What is a PMA?
The PMA provides an easy way for customers to protect their investment in Milestone surveillance solutions and to control the future cost of ownership. 

Why get a PMA?
By purchasing a PMA for a Milestone product, the customer ensures that their video surveillance solution is always kept up to date with the newest available release of the software - without having to worry about any extra upgrading cost.  It is in the nature of the best software that it continues to be developed and improved in response to customer needs and new technological advances.  It is in the interest of the customer to take advantage of this development in the most cost-effective way.

What does a PMA include?
During the year covered by the PMA, customers are entitled to receive all generally-released new versions of their Milestone software, including both interim and major releases, changes, service packs and patches for the product.

How does a PMA work?
When buying an XProtect product license, the customer can choose to buy a PMA at the same time. Under the PMA, all upgrades are completely free of charge for one year.  The software upgrades are delivered to the customer electronically throughout the year.

How long does it last?
The PMA covers one year from purchase.  Prior to its expiration, your Milestone partner will be automatically sent emails to remind you about renewal.  When upgrading to a new version of the product, the original PMA renewal date remains the same, i.e. the PMA renewal for the new product in most cases will occur in less than one year (being based on the PMA start date of your original product purchase).

What does it cost?
To purchase the PMA initially, it is offered together with the product at an additional cost of approximately 18% of the product’s Recommended Retail Price (RRP).

How is it purchased?
With new purchase: The PMA can only be bought along with a new product and not as an add-on to a product that has been bought previously. 
When Upgrading: A customer can trade in a Milestone product (previously purchased without a PMA) at a value of 65% of its Recommended Retail Price, to upgrade to a newer version of XProtect, and purchase a PMA at that time.  It is also cheaper to upgrade to larger editions of the software (more camera licenses).  When upgrading, the PMA gives you a 100% return on your original investment (the upgrade discount equals the current RRP + 1 year PMA cost), while moving you forward to a better solution for your growing needs. 

Measurable savings with a PMA
Milestone guarantees that new product releases are made 1 or 2 times a year.  With one product upgrade (for example, an upgrade of XProtect version 4.0 to 4.1) the cost is only 18% of the new product version’s list price.  This means that buying a one-year PMA is cheaper than buying one upgrade – and when there’s more than one upgrade a year, you’ve saved TWICE as much!  Standard upgrade costs are normally 35% of a product’s RRP, whereas it would never be more than 18% of the RRP when you have a PMA.