, that is, CUSTOMER must pay for each month the Software Maintenance was lapsed and at least one additional year at the then-current, standard maintenance rate or computation methodology. CUSTOMER will receive a price quote in advance of re-purchase of Software Maintenance.
APEX will maintain a record of each CUSTOMER’s Software Maintenance status for all products purchased by CUSTOMER on the APEX User Site. CUSTOMERS can access information about the status of their maintenance at APEX Customer Portal.
2.1. Software Updates: CUSTOMERS are provided access to updates of APEX Software and Licensed Materials of the type purchased during an active Software Maintenance period. Such updates may provide new functionality and/or address defects (bugs) as identified by all CUSTOMERS or as part of APEX’s ongoing software quality improvement. Occasionally, updates provided during a valid Software Maintenance Period may require that the CUSTOMER be provided with new Software License keys.
2.2. Help Desk: CUSTOMERS are encouraged to visit the Frequently Asked Questions section of the APEX User Site to address specific questions about the operation of APEX Software products. If none of the FAQ’s listed directly address the CUSTOMER’s question, the CUSTOMER should submit the question so that it and the APEX answer will be included in future FAQ’s.
2.3. Telephone Help: CUSTOMERS who require interactive help may call the APEX help line at +1 (931) 486-0082 during normal business hours (M-F, 08:00-17:00 US Central Time, UTC-5) to speak with our staff. Calls received during other periods will be routed depending on severity (see section 3). Critical issues, as defined in Section 3, will be routed to the APEX Help Call- Center where an operator will ask for basic information about your issue and then contact APEX personnel. Issues that are not critical (as defined in Section 3) may leave a message. APEX personnel will return the call within 24 hours.
2.4. Software Defect Resolution: CUSTOMER may report Software defects or request new features by submitting a “Ticket” on the APEX User Site. CUSTOMER will receive an automated message indicating the Ticket has been issued and the issue will be automatically assigned to one of our developers. Issues will be assigned a severity in accordance with the descriptions of Section 3 and addressed as appropriate.
2.5 License Rehosting: From time to time, CUSTOMERS may request that licenses be re-hosted to a new computer or server for purposes of upgrading existing host computers or network servers. CUSTOMER will be required to provide a signed, written affidavit indicating that all software and licenses have been removed from the computer currently hosting the license. Upon receipt of this affidavit, APEX will issue new license keys for the new host computer or network server. CUSTOMER may re-host existing licenses no more than two times during the current maintenance period.
3.1. CRITICAL – Errors prevent work from continuing. Note, this category cannot be applied to any APEX pretest (e.g., GageMap), or posttest (e.g.DX, DV Software products. If the CUSTOMER suspects their issue may be CRITICAL, they should notify APEX immediately by telephone in accordance with Section 2.3 and report that their issue is CRITICAL. Symptoms may include:
3.1.1.System aborts preventing data from being acquired.
3.1.2.Loss of data already recorded through un-commanded over-write.,
3.1.3.Failure of real time monitoring functionality preventing CUSTOMER’s ability to monitor or control data recording, or signal health.
3.2. SEVERE – Errors that cause the operating system to abort or lock-up, errors that cause the software to crash, or errors that seriously limit intended functionality to the extent CUSTOMER cannot use the software for the as-designed purpose.
3.3. IMPORTANT – Errors for which work-arounds are available to enable CUSTOMER to use the Software for the as-designed purpose. Errors that create a nuisance for the operator should be classified as IMPORTANT.
4.1. APEX personnel with work interactively with the CUSTOMER to diagnose CRITICAL errors and determine a course of action which could involve hardware diagnostics.
4.1.1.In the event of hardware issues such as a failed disk drive, monitor, digitizer, etc., CUSTOMER will be instructed to replace the failed component with a pre-purchased spare, or to otherwise repair the hardware defect.
4.1.2.In the event that the issue has been identified as a Software defect, APEX will work interactively with customer to try to identify an operational work-around that avoids the defect in the Software. This could include a boot-sequence, or definition of key-commands, mouse commands or other interaction to work-around defects that created the CRITICAL error.
4.1.3.Once an operational work-around has been identified, or in the event that no operational work-around can be identified, APEX personnel will use reasonable commercial effort to
reprogram the software to provide relief from the defect in as short a period as possible. CUSTOMER may be required to install non-release software to reinstate operational capability or to assist APEX in diagnosing the problem.
4.1.4.In the event that a software defect has been identified and corrected by means of a non- release software installation (as in 4.1.3), APEX will continue diagnostics and implement a
change to the software through a maintenance release within one week.
4.2. SEVERE defects will be diagnosed and corrected within 48 hours of the reported defect.
CUSTOMER may be provided with non-release software to address the issue until the software can be fully tested and/or to assist APEX personnel with testing of the problem. APEX will provide new software which corrects the issue in a maintenance release within two weeks.
4.3. IMPORTANT defects will be diagnosed, corrected, and released with the next scheduled release.
5.1. CUSTOMER caused the defect by not using the Software in accordance with APEX’s then
current published specifications without the APEX’s permission;
5.2. the defect resulted from CUSTOMER, without APEX’s permission, altering, modifying, or
converting the Software inconsistent with the documentation;
5.3. CUSTOMER’s computer malfunctioned and the malfunction caused the defect in the Software; or
5.4. any other cause within CUSTOMER’s control and not within APEX’s control caused a defect in
the Software.