Re: SSA Wants to Audit Our System (?)

I've got clients who have been told by their software BP that if the 
customers discontinue paying maintenance, their right to use the software 
will be revoked. This is from a BP who's whispering to its customers that 
the next generation of the software will run only on the SQL server 
platform, even though IBM's web site talks about the BP being heavily into 
webfacing. Go figure.

In SSA's case, if after careful review, your attorney says that they have 
the right to perform such an audit, I would suggest the following:
Have SSA post a bond that ensures that you will be compensated for any 
downtime in the event of a problem. I would start at $10 million, plus 
whatever hourly rate you establish for downtime.
Have SSA incur the cost of adding disk drives to contain the extra data, 
and ensure that those drives reside in a separate ASP. They can be removed 
upon completion of the audit.
Have SSA provide you with copies of the software in advance to permit you 
to perform a code review.
Have SSA agree to pay for a mutually agreeable consultant to audit the 
software, since your staff is too busy.
Have SSA agree to allow you to have a copy of the output for your own 
protection in the event you end up in court.

JMHO

Paul Nelson
Arbor Solutions, Inc.
708-670-6978  Cell
pnelson@xxxxxxxxxx

"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest." 
Samuel L. Clemens  (Mark Twain)




"Michael Naughton" <mnaughton@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent by: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
10/27/2003 09:03 AM
Please respond to Midrange Systems Technical Discussion

 
        To:     Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
        cc: 
        Subject:        Re: SSA Wants to Audit Our System (?)


In our case, we believe that we paid for exactly those rights, and I
understand we have the paperwork to prove it.

But now I have a more general question: my boss says what they want to do
is have us load some of their software on our system, using QSECOFR
authority. It's then supposed to run for six weeks, collecting information
in data files, which they will collect at the end.

He seems to think we'd be crazy to let anyone do that, for any reason,
because of security and data integrity issues. Is this standard procedure?
Has anyone else experienced anything like this? I'm just curious. . .


Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>Unless you paid for rights to continue modifying/using their code, you're
>in
>trouble.


Mike Naughton
Senior Programmer/Analyst
Judd Wire, Inc.
124 Turnpike Road
Turners Falls, MA  01376
413-863-4357 x444
mnaughton@xxxxxxxxxxxx

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