While you’re busy growing your company and expanding your client base, there is an important issue in the world of digital business protection that could make or break your company in the future.
Now, more than ever, the issue of online intellectual property is at the forefront of many online business’ agendas. Many digital firms are moving forward to ensure the protection of their company’s most valuable asset, and you should be too.
Safeguarding your web development or design business means protecting that which is most important to you; ideas. A source code repository provides a great solution for modern-day digital safeguarding.
A source code repository is an online file archive and web hosting facility aimed at protecting and storing your company’s source code in a secure and private manner. It also allows you to set permissions and access so that you have more control over you’re your developers can and cannot do. Putting the safety of your company’s ideas, designs and code first, is securing the future of your business, should anything go wrong.
However, simply uploading your files to a repository is not enough. When choosing a method of protection for your online data, you need a secure, trustable solution with clear codes of practice, such as an escrow. Through an independent third-party escrow agreement, everybody wins. Original source code is secured for clients, in case of emergency, while developers can ensure their code is not given away or stolen by contractors.
Unfortunately, and something a lot of companies still need to embrace, is that it is not as simple as just uploading your files to an escrow repository. There are some important considerations that need to be taken into account if you choose to go down this route.
For example, if something happens to your developer, whether they get sick or quit, you need to know that the code they were working on for your client is safe and, most importantly, accessible. It is important to ensure that you have a fully-fledge agreement set in place beforehand, should something like this happen. Ask yourself, ‘who owns the rights to the original code’, ‘who has permission to access the code’ and ‘what are the next steps’.
An escrow allows for a smooth, legal transition of work, providing you have fulfilled a few key elements. Most importantly, perhaps, is testing the code.
If the code is discovered to be faulty after the hand over, additional investment to solve the issues will be required on your part, wasting valuable time and money. Make sure to test the code before the transition, ensuring everything works sufficiently.
Without this vital and often overlooked step, the security that comes with an escrow repository can turn out to be useless.
Another important step when working with an escrow repository is to constantly update the code. Similar to failing to test the code, this can result in outdated and broken code, which will render your data as useless. The easiest solution for this is to simply schedule regular updates. The regularity of the updates can be agreed upon while outlining the terms of the escrow.
An escrow is a powerful and worthwhile solution for protecting your business’ ideas and more. However, the true benefit of this system only comes with a concentrated effort to ensure it is maintained correctly and that software is regularly tested and updated.
Not only will you ensure the longevity of your business, but you will also avoid many unwanted legal disputes, disagreements with clients and providers or extended delays to your work.