There are some very real and legitimate concerns facing businesses that contract bespoke software developers – especially the smaller ones consisting of only one or two people. Among the questions raised are: ‘What if something happens to the developer or the company?

For many years now, these concerns have been addressed – at least to some extent – by escrow agreements. Lodewyk Cilliers, patent attorney with DM Kisch, describes escrow as: “It`s a way of securely holding intellectual property. It`s held in confidence ... you`re effectively moving it from your own safe into somebody else`s safe or vault,” he says.

Herman Singh, Director: technology engineering at Standard Bank, offers further insight: “The major need for escrow is for a customer to have access to the source code in the event of a contractual dispute or the collapse of the vendor. The challenge that companies have is when to do it, how to do it and who to do it with.”