Since we released CMS in 2001, we've sold over 1200 CMS licenses. Every license we sell has an underlying Sybase SQL Anywhere license included in the price. We in turn pay Sybase roayalties for those licenses. We have an annual partnership agreement with Sybase that provides for integration of their SQL engine into CMS, gives us development tools and other valuable resources that we use to produce great software.

One of the requirements of our partner agreement is to make sure that we provide a monitoring mechanism for database license use. We have this capability built into all versions of CMS, from Solo to Professional. This "mechanism" looks at the number of licenses currently in use, compares that to how many you purchased and makes a decision to either let you access the database or return a message telling you that you have exceeded the maximum number of licenses for your system installation.

Recently, while preparing to release version 3.3 of CMS, we were reviewing our CMS License Agreement, our Partner Agreement with Sybase and how we were monitoring database access in CMS. Since our program and company records are subject to audit by Sybase, we periodically check to make sure that we are in compliance with both the letter and intent of our agreements. During our review, we discovered a flaw in our monitoring system, which we have had to take care of before releasing version 3.3

What we discovered is that we were checking for workstation connectivity to the database, but not connections created by other programs! So if you are connecting external programs to CMS such as UPS WorldShip, Access, Excel, Crystal Reports - in fact any other ODBC compliant program from a computer not running CMS - you should have a license to cover that access. We're pretty sure that there are quite a few customers who are using these programs every day that as a result may actually be in violation of their CMS License Agreement.

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Needless to say, we needed to fix this flaw in our monitoring system and let our customers know how this might impact their use of CMS. That's why we're sending you this email! If you currently use CMS Standard or CMS Professional on a network, and connect other third-party software applications to the database such as WorldShip, other shipping programs or any other ODBC-compatible program on machines not running CMS Workstation, you need to have a license to cover that connection. To be clear, CMS will continue to allow concurrent connections to the database up to the maximum number of licenses you have purchased, but ODBC connections on machines not running CMS at the same time will now count towards that license total.

We suggest that you take stock of the number of ODBC programs and workstations connecting to CMS and determine if you have enough licenses to meet your daily operational needs. Starting with version 3.3, CMS will check on and monitor all database connections to verify that there are enough licenses to support them. If you exceed the number of licenses you have purchased, you will receive an error message telling you that you don't have enough licenses to support the attempted connection(s).

If you determine that (or aren't sure if) you need to purchase an additional license or two, please send us an email or give us a call. We'll be happy to disucss your licensing needs with you and help you determine what you need for your business. To help ease the burden a bit, we are waiving all support charges for the remainder of 2006 on new licenses purchased this month. Also, remember that supported users receive a 10% discount off of upgrades and licenses. (The net cost for a supported user to add a single license is only $985.50.)

Please note that we are doing our best to be pro-active and avoid problems when you install CMS version 3.3. We'll be notifying all users by mail and will include details about these licensing changes with the 3.3 update, but we wanted to give you a chance to verify you have enough licenses for your needs before you receive and install it.