SaaS, ASP Agreements – FAQs – Confidential Information

What confidentiality provisions need to be included in a SaaS agreement?Define Confidential Information.
Parties will obtain and have access to the business critical information of each other as a result of entering into a SaaS Agreement. For example, they may have access to customer lists, banking information, IPR, source code and object code or business secrets and processes. Confidential information should be defined in the SaaS agreement to make clear what is, and what is not, confidential. Do not simply refer to documents which are “marked as confidential” or “which should be treated as confidential”. Not all confidential information exists in a physical format, particularly in a SaaS scenario – so do not restrict your definition to just documents.

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SaaS, ASP Agreements – FAQs – Security

What data security provisions need to be included in a SaaS agreement? Customer’s Security Obligations – These should be set out in the software licence. Access to the software and services should not be permitted to third parties without prior authorisation from the supplier. The customer should provide the following warranties:
– existence of adequate security measure to ensure access to the software and services does not breach the terms of the SaaS agreement

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SaaS, ASP Agreements – FAQs – Escrow

When negotiating a SaaS agreement you may come across the term escrow. What is escrow and is an escrow agreement necessary? Under the terms of a SaaS agreement you do not own or have any rights to the software (which includes the source code) that you are accessing. This is usually not an issue until technical problems arise, i.e. unexpected service interruptions, downtime, loss of application functionality and loss of data. This can add significant costs to your business and you are dependent upon the supplier to resolve these issues, unless you have an escrow agreement in place.

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SaaS, ASP Agreements – Source Code and Object Code

When negotiating a SaaS agreement you will come across the terms source code and object code. What is the difference between source code and object code? Source code is the version of a computer programme that exists prior to the software being ready to compile and run on a computer. The source code consists of a number of statements created in a text form by a programmer.

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