Orchard Software is committed to providing high quality products and excellent support to our customers. To ensure that we are delivering the most effective, innovative and valuable products to our customers, Orchard Software may periodically discontinue specific Skill Trees, product features and versions of Orchard. The reasons for discontinuation vary, and may include:
- release of a new Skill Tree that supplants an existing Skill Tree
- release of an enhanced product version that renders the previous version obsolete
- incompatibility with a new operating system or new hardware makes continued support impossible
- low customer demand for the product indicates future development or support is not an effective use of resources
- terms of agreements Orchard Software has entered into with third parties
When sale of a product is discontinued, development and support policies change, the EOL transition period begins and, where applicable, customers are encouraged to upgrade to the current product version. During the EOL transition period, the impacted Orchard software will continue to be supported through "limited support" provided by Orchard technicians who will assist customers with technical issues/requests. There will not be any further enhancements or program changes to the impacted Orchard Software. At the conclusion of this period, the product will no longer be supported.
To assist our customers with the transition to a new version of Orchard, special upgrade pricing may be available. Please contact your authorized Orchard representative or 1-800-351-1404 for more information.
Definitions
- A new release is defined as incrementing the number either immediately preceding or following the left most decimal point in the product's version number.
- A major new release is defined as incrementing the number preceding the left most decimal point in the product's version number. In some situations, a direct upgrade path from a previous version to a major new release will not be available.
End-of-Life (EOL) Policy General Guidelines
The following are general guidelines for discontinuation of sales and support. These guidelines do not imply a contractual agreement and may be modified from time to time at Orchard Software's sole discretion.
- When a major release is scheduled to replace an existing version and a direct upgrade path is not available, Orchard Software will provide notice six months prior to the affected product's end-of-sale date. Notices will be posted to our End-of-Life (EOL) status page.
- When a new version or replacement is released, the previous version will no longer be offered for sale.
- Customers will be notified of a product's EOL date when it is no longer offered for sale. These notifications will be posted to our End-of-Life (EOL) status page.
- When a new version or replacement is released, enhancements to the previous version will cease.
- Customer support will be available for the current product version and a maximum of two (2) previous versions.
- Customer support for a specific version will cease twelve (12) months after the version that replaced it was released unless continued support would cause the maximum number of supported previous versions (2) to be exceeded.
- When possible and practical, program changes will be made available for both the current version and the immediately previous version. Program changes for the previous version will cease six (6) months after the release of the version that replaced it.
- All support for a product version ceases upon reaching its EOL date unless terminated earlier due to a condition set forth above.
Orchard Software takes a conservative approach to software development and avoids, where possible, cutting edge requirements to use our software. However, support for new versions of Orchard may require an operating system upgrade or hardware enhancements to processor, memory, available drive space, multimedia capabilities, networking capabilities, etc. if a customer's operating system or hardware can no longer support new versions of Orchard. Orchard Software will specify the minimum hardware requirements for supported use of Orchard when each version is released. It is the customer's responsibility to purchase any needed enhancements to their operating system or hardware prior to upgrading to the new version of Orchard.
If you have additional questions about our EOL policy, please contact customer support at 1-888-351-4199.
