¶ Introduction
Bicom Systems has grown into a leading global company for the production, distribution and support of unified communications end-to-end software solutions. Bicom Systems was the first company to deliver Open Source Communications Software as Professional Turnkey Solutions.
By combining the best of open source telephony and its own proprietary software, Bicom Systems provides enterprises with turnkey solutions that take account of the customers’ exact needs within a very cost-effective framework.
PBXware - This is the world's first and most mature IP PBX Professional Open Standards Turnkey Telephony Platform. Since 2004, PBXware has deployed flexible, reliable, and scalable Next Generation Communication Systems and VolP solutions to Small and Medium-sized Businesses. Bicom Systems offers it in Multi-Tenant, Business and Call Center Edition.
SERVERware - The only Virtualization Platform dedicated to Hosting Telephony & Unified Communications in the Cloud. It delivers a wide range of IP services and applications with high availability, stability & reliability for maximum up-time.
gloCOM & gloCOM GO - Desktop and Mobile applications Powerful Unified Communications applications specifically designed to take any business communications to a whole new level by tightly integrating with PBXware. Bicom Systems' team and customers all over the world are using both versions on a daily basis, and it literally saves our day.
Bicom Systems regularly reviews its products to meet the changing needs of an evolving market. This paper provides insight into the Bicom Systems policies with regard to discontinued products and how the market is notified.
¶ Applicable Products
This End of Life Policy document is effective as of January 1st, 2022. It is applicable to all products offered by Bicom Systems.
¶ Definition of Terms
¶ End of Life
An End-of-life (EOL) product is a product that does not receive continuing support, either because existing marketing, support and other processes are terminated, or it is at the end of its useful life. When a product reaches its End of Lifecycle, meaning no further development is to be done, Bicom Systems will provide an End of Life notice at least six months prior to the End of Sales date.
¶ End of Sales
When the End of Sales date arrives, the product will be removed from the pricelist and sales of the product will be discontinued. At this time, the product will enter ‘maintenance & support mode’.
¶ Support and Maintenance Mode
At the End of Sales date, the product enters ‘Support & Maintenance Mode’ until the End of Support date. During this period the following conditions apply:
Bicom Systems will continue providing support & maintenance for the product after the End of Sales date in the form of technical assistance, advice, and workarounds barring any developmental needs as defined in the next point.
During this time, the product will not be enhanced with new features or functions; only updates with critical bug fixes and minor changes may be released. Critical bugs - causing system down and 50% of calls or more not passing on the system or causing apps crashing and unable to start on more than 50% of the devices.
During this period, an upgrade to the latest version is highly recommended.
¶ End of Support and Maintenance
Bicom Systems will continue providing support & maintenance for the product after the End of Sales date in the form of technical assistance, advice, and workarounds. However, before the End of Support date, the licensee should make an agreement with Bicom Systems for an upgrade plan. If the licensee does not wish to upgrade, they will be served with a Notice of Termination of Support for EOL product/s at the End of Support & Maintenance term.
Agreement for an Upgrade plan
A document signed by Bicom Systems and the licensee containing a detailed plan for the upgrade and the obligations of both parties.
Termination of Support for EOL product/s
¶ General Policy Explanation
The End of Life policy defines and explains the period of time and milestones regarding a product’s End of Sales and End of Support & Maintenance.
Bicom Systems will provide a minimum 6-month notice prior to the effective End of Sales date for any product to licensees. The advance notice will include the product information, the product software version and the End of Sales date. The EOL notice will be sent via e-mail (newsletter) to the licensees and will be announced through the Bicom Systems Wiki page, as well as through other channels - Blog & Social Media, Bicom Systems Forum, Ticketing Portal.
When the product EOL is announced, the transition period is called the 'End of Sales' period. During this period, licensees are advised to prepare their environments for the upgrade. Bicom Systems will provide assistance and recommendations accordingly. After the End of Sales date has passed, the product will be removed from the price list and can no longer be purchased. The End of Sales date also implies a support contract for the particular product will not be sold any longer.
The product will enter ‘support & maintenance mode’ and no new features will be developed; only updates with critical bug fixes and minor changes may be released. Essentially, no new versions of the software will be released in that version branch.
When this happens, we highly suggest upgrading to the latest version of the software that is being developed on a regular basis. However, Bicom Systems will still offer support for the software version in the form of technical assistance, advice, and workarounds.
After the End of Support & Maintenance date, no kind of support for the product will be provided. With this, the software version has reached a full EOL state.
All active support contracts will remain valid until their expiration date or End of Support & Maintenance date.
If the licensee has not upgraded to the latest version before the End of Support & Maintenance or signed the Agreement for Upgrade Plan, Bicom Systems will provide a Termination of Service Notice.
Upgrade plan covers project start and end date, equipment ordering, detailed upgrade/update schedule for all products, support and maintenance services and pricing, and service termination date in case if the upgrade conditions are not met.
Termination of Support for EOL product/s means Bicom Systems will not provide the support services related to the particular product/s any longer. In case the customer requests support for the EOL product, all work will be treated and charged as maintenance. There is no guarantee that Support will be able to fix the reported issue, so an upgrade is strongly recommended.
¶ End of Life Schedule
| Milestones | Description | Period |
|---|---|---|
| End of Life announcement / End of Support & Maintenance announcement | Notification that a certain product is reaching End of Life. Advice on alternative or replacement product. This announcement signifies the End of Sales for the product. No new support contracts will be sold. Product will be removed from the pricelist. This announcement marks the beginning of the "Support & Maintenance mode" for the product |
At least 1 year before the End of Support & Maintenance date. |
| Support & Maintenance mode | During the support & maintenance mode the customer is encouraged to sign an Agreement for Upgrade plan. | Until the End of Support & Maintenance date |
| End of Support & Maintenance date | The final date of support & maintenance mode of the product. Full End Of Life state. If customer rejects signing Agreement for an Upgrade Plan, Bicom System will provide a document Termination of Support for EOL products. |
At least 1 year after the EOL announcement. |
Products End of Life cycle
¶ Products Reaching EOL
Unless otherwise noted, all products/versions that are older than those listed below have already reached EOL and are no longer supported by Bicom Systems. To know if the product/version you are using has reached EOL, refer to the tables below.
¶ PBXware
| Release Series | End of Sales | End of Support and Maintenance | Latest version |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.x | December 31st, 2023 | December 31st, 2024 | TBD |
| 5.x | June 30th, 2022 | June 30th, 2023 | 5.3.11 |
| 4.x | March 1st, 2019 | June 30th, 2020 | 4.1.4 |
| 3.x | March 1st, 2019 | June 30th, 2020 | 3.8.5 |
¶ SERVERware
| Release Series | End of Sales | End of Support and Maintenance | Latest version |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.x | March 1st, 2019 | June 30th, 2020 | 1.10 |
| 3.x | June 1st, 2021 | October 23th, 2024 | 3.3.1 |
¶ gloCOM Desktop
| Release Series | End of Sales | End of Support and Maintenance | Latest version |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.x | December 31st, 2023 | December 31st, 2024 | TBD |
| 5.x | June 30th, 2022 | June 30th, 2023 | 5.3.11 |
| 4.x | March 1st, 2019 | June 30th, 2020 | 4.2.0 |
| 3.x | March 1st 2019 | June 30th 2020 | 3.8.10 |
¶ gloCOM GO
| Release Series | End of Sales | End of Support and Maintenance | Latest version |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.x | December 31st, 2023 | December 31st, 2024 | TBD |
| 5.x | June 30th, 2022 | June 30th, 2023 | 5.3.11 |
| 4.x and older | March 1st, 2019 | June 30th, 2020 | 1.2 |
¶ TELCOware
| Release Series | End of Sales | End of Support and Maintenance | Latest version |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.x | June 30th, 2021 | June 30th, 2021 | 3.0.0 |
¶ SIPmon
| End of Support and Maintenance |
|---|
| February 1st, 2021 |