Intellicore Design Consulting’s business practice is focused on small- to medium-sized businesses. Some of our clients and prospects are just moving up the line to having professionally managed IT resources.
Nothing wrong with that. However, whether you build internal or use external IT resources, you'll want to employ best practices to ensure that you safeguard your intellectual property and facilitate smooth-running IT resources. Here are 6 tips to help you do so.
The tips
1. Take ownership of your Intellectual Property (IP)
Any custom software you have paid to have developed for your company is your intellectual property – unless otherwise indicated in an IP contract.
Employees. Safeguard your company’s intellectual assets by having employees sign contracts that stipulate your company retains ownership of any IP development undertaken on behalf of the employee while working for the company.
Third-party developers. In some cases, though, third-party developers may retain ownership of custom applications but this should be clearly stipulated in any contracts between your company and theirs.
The best contractual solution is to visit an intellectual property lawyer, although there are also a variety of sample IP contracts available online.
2. Ensure access to source code
Third-party software. For any mission-critical applications you use in your business, be sure you have access to the most current source code through a third-party escrow agent. This is invaluable in the event the software developer suffers some sort of major loss, such as bankruptcy, or fails to maintain its software.
If such an event occurred, the escrow agent would release the source code to the companies who have escrow rights to it. You would then gain access to not only the code but any associated data.
In the event you use a third-party reseller to implement a solution, the original software developer should offer options for escrowing source code that the reseller can, in turn, offer to you as the final end user.
Custom software. If you use third-party developers to create custom applications for you, be sure you receive your own copy of the source code (and it’s a good idea to archive earlier versions too). Again, the more mission-critical an application is to you, the more important it is to gain access to the source code.
The value of this asset is it frees you from being locked into staying with an unsatisfactory vendor because you lack access to your own code. It allows you to change vendors as needed, whenever needed.
3. Prepare an IT disaster recovery plan
Your business continuity planning should include considerations for IT disaster recovery – including your website, email, and major operational applications.
It is important to consider where your data and applications are stored -- especially from a disaster recovery perspective – whether you host your own applications or use a third-party vendor.
Keep in mind the best vendors will have redundancies built into their systems to avoid lost time. Be sure whoever manages your servers or applications have the most “up-to-date” back-up & recovery system(s) – and a plan to quickly get your applications and data up and running if a disaster does occur.
For a small business -- this question is extremely important. We recommend out-sourcing to viable and industry-strength third-party platforms with reliable and knowledgeable people managing it.
4. Incorporate the ability to upgrade or migrate to new technologies
When you spend money on your IT assets how easy and manageable is it to upgrade to newer and better technologies? Additionally, consider the cost of development for applications, especially mission-critical ones.
It may sound appealing to create your own custom applications to meet your business needs. However, custom apps will tend to carry higher overall development costs and be harder and more expensive to maintain. They may also tend to lock your company into the original developer.
We recommend companies, especially SMBs, look to third-party applications or Software As A Service (SaaS) to meet your business demands. The best solutions are those that can meet those needs predominantly with standard functionality – but have room to do some customization.
Aside from lowering the cost of development and implementation, third-party solutions will tend to have more resellers or solution implementers to choose from. That means your company won’t be locked into an unsatisfactory vendor.
5. Implement data compliance standards
When you have critical online data provided by your customers, partners, or others, certain data compliance requirements need to be in place. Regulatory standards affect the broad areas of data privacy, security, retention, protection and accountability.
For example, online vendors should be following industry standards such as the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Compliance. These measures protect you from fraud, theft, being sued, or any other loss.
In another example, one company we talked to had strict demands to meet Sarbanes-Oxley requirements and needed their solution to meet these.
Any vendors you use should be familiar with and implement the latest data compliance standards applicable for your industry and business situation.
6. Take control of your company’s online accounts
If a vendor has provided you a service that includes any account login information for a specific application or website, then make sure the account is listed in your company’s name and with a contact within your company. As needed, you can give third-party vendors login IDs for the site or application, including admin-level security if warranted for the services to be performed.
Maintaining control of your accounts is important if you want to change vendors or staff responsibilities. With this information, you will have the ability to change or delete logins for terminated staff and vendors, ensuring your application’s data remains secured. Note: it’s best to change login information right before terminations.
Summary
It’s common for an SMB to seek out a price-based IT provider, a.k.a. “cheap.” However, if your company and vendor fail to practice the 6 tips above, then cheap could become insidiously expensive – and worst case, disastrous for your business.
By all means, seek out affordable services. At the same time, though, implement best IT practices that will ensure the value of your intellectual property assets. Additionally, seek out practices and solutions that will provide you with a long-term balance of value and price.
One of the services provided by Intellicore Design Consulting is business strategy. Feel free to contact us to help you with your IT strategy.