Product category:
I/O devices
News Release from: Strategic Test | Subject: UltraFast range
Edited by the Laboratorytalk Editorial
Team on 28 July 2006
Reduced cost for Digitizer, AWG PCI, PXI
For Digitizer, AWG and fast Digital PCI, PXI and CompactPCI cards, Strategic Test eliminates the need for expensive software and support maintenance contracts
Strategic Test has announced that free software updates and technical support will be provided on all future purchases of its UltraFast range of Digitizer, AWG, fast Digital I/O and Digital Pattern Generator cards The decision also applies retrospectively to all UltraFast products supplied during the previous five years
This article was originally published on Laboratorytalk on 31 Jul 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Linux drivers for Digitizer, AWG, fast Digital PCI
Strategic Test has announced the release of new Linux drivers for kernel 2.6 versions of RedHat, SuSe and Fedora distributions; kernel 2.4 drivers have also been updated
Digitizer PCI cards stream gap-free at 200MS/s
UltraFast UF2-2030 series use PCI-X bus to continuously record one channel at 200MS/s or two channels at 100MS/s to PC, saves money on expensive instrument card memory
Customers will be able to register and download the latest software and manual releases from the company's website.
The download area contains the latest drivers for Windows and Linux, and will be updated with Windows Vista drivers as they become available.
Other drivers for Matlab, Labview, Vee, Dasylab and LabWindows/CVI can also be obtained.
The only software not available is the driver sources for Linux that are available on receipt of an NDA direct from the client.
"We believe in fair business," said Bob Giblett, president of Strategic Test.
"It seems to us that if customer suggestions contribute to new features that make our products the most versatile in the market, we in turn should provide the benefit to all of our customers without cost.
"If the customer can see that they get a direct benefit by sharing their ideas within the community of users, they will be even more motivated to make the effort to contact us.
"I also fail to understand the argument for charging to supply a new driver because a new operating system has been released, when clearly we need to make that investment in order to sell our products in future".
While technical support has been supplied without question to clients regardless of product age, Strategic Test has noticed an increasing trend to charge for prime support at a cost of $1000 or more by competitors and has decided to now formalise the lifetime support commitment.
"If the product is well designed and the manual written clearly, the amount of support required will be negligible," says Giblett.
"In our opinion, charging for technical support is either necessary because you get a lot of questions, or your pricing strategy is to reduce the visable purchase price and claw this back later.
"On average, we receive one post sales support question per product sold; it depends on the level of the customers experience".
While the standard hardware warranty period is two years, Strategic Test is now offering to extend the period to five years for a one-off payment of 1% of the purchase price.
• Strategic Test: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Laboratorytalk email newsletter
• Laboratorytalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
