People often get confused, but warranty is a UCC special limited right that arises immediately after product acceptance. The idea behind the special warranty right is that even after acceptance, customers often do not completely know if the product works as promised/advertised, and they need some additional time to work with it in their environment to verify that it was delivered properly. Whereas an SLA or maintenance agreement is just that, it’s ongoing maintenance service but it does not usually commit to getting the product to work, it’s more about a level of response, a level of effort based upon the seriousness of the service issue claimed (minor, medium or critical) and providing work-arounds for most issues and sometimes in SLA service credits. If the new product does not work once you install it, an SLA will not cure that problem.

Think of the Lemon Law for new car sales when you think about the warranty. This product does not work; you had a chance (generally several chances to make it work) and it still does not work; I want my money back. That is a heck of a lot different from if it doesn’t work I will respond in 2 hours and if it’s not working within x hours you will get a 5% credit on your next monthly maintenance invoice, that is an SLA. Because most licenses are moving to a SaaS model, if you are not careful, customer’s just wind up with an SLA rather than a warranty followed by an SLA.