Meaning of Bespoke Software and its Legal Liability

Bespoke word is come from England where it is firstly called to clothing which is tailor made or custom. In this modern era the term Bespoke is used in information technology where it is refers to custom products and services. Like in information technology the bespoke term is generally used in custom software which is known as bespoke software, this type of software is customized for specific function. For specific network the bespoke program has the tool to monitor the whole network and it also has custom accounting software for convinced business. Bespoke programs are vertical market software because it can be customized for particular purpose.

Now mostly business is going online through company’s website, so website is new area in computer industry where bespoke is used. The website which is customized by the client to suit his business needs is known as bespoke website. These types of website include custom features, layout and integration of database. The bespoke website takes longer time to develop and these website are also very expensive because they are customized by the client according to their requirement.

In computer industry bespoke is also used in hardware. There are many companies which provide the custom options to their client to choose the hardware configuration according to their requirement. Like some people requires additional ram to perform multiple task or run multiple program at same time and some people who are in video production field may requires high end graphics card. So this customization of hardware is referred as bespoke system.

The bespoke software accommodates the clients for their particular preferences and expectations. Software customization processes include various stages which include issues that are not including in terms and other issue is allowing all the possible hidden danger to be taken into account. For performing critical functions big firms or large scale companies uses custom software. These critical functions include management of human resource, inventory, content or customer. This bespoke software is legacy software, whatever the customer demands the developer fulfill the requirements.

Benefits of Bespoke software:

·         The functions of bespoke software is design according to the customer requirement that how they want to operate it.

·         The custom software can do what the customer want it to do and this type of software can also help to solve the problem.

·         This custom software is easy to use because it is design according to customer requirement so the staff can use it easily.

·         The bespoke software is created in which it can be easily integrated into the current configuration of the system and future system.

·         Bespoke software is an asset to the business because the investment on bespoke software   is unique to business and it also adding value to the company.

·         In bespoke software the customer directly deal with the developer of that software so he can understand the importance of that software in customer’s business and he also give the high quality support to that software.

·         The main advantage of bespoke software is that it can be changed or update as the business change to improve the performance.

·         There are many successful industries which makes the bespoke software to serve the customer requirements.

·         The bespoke software is explicit only to one business and it is unavailable to the competitor’s business. This feature can give the unique advantage to bespoke software.

Legal liabilities of bespoke software:

The legal liability of bespoke software is depending on agreement between both the parties, developer of the custom software and customer of that software. This agreement is known as software licensing agreement. It includes details of development of software, ownership, payment terms, training, maintenance, warranty confidentiality and etc. this agreement gives the relationship between the developer and customer. This agreement is also help to protect against the service related problems in future.

Liable for violation of contract:

While developing any software there is a contract between the customer and the developer or we can say seller. So in India if any one of them violates the terms which is written in the contract of bespoke software on which both of them were agreed upon, then that party is liable under the Indian Contract Act, 1872 for violating the contract between them.

It may happen that the bespoke software is functioning perfectly at the time of purchasing but after some time it causes some problem and unable to perform its task. In this case the contractual liability disclaimers by the vendors of the software may not be effective and customer cannot seek protection under Indian Contract Act, 1872 so to get the protection Sale of Goods Act, 1930 can play a role in that case.

Conclusion:

Bespoke software add value to the business as well as it also give the major advantage to business which the off the shelf software cannot offer. In bespoke software we have to pay more than the packaged software but the bespoke software is important asset to the business. As we understood what is bespoke software and what are their legal liabilities. In bespoke software the customer or developer can seek the protection under their software agreement. And if the customer wants to take protection if the software is not working properly then he can also take protection under the law.