Support reinstatement is the process by which a customer restarts maintenance and support that it let lapse, or never bought, on licensed software. Most vendors that sell perpetual licences with separate annual support publish a charge for it, usually called a reinstatement fee, and most also require the customer to pay the support it skipped, often called back maintenance or back support. Oracle, for example, assesses a reinstatement fee whenever technical support “lapses or was not originally purchased with a program license”.[1] The rules matter because they set the real price of dropping support to save money and coming back later, and because some vendors refuse reinstatement altogether after a cut-off date.
The general model of maintenance, including what support provides and how lapse affects use rights, is covered in Software maintenance and support. This article compares the published reinstatement formulas.
Scope and definitions
Vendor documents use several overlapping terms:
- Back maintenance or back support is the support fee for the period during which coverage lapsed. Cohesity’s renewal policy calls the lapsed-period charge “Back Maintenance”.[3] Kaseya calls it “Retroactive Maintenance”.[7]
- A reinstatement fee is a penalty charged on top of the back fees, usually stated as a percentage of them or of the annual fee.
- A late fee is Juniper’s name for the equivalent charge, which it labels “Late Fee/Reinstatement Fee”.[6]
- A forward term is the new support period the customer must also buy at reinstatement, typically twelve months.
The same rules often apply when an audit finds licences in use without support. Ivanti states that a customer found using licences “not covered by the current Maintenance/Support” must pay back maintenance plus a reinstatement fee.[4]
How it works
The three components
Most published policies charge three things. Ivanti’s Support Terms list them in order: a fee equal to the support fees “retroactive to the date of lapse or termination”, a reinstatement fee, and a fee for the “then-commencing” support term.[5] Cohesity requires the lapsed period, “a minimum of a new 12-month commitment”, and a reinstatement fee.[3] Oracle requires the reinstatement fee and, in addition, the technical support fee for the new support period.[1]
Some vendors charge only the back fees. Esri states that if a customer does not renew maintenance on a perpetual licence before the renewal quote expires and later wants to reinstate it, “fees will include the fees that Customer would have paid since the expiration date”, and any legacy or migration pricing is forfeited.[10]
Published formulas
| Vendor | Back fees | Reinstatement fee | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oracle | Included in the fee calculation, prorated back to the lapse date | 150% of the last annual support fee paid, prorated; plus the next annual fee | [1] |
| Dassault Systemes | All Support Services fees from termination to reinstatement | 50% of those back fees, unless the offering terms say otherwise | [2] |
| Cohesity | Back Maintenance for the lapsed period | 25% of the lapsed period, in 30-day increments, minimum 30 days, at end-user list price | [3] |
| Kaseya | All fees for the entire lapsed term, paid up front | 10% of the Retroactive Maintenance | [7] |
| Imprivata | All fees from discontinuance to reinstatement | An additional 5% | [8] |
| Juniper | New contract backdated to the day after expiry, up to 365 days | 3% of the net annual support price per device, if the lapse exceeds 90 days | [6] |
| Bentley (SELECT) | Not separated | Set by Bentley, capped at all undiscounted fees that would have accrued for the lapsed period | [9] |
| Esri | Fees since the expiration date | None stated; legacy pricing forfeited | [10] |
| Ivanti, Hexagon, Ansys | Back maintenance (Ivanti, Hexagon) | A reinstatement fee without a published percentage | [4][12][13] |
Oracle’s formula has two branches. If support lapsed, the fee is 150% of the last annual technical support fee paid for the program, prorated from the date support is ordered back to the date it lapsed. If support was never bought, the fee is 150% of the net support fee that would have applied, prorated back to the original licence order date.[1]
Support that was never bought
Several vendors treat a licence that never had support the same way as one whose support lapsed. Hexagon’s PC-DMIS licence states that if maintenance “lapses (or was not initially acquired)”, the licensee will be assessed back maintenance fees for the unmaintained period plus any reinstatement fees under Hexagon’s then-current policies.[12] Oracle’s second branch, described above, prices back to the original order date.[1]
Start dates
Back fees usually mean that the reinstated term starts where the old one ended, not when the customer orders. Cohesity states that the start date “will always remain the same, which is the day following the expiration of the prior Support term”.[3] Ivanti keeps the original start date, but if a renewal is more than three months overdue the start date resets to the order date, and the customer is charged for a full year ahead as well as the back fees and reinstatement fee.[4] Juniper requires a new contract effective from the day after expiry, up to 365 days back.[6]
Discretion and cut-offs
Not every vendor promises to reinstate. Bentley may reinstate SELECT services only if it consents.[9] Citrix states that reinstatement of expired maintenance on perpetual products “is offered only at the sole discretion of Citrix”, and that reinstatement and recovery charges may apply.[14] Cohesity may permit a lapsed subscription to be reinstated “in its sole discretion”, with a penalty fee of 25% of the lapsed period.[3]
Some vendors set hard limits:
- Ivanti: if support on perpetual licences has been terminated or expired for more than thirty days, it cannot be reinstated, and the customer must buy subscription licences instead.[5]
- Juniper: no reinstatement of support contracts is allowed after a product’s Last Order Date, and a lapse of more than 365 days also requires a product inspection.[6]
- IBM: expired Software Subscription and Support cannot simply be renewed. The client “may not renew and must acquire Software Subscription and Support Reinstatement”.[11]
All licences or none
Reinstatement is often tied to rules that stop customers from supporting only part of an estate. Dassault Systemes allows reinstatement only if it “is activated for all licenses of a given Licensed Program held by Customer”.[2] Oracle states that a customer may not support a subset of licences within a licence set, and that the set must be reduced by terminating unsupported licences, documented in a termination letter.[1] Cohesity requires full, up-to-date support for every licence in a product family, and allows partial renewal only as an exception called “Shelving”, which needs usage reports and a signed shelving letter. Reactivating shelved licences later costs the lapsed support, a reinstatement fee, and a year of support from reactivation.[3]
Reducing coverage can also raise the unit price of what remains. Oracle reprices support on the remaining licences of an order at its list price minus the applicable standard discount when a subset is terminated.[1] Ivanti increases the base unit price for the remaining licences because “the original discount is no longer applicable”.[4]
Relationship to license ownership
A lapse in support does not usually end a perpetual licence, but it ends the services. Cohesity states that if support lapses, the customer loses access to bug fixes, patches, online and telephone support, updates and upgrades until support is reinstated.[3] For subscription and SaaS licences the lapse is more serious: Ivanti states that customers “lose your rights to continue using the software” under those models when the term lapses.[4] Reinstatement charges therefore apply mainly to perpetual licences, where the customer keeps the right to use and is buying back the right to updates.
IBM extends the same logic to unauthorised use of support benefits. A client that uses Software Subscription and Support benefits for programs on which support has not been fully paid must acquire reinstatement “sufficient to cover all such unauthorized use at then current IBM prices”.[11]
Relationship to other disciplines
Reinstatement rules feed into an effective license position, which records not only what is licensed but whether support is current, and into renewal planning, because the cost of a later return is part of the decision to drop support. They also appear in audits: Ivanti applies back maintenance and a reinstatement fee to licences found in use without support.[4] Product lifecycle dates matter too, because a vendor such as Juniper refuses reinstatement once a product is past its Last Order Date.[6]
Criticism and challenges
The formulas make a support lapse expensive to reverse. Under Oracle’s policy a customer returning after a full year pays 150% of a year’s fee as the reinstatement fee and then the next year’s fee as well.[1] Where vendors state no percentage, as with Ivanti, Hexagon and Ansys, the customer cannot estimate the cost in advance.[4][12][13] The channel can change the price as well: Dassault Systemes notes that distributors “are free to determine the amount” of the fee they charge, so the published 50% applies only to direct orders.[2]
Out of scope
This article does not cover reinstatement of hardware warranties, grey-market equipment policies or the reinstatement of licences terminated for breach. Open-source licences such as the GPL have their own rules for reinstating rights after a violation; see Open-source software licensing.