The Escrow service can help ensure a safe transaction between the licensor (owner of the software) and licensee (beneficiary or user of the software). An Escrow is a legalized agreement in which the software source code and related valuables are deposited to the third party or neutralized party to be held in safe custody according to the contract made between the Licensor, the Licensee and the Escrow Agent (third party). The Escrow Agent will deliver the material to the proper recipient upon the occurance of some release event according to the jurisdiction of Pakistan or otherwise will bound to keep that material with him..
As a licensee you can have many benefits by using our Escrow services
• The costs of finding replacement software are costly and time consuming
• The time it takes to find replacement software will damage or destroy your business.
• Without it, you may be gambling everything on the reliability of the owner.
• You may be legally obliged to use software escrow.
• You may be risking your business continuity with that careers of people attached with your business.
• In absence of your software you might have to bring in house support and development teams.
A licensor can benefit the most from Escrow services in different ways,
• Without it, you are risky to do business with.
• Your users demand it.
• Giving security and peace of mind to users
• It ‘time stamps’ your source code, which may help to
Prove that you own the copyright.
• Better software development and updating control
In Case of multiple companies software development this provides security to all parties
Elate IT as your software escrow agent can invoice either the Licensor or Licensee for the escrow fees. In two-party escrow agreements it is common for the Licensor to pay the escrow agent and invoice their clients some amount to participate in the escrow program. Since three-party escrow agreements are strictly for the benefit of a single Licensee the licensee typically pays all escrow fees. Licensor and Licensee can arrange a mutual understanding on this area too.
With out performing a Technical Verification on the escrow deposit it is impossible to know if the escrow deposit is complete, accurate or will be useful when needed. Elate IT provides "turn key" Technical Verification services to determine if the deposit materials are complete and accurate. Also, there are several steps that can be undertaken in the software escrow agreement to require that certain information be included in the escrow deposit. Elate IT can provide a list of possible deposit materials once we have a better understanding of each situation.
Elate IT is the fastest growing provider of software and source code escrow services. The principals of Elate IT have decades of software and technology services at the highest levels. We understand that there are some key elements to providing quality software and source code escrow services and we excel in each area:
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Facilities - Electronic media must be handled and stored appropriately to protect and preserve the media so that it can be used in a time of need to support the application. Elate IT provides state of the art locker storage. Locker storage facilities are designed to withstand fire and other disasters without affecting the contents of the vault. In addition, Elate IT has developed proprietary storage and retrieval systems to safeguard our client's intellectual property while in our custody. Escrow Service - Elate IT is committed to providing the most responsive and professional services in our industry. We commit to "same day" response time upon request for agreement executions, beneficiary enrollments, notification letters and more. Escrow Agreement - Every escrow provider offers sample contracts. However, Elate IT has designed our agreements to provide the utmost flexibility with regards to initial structure and long term usability. With Elate IT there are no proprietary terms that will hinder flexibility later or require separate agreements depending upon your release conditions. The flexibility designed into our escrow agreements makes meeting current and future escrow requirements as efficient and economical as possible with out compromising quality.
We have our own locker storage area, located in Elate IT contingency site, making it possible that depositing and accessing the material can be done without any delay.
Some features of Elate IT are their for customers without any extra cost, which other service providers provide at added cost, like unlimited updating, reporting features. Multiple verification options to meet clients requirements and budget.
In the end, many companies can provide software escrow services and meet one or two of these key benefits. However, only Elate IT can provide all key benefits and meet your budgetary requirements.
Elate IT utilizes only state of the art locker storage facilities to store escrow deposits. We have our own locker storage areas situated in our premises, which is complete secure and environmentally controlled.
A Locker storage area is a storage facility that is designed and constructed specifically for the storage and preservation of electronic media. These facilities are designed to withstand fire without allowing internal temperatures to rise significantly. Our locker storage areas are equipped with devices that monitor and control the humidity and temperature to the exact levels determined to best preserve electronic media. Further, each form of electronic media must be stored in a fashion that best preserves the integrity of the media and the contents. In addition to providing only the best media storage environments Elate IT takes the additional measure to enter each deposit received into our logging and tracking systems to insure precision in the storage and retrieval of escrow deposits.
Software and source code escrow agreements are a good part of any business continuance plan. However, the quality, completeness and accuracy of the deposit materials determine the value of the escrow deposit. Since the deposit materials will not typically be utilized until some later date, often several years after the initial deposit was made, the storage and preservation is critical in preserving the value of the escrow deposit. All electronic media degrade overtime. Storing electronic media in the appropriate fashion under the appropriate environment for that media will significantly extend the life and value of the escrow deposit.
The use of "casual escrow agents" has dropped significantly in the past decade. Conventional wisdom used to be that anyone other than the developer or licensee could serve as a neutral third party. However, as the technology escrow industry has evolved over time there are four critical characteristics to technology escrow services that have emerged as prime considerations in selecting an escrow agent:
• Escrow Contract
• Storage of the escrow deposit
• Services / Information
• Neutral Third Party
Typically a "casual agent" can only offer 1-2 of these four components of the service. Below are a few examples of the short comings of "casual escrow agents":
Attorneys - Typically attorneys have strong knowledge of the contracts and may be able to provide account information as needed. However, law firms typically lack the proper storage facilities and requisite experience in handling electronic media. Also, attorneys are never neutral third parties if they represent either party in the transaction.
Banks - Banks are often considered as escrow agents because of their vault facilities. However, bank vaults are not designed to store electronic media and banking industry employees typically have no training in this area. Further, their employees are not trained to handle electronic media. Over time banks have learned that software escrow services are not in their core competency. Perhaps this is most evident in the fact that so many banks utilize the services of professional escrow agents for their software and source code escrow needs. Further, their employees are not trained to handle electronic media.
Escrow release conditions are the scenarios in which a release of the escrow deposit would be warranted. In some escrow agreements (i.e. domain name transfer, manufacturing escrow & etc) the release is an inevitable part of the transaction. In typical software escrow agreements the release conditions are not inevitable but serve as business continuance planning if some pre-negotiated event should occur. Elate IT can support a wide array of release conditions and we will work with you to draft an agreement that meets each escrow requirement. Typical release conditions include:
• Bankruptcy of developer
• Total cessation of Developer's business
• Failure to support the terms of a license or support agreement
• Death of key personnel
• Developer's acquisition by a key competitor
• Other
The typical escrow deposit consists of software source code, documentation related to the build environment and instructions for use. However, many other types of intellectual and physical property can be placed into escrow as well. Samples include but are not limited to:
