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Testimonials

'In today's business environment, companies are largely dependent on third party knowledge - for example, the IT knowledge which has developed the systems that manage a call centre or a tracking system such as incident management and forecasting, or the fraud detection system used by the major retail chains. This dependence implies risk, particularly if the system is directly related to the core business process. In addressing such risk, it is crucial to mitigate the company's exposure and a key solution would be use of an escrow deposit.'
Robin Atkinson, manager, Institute of Risk Management South Africa

'The agreement Fedict has with Escrow Europe is the logical consequence of the decision taken by the Government to speed up the use of information technology to improve its services to, and dialog with, the public. Also, the new principles of corporate governance with increased accountability of the Government's policy convinced Fedict of the necessity to affirm a balanced and guaranteed escrow arrangement.'
Dominique Volon, managing director: services, Federal State Service for Information and Communication Technology (Fedict), Belgium

'The uniqueness of Escrow Europe, without a doubt, is the completeness of the services provided at the highest quality - especially the extended verification services, tailor-fit legal contracts, and active follow-up for updates and new releases - all provided by a local representative to the doorstep of your business. I am very proud and excited to join this professional and supportive organisation spread throughout Europe and represent them in Israel.'
Ronen Slutzky, managing director, Escrow Europe Israel Ltd

Sarbanes-Oxley, risks, controls, compliance. These are some of the most common terms being used in many boardrooms these days. They join the old favourites of value and performance. The landscape of corporate governance has changed immensely since the emergence of recent corporate failures and resulting legislation and regulations. The sheer volume of new requirements, coupled with responsibilities placed by legislation and stakeholders, is overwhelming C-level executives, board members and audit committees. While it is easier said than done to consistently deliver ROI on IT investments, that is the challenge that faces the person in the CIO's hot seat. And, it is the responsibility of the CEO to support his or her CIO to meet that challenge.'
KPMG, Johannesburg

'Today, company secretaries and compliance officers all need to be able to 'tick off' good governance, as well as contain basic risk exposure such as reliance on the use of intellectual property that they do not own. By entering into an agreement with Escrow Europe, we are demonstrating our commitment to assisting both existing and potential customers meet their corporate governance requirements as well as streamlining the process for them.'
Steve Symes, managing director, Genasys, South Africa


Supplier / licensor


Increase your service level and client satisfaction

 

We operate as a Trusted Third Party for both established and start-up ICT firms. Since our founding in 1989, our core, dedicated business has been the management and safekeeping of confidential Intellectual Property such as software source code, documentation and vital data on behalf of more than 15,000 organisations, worldwide.

 

We treat your Intellectual Property the same way that your bank looks after your money; with the greatest possible duty of care - our agreements are drawn up in such a way that your interests are stringently protected under all circumstances.

 

It can be of great financial value to you that your clients are assured that you have taken extensive measures to safeguard their interests. By ensuring that no matter what happens to your business (for example; a merger, acquisition etc), you have protected their investments in, what is for them, mission critical technology.

On this basis:-

  1. You can make it easy for your clients to procure your Software products no matter whether you are a SMME or large, international Software House;

  2. You can eliminate certain Business Continuity risks for your clients by addressing the growing need for good governance (King Recommendations, COBIT 4.0, Sarbanes Oxley, ITIL, COSO, PAS 56, ISO12207, ISO15504 etc).

The services that we offer require a very small investment for ensuring that your end-users will enjoy business continuity even if you are no longer available (for whatever reason; acquisition, insolvency etc) for them.

 

Effectively, the fact that your client's core business system is dependent on your licensed Software Product (ie they do not own this software) means that their business has been obliged to outsource this core function. Outsourcing of core or mission critical functions implies far greater Operational Risk and the Business Continuity considerations associated with this therefore becomes a major issue for your clients.

 

The market for licensed software products has become far more demanding when it comes to Business Continuity and matters of Operational Risk and, for your clients and potential clients, Active Escrow is no longer a nice to have. On this basis, there is a growing likelihood that you will lose out on business opportunities to your competitors if you are not pro-active in establishing your Active Escrow arrangements.

 

Professional Escrow is becoming an essential component of Operational Risk Management in that it secures Business Continuity in mission critical areas of your Client's business.

There are increasing numbers of Software suppliers and developers, worldwide, who are recognising that:-

  1. Software escrow is a stamp of quality for demonstrating commitment to their Clients in respect of their company/product;

  2. Their Client’s request for escrow is perfectly legitimate as the arrangement deals with mission critical software that requires additional continuity of use warranties.

Locally, many Software Houses are already using the standards we recommend for competitive advantage in this respect. These standards represent international best practice and we recommend that you consider this for all future enquiries that you may have from your Clients for escrow arrangements.

On this basis:-

  1. You establish good governance standards in respect of your own source code deposit risk (you are pro-active and are therefore not exposed to the terms and conditions that End-Users may wish to impose upon you for escrow)

  2. By establishing the arrangement in respect of your product, your Clients can simply subscribe to a 2 Party Frame arrangement – benefit to you:-
    • You are not obliged to have to waste your time with petty amendments that an End-User's attorney may wish to make to individual 3 party agreements;

    • You only need to maintain 1 deposit of the Material, per Software Product, on behalf of all licenced End-Users who wish to subscribe as beneficiaries;

    • You can insist that the escrow arrangement is only available to licensed End-Users if they have a current maintenance contract.

For an expanded list of the benefits of an Active Escrow Agreement for you as an ICT Supplier or Developer, please click here.

 

You can use an individual escrow agreement to offer a client additional security. Alternatively, you can choose to offer the escrow arrangement as part of your Software License Agreement. With an escrow arrangement from Escrow Europe, all your clients are able, automatically, to benefit from a single "umbrella" escrow arrangement.

For you as a Software Supplier, arranging escrow contracts for individual clients can be very time consuming. Our multiple beneficiary agreement offers the perfect solution as it offers a "one deposit for many End-Users" approach. Instead of the overheads associated with multiple (different) one to one agreements, we look after your requirements on a once-off basis

With this type of Active Escrow, also known as a frame agreement, not only are you safeguarding your client's Business Continuity, but you are also freeing up your time to sell more software. All licensees automatically qualify as beneficiaries of the escrow arrangement and the Active Escrow contract simply becomes a standard component of your Software License/Service Level Agreement.

 

You only need to setup an escrow agreement once, we do the rest. We will even contact you to remind you about sending new versions of the source code material for verification. Both your existing and new clients automatically are able to participate in terms of the escrow agreement. Your proactive approach will be appreciated by your clients and prospects.

 

Apart from the efficiency and better service for your clients, a frame agreement offers another major advantage: the annual fee for a single deposit on behalf of all your licensees is significantly less than for multiple deposits made on behalf of each user.

 

For more information click here

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