We are pleased to announce that we will once again be offering maintenance contracts for RATS. Maintenance contracts are essentially a "subscription" to RATS, providing you with updates automatically as soon as they are released. Maintenance contracts offer several advantages:

• Convenience--ensures that you will automatically receive each and every update, shipped directly to you on CD-ROM. One-time purchase covers multiple updates--particularly important for large organizations, where the budgeting and approval process is more complex.
• Cost--the maintenance contract will save money as compared to purchasing all the incremental updates individually.
• Timeliness--you will be among the first to receive the new version--maintenance contract updates are shipped out before regular update orders.

Note that you will still have the option to purchase individual updates as they are released (and we will continue to post some minor updates on our website for downloading at no charge). However, we know that many of you prefer the convenience and expedience of only having to place a single order and make a single payment to ensure that you are kept up to date.

Two Types of Contracts

IThere are two types of maintenance contracts:

• Version Maintenance: For single-user licenses, you can purchase a maintenance contract that will provide all updates through and including the next major upgrade (currently, through Version 7). This is the same sort of program we've offered in the past.
• Annual Maintenance: For institutions with multi-user licenses, or a large collection of single-user licenses, we offer an annual maintenance contract. This will provide all updates released for one calendar year from the date the contract is purchased.