Would like to hear what others have to say.

*** This is my personal opinion only, and may not be the opinion Clipsal Integrated Systems ***

This is a common argument and not one without merit. However, to do this without full disclosure before taking on the job is deceitful as it is not what is expected.

But it is also common to develop a set of generic solutions and programming so you can reduce your cost of the installation. Thus the client isn't paying for the full development cost of the IP so what do you do?

Having come from an industrial automation background (PLC/SCADA) and seen solutions that have been locked by the installer and solutions that are open, it didn't take customers long to work out locked solutions are bad for there factory or business.

All the work done by my employer was fully open and all sources provided to the client, even our common libraries. We included as part of our contracts a licence to say they could re-use, modify etc... the code for there own use as much as possible, but could not sell or use the source outside of that project.

We ended up taking other integrators to court when we found they had verbatim copied our code (we are talking fully customised SCADA system with several man years of development) and sold to another company as there own product. They didn't have a leg to stand on and lost a lot of customers because of it (The customers didn't like being put in a position of having a illegal control system for a multi-million dollar factory!).

So basically my personal view is that you should always provide source for integration projects. As previously discussed there are other ways to retain customers (great service DOES work) and other ways to protect intellectual property.

 

Thats a Blimmin good point Richo !(pardon the strong language)

...and one of the reasons behind my argument.
I've always been in a Customer support Engineer role, and its here that I hear the moans and groans of the customer, and how fairly or unfairly they've been treated by us or another contractor.

But like you say, there are different situations where you may be required to provide a password:

there can be valid reasons why you might want to go either way.

I think that, at the end of the day, it is the customer (whether they are a home owner or a Manager) who pays you for the service, and as long as these things are agreed upon with the customer at the start (and written down and signed) and there is also an action plan that the customer can take to fix or maintain the system should anything go wrong when the original Installer/programmer is not available.

Good service to the customer with the right documentation and informing them of things they need to know (passwords etc.), is the key.

 

More thoughts on security...

Another angle is:
Are we being responsible, in leaving the means for a home owner to cause a problem for himself?
Should we protect the Customer from the Customer (so to speak) ?

While my personal opinion is that the Customer pays for reprogramming if he interferes with the system configuration and can't get it running as required, there are those who say "don't give 'em the tools, to make 'em fools".

Maybe a great big "RESTORE IF YOU'VE BEEN FIDDLING" button in the middle of the Toolkit Software Welcome Page........

Of course we all know that the Customer is bright enough to scan his network, send all to database and save the Project so it can be restored, if necessary, don't we.........don't we..???

Interesting opinions and comments all round, I've been watching from the fence for a while and it's time to contribute.

Cheers all round

 

I highly agree!!

Regards
George

 

I think this is one of the few topics in the forum where we have to agree to disagree. This argument has unfortunately more than one point of view, and there are many, many angles to look at this issue. You have ?burned? installers at one side, cautious installers, owner/installers, DIY installers, owner turned installers, greedy installers, power-hungry installers, watch-my-back installers and of course you get this forum installers who have the customer?s well being and interest at heart.

That being said, is has been interesting and educational to hear what other forum members have to say about the issue of security and software locking/passwords.