Chapter 27 - Software Licensing and Maintenance Contracts

For major, complex or enterprise projects, refer to Chapter 24, Requests for Proposals and Competitive Negotiations, for a more in-depth discussion on preparing the solicitation for software acquisitions. A well-prepared solicitation will set the stage for negotiating a successful software and/or maintenance contract. VITA recommends that a supplier’s license agreement not be used, but that the final negotiated license terms be included in the agency’s contract. In some cases, especially for small software purchases and value-added reseller (VAR) software products, this may not be possible; however, the same scrutiny described below must be considered. For VAR software products, VITA requires the use of a License Agreement Addendum with certain non-negotiable terms. Two versions of this addendum, one version for VITA SCM and another version for other agency use, are available at the following VITA SCM web page, under the Forms section: https://www.vita.virginia.gov/supply-chain/scm-policies-forms/.