The recently opened South African office of Escrow Europe, a leading provider of active software escrow and related services, has joined the SA Netherlands Chamber of Commerce (SANEC).
SANEC is a Section 21 company whose goal is to foster closer economic ties and better mutual understanding between SA and the Netherlands, a country with which the new Escrow Europe (South Africa) operation has close ties.
Its managing director, Andrew Stekhoven, is well known in local IT and Dutch circles. Parent company Escrow Europe BV, established in 1989 as an independent and neutral trusted third-party that specialises in intellectual property escrow, is headquartered in Amsterdam. It also has satellite offices in Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, Israel and Australia. The SA office was opened in January 2004.
Stekhoven says: "The group`s main goal is to provide the highest quality active escrow services to a broad range of companies and government agencies. The purpose of escrow is to ensure companies and government agencies are able to safeguard their business continuity and comply with current operational risk best practices.
"Escrow Europe is able to offer local and multinational suppliers worldwide `one deposit` escrow arrangements. On this basis we currently verify and administer source code deposits on behalf of more than 15 000 beneficiaries across the globe.
"Related services include protection of copyright and backup of know-how, provision of escrow for Internet-based e-commerce software, Web site content and design, industrial escrow services and many more. A Business Partner Programme is in place for local companies with related skills and knowledge whereby they work with us in the provision of value-added services to their clients."
Recently Dick de Wilde, Escrow Europe Group CEO, visited SA to meet potential customers and business partners. One of the active escrow case studies cited by De Wilde involves Schiphol Airport, the Netherlands` main air-gateway and one of the world`s busiest transport nodes.
"Each terminal at Schiphol operates as an independent cost centre, and one in particular is highly profitable," De Wilde noted. "This is partly because the terminal authorities were able to implement a powerful but low-cost access control system, developed and maintained by a team of only two engineers.
"A comparable system from one of the larger software houses would have cost significantly more to implement and maintain. Thanks to an active escrow agreement, which provides terminal managers with a guarantee of continuity should their access control partners fail to hold up their side of the software licence contract, it was possible to entrust this mission-critical application to a lower-cost supplier and thereby reap the financial rewards.
"This is just one example of how active software escrow can assist both private and public enterprises in their bid to better manage their third-party-dependent business systems and assure disruption-free operation now and into the future."
Share
Editorial contacts