Information Technology

Our Group

Miller Thomson’s Information Technology Group has extensive experience assisting a wide variety of clients with matters relating to information technology.

Our Clients

Our clients come from both the private sector and public sector. Public sector clients include government agencies and departments, municipalities, hospitals, colleges and universities, and regulatory bodies. Private sector clients include multi-national companies from various industries including the automotive, real estate and financial sectors, and include early, and mid-stage and mature corporations (including suppliers of technology and related services, as well as their customers).

Our Services

The use of information technology is a significant part of the operations of most businesses and increasingly a significant part of individuals’ lives. Use of information technology brings both benefits and difficulties. In providing our services, we focus on helping our clients address potential problem areas in a thoughtful and practical manner so they may obtain the benefits.

Some transactions for which we have provided advice include: information technology and business process outsourcing agreements; hardware purchase agreements; telecommunications and network services agreements; hosting agreements; licensing agreements; and Software-As-A-Service agreements. Our lawyers have also assisted clients with agreements for a wide range of professional and consulting services, such as data conversion, training, implementation, call centre operations, help desk and other support services. The value of these transactions can vary widely and have ranged up to several hundred million dollars.

Our lawyers have also advised clients in relation to: i) efforts to establish, maintain or enhance their online presence; ii) managing user-generated content on their Web sites; iii) managing the use of their information technology resources such computers and smart phones; iv) managing software assets; v) addressing privacy and information security concerns in relation to various transactions; vi) laws and regulations that govern online activities; and vii) disputes involving technology including failed development agreements, domain name issues and allegations of copyright infringement.

Our Expertise

Our expertise and knowledge base in the information technology practice area is apparent from our experience and the books, articles and other publications written by lawyers who form part of this Group. They are also demonstrated by the number of presentations our lawyers have been asked to give, and the recognition they have received.

Our lawyers have held and continue to hold leadership roles in various professional and industry organizations. This information is set out in the biographies for the group members.

Our Experience

The following are a few examples of transactions where our lawyers have provided advice:

• Assisting a government agency with the preparation, negotiation and finalization of a multi-year agreement with a wholly owned subsidiary of a publicly owned electricity transmission and distribution company for network services;
• Assisting a number of Ontario municipalities in developing a new template agreement to be used with RFPs that may be issued from time to time to procure commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS), and other non-customized IT products and services;
• Assisting various Ministries in all aspects of a long-term arrangement for the supply of mobile telecommunications services;
• Negotiating multi-million hosting and collocation agreements for various clients
• Assisting a large multinational company with the contracts governing the acquisition, implementation and deployment of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system
• Assisting a Crown corporation in connection with the preparation of an RFP, Master Agreement and statements of work for the supply of hardware, software and professional, hosting and support services for the implementation of a project management information system for the corporation and its clients;
• Providing advice to a government agency on issues of information security in its contracts;
• Developing standard form agreements for an international network service provider, including its agreements for network services and hosting;
• Assisting a government agency with various agreements for the procurement of hardware, software, Web site development services and call centre services;
• Assisting a large municipality with a proposed outsourcing arrangement for call centre services for residents of the municipality (including assisting in the preparation of an RFP, sample agreement and statements of work);
• Assisting a municipality with the purchase of a new voice-over-IP telephone system and related services (including assisting in the preparation of the agreement and statements of work); and
• Assisting a municipality with the preparation of an RFP for the acquisition of wireless telephone and data services and negotiating the resulting agreement.