There are several categories of costs associated with the acquisition and maintenance of WISL information system products. These categories may be defined as follows:
The following examination of these costs will reveal a flexible and innovative approach on the part of Waterloo Information Systems, designed to minimize the financial impact of committing to the acquisition of its products.
The main computing platform required to run WISL applications may be acquired through WISL or from a third party. WISL will implement on any computing environment acquired through a third party that is capable of supporting the UniVerse data base management system(this includes Windows Server and Red Hat Linux), which run on INTEL processors i.e. PCs). If the computing environment is acquired through WISL there is no additional environment installation fee. Otherwise there may be a charge of 2-8 man days for environmental training and installation. The capital cost of the computing environment varies with the system power and capacity and system features desired.
Excellent peripheral equipment is also available through WISL. Almost any IBM compatible or MAC or ASCII terminal may be used as a workstation on the system. Hence existing customer equipment can be integrated into the system.
The Data Base Management System utilized to support WISL software products is called UniVerse. It provides the general facilities for data base organization and reporting that the application software is built upon. The license is acquired from IBM through WISL and a maintenance agreement is available through WISL from IBM for an annual fee. The current license fee for UniVerse(Server Version) is US$455.00 per user with an annual maintenance fee equal to approximately 14% of the current license fee times the number of licensed users.
The main source of revenue for Waterloo Information Systems is in the sale of application software. The company must concern itself with the recovery of development costs as well as its competitive situation in determining pricing. The licensing is provided by hardware platform with possible discounting for multiple platforms. WISL usually contracts for payment of 50% of the license fee for all included modules upon initial acceptance of proposal and 50% of each module license fee upon installation. Maintenance fees for each module are due the month immediately following installation. An annual renewal date is established and an apportioned amount is payable for the remainder of the year.
WISL products are modular in nature with the total cost determined by the requirements of the installation. Meaningful quotes can only be provided after needs analysis. The price of annual maintenance is 15% of the module price. The maintenance fee covers the cost of providing periodic upgrades to the modules and an application support desk.
It is sometimes required to convert an existing data base to WISL application format. Such efforts require some analysis to determine the extent to which conversion should be pursued and the development resources required. WISL would normally absorb the analysis effort as a cost of sale but charge the actual conversion development effort at current hourly rates.
Each WISL software module has a standard implementation and training schedule. Due to variations in numbers and availability of customer staff the proposal must be customized for each customer. The implementation and training process is charged at WISL's current daily rate plus per diem and travel expenses.
All site preparation costs including cable stringing are assumed by the customer. On-going operational costs which must also be assumed by the customer include, but are not limited to:
1. Supplies such as paper, special forms, printer ribbons, magnetic tapes, etc., which can be obtained locally.
2. Telecommunications charges related to support of the system. e.g. telephone, fax or modem line charges.
3. A system supervisor is needed to oversee and co-ordinate the operation of the computer system. About one eighth of a full time employee's time will be required for this purpose.
4. Non maintenance support in the form of additional training or custom modifications may be required from time to time.