RE: Software escrow

Nothing's normal these days; people charge for some ridiculous "services".
Only you can decide if $900/year is worth it.

Questions:

1)  Why do you need the source in escrow?  Isn't the software company
stable/reputable?  Are you making an infrastructure investment elsewhere
(iSeries) to support the salesforce software?
2)  The same last name may or may not mean anything; it's worth finding out.
I'd want a true arm's-length relationship between the law firm and software
firm.
3)  If the last name is meaningful, I'd be more concerned with getting the
source /out/ of escrow.
4)  Find out if your company's law firm, or an independent 3rd party firm,
can hold the escrowed (I'm using it too, so we've made it a word) source.
5)  $900/year stinks.  $900 once would be okay; what are they going to do
every year to earn the money?  Dust off the CD-ROM and hold it up to the
light?
6)  Depending upon the size of the deal and company politics, face down the
vendor and explain that this $900 fee is a deal-breaker not because of the
money but because of how it was presented.

The concept of escrow is neutrality.  I don't see much here.

I've developed my own policy for handling "complete surprises": I walk (or
throw the vendor's sorry ass) out the door.  Many vendors are hoping the
emotional commitment to buying will prevail over surprise and annoyance;
don't let it.  It's important to be reasonable and it's just as important to
know when to draw the line.  You are the customer...which means little if
you're buying commercial jets and nuthin' if you're buying a midrange server
with an OS-resident database.

If they're trying to screw you over at the initiation of the business
relationship, can it get any better?

Speaking as a vendor, we get surprises too: we disclose the price, do the
legwork, price-qualify the customer, make a formal proposal, and then have
the customer (with a big past-due balance) say, "Well, we can't afford
$45,000; we can only afford $18,000."  You'd think we'd learn from the
past-due balance...

-reeve


-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-admin@midrange.com [mailto:midrange-l-admin@midrange.com]On
Behalf Of Jeff Crosby
Sent: Sunday, July 07, 2002 9:56 AM
To: midrange-l@midrange.com
Subject: Software escrow

We are looking at new salesforce automation software for our salesreps
laptops.  I got the software license agreement paperwork and whatnot.  I
was surprised to find that if we want the source code escrowed (is that
a word?), we need to pay $900/year to this legal agency.  I pitched a
bit of a fit because this was a complete surprise.  Their response was
"Hey, it's optional so just don't do it."

One of the names in the legal firm is the same last name as one of the
principals in the software firm, so, being the cynic that I am, I just
took it as a way to get more money into the family.

My question is, is this normal to pay annually for software escrow?

Thanks.

-Jeff Crosby
Dilgard Frozen Foods, Inc.


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