Many of our Members have expressed an interest in providing fixed-price development services to Clients. There are a number of potential difficulties associated with fixed-price work. These difficulties become minor when planned for in advance. There are also significant benefits to both parties of this kind of arrangement, so it can be well worth the effort involved in agreeing terms for such work.

It is important to ensure both parties agree the ownership of any product or code produced under a fixed-price arrangement, both intellectual and property rights. Agreeing this upfront can save much hassle later on. It would not be advisable to enter into an agreement with a Consultant for fixed price development if access to the source code was restricted, unless contractual arrangements were put in place for release of the code to you in case of certain events, such as the Consultant ceases to trade.

ITCD provide an escrow service which is available to any Member involved in providing a Client with fixed-price work. The works by the Consultant lodging a full copy of the source code, documentation, and a certificate of completeness with ITCD. We will then retain these items and release them to the Client when the Consultant has confirmed that they are in receipt of cleared funds to the value of the agreement between them and the Client. We do levy a modest fee for this service to cover carriage/transmission and administration costs.