So while you may not pay upfront now, the expenses for the software maintenance and upkeep may accumulate and charge you in the future.

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ServiceSource sells software that manages maintenance, support and subscription renewals for hardware and software firms.

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This will provide upgrades and maintenance of Microsoft's software for a regular fee.

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The product, which includes hardware, software and maintenance, is available now for less than 50 cents per subscriber per month.

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At United Airlines, text-recognition software hunts for equipment problems mentioned in surveys and automatically triggers maintenance tickets.

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When his colleagues contemplated project costs, they thought about development costs, hardware costs and software costs, but not about support and maintenance costs after the technology is implemented, for instance.

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