IT Service Handover

Locked

we’re about to hand over our 5-years service support to another company. anyone can help on which items should be handed over to them and which ones should not.

FYI, our company lost in the bid process and we’re reluctant to hand over our custom made software & procedure to these new guys. But we need to be fair.

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Been there; done that

In reply to IT Service Handover

I’ve spent most of my career as a contract employee. As I see it the main difference between my experience and yours is that from my first day of supporting a client both my orientation and that of my clients is to find my replacement as soon as possible. Your orientation is to keep providing service to your client for as long as possible. Otherwise it seems to me that our experiences are comparable.

Now it turns out that one of my brothers in law is a patent attorney. Many years ago we talked about the legal status of things that I created while working for any particular client. Some of these things were custom software created for the exclusive use of the customer. My interest at that time was to determine the legal status of things that I created on my own time that were not intended to be used by my customers. Specifically, I wanted to know the legal status of any books that I might write.

Before I go any further I will say as I have done in many other posts that I am not an attorney. I am simply going to make a statement based on my talks with my attorney brother in law. The only reason that I am going to say this is to point out something that you should discuss with an attorney. ( Initial consultations are often free of charge. ) My brother in law told me that software that I created while on the job and being paid by the customer for the exclusive use of the customer belongs to the customer for thirty years. The legal term to describe these sofware creations is “work for hire”. So, if I understand your question, I believe that software that you created for your customer belongs to your customer. It MAY be possible that you specifically stated otherwise if you have a written Service Level Agreement (SLA) with your customer. I don’t know the legal status of that situation.

So if you don’t want to allow your soon-to-be-ex-customer to continue to use software that you created for their use then PLEASE consult an attorney.

As far as being smart is concerned remember that the customer that you are losing may be a source of new business. They may decide at some time in the future to hire you back or they may refer another potential customer to you. However, if you make them angry then you can kiss future business with them good bye, and they certainly wouldn’t refer their other business contacts to you. So from the standpoint of YOUR future best interest I would say don’t make an issue of this. Allow them to continue to use the software that you created for them. If you part company as friends then they may bring more business to you in the future. The same thing is true for any documentation that you created to help support this customer. If you mapped their LAN or if you wrote custom procedures that you use to support this customer then give it to them even if they are unaware that this documentation exists. Be smart. Be friendly. Live long and prosper.

I’m involved in a transition out myself

In reply to IT Service Handover

The service delivery manager, who I am reporting to, is only handing over what belongs to the customer (their data), nothing more. His attitude is that we will assist the customer with the transition if it’s in the scope, our competition will pay for anything overlooked or needed. You’d be mad to help your competition for free.

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