COMMITMENTS
Commitments
Once a system is delivered, what really decides how well it serves you is the warranty scope, the maintenance arrangement and who holds the rights. This page sets those out in advance rather than leaving them to the contract stage.
WARRANTY
Warranty scope and period
A warranty period begins once the system goes live. During it, we correct program defects within the delivered scope at no additional charge.
- Warranty period
- The warranty period is counted from acceptance of the system. Its actual length is stated in the contract according to the size of the system and the delivered scope.
- What the warranty covers
- Correction of program defects within the delivered scope. The same team carries through from development into maintenance, so no one has to relearn your system to deal with an issue.
- What the warranty does not cover
- Requirement changes, new features, specification changes at third-party services, and data problems not caused by us all fall outside the warranty and are billed as maintenance or as a new project. The actual exclusions are listed item by item in the contract according to the delivered scope.
- How to report an issue
- Issues during the warranty period are all received through a designated contact and prioritised by how widely they affect operations. The intake method and the response times are agreed in the contract according to the scale of use and your operating hours.
MAINTENANCE
Maintenance after launch
Going live is not the end point. Later adjustments and extensions stay with the original team, and maintenance runs on an annual agreement or per incident, agreed according to the size of the system.
- How maintenance is billed
- Maintenance runs on an annual agreement or per incident, agreed according to the size of the system, the support hours and the response times. For an annual agreement, the scope of service and the fee bands are explained together with the quote.
- Support hours and response times
- Support hours are planned around your operating hours, and response times are graded by the downtime an issue causes. Ordinary and urgent issues are agreed separately and written into the maintenance contract.
- The maintenance team
- Consultation, design, development and maintenance are handled by the same team, with no handover part-way. Changes and extensions need no fresh briefing, which keeps communication costs lower.
- Who bears third-party costs
- Cloud servers, domain names, LINE messaging quota and Apple and Google developer accounts are third-party costs. We recommend registering them in your name and paying for them directly, so that nothing constrains a later transfer.
OWNERSHIP
Ownership of the source code and data
This is the most fundamental difference between custom software and a subscription: the system and the data are your own assets, not something rented.
- Where the data is stored
- In a database or on a server you specify, which may be cloud, your own servers or a mixed setup. The data can be exported freely and connected freely to internal or external systems.
- How the source code is delivered
- Whether the source code is delivered at project close, and in what form and at what point, is agreed in the contract according to the licensing arrangement and the closing conditions. Where delivery is agreed, we also supply the documentation needed for deployment and environment configuration.
- Whose name accounts are registered in
- Apple and Google developer accounts and the LINE Official Account should in every case be held by you and registered in your name, so that the app and the accounts genuinely belong to you.
- Transferring the system later
- The data and the accounts are in your name, and the system is not tied to our services. The scope of handover at the end of an engagement and the assistance we give are agreed in the contract according to how the system is deployed and who takes it over.
Related service
Custom Software DevelopmentINTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Intellectual property
Material each side provides remains the property of that side. Rights in the delivered work are written out item by item in the contract and are never settled verbally.
- Material you provide
- The data, documents, images and trademarks you provide remain yours. We use them only within the project, never for other clients and never on public display.
- Rights in the delivered work
- Copyright ownership and the licence scope for the delivered work, meaning the source code, design files and documentation, are written out item by item in the contract according to the nature of the project and the basis of the quote, and are explained at the quoting stage.
- Existing components and third-party packages
- The system may include third-party open-source packages, which remain under their original licence terms. How our existing shared components are licensed is stated in the contract according to how far they are used in the project.
CONFIDENTIALITY
How we handle confidentiality
This website names no client without their agreement, and that is deliberate. Your project will be treated the same way.
- Clients are named only with their agreement
- A published case study names the client only where the client has agreed to it. Otherwise it describes the industry, the problem, what was actually done and the improvement that can be quantified.
- Scope of data access
- Where development or maintenance requires access to your data, we access only what the work requires, restrict which data can be reached and keep a query log.
- Non-disclosure agreements
- Confidentiality is a basic condition of working together, and the terms that apply are always the ones in the contract both sides sign: the contract states the scope of confidentiality, the obligations on each party and how long they last. If your internal rules use their own non-disclosure wording, raise it before signing and it can be folded into the contract.
This page describes our general practice. The actual warranty period, maintenance plan and assignment of rights are governed by the contract or quotation the two parties sign.
ANY QUESTIONS
Still have questions about the terms?
Warranty, maintenance and rights can all be confirmed before a quote is issued. Tell us what concerns you and we will go through it point by point.