Nuance Licensing customers have the option to purchase Maintenance at a cost of 20% of the standard price of the license. Maintenance is purchased annually and includes access to Technical Support, error corrections, software updates and software upgrades (future new releases of our product as they become available).

Requirements
You can only purchase Maintenance for the latest version of a product. If you have older versions of the product, you must upgrade them to the latest version. If you choose to purchase Maintenance, you must purchase Maintenance for all copies of a product covered by the OLP agreement.

Maintenance period
Maintenance starts from the date the product was purchased from Nuance. Maintenance is purchased for a period of 12 months and the Maintenance Periods ends on the anniversary date of purchase. You should renew Maintenance for another 12 month period before the Maintenance Period expires to ensure uninterrupted access to Technical Support and software updates and upgrades.

Maintenance reinstatement
If Maintenance was never originally purchased or the Maintenance Period has lapsed, you must reinstate Maintenance by purchasing Maintenance for the lapsed periods before you can purchase Maintenance for the next 12 month period. However, if a new product upgrade becomes available during the period which Maintenance lapsed, you must purchase the upgrade and start Maintenance from the upgrade purchase date.

Designated contacts
The client can designate up to two people to be the liaison between Nuance Technical Support and the client’s users of the software. This will allow the client’s liaisons to become experts in the Nuance software and Technical Support process, as well as allow the Nuance Technical Support personnel to become familiar with the client’s liaisons. This approach increases the efficiency of the support process and in turn benefits both the client and Nuance.

Contacting Nuance technical support
A personal identification number (PIN) is generated and provided on the license certificate. The first time a designated person contacts Nuance Technical Support, he or she provides this PIN number and additional contact information for verification. All subsequent incidents reported by this contact will be documented and associated with the assigned PIN number.

Incidents
For each issue that is raised with Nuance Technical Support, an incident or trouble ticket is created. This incident has a unique ID number and contains specific information about the issue. Nuance Technical Support maintains notes for all correspondence relating to a specific incident, so it is readily available to any Nuance Technical Support representative who may need to work on a given issue.

Submitting incidents via the web
Nuance provides the ability for a designated contact to submit incidents via the Nuance Web site. To do so, the contact must have a valid PIN (provided on the license certificate) with a valid maintenance contract. If there is a problem with the PIN, or if the designated contact has difficulty accessing the Web site, the customer may contact Nuance Technical Support to gain access to the Web portal.

Responses
Nuance Technical Support representatives strive to answer all issues on the first call. However, it is possible that an issue cannot be resolved over the phone. In these instances, the following process will be followed:

• Known issues If the issue in question has already been reported and cannot be answered, it is deemed “known.” These issues have already been reported to Nuance Development and are waiting a corresponding software update. Nuance Technical Support will attempt to provide alternative solutions to known issues until a software update is released.
• Unknown Issues If the issue in question has never been reported, or the Technical Support representatives are unaware of the issue, then it is deemed “unknown.” These issues are escalated for further research. The response time for “unknown” issues is approximately two days and may require additional information to resolve.

Software updates
Software updates are released as needed to address issues that have come in from the field after a product is released. These updates will be available for download from the Nuance Web site. Updates may also be available on CD or DVD. Upon request, and if available, Nuance will ship you an Update CD or DVD for a nominal shipping and handling fee. Additional information regarding a software update and what issues it addresses is posted to our Knowledge Base.

Software upgrades
Software upgrades are new versions of the product that include the latest functionality and features. These upgrades will be made available for download from the Nuance Web site. A notification will be sent out when a new version of the product becomes available for download. Upgrades may also be available on CD or DVD. Upon request, and if available, Nuance will ship you an Upgrade CD or DVD for a nominal shipping and handling fee.