Johannesburg, 14 Sep 2004
Escrow Europe, the world`s leader in active escrow, has joined forces with Buys Inc, one of the first law firms in SA to specialise exclusively in information technology (IT) and Internet law.
The objective of the strategic partnership is to offer unique and practical escrow solutions to ensure businesses operating in southern Africa effectively and painlessly manage their continuity risks and software licensing.
Headed by livewire Reinhardt Buys, Buys Inc operates from offices in Cape Town and Johannesburg, and counts some of SA`s biggest companies and banks as its clients. The firm is often described as the law firm of the future - relying heavily on technology, non-legal support staff and corporate partnerships or joint ventures to provide fast and business-like services to clients.
The local office of Escrow Europe is steered by managing director Andrew Stekhoven.
Commenting on the strategic partnership with Escrow Europe, Buys said IT and Internet law is a very new branch of the law, especially in SA, and many businesses do not yet realise the extent of compliance legislation and associated risks.
"Under various local and international IT corporate governance guidelines such as ISO 17799, King II Report and section 424 of the Companies Act, for example, companies and their directors are required to take precautions to ensure, among others, that procedures are in place to protect the company`s assets and information, and to identify and address IT and software risks.
"The partnership between Buys Inc and Escrow Europe offers a solution that goes a long way to addressing and minimising these risks, and ensuring compliance with corporate governance requirements," he said.
Stekhoven added: "Locally, as abroad, company secretaries and compliance officers worry how to deal with the risks across the spectrum of intellectual property related issues. They all need to be able to `tick off` good governance, as well as contain basic risk exposure such as reliance on the use of intellectual property that they do not own.
"South Africa - with its international business community, familiarity with US, UK and European business practices, and its national software industry - is starting to demand the kind of custodianship Escrow Europe has to offer."
He described active software escrow as providing for the protection of a company`s technology assets through source code deposits, comprehensive verification and active follow-up to keep these deposits up-to-date.
It is a formal agreement whereby a software vendor/supplier and its end-user agree that the vendor will deposit the source code and related materials of a licensed software product on behalf of the end-user.
This is to warrant end-user access to that information in case the supplier, for one reason or another, is no longer able or willing to provide maintenance of the software product.
Escrow Europe was established in 1989 as a neutral and independent escrow agent, specialising in software escrow and related services.
These related services include:
* Copyright registration (protection of copyrights and backup of know-how).
* Internet technology escrow (escrow of technology driven e-commerce software).
* Web site escrow (indisputable registration of web site content and design.)
* Industrial escrow.
"Headquartered in the Netherlands, Escrow Europe also has offices in Belgium, Israel, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, Australia (Escrow Pacific) and SA," said Stekhoven.
"Our main goal is to provide the highest quality escrow services to a broad range of companies and government agencies. Through various business arrangements with other escrow providers, Escrow Europe is able to offer multinational suppliers worldwide `one deposit` escrow arrangements."
For more information about Escrow Europe`s South African office, visit www.itweb.co.za/office/escroweurope/ and for the global operation, see www.escroweurope.com.
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