Freedom is something all humans need in the modern access economy. Software as a service is the future of IT business because it helps organisations attain freedom. Join us for a webinar on attaining freedom through software as a service agreements.
Why do we buy software when we could rent it?
We live in an on-demand culture where we can access what we need when we need it, be it a lift on Uber, a place to stay via Airbnb or the latest series through Netflix – all without the burden of having to maintain a car, rent a flat or buy a DVD. Why then do so many businesses spend lots of money on buying client-side software that they install on their equipment when they could rent it instead as software as a service (SaaS)?
We believe that software as a service is the future of the IT business for both service providers and customers because it fulfills a fundamental human need: freedom.
Renting your software instead of buying it:
- leaves you free to change from one service provider to another more easily as a customer;
- gives you the power to control the intellectual property in your role as a software as a service provider because it’s running through the cloud instead of from your customer’s equipment; and
- lets you pay less money for better software as a customer and more easily improve and update your software for many customers as a service provider.
The benefits are endless and appeal to us because we all want to be free.
How we approach software as a service agreements
Whether you want to be the customer or the vendor, if you want to get involved in the world of software as a service, you will need to understand how to draft software as a service agreements. In particular, you will have to know what new and unique content your agreements should deal with, as well as what ‘standard’ contractual clauses need to be tweaked slightly for a software as a service context.
Software as a service agreements deal with unique concepts, including:
- user behaviour – like what users can and cannot do with the software as a service on a day-to-day basis;
- personal data – like who is responsible for any user data stored in the software as a service; and
- access and availability – like when and under what circumstances the software as a service will be unavailable.
They also change the way you have to think about some of the more common contractual clauses, including:
- development methodology – like how your development methodology will affect your delivery of a software as a service deliverable;
- warranties and disclaimers – like whether it is practically possible to grant ‘common’ warranties in a software as a service context; and
- support services – like whether the software as a service developer will be providing the support services for the software as a service after delivery to the customer.
A software as a service agreement can help you attain freedom in how you use software as a service as a customer or how you provide it as a service provider by covering:
- the commercial details of the transaction – such as the monthly subscription fee, the support and service levels and terms of any free trial; and
- the legal details – such as the customer’s right to use the software and the protection of their user’s personal data or the limitation of the service provider’s liability and their right to suspend access under certain circumstances.
What you can do to attain freedom through software as a service agreements
You can come to our webinar!
We offer a seminar about ‘Freedom through software as a service agreements’ that you can attend over the Internet from the comfort of your laptop, smartphone or workstation where various specialist IT lawyers will discuss how we approach software as a service agreements and you can ask your questions and have them answered in real time.
If you’re interested in a webinar, please enquire now.