Posts Tagged ‘Software’

Software EAR Compliance

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

We get lots of questions from software firms concerning export of their software to a foreign country and compliance with the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) administered by the United States Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS).

EAR Compliance Services – The firm does offer software EAR compliance services, and you can learn more about that part of the firm’s practice here.

Compliance for Software Export in General – If you plan to export your software to another country, you need to determine the ECCN for your software offering from the CCL within EAR. Your ECCN, together with the identity of your customer, the customer’s intended use for your software, and your customer’s domicile country will determine whether you need a license from the BIS, or an applicable exception, in order to export your software.

Special EAR Rules for Certain Software – If your software includes encryption, or it natively supports connectivity with a mobile device, you may have additional steps to take before exporting your software.

Penalties – The Export Administration Regulations are largely self-administered, which means the onus is on you — as a software developer or licensor — to determine and discharge your compliance obligations. Substantial penalties apply to violations of EAR.

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Tax Breaks for Software and Hardware Purchases

Monday, June 29th, 2009

Tax savings for SMBs.The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) is chock-full of spending and other provisions designed to stimulate our sagging economy, including some important tax breaks for small and midsized businesses (SMBs). We’ve all heard a lot about the emotionally-appealing aspects of ARRA such as job creation and infrastructure spending, but the tax breaks for SMBs have been less widely publicized.

Increased Section 179 Accelerated Depreciation for 2009 – ARRA increases the capital investment limit that a company can claim under IRC Section 179 to $250,000 during tax year 2009 (previous limit of $25,000). Learn more about IRC Section 179 here.

A 50% Bonus Accelerated Depreciation for 2009 – ARRA allows companies with capital investment levels that exceed the $250,000 Section 179 limit to claim an extra 50% first-year
“Bonus” depreciation for the excess amount.

Standard Depreciation Still Applies – After application of the Section 179 and Bonus depreciation, any remaing investment amount can still be expensed under normal depreciation schedules using the Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS) schedules published by the IRS.

Eligible Capital Investments – Among other capital investments, these tax benefits apply to SMBs’ purchase of hardware and software (mainly OTS software that will not be extensivlely customized or configured). For guidance on what hardware and software qualify, review IRS Publication 946.

What This Means – I’m certainly no tax expert, but what I think all this means is that 2009 is a great year for SMBs to make capital investments, including investments in software and hardware.

NOTE: The foregoing is presented for informational purposes only and should not be interpreted as tax advice or opinion. You should consult your tax advisor to determine whether any of the tax benefits cited above might apply to you and under what specific circumstances.

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Posted in Technology Procurement | No Comments »

Software Maintenance Costs – Pop the Bubble

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

Pop the Maintenance BubbleThe Situation – Because of the recession, companies have become more vigilant about their operating expenses. IT budgets in particular are under the microscope, and software maintenance and support expenses are in center view.

It’s unfortunate that it took a global recession to get companies to take a closer look at the expense of their software deployments. Better now than later (or never), but the thought of so much money wasted (under-utilized) is disturbing. No complaints from the software vendors, of course, but after actually analyzing their software expenses, many software buyers are feeling embarassed and even angry.

Image representing Oracle Corporation as depic...
Image via CrunchBase
The concept of software maintenance and support fees will go down in history as one of the greatest commercial ploys of all time. Along with cheap printers whose replacement ink is almost as expensive by weight as gold, and the old “rinse and repeat” instruction on shampoo bottles, the concept of software maintenance and support is sheer genius. That much I will grant software vendors.

There comes a point, however, at which tolerance of an industry norm is no longer acceptable. In the case of the software industry, I think we have reached that point, and it has taken the form of abusive, if not unconscionable, pricing for maintenance and support.

Image representing SAP as depicted in CrunchBase
Image via CrunchBase
In a recent article she wrote for the Wall Street Journal, Jessica Hodgson claims that Oracle enjoys a hefty 85% profit margin on its maintenance and support fees. In my experience, Oracle is the worst offender in the category of outsized maintenance expense, and SAP runs in second place year after year. But most other software vendors are nearly as bad (abusive).

What You Can Do – Good news, bad news. The good news is that there are many things you can do–many approaches you can take–to reduce your ongoing software maintenance and support expenses. The bad news is that I can’t list them all here in this single post, at least not with sufficient detail to help you in a meaningful way. So, look for follow-up posts in which I will go through various techniques, one by one, with some real-world experience and examples thrown in. I can help you pop the maintenance and support bubble and start saving some real cash.

Take me to Part Two: Reducing Maintenance Costs – Quick and Dirty Approach

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Posted in Software Buyer Habits, Software Licensing, Software Negotiations, Technology Procurement | No Comments »

New eRFX Tool for Procurement

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

VendorSelect

Nuckles Technology Law Firm and Olive Consulting Group LLC are pleased to announce introduction of their new eRFX Tool. It’s called VendorSelect, and it was designed from the ground up as a sophisticated, stand-alone electronic RFI and RFP solution.

We’re proud to offer these eRFX features exclusively to clients in support of their procurement efforts:

Web Hosted – No software to buy or download.
Intuitive User Interface – Incredibly easy to set up and administer projects.
Excellent Vendor Acceptance – Increases vendor response rates.
Flexibility – Suitable for use with small and large projects. 100% scalable.
Numerous Configuration Options – You’re not forced to work from a canned template.
Document Management – Easy import and export of project documents and attachments.
Scoring Options – Numerous scoring and weighting options, including multi-group scoring.
Logging – Embedded logging feature tracks every sponsor and vendor transaction.
Dedicated Hosting – Supports the firm’s close and secure collaboration with clients.
Undisclosed Principal – We can conduct your RFI and RFP processes anonymously.

As a buyer, you can access many market- and industry-specific RFI and RFP templates to jumpstart development of your requirements, questionnaires and vendor selection criteria for your procurement projects. As a vendor, you can develop your own response templates and attachments and add them to your library for easy access and re-use, allowing you to respond to solicitations more efficiently.

Our new VendorSelect eRFX Tool is the perfect complement to our process-driven approach to information technology procurement, whose objectives are to compress the sourcing phase for your projects, reduce vendor negotiation cycle times, obtain the best overall short- and long-term pricing, obtain the most appropriate buyer protections and remedies (reduce project risk), and save you time and money at every step of your process.

Learn more about the features of VendorSelect here.

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