Technology

The ICT contract nobody reads until it fails

Service levels, data handling and exit are the three clauses that decide what a technology contract is actually worth.

Technology contracts in this market are usually negotiated on price and functionality, and litigated on service levels, data and exit. The three clauses that decide the outcome are the ones that receive the least attention at signature.

Service levels without a measurement method are decorative. Data handling clauses that do not say where data sits, who may access it and what happens on termination create an exposure that survives the contract. And an exit clause that does not oblige the supplier to hand back data in a usable form makes migration a commercial impossibility, whatever the term says.

Draft all three as though the relationship will end badly. Most do not — but the discipline produces a document that is also easier to perform.

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