Freedom Scientific - SMA plan information for JAWS/ZoomText/Fusion

Freedom Scientific - SMA plan information for JAWS/ZoomText/Fusion

Problem

A customer wishes to understand how a Freedom Scientific SMA plan works.

Applies to

  1. JAWS
  2. ZoomText
  3. Fusion

Resolution

A Software Maintenance Agreement (SMA) is convenient vehicle for purchasing in advance the next two consecutive major version releases at a more favourable price together than when purchasing each upgrade separately on their own as they are released. 


Notes
Note
Technical Support is provided for Freedom Scientific products is provided to all customer regardless of SMA status.  The SMA covers access to later versions only.

  1. An SMA plan can be purchased for JAWS/ZoomText/Fusion licenses including multi-user licenses.
  2. The plan will apply only to the next two versions after the current shipping version.  The SMA plan does  not allow you to catch up missed major version upgrades, or to skip any major version.
  3. If the customer license is not current with the shipping version, a version upgrade to make the license current must be purchased to qualify to purchase an SMA.

SMA plan benefits

• An SMA plan provides worry free access to the very latest versions of the Freedom Scientific product.
• The SMA plan covers major version upgrades.  All customers regardless of SMA status can receive interim maintenance updates. 


How the SMA works

  1. Once purchased will provide two additional SMA major version upgrade counts beyond the current shipping version of the product authorization.  
  2. When each major version beyond the current is released the SMA count is decremented by 1 until the last version is used..
  3. When the upgrade count is 0 it is time to purchase a new SMA plan before the next major version is released.

Confirm SMA status 

Use the steps in the article check ILM license stratus.

Possible SMA problems and solutions.


The SMA count 0 is reported by the ILM Authorisation Viewer or Dongle Viewer applications.

Answer:  The local license needs to be updated to make it current with the latest SMA.  Use the Update Authorisation option for update ILM authorisation within the product to bring the local license current with the online license.  If the dongle shows no SMA counts it may need updating.  Please see the following regarding updating the license:
  1. Offline manual update for ILM product license
  2. Update USB dongle license

The product has updated and says authorisation is for an earlier version.

Answer: The local ILM license version has been exceeded by the running copy of the software.  This could mean you need to upgrade to have the correct license.  if an upgrade has been purchased recently to upgrade the product license, use the method described above will bring the license current. 

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