Thanks everyone. Just as an FYI I'm no longer a freelancer and am now working for a company. It's just the administrative side of things that have fallen into my lap, and not the legal side (atm)!
Luckily we're moving to a new TFS based system so most of the admin side of the code preparation is fresh in my mind but I appcreciate that we'll need to be thorough (lot of dotting i's and crossing t's). >From a general perspective - the escrow company has been doing it for 30 years and I'll be chatting to them next week and wanted to get an idea of things I need to think about before talking to them. And all your comments have helped raise some talking points that should make it easier for me. Thank you. regards, Preet, in Auckland NZ On 6 November 2015 at 13:25, David Richards <[email protected]> wrote: > I haven't had to deal with the administrative side but I have had to > prepare the source code for such things. The biggest hassle is packaging > it in a format that is useful. You can't just give them you VS solution or > eclipse project. You need to include everything else necessary to > successfully compile the code. This includes third party libraries, DB > scripts, documentation, etc. You tend to forget everything you did to set > up your dev environment or build server so this can take some effort. It > also means maintaining this escrow package somewhere because you will > typically have to update it as you update your product. > > > David > > "If we can hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes > will fall like a house of cards... checkmate!" > -Zapp Brannigan, Futurama > > On 6 November 2015 at 11:02, Greg Low (罗格雷格博士) <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Mostly it’ll be because they have some concern about your company’s long >> term viability. It probably isn’t that they don’t want to pay for it. They >> just don’t want to have a situation where you disappear and they have no >> way to continue to work on it. >> >> >> >> I’ve seen that in a number of contracts. >> >> >> >> There’s a product that we shipped years ago in binary-only form. Someone >> asked about a source license and so we made one available for 25 times the >> binary price, thinking no-one would ever buy it. The source licenses ended >> up providing the highest income from the product. Many large companies >> purchased the source license, not because they wanted to work on the >> source, but just because they never wanted to be stuck if we weren’t around >> anymore. >> >> >> >> Regards, >> >> >> >> Greg >> >> >> >> Dr Greg Low >> >> >> >> 1300SQLSQL (1300 775 775) office | +61 419201410 mobile│ +61 3 8676 4913 >> fax >> >> SQL Down Under | Web: www.sqldownunder.com >> >> >> >> *From:* [email protected] [mailto: >> [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Tony Wright >> *Sent:* Friday, 6 November 2015 10:08 AM >> *To:* ozDotNet <[email protected]> >> *Subject:* Re: Escrow : anyone been involved in the process? >> >> >> >> Hi Preet, >> >> I would be very wary of entering into that process unless title was kept >> by you until they paid in full. They mustn't be allowed to use the software >> in production like environments until they've paid for everything. Escrow >> sounds to me like they will hold back payment until the software is big >> free, and as we all know that never happens. >> >> Kind regards, Tony >> >> On 6 Nov 2015 9:30 am, "Preet Sangha" <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> One of our customers (UK govt org) has requested that the software we >> provide is held in escrow. >> >> >> >> This will be our first product that is going to be escrowed and I've >> never been involved in the process and was wondering if it's a relatively >> straightforward process or something we'll need to carefully plan for. >> >> >> >> Also if there are any gotchas you found that would be great to hear about >> in advance. Thank you >> >> >> >> >> regards, >> Preet, in Auckland NZ >> >> >> >> >
