PERSONAL SUPPORT PROGRAMS.

Broadly speaking, fee-based support plans are designed for either personal or corporate users. Corporate plans--which include annual maintenance and most premium support programs--usually provide comprehensive support for a whole organization; personal plans provide post-warranty support for individuals or small companies who may need occasional troubleshooting help but usually don't qualify for full-service programs.

Currently, the most common pricing model for personal support is 'per incident'--that is, a flat rate for resolving each support question, regardless of call length or research time. For very complex applications, an average call may require more than an hour of call-handling time, so the per-incident rate can be as much as $200. But most per-incident prices cluster in a narrow range: Of the 43 companies that supplied per-incident pricing data, 50% reported prices between $25 and $75, with a median per-incident rate of $35.

A less-popular alternative for personal support pricing is a 'per minute' rate, which--in theory--more closely aligns service pricing to the cost of service delivery. Here, there is less variation in pricing: The median per- minute price is $2.00 (28 respondents), and the 50% range is between $1.95 and $3.00 per minute.

Finally, many companies offer 'personal' support contracts, which resemble the extended warranties that are common for many big-ticket consumer items. Since the cost of supporting an average user depends on such variables as product complexity and user sophistication, personal support contracts also vary widely in price; some cost as much as $2,500 per year. But again there's a clustering trend: 50% of our respondents price their personal contracts between $99 and $495; the median contract price is $249 (32 respondents).