The result of rapid technological developments and market demands is that ICT inseparable from today’s business process and operations. Every entrepreneur uses software to an extend that any disruption results in serious risk for the continuity of the business. Just think of the man-years involved in updating the company database, or information archives for legal or tax reasons or when it comes to turnover the sales that is actually generated through online sales channels. The question that should be asked is what happens if these programs do not work, for example through bankruptcy, failure to deliver or acquisition of the software supplier?
“The use of software brings an element of risk with it”, agrees Sander Remans Managing Director of Escrow Alliance. “Imagine that your software vendor -for whatever reason- fails to deliver. Suddenly your programs do not work and you can not, for example, sent invoices or acces customer information in your CRM. Or worse, you can not distribute your products anymore as the information about the customer is lost. In the past your ad to acquire new software, re-train staff, and maybe the most costly; you had to build new trust with your customers. That takes time and leads to loss of sales and maybe even your company’s demise. To overcome such business risks, you can implement software escrow which will help you mitigate such risk. That way you can continue to work in the absence of the supplier of the software. Those companies have written programs, it is their intellectual property. “
“What we do is to store and manage the data,” continues Leon Hauzer, business partner of Remans. “Our company, as the Escrow Agent provides a layer of protection of the intellectual property of the supplier and a risk reducing policy for the software user, this is all recorded and executed via an escrow arrangement. We act as an independent third party between supplier and customer. In addition, we [Escrow Alliance] is part of the agreement between the supplier and the end user and we act as buffer between the parties. Escrow Alliance then receives the source code and after a careful verification process the materials are accepted for deposit in a secure offline vault. Then, the source codes are stored in geographically separated vaulting facilities. At the same time we protect the intellectual property of the software that they are their main assets.”
Remans continuous: “We saw in this area a gap in the market. Companies are increasingly working with online programs. Something we call cloud computing. Then the software is not on your own server, which in turn creates a short term risk. Imagine that your online orders automatically is placed to your supplier. Or think of the emergency system reporting a burglary, system fault or any other critical issue that someone has to be aware of. When you lose that link, your screen will turn blank and you will literally stare in the dark. Escrow is not only for big corporation, today also small and medium size business have adopted software to a large extend in their business operations. Software escrow is a solution that removes a large piece of business risk and helps companies to protect their business.
About the Author:
This is a Guest post by Sander Remans from Escrow Alliance http://www.escrowalliance.nl. Escrow Alliance is specialized in software escrow, SaaS escrow, technology escrow, source code escrow, cloud escrow and source code verification and storage services. Escrow Alliance provides escrow agreements and provisions to companies and organisations in Europe, the USA, Africa and Asia. We are headquartered in the Netherlands.