Rules and Strategy Regarding Sale of ESS-promoted Software
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The two ESS-promoted software Shabda-Brahma (SB) and Abhibhavak Organizer (AO) are such that each of them may be installed by a trained person from a compact disk (CD), using a once-usable key floppy diskette (Key-FD) to be supplied by the ESS. The CD may be used over and over again for installations in multiple computers, while one Key-FD is meant for installation of one product (either SB or AO) in one computer only. The idea of Key-FD has been developed to keep track of the actual number of computers in which either of the ESS products are installed, and pre-excludes any possibility of unfair trade and/or piracy. After the completed installation, the Key-FD must be left with the genuine end-buyer (along with two copies of the buyer's one-page manual within the same plastic packet) for use as a ordinary floppy diskette (such as for backup purpose), and also to be used as a proof of being an old customer of ESS, and must never be taken back. [The ESS-CD must, however, be taken back after installation, and in no circumstances be left with the end-buyer. The ESS-CD and the floppy diskette box is obtainable (for an IE) from ESS on payment of a refundable amount of Rs. 80/-. The IE (EIE/ CIE) also shouldn't show to the end-buyer (or let the end-buyer anyhow know) the installation experts' 6-character secret code. As you'll easily follow afterwards, this pair of precautions is in the best interest of that IE, and also of the whole community of ESS installation experts.] Whether a Key-FD has got used for a successful installation or not, can be verified by using a program called Check Key-FD, available at the ESS Liaison Office: the EIEs, CIEs and anyone else collecting a new Key-FD are advised to check the same herein in their own interest. [Preparation of Key-FDs from ordinary floppy diskettes is a somewhat complicated process, and is done by ESS from time to time employing EIEs, who are paid Rs. 5/- per Key-FD.]
The MRP of Rs. 600/- for SB and Rs. 500/- for AO will be subdivided amongst (i) ESS, (ii) The Distributor (generally the proprietor, or the collective authority, of the ESS Liaison Office), (iii) The Installation Expert (IE) and (iv) Person(s) responsible for the sale in the following way: (i) ESS will get Rs. 330/- for SB or Rs. 230/- for AO. This money will go towards expenses of ESS-CD preparation, Key-FD preparation, payment of sales tax against the whole MRP, royalty to the developer(s) as decided by ESS, and profit of ESS if any. (ii) The distributor will get Rs. 70/- for either software, which will go towards maintaining and manning the liaison office, telephone and electricity expenses and so on. (iii) IE (i.e., either an EIE or a CIE) will get Rs. 80/- for either software, which will include local traveling and telephone expenses (if any) within this amount. (iv) The seller (whoever convinces the customer to buy the ESS product) will get Rs. 120/- for either product. In case a customer buys both SB and AO at the same time, the total price may be made Rs. 980/-, if the seller (convincer) agrees to reduce his/ her share by the amount of Rs. 120/-, as the customer in that case gets the status of an old customer (OC) just after buying the first package, and so can buy the other package at a reduced price as detailed in a later portion below.
Pathways of Sale:
There may be 4 (four) distinct pathways of sale for
a copy of either of these two ESS products: (i) Normal or mixed
pathway (ii) Distributor centered (iii) EIE/CIE centered, and (iv) Old
customer centered. For each of these four types of selling, proper and
complete entries of the Software Distribution Records must be entered as per the format in the
Software Distribution Register maintained by the Distributor.
(i) In the normal or mixed pathway, the distributor firm, upon receipt of an customer inquiry (the distributor firm will keep hand-written records of all customer enquiries, telephonic or in person, within a Customer Enquiries Register Book) or otherwise coming across a potential customer, will direct the EIE (deserving of that turn) to go to the customer premises (customer addresses to be recorded in that register) with the SB/AO Key-FD to further explain about the product, and to install the product after receipt of the full payment. The distributor will keep record of the Key-FD issued to the EIE, with Key-FD code, date and EIE name recorded. All the EIE are supposed to gather at the distributor premises on every working day at a fixed half-hour slot, say 10:00 AM to 10:30 AM, to collect such orders arising on the previous working day. If the EIE in turn is absent on a given morning, the offer will go to the next EIE present, and all the EIE turn allotments will shift by one place. Also, if the 'EIE in turn' has not paid his/her earlier dues to the distributor, he/she will be temporarily 'grey-listed', and the EIE turns will similarly shift by one place. If no such irregularities are present, the EIE turns for the five EIEs designated as A, B, C, D & E will proceed as per ABCDEABCDE.. way. If a customer makes both SB & AO orders, a team of two EIEs (as per the turn) will be sent together to the same customer. In this normal or mixed pathway of sale, both the distributor and the involved EIE will be considered to have sold the product equally, so the seller's share of Rs. 120/- will be divided equally between them.
(ii) In the distributor centered way, the distributor convinces the customer so well that the EIE needn't do any further explanation but just goes and installs the product at the customer's premises, and the responsibilty for collection of the MRP remains solely with the distributor. The EIE must be paid Rs. 80/- per local installation by the distributor, and the EIE turn for this type of selling should be counted separately, with similar impartiality.
(iii) In the EIE/CIE centered pathway, an EIE/CIE buys one or more Key-FD from the distributor upon full payment (of Rs. 400/- or Rs. 300/- for SB/AO respectively), and sells the product to some other end-user customers (other than the customers contacting the distributor) in his/her own responsibility, in a price not exceeding the MRP. No EIE/CIE should sale a ESS product in this way to any customer who contacted, or was contacted by the distributor, but refer any such renewed customer interest to the distributor. Furthermore, if the EIE/CIE is unable to sale the product to anyone, the distributor is under an obligation to refund the price of the Key-FD, after deducting a mandatory processing charge of Rs. 70/- only, provided the Key-FD returned is not already used up, as to be checked by the program Check Key-FD. Any mechanical failure of a Key-FD bought must be reported to the distributor either in the same working day or in the next working day of the date of buying, so that a replacement Key-FD may be provided (the failed Key-FD has to be ultimately returned to ESS) free of cost by the distributor, only after ensuring that it is a case of genuine mechanical failure of the Key-FD and not of successful use in an installation.
(iv) In the old-customer centered pathway, any old customer who
previously duly bought either SB or AO, may upon display of the
used-up Key-FD to the distributor, may buy one or more new Key-FD from the distributor upon full payment (of
Rs. 400/- or Rs.
300/- for SB/AO), contact his/ her old IE to get the ESS product
installed at the end-user's computer, and sale
the ESS product to anyone known to him/ her in a price not
exceeding the MRP. In this endeavor, the old customer has to take paid help (at the rate of Rs.
80/- per
local installation) from the IE who had installed his/ her
own copy of software (if that particular IE cannot be contacted or is
not available on those days, the distributor will arrange for another IE to get it done). The distributor must check the old records
to see whether the used-up Key-FD displayed by the old customer
was actually sold, and is not a fake look-alike. Furthermore, if the old
customer is unable to sale the product to anyone, the distributor
is under an obligation to refund the price of the Key-FD, after
deducting a mandatory processing charge of Rs. 70/- only,
provided the Key-FD returned is not already used up, as to be
checked by the program Check Key-FD. Here also, any mechanical failure
of a Key-FD bought must be reported to the distributor either in the same
working day or in the next working day of the date of buying, so that a
replacement Key-FD may be provided (the failed Key-FD has to be ultimately
returned to ESS) free of cost by the distributor, only after ensuring that it
is a case of genuine mechanical failure of the Key-FD and not of successful
use in an installation.
Maintaining Software Distribution
Records:
In the Software Distribution Register to be maintained by the ESS
distributor, the records of distribution of the ESS-promoted priced software
(SB & AO) is to be entered as per the following format (to be followed
after a list of names and addresses of all EIEs & CIEs written in the beginning
pages of this register).
SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTION RECORDS
| Col I:
Sale No. |
Col II:
Date of Issue of Key-FD from the Distributor Office |
Col III:
SB |
Col IV:
Registration Code of Key-FD Issued |
Col V:
EIE, CIE or OC |
Col VI:
Name & Signature of EIE/CIE // |
Col VII:
Intended Procedure of Sale: |
Col VIII:
Full Name / Firm Name and Brief Address of Potential Customer |
Col IX:
For Normal Procedure of Sale, Date of Due Payment Made to the Distributor by EIE |
Col X:
Money Receipt No. & Date if Finally Sold // |
Col XI:
Sign of OC with Dt. on Recpt. of 2nd (Free) Wara. KFD |
| 001 | ||||||||||
| 002 | ||||||||||
| 003 | ||||||||||
| 004 |
N.B. Col. VIII may be completed, if desired, after the sale is completed. Only in case of the so-called Normal procedure of sale, Col. IX need to be filled in, when the EIE comes back to pay the distributor's share after the successful sale. Col X need to be filled in only either after the money receipt is issued to the end-buyer, or after the disheartened IE/ OC comes back and returns the unharmed Key-FD. Col XI is to be filled in only by an OC, when he/ she comes to the distributor asking for the free Warranty Key-FD in the event of a hard-disk failure, and duly receives a working (to be checked by Check Key-FD program) Warranty Key-FD.
In this connection, it is to be noted
that a copy of SB & AO will be assumed to be sold only if the
corresponding key floppy diskette (Key-FD) gets duly used up during
authenticated installation of the software at the end-buyer's computer. Before
this is over, a Key-FD issued to an EIE may be taken back, or a Key-FD sold to
an IE/ OC may be taken back with aforesaid refund paid by the distributor
(but after it is over, no refund is possible). As ESS considers the EIEs/ CIEs/
OCs to be part of its organization, so the money receipt must be for the whole
amount (Rs. 600/- or Rs. 500/-) paid by the end-buyer (end-user), so that the
IE/ OC selling a copy of software needn't pay any sales-tax
individually. So, it is to be noted that the printed ESS money receipt has
to be issued only to the end-buyer and only by the distributor, on display of
the used-up Key-FD at the distributor's office (after issue of the money
receipt, no refund is admissible even if the Key-FD wasn't used-up). This
restriction also encourages the end-buyer to come to the distributor's office,
wherein he/she may be encouraged to sell this software further, in the
designation of an OC.
Peculiarity of Warranty System for Shabda-Brahma &
Abhibhavak:
It should be noted by the potential buyers (and also to be made clear by the
Distributor/ IE/ OC selling the packages) that there is a rather
peculiar provision of warranty on both of these ESS products.
This is because unlike the concrete hardware items, proper and long-lasting working of
bug-free software packages (such as SB or AO) in a user's PC
doesn't depend on the soundness of the package (along which front there is
no problem), but on the capability of the user's hard disk to properly keep
storing the installed programs, on which front the possible problems are
simply beyond the reach of the software vendors such as ESS. Furthermore, if a time-bound
unlimited free re-installation warranty system is allowed,
piracy and unfair practices can never be ruled out in Indian social milieu. Also, the price of the packages are kept too
low to allow for managing such a free, full-fledged warranty system even with no unfair
practices assumed.
So, a peculiar provision of allowing any old customer (OC) to collect a second
Key-FD (of the same package SB or AO as was bought) free of charge from the
distributor, at any point of time in the future (whenever the OC needs
the Key-FD because of hard-disk failure), will take the place of the warranty
system for these two ESS-promoted software. Only one such free Key-FD (to be called the Warranty
Key-FD) will however be provided to the OC against every sale of a
package, and the records of issue of this Warranty Key-FD will be kept
(the OC will sign with date at the appropriate place upon receiving it) in the
Col. XI of the Software Distribution Records within the
Software Distribution Register. After collection of this Warranty
Key-FD, the software installation (including Key-FD authentication) has to
be
done by contacting the same IE (or another IE, only if he/ she is
unavailable), who will need to be paid by the user the usual installation charge of Rs. 80/- per local
installation. (The only exception is: in the unfortunate event of the
warranty-based re-authentication request coming from the end-buyer within six
months of the first installation of SB/ AO, a reduced installation payment
of Rs. 60/- will be paid to the IE by ESS, and the user needn't pay anything.)
However, in case of most minor
file corruptions, the IE may be contacted to let him/ her simply try
re-installing SB or AO (without authentication cum destruction of a Key-FD) at the usual fees of
a maximum of Rs. 80/- per local successful re-installation, thus
saving the provision of the Free Warranty Key-FD for a future turn. (In case
of a complete hard-disk failure, a Key-FD, however, becomes a
necessity.) In case of any more complete formatting or failure of the hard
disk after using up the single Warranty Key-FD provision, the old customer
will have no
other option but to buy a new Key-FD at the reduced price on the strength of being an OC, and get the
package installed by an IE upon payment of the aforesaid usual fees (of
Rs. 80/-). So,
the
potential buyers are advised in their own
interest to install either package (SB or AO) only in sound hard disks in a
sound-health computer, and only if no hard-disk
re-formatting is being planned in the near future. No extra liability is taken by
ESS towards any accidental deletion or un-installation of any of these software
packages in the user's computer. (All these limitations are also
made clear in the End-User License Agreements that appear during installation
of the packages.)
Installation Experts' Association (IEA):
The EIEs & CIEs of ESS will be encouraged to form an Installation
Experts' Association (IEA), wherein they can discuss their plans,
strategy, problems faced etc., share a mini-library of books on computers and
other skills, work for self-development together, and may arrange promotional activities for ESS-products (such
activities may be funded by ESS if found suitable). Weekly or fortnightly
sittings of the association may be held at the ESS Head Office. IEA might be
the key for the ESS personnel in conquering the world, for they have nothing
to lose, but to win the world market of computer applications software with
the fantastic ESS-promoted software packages!