Q: How much does VALCOUR cost?
A: Standard Licensing costs $1500 per user with a minimum purchase of 100 users; the purchase price includes one year of free Support and Maintenance. There is also a Three Year Payment Option that would cost $750 per user per year for three years; the purchase price includes three years of free Support and Maintenance. Quantity discounts are available.
Q: My current vendor said they will meet or beat any other vendor’s pricing, do you offer special pricing on a case-by-case basis?
A: We adhere to our published prices and discounts. What you see is what we offer. The only exception to this would be pricing for the First State Agency Partner program (limited to one Agency/Multi-jurisdictional group per state).
Q: Does VALCOUR require an annual support contract?
A: No. Once an agency purchases VALCOUR they are licensed to use it, in perpetuity, without any further obligation. The agency owns and controls their data. If the agency chooses to purchase annual support and maintenance from CrossWind, the price is 15% of the initial product purchase price (including quantity discounts).
Q: How much do Add-ons or extra modules cost?
A: All upgrades are included in the annual support contract. It’s very straightforward, there’s the initial license purchase and then there is the optional support and maintenance support program at 15%.
Q: Does VALCOUR require an onsite CrossWind support representative?
A: No. A powerful solution does not need to be a complex solution. In fact, modern software development practices focus on power through simplicity. Many current CAD/RMS solutions have become very arcane as a result of their attempt to modernize while supporting their legacy technology base. VALCOUR has been designed to serve the needs of law enforcement agencies while remaining simple to roll out, enhance and support.
Q: What type of system administration know-how would our Agency need?
A: All an agency requires for support is someone with basic browser knowledge and Windows Server support experience. Because VALCOUR is web-based, installation and all updates are performed on the server only, changing agency-wide maintenance from a multi-day event to something that can be accomplished in minutes. Help-desk resources for users are provided by on-line Help, an agency specific online INFO page and on-demand training videos.
Q: How much user training does VALCOUR require?
A: Very little. Training for dispatchers and administrators is can be completed in under 4 hours per class, training for officers takes less than 2 hours per class. Train-the-trainer materials, videos and on-line Help are provided at no charge. Optional on-site training classes are available for $1000/day plus travel expenses.
Q: Our County has many small agencies, many with less than 50 sworn officers and without dedicated technical support personnel. How could we obtain VALCOUR?
A: Because VALCOUR is a web-based technology, it is easily configured and administered as a multi-jurisdictional solution. This would provide your county (or state) with two key advantages: it could be administered and supported at any one agency allowing all participating agencies to share overhead and it would provide for seamless information sharing across participating agencies.
Q: Can VALCOUR scale to a large, statewide solution?
A: VALCOUR has been designed so that multiple clusters of VALCOUR sites can communicate seamlessly with each other. Each site has multi-agency capability, so all agencies within a state could participate, whether they are large or small.
Q: Since VALCOUR is web-based, doesn’t that make it susceptible to hackers and internet outages?
A: No. Although it is web-based, VALCOUR is deployed on your agency’s secure network. The same security protocols (VPN, etc) that you use for your current RMS solution can be utilized for VALCOUR. It can also be made available outside your network at your discretion, using the same 128-bit SSL protocol utilized by banks and other financial institutions, with the same level of encryption (or better) than your VPN.
Q: Would we need to upgrade our desktops and cruisers?
A: No. VALCOUR works on any device equipped with a browser. It will plug and play with your older computers on desktops and in vehicles as well as newer devices such as iPads or Android tablets.
Q: CrossWind is a small company, wouldn’t it be risky to trust support of a mission-critical application such as CAD/RMS to your company?
A: No. We designed and licensed VALCOUR to operate with or without CrossWind support. Any competent Windows Administrator can support VALCOUR. Our technology is based on non-proprietary, open systems including Ruby on Rails and MySQL.
Q: Does CrossWind have any experience supporting mission-critical software applications?
A: Yes. CrossWind has supported installations as small as Chittenden County, VT and large as the USDA Forestry Service. Our wide-area networked calendaring and scheduling line of products required 24 hour uptime and provided real-time networking to organizations in several time zones.
Q: Where can I get more information?
A: You can visit www.crosswind.com, send an email to sales@crosswind.com or call us at (888) 980-7728.