Outsourcing

Established in 1993, Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr's Technology practice was one of the first such practices to be set up in a law firm in South Africa. Our technology law experts specialise in advising clients on their technology law requirements and our technology law team has an unrivalled reputation for the drafting of and negotiation of complex service level agreements. We are also regarded as the premier outsourcing legal service provider in South Africa, having extensive experience both locally and internationally.

The depth of experience, skills and expertise amongst the senior members of our team is rare in South African law firms and, for this reason we believe we are the largest, most specialised, and premier technology law practice in the country.

A key strength is our in-depth understanding of the technical aspects and business impacts of general technology and complex outsourcing services. It means that we are able to advise our clients not only on the legal aspects of each transaction, but also on the technical and business-related aspects, and on how best these can be incorporated into the relevant agreements.

We are reputedly the pre-eminent and the most experienced law firm in Africa in relation to ICT outsourcing arrangements. For more than a decade, our outsourcing law experts have acted in some of the largest and most important outsourcing transactions in South Africa.

Our technology law team represents some of South Africa's largest and most prominent private and public sector institutions in information technology and business process outsourcing transactions.

We have extensive expertise in advising our clients on structuring their overall outsourcing initiative, advising on and reviewing or drafting tender documents and responses to those tenders, drafting outsourcing terms and conditions, ensuring regulatory compliance and compliance with relevant industry guidelines and procedures, advising on security issues, data protection, business continuity, intellectual property, employee- and technology- transfer issues.

In addition, we advise our outsourcing clients on possible BEE, tax, administrative law and competition law implications of the outsourcing transaction.

Our experience includes working on multibillion rand transactions, including those related to:

• ICT Infrastructure

• Telecommunications

• Help desk and desktop support

• Business process outsourcing

• Off-shoring

• Procurement

• Credit card processing

• Back office operations

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Recent Representative Work

• Advising on various major outsourcing projects involving Nedbank, Old Mutual Group and Mutual & Federal Insurance Company of South Africa aimed at deriving synergy and cost benefits from common supply strategies.

• Advising a major bank on various outsourcing projects relating to its technology requirements and its credit card businesses, including EMV chip card production and personalisation.

• Advising a major public body on various technology related tenders and outsourcing services arrangements, including its multimillion rand infrastructure modernisation and electronic filing projects.

• Advising a major bank on the outsourcing of certain corporate banking back office processing requirements to an American bank

PLC Which Lawyer? 2008 recommends Preeta Bhagattjee in Outsourcing. PLC notes that 'with a customer-driven client base, her outsourcing practice tends to focus on the technology sector and IT, facilities and logistics outsourcing transactions.'

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Key contacts

Preeta Bhagattjee
Director National Practice Head: Technology, Media and Telecommunications

Emma Kingdon
Director Technology, Media and Telecommunications

Meet the Team

Publications

• Newsletters
• Overview of outsourcing law in South Africa