When you do business with another company, it’s not just about the deal itself. You need to think about how to keep your company secrets safe.
If you let another company work with you, they might see things that are crucial to how your business runs, like your special products or how you serve your customers.
To prevent your secrets from falling into the wrong hands, you need to have a strong contract with the other company. This contract should have rules to make sure your company’s information stays protected.
In the next part of this series, we’ll talk about some specific things you can include in your contracts to keep your business safe.
When opening your business up to another service provider the very first thing one must obtain is that of a non-disclosure agreement. This is essential when another business may come in and provide various services such as IT, consultation on streamlining your processes, etc. Certain businesses operate in an area where they have access to an insurmountable amount of proprietary information of the business which they seek to assist, should the business or any of its employees make use of trade secrets you have spent a considerable amount of money and time developing, it may result in a catastrophic loss to your business. To protect against such an outcome, a non-disclosure agreement is essential before allowing any external company access to your business. This agreement sets out what information the company may have access to and what they may or may not reproduce outside of your company. Further, it sets in place consequences for the breach of such an agreement which acts as a deterrent for such breach.
The next essential agreement which must be put into place with an outside company is that of a release. This is where an outside company may provide a service in which they take on an assumed risk. This may be in instances where window cleaners for high-rise buildings are required to propel down the building to complete their tasks which innately incurs a high risk that they may suffer a devastating injury. Another example of this is where a petroleum company outsources the cleaning of their tanks which contain highly flammable liquids and such employees risk devastating injuries. Here the company contracting the third party would ensure that such party signs a release which would then release the business from any liability.
There is a wide range of factors that must be taken into consideration when your company contracts with an outside service provider. Should you require assistance in the drafting of a contract between your business and another or any legal assistance in ensuring the progress of your company contact us and we will gladly assist.
Saeedah Salie
saeedah@bbplaw.attorney
Associate
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