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Contracts between an organization and a software vendor should clearly describe the rights and responsibilities of the parties to the contract. The contracts should be in writing with sufficient detail to provide assurances for performance, source code accessibility, software and data security, and other important issues. Before management signs the contracts, it should submit them for legal counsel review.
Organizations may encounter situations where software vendors cannot or will not agree to the terms an organization requests. Under these circumstances, organizations should determine if they are willing to accept or able to mitigate the risks of acquiring the software without the requested terms. If not, consideration of alternative vendors and software may be appropriate.