This week, credativ launches its Open Source Support Card. With this card Open Source Support can be bought at a fixed price - without a binding contract.

After a long preparation phase we are now offering our trusted services in a new, simple format; with the Open Source Support Card you get a fixed contingent of project-specific, pre-paid services.

Customers using the Open Source Support Card have the unique advantage of full cost control; the card can be purchased as a product, without any obligation to sign an agreement for a specific length of time. This may be of particular benefit to larger companies, where new contracts have to be reviewed and cross-reviewed before they can be authorised. A summary of the advantages of the new pre-paid support format include:

• Open Source Support for a specific project
• Support not restricted to a specific number of desktops and servers within a company
• A tempting price model, starting at just £480
• Full control of costs
• Support available via telephone, e-mail and remote access
• Bilingual support - help given in English or even German, if required! ;-)
• Cost of support NOT determined by the number of CPUs or users
• NO binding contract - easy way to purchase
• NO call centre - direct access to the experts
• Support units can be used for the following services:
• administration
• installation (remote)
• consultancy

All support is provided to the usual credativ standard. Just as you would expect from our usual contracts, the cost of the service is not determined by the number of CPUs, users, or DB entries. Support units purchased through the Support Card can be used for all related problems within a company - no matter which workstation or server they come up on. The support itself is provided by our Open Source Support Centre: you won't have to deal with non-technical staff or battle through FAQ scripts - our Linux experts and Open Source specialists are on hand to take calls directly. Many of us are actively involved in contributing to a number of Open Source projects - as regular readers will already be aware. ;-)

The new Open Source Support Card is also an exciting development for the wider Open Source community. By offering yet another attractive support option for free distributions, we hope to prove that there is now no reason not to consider Debian and CentOS as viable alternatives to commercial distributions.

The Open Source Support Card is designed and marketed in such a way that resellers can also get on board, making access to support that bit easier for consumers: imagine purchasing your server online and while you're at it being able to drop a Support Card into the shopping basket as well - Open Source Support with just one click!

Currently the Support Card is just available for Debian and CentOS in the UK and in Germany, although we will soon be offering it in the US and Canada too. If you have any questions or comments we'd be pleased to hear from you - we've put a lot of effort into this new product, and are looking forward to the response from our customers and the wider community.