System and method for selling software on a pay-per-use basis

摘要

A system and method of providing after sales support for medical systems is described. During the economic lifetime of a medical system, new or modified software modules may become available as a result of advances in medical knowledge or the technology of the medical system. Such updates or improvements may be provided to customers with suitable existing medical systems by making such modules available for licensing on a pay-per-use or a paid-up license basis. Information regarding the after sales support is maintained on a data base by the manufacturer and provided to customers over a wide-area network. The information may be customized on the basis of the existing configuration of the customer medical system to indicate the additional modules that are available.