Frequently asked questions on purchasing and licensing
Since it it very likely that your question regarding purchasing and licensing has been asked before, please refer to the following list for immediate answers to frequently asked questions.
Ordering process
- I know that my company holds licenses. How can I tap into that deployment?
- Only the initial purchaser of an existing license key can add further users to this key. Please find out who ordered the licenses for your company and approach this person to be included in the deployment. If this is not possible due to organizational restrictions you have to open up a new independent account with us to place your order.
- What are your payment terms when paying by invoice?
- Our standard payment terms are 10 days net. If your organization cannot accommodate this please redirect your request to one of our resellers.
- What are your shipping terms?
- Our software is delivered electronically by an email to the main end-user and buyer. The delivery email contains a download link and the license key needed to activate the software. We ask the main end-user or the buyer to forward the delivery email to all end-users. If you need physical media please redirect your request to one of our resellers.
- Can you send me a pro-forma invoice to raise a purchase order?
- We do not issue pro-forma invoices. You will receive a full invoice after we have fulfilled your purchase order. If your organization cannot issue an order without a pro-forma invoice please redirect your request to one of our resellers.
Costs
- We already own a valid license key and want to add a user to it. How much will that cost?
- The costs for adding a user to an existing license key are pro-rated with respect to the key's remaining validity. The quickest way to find out how much this is, is to log into our customer portal and use the "Add user(s) to license key" button on its home page.
- Do you offer special discounts for new or recurring customers?
- Our licensing scheme think-cell partnership is essentially an annual leasing agreement. Therefore, you will always pay the same annual fee, no matter whether you are a new or a recurring customer.
- Do you offer special discounts for resellers?
- Resellers can make use of the 5% spread between our recommended retail price for offline ordering and online ordering as rendered on our pricing page.
- Do you offer special discounts for academic or nonprofit organizations?
- We offer our software for free to academic or nonprofit organizations, given that they only use the software for education, public research or their direct nonprofit core operations. Administrative work with the software, e.g., at university hospitals, is not allowed under this program. If you want to apply for this program, please download our Software License Agreement for Academic/Nonprofit Use and review it. It has to be signed by a senior person that can bind your organization to the terms of the agreement, e.g., an IT director, dean or professor. Please fax the signed agreement together with a short description of your organization to us and we will contact you as soon as possible.
License administration
- What happens when my think-cell license expires?
- The think-cell product will be deactivated. A slide element produced with the software will look exactly as before, but you won't be able to change it with the help of the software. However, you will be able to make changes to the PowerPoint objects making up the think-cell element using the standard PowerPoint tools, e.g., Microsoft Graph. In most cases even the underlying numbers will be retained in the Microsoft Graph data sheet. As soon as you renew your think-cell license, full functionality will be restored.
- Why don't you offer perpetual licenses for your software?
- Since think-cell's founding in 2002 we have licensed our software under the think-cell partnership licensing scheme, which is a leasing scheme that covers usage, updates and support for a one-year leasing period. Our software is tightly integrated into the Microsoft Office environment. Therefore, we can only ensure compatibility with service packs and new versions of Office if we are able to quickly ship new versions of our own software to all customers without commercial considerations. A perpetual license would make no sense, because it would only be perpetual on paper, but not in reality because of our customers' changing Office environment.
- How do I transfer a license to a new user or computer?
- To transfer a license simply make sure that the software is not accessible from the old machine anymore, e.g., by deinstalling it. Then download the software to the new machine, install it and activate it using your existing license key. You do not have to inform us about this transfer. Please note that transferring a license is only allowed on an occasional and not on a regular basis.
- Do I need a separate license for my home office?
- If your company has obtained a license for your professional work at your company's computer, you are also entitled to use this license on your home computer for corporate work. This is because our licensing scheme works per user and not per machine. You can download the software to your home computer, install it and activate it with your license key. If you need help in doing so, please approach your corporate IT.
