IT contracts series – Second edition: Panorama of IT services
In addition to the First Panorama already published on this blog, our expert lawyers in IT contracts present below a summary of the IT services you may need to negotiate, in the form of a simplified table.
| Contract name | Purpose/services |
| Development contract (specific) | To develop software in line with a customer’s requirements, i.e. to write the source code and generate the object code corresponding to the functionalities requested by the customer. |
| Intellectual property rights disposal agreement | Transferring all intellectual property rights to an IT tool. It should be noted that any company basing its activity on an IT tool must, from the outset, address the issue of intellectual property rights on this tool, which are natively held by the developer. |
| License agreement | Granting a right to use an IT tool for a specific period of time. |
| Outsourcing contract | To monitor the operation of an IT tool remotely. |
| Maintenance contract (“tierce maintenance applicative”/”TMA” when it’s a third-party tool) | Carrying out different types of maintenance on an IT tool: corrective maintenance to correct bugs preventive maintenance to monitor the operation of the tool (similar to outsourcing) evolutionary maintenance to optimize the IT tool regulatory maintenance to ensure that the tool complies with applicable regulations The GDPR stakes for this type of service are high, since the maintainer is a subcontractor within the meaning of the GDPR if they work in or have access to production environments. |
| Hosting contract | Installing an IT tool on servers and operating the servers to ensure continuity of access to the IT tool. The tool can therefore be accessed remotely from a datacenter (hosting center). New GDPR challenges for this type of service are strategic, since the hosting provider is a subcontractor within the meaning of the GDPR. |
| Cloud contract | Specific hosting because it is virtualized, i.e. the files/data are sequenced so that they can be hosted in different datacenters to increase hosting security. All these datacenters and, above all, their IT environments are referred to as the cloud, as a virtual backup location. |
| SAAS contract | This contract groups together license, maintenance and hosting services (usually in the cloud). The special feature of this contract is that each customer has access to a standard tool for all the service provider’s customers. |
| Technical assistance contract | Provision of teams of IT specialists with specific skills for a given project. |
| Consultancy contract | Consultancy services such as project management assistance, which are highly strategic and complex to implement. Particular attention should be paid to the acceptance clause or RACI. |
| Transition or migration contract | Services required in the event of a change of IT service provider or outsourcing, involving the transfer of data and skills. |
| Contract for the subcontracting of personal data processing or DPA | Contract required by the GDPR as soon as the data controller transmits data to a third party for assistance in carrying out its processing. |
Before any purchase of IT services or when you set up your IT services contracts, you must first and foremost ensure that the purpose of the planned contract is set out clearly, which will enable you to negotiate effectively on the important clauses with regard to this purpose.
Our lawyers are at your disposal to answer all your questions and advise you. Our meetings can be held face-to-face or by videoconference. You can make an appointment directly online at www.agn-avocats.com.
AGN AVOCATS – Intellectual Property
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