Some software customers have left their suppliers and defected to rivals. In 2000, French fax-and-messaging software company Esker SA installed a customer-management system from Siebel Systems for use by 165 employees. Siebel dropped regular support, which includes updates and technical help, for the version Esker was using in June -- but offered to extend that support for about $94,000 a year, or 50% more than the original price. The upgrade itself would have been free, but Jean-Michel Berard, Esker chief executive, estimated that additional hardware, consultants and training would have cost another $175,000, not including Esker's own staff time.
"In the '90s or 2000, it was a practice that was accepted, because companies were rich, or thought they were," Mr. Berard says. "That's no longer the case."
Esker dropped Siebel and switched to Salesforce.com, a Siebel competitor that runs software systems on its own computers, freeing customers from upgrade worries. Clients use the Internet to connect to Salesforce.com's computers.
A Siebel spokesman says Esker is trying to make Siebel look bad because Siebel rebuffed its 2000 request to partner up in selling its fax software, a charge Mr. Berard denies.
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