January 26, 2010 at 10:45am
When evaluating the potential impact of end of support, Clients should consider the stability of their applications, the feasibility and costs for moving to other solutions, and the risks associated with prolonged downtime for the applications.
January 10, 2010 at 10:12pm
SAP is including new language into Agreements, Amendments and Appendices which may limit the contractual rights of its customer, disallowing any future termination of maintenance and support services, of any software and users on an ad hoc or line item basis, or termination of any individual appendix. SAP is including new language that suggests the only way it will contemplate any kind of maintenance and support services termination is if it applies to all Appendices and licensed software. Clearly, SAP is addressing the recent market changes and responding to increased threats of competing support alternatives. This “all or nothing” approach seems to be aimed at eliminating a client’s ability to manage any kind of blended support solution.
January 05, 2010 at 9:32am
Define the term "force majeure" for me. Looking online, there are several:
So what's the common theme? It's the ability to AVOID a particular set of actions. In other words, force majeure events are those which are unavoidable or unforeseeable. If you only click one link above, do the one for Wikipedia and learn about the three-part test in French and international law for what constitutes a force majure event. UCC Section 2-615, "Excuse by Failure of Presupposed Conditions" and the Restatement of Contracts 2d, Section 261 "Excused Nonperformance" also include multi-part tests.
But we've gotten lax in contract drafting in the US and folks have assumed that force majeure clauses (those that allow a party to not perform as a result of one of these types of events) were continually written with actual unavoidable events listed. In fact, almost every force majeure clause I now see contains at least one, if not more, of the following things as force majeure events:
Unfortunately, these are not force majeure events. Why? Because most of them can be planned for… and even something like terrorism and war (especially when they're happening right now), should be planned for. If you can plan for them, they're foreseeable. And if they're foreseeable, they're not unforeseeable. See where I'm going with this? 
So when you strike these items out of the force majure event clause, you're going to get push back because people don't want to be responsible for planning in all eventualities. You're not asking them to do it. Rather, you're asking that contract performance not be hindered or halted as a result of things that are capable of having a backup plan. Which means that you could, if you were so inclined, draft language which allows for these items to be force majeure only if they were part of a backup plan that still was impeded. In other words, you'll give these items force majure weight if the party claiming force majeure can show that they had planned for them properly, but still ran into trouble.
Oh, and by the way, force majeure also isn't one-size-fits-all. Would you EVER list telecommunication difficulties in a contract with your telephone service provider? Additionally, force majeure protections should benefit BOTH parties, even if one party's sole obligation is to cut a check. Payment can…
January 04, 2010 at 9:32am
Happy New Year!
I saw an interesting article today that high-tech vehicles were posing problems to some mechanics. The mechanics claim that they can't afford the thousands of dollars that are necessary for them to obtain the specialized diagnostic tools for each auto manufacturer. The manufacturers are claiming that they're trying to protect their intellectual property.
Sound familiar? Yup, it's exactly like the issues Frank Scavo and Ray Wang have written about with regards to third-party software providers being blocked from performing various maintenance/implementation tasks by the contracts and software licenses and services agreements of certain primary vendors.
On the automotive side, it's apparently gotten to be such an issue that there's a congressional bill called the Motor Vehicle Owners Right to Repair Act of 2009. The stated purpose of this Bill is to "protect the rights of consumers to diagnose, service, maintain, and repair their motor vehicles". What's really interesting are the Bill's findings, among which say that:
And the requirements of the Bill, specifically:
The only thing the Bill protects for the manufacturer are things that are actual trade secrets.
Wow. Of course, there are a LOT of people (and more specifically, a lot of trade association and advocacy groups) behind this Bill.
Could you imagine what would happen if this passes and someone realizes that software in cars isn't that dissimilar to plain old enterprise software? If only there was a trade association group for buyers of enterprise software apps. 
But let's talk about the other side of the issue for a moment. Do consumers have a right to have third-party companies provide service? A right? No. I don't think there's a right to be able to have third-party providers. [Keep in mind, when…