It is common practice in licence agreements for the contractor to limit the warranty remedies to allowing CERN to terminate the licence and receive a reimbursement on fees already paid in respect of the remaining licence period.

While the Procurement Officer should seek to negotiate changes in this clause to create an obligation on the contractor to repair or replace faulty software, in practice it is very rare that contractors will agree to such changes.

Best practice to protect CERN’s interests include:

• Carrying out a price enquiry or invitation to tender to select the contractor and referencing the DO or IT documents (including the specification) in the contract;
• Carrying out a proof of concept based on free trial licences to ensure the product meets CERN’s requirements before making the purchase;
• Including appropriate SLAs and penalties in the software maintenance agreement to help ensure that errors in the software are resolved in good time;
• Implement a pro-rata refund for the unavailability of the Services;
• Implement the best efforts to offer equivalent Services should part or all of it become unavailable.