Reference: Notices-RSU for Records

20 September 2010

Effective immediately, RidgeStar is pleased to announce a reduction in the allocated RSU rates for database Records of 50%. The technical description for this can be stated as:

#	Service	Old RSU	New RSU	Description
1	Records	0.01	0.005	a Record in a database table

The net effect of this change in pricing and Fee allocation will be dependent upon the individual Site and whether or not the site's fees are significantly impacted by database Records volume.

Why Change the RSU Fees?

The rationale behind any adjustment to Service Fees is made up of several factors, including but not limited to:

1. How to fairly distribute costs of operations across all Clients
2. Overall Business tactical strategy and objectives
3. Encouraging desired behavior

Records

In particular, RidgeStar has adjusted the specific RSU Records valuation as a result of detected usage patterns across multiple Clients. In particular, the delivery of enhanced Auditing and Site based Mail has caused the volume of data Records in the database to increase significantly. For Audit purposes, additional Audit entries permit the Client to precisely identify what has happened to a specific element in the database and which User(s) have had an effect on them. Site based Mail has improved the ability for several sites to communicate more effectively amongst active Site Users and has the net effect of reducing Email volume (a good thing).

We (RidgeStar) are making this change today to minimize and, in fact, reduce Fees for those clients that are making increased use of the Audit and Mail tables. This is because we are supportive of how this positively impacts the operations of the Sites. Further, we want to encourage improved Auditing and the usage of Mail as an alternative to Email.

The modification to the RSU Fee Scale for Records is being put into effect today (September 20, 2010) and will be reflected immediately across all RidgeStar sites via Administrator: RidgeStar-RSU Chart.

Email and POP3

We will be exploring in the near term an equitable RSU Fee assessment for Email traffic volumes to replace the current simplistic definition of what Email and POP3 RSUs are. While we cannot say as of the date of this announcement what the Email and/or POP3 RSU adjustment will be, it will be positioned to distribute the costs of operating the Mail Server to those that make use of it. Clients that make limited use of the Mail Server will see their RSU totals go down. Those that make heavy use of the Mail Server will likely see their RSU Totals go up.

Stay tuned...