Guard-IT Software Escrow: The Escrow Advisor

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The Deposit Materials

Developers often ask, "What items should we include in the escrow deposit?" Conversely, Licensees wonder "What should our Developer send to you?" These are great questions that should be addressed and answered in the early stages of drafting your escrow agreement. The escrow arrangement is only as good as the Deposit Materials
submitted to the escrow agent.

Escrow establishes and preserves the Licensee's contingency, so Deposit Materials must be complete and in working or compilable order -- with instructions! Not only should software source code be deposited, but also support documentation, developer toolkits and
accessories, proprietary operating systems, instruction manuals, notes and any other data or information pertinent to the installation and operation of the product. Contact information for engineers or programmers who developed or support the product is also helpful.

While it may like a lot, all of these components usually fit on a CD or two which is shipped to the escrow agent for vault storage. Properly prepared, a good escrow deposit will be worth a fortune if a release of the Deposit Materials is required.