The clauses of the Code of Conduct
The Code serves as a code of good conduct aimed at professionalising the management of the customer relationship in the field of I.C.T.
The voluntary signatories-suppliers are bound by the clauses set out below and have confirmed they hereby undertake to act in compliance with said clauses to the benefit of their patrons. In doing so, they shall act in accordance with the spirit and the letter of these clauses. In the event a problem or a legal dispute should arise relating to the execution of the contract, they shall adopt a conciliatory attitude.
They will place a premium on customer satisfaction and on bringing the contract to a favourable conclusion in observance of delivery deadlines that do not compromise the project in the way the customer signed up to. If a legal dispute should emerge, they will endeavour to seek recourse to mediation before instigating legal proceedings with the courts.
Main Clauses :
1 • Service adapted to the customer
It is incumbent on the supplier to propose and furnish the goods or services in a way that matches the needs and requirements of the customer, which the latter is to clearly express and specify (current requirements and foreseeable developments in this respect).
If the needs and requirements expressed by the customer are not clear, sufficiently complete or directly usable, it is for the supplier to assist the customer in expressing his needs and requirements as well as the foreseeable development thereof, through the most appropriate means available and in observance of the terms and conditions to be agreed.
During the course of the project elaboration, the supplier will check with his customer and at regular intervals the continued match between the products/services provided and the needs and requirements as expressed.
2 • Scope of the project
The scope of the project is to be clearly defined, the limits and exclusions are to be specified accordingly.
The offer or the contract are to expressly specify the nature and substance of the project in terms of supplies and deliverables. Any exclusions and options are to be clearly specified.
The service to be provided and the supplies to be delivered at the charge of the customer are to be listed, specifying the delivery date or time of service provision.
If a product to be delivered or a service to be provided to the customer is critical in terms of timing, the offer or the contract is to mention such criticality.
3 • Cost control and lead time management
The customer must be advised of the overall budget and the lead times necessary for the service provider to satisfy his needs and requirements as expressed. Prices are to be specified clearly and unambiguously.
The supplier is to clearly indicate the non-recurrent costs and the recurrent costs, as well as the length of time during which said costs will apply.
The supplier shall defray any recurrent costs involved in the products or services supplied by him if said costs have not been specified in the offer or in the contract.
All price changes charged during the course of the contract are to be specified ahead of time, alongside the formula adopted to determine said price changes.
If, during the course of the project, authorisations on the part of the customer are required, this is to be specified ahead of time, together with an indication of response times.
4 • Responsibilities
The supplier shall be responsible for the proper execution of the contract by his staff or by his subcontractors, if applicable. The supplier is to make sure he has any intermediate deliverables duly validated by the customer on a regular basis.
The customer in turn is responsible for specifying his current needs and requirements and their foreseeable development. It is for him to communicate to his supplier all changes to his needs and requirements during the course of the contract. Finally, it is also for the customer to act in compliance with the contractual obligations incumbent upon him.
5 • Available resources
The supplier is to inform his customer of the available resources brought to bear by and the qualifications held by him and his subcontractors, if any, to accomplish the project.
The supplier is to clearly inform the customer of the part of the contract he is intending to outsource.
The supplier (Prime contractor) shall retain full liability for the project as a whole, including for any components that are outsourced.
6 • Sustainability or transferability of the solution or service
The supplier is to inform the customer of the measures he is putting in place to protect the latter against the disappearance of the supplier or one of the subcontractors or the non follow-up of the solution sold.
Within the context of an intellectual work, the supplier undertakes to deliver the work accomplished at every significant progress milestone of the project, unless if said measure would be in contravention of the protection of his intellectual property rights. The supplier shall hand over the source codes of the project being executed either to the customer himself, or to a trusted third party (such as a notary public).
7 • Intellectual property rights
Within the context of the present Code, the supplier undertakes, as soon as the offer has been submitted, to supply the customer with transparent and explicit information relating to the intellectual property rights and on the rights relating to the protection of data, notably by spelling out to the customer which intellectual property rights will be assigned and which rights will not be assigned to him, with separate details for the other deliverables, the custom-built deliverables or those that were adapted on behalf of the customer, so as to make the latter fully and unambiguously aware what he will have property rights over. Any terms and conditions and limits of such transfers shall be laid down in writing in the main contract or in an 'intellectual property' agreement that will be added to the main contract as an annexe.
In addition, the suppliers are free to commit to the 'eTIC - métiers' code of conduct on a voluntary basis. These are considered as standing in supplement to the undertakings set out above for those who signed up to these clauses. They shall be governed by the same scheme, unless otherwise stated.