Frequently Asked Questions

Listed below are the answers to a number of common questions about us and how we work with you. These are arranged in no particular order. If you would like to know anything that's not listed here, about any aspect of our business, we will be pleased to hear from you.

For small, one-off contracts, we would usually agree a simple fee, for the larger project work fees are usually paid in increments. We may agree that, part, if not all, of our remuneration may be through a split in subsequent sales of a given product. If royalty, or cross royalty, payments are appropriate, then these may be time or value limited as agreed between us. Complex projects will, in addition, usually require financial break-points of some description.

For many development jobs including software programming assignments, the task of evaluating how much work will be required is reasonably straight forward. In these circumstances we are able to quote for the final deliverable. In other cases the amount of work needed and exact resources required may not be precisely evaluated at the out set. In these cases it is usually sensible to split the project up in to development phases. In effect we would treat each phase as a separate contract and levy charges against it in the usual way. In all but the smallest of contracts we would normally ask for stage payments at the start , middle and end of contract.

Yes, we do. If we think that we are unable to engage adequate resources when needed, either human, physical or fiscal, then we would decline a project. We would also decline a contract if we felt that it competed in any way with the interests of any of our existing clients. We do not take on military contracts although we would however, give careful consideration to a possible contract from any of the domestic security services, including those of the USA, Benelux or Scandinavia.

We might, on rare occasions, engage a university (or some other august institution) to undertake work on our behalf. Sometimes it makes sense to do this, especially if the university already has the needed resources. Your contract however remains with us and we maintain full responsibility for setting the work programme and managing the costs. We would always gain your permission prior to engaging any third party.

Yes, we welcome any size of project. What we are asked to do varies enormously so for all projects we only agree to participate if we are able to: 1). bring the required resources to bear at the time you require, 2). satisfy ourselves that we can do the work against an agreed plan and time scales and, 3). agree what fees are paid and when.

We fully understand that maintaining your confidentiality is a prime issue. We will undertake component design work in which we are wholly or partially blind as to the overall project objectives. However, we would need to be sure that any working specification was detailed enough for us to proceed. In addition, we may provide you with a list of project areas in which we already have existing IP. If it happens that one of these areas falls within the scope of your project then, we may decline to proceed with you in this case.

If it seems likely that IP (Intellectual Property) will be generated from any particular project, then we always attempt to agree ownership in advance of any contract. Of course this may be difficult because IP sometimes accrues as a result of discovery or novel application, unforeseen at the start of the project. We would be happy to negotiate securing an agreed split in respect of any IP generated outside the scope of the immediate project.

No, we are pleased to remain completely transparent to your clients and customers. Where there is shared IP in any project we do expect that you maintain the copyright notices on source material. The questions about whether we should be acknowledged on end-user products, or not, will also depend on the circumstances and market. 

In some cases Chelsfield could agree a rolling maintenance contract with you or involve third parties to ensure software or firmware is maintained. In other cases, the source code and technology to self-maintain the software might be grafted into your own organisation. This may be the preferred option if the software is destined for internal use.