This is a problem we see occasionally – clients who don’t have control of their key assets. Mainly because it’s something they don’t think about at the beginning – when the opportunity is there. It only becomes an issue later – when, maybe, t
he opportunity has passed by. The most frequent area we see this problem is a company’s domain name. It’s quite common for a business to hand over the whole business of “the website” to a third-party. They do the lot – domain name registration, web hosting, web design & site maintenance. That’s OK – it’s convenient, and all the settings are handled by the same people. The problem comes if the relationship with that supplier goes awry. Maybe they go out of business, or a key member of staff leaves, or you just fall out with them. And then you are in trouble – because your website – especially your domain name – is the key to your online identity. And unless you can access this to manage the settings you are storing up big problems for the long term. We have had numerous examples of going for what should be a simple configuration change – only to spend days going around the houses while the client tries to get that essential access.
Our advice is that you get a grip early. (i) make sure in the contract that you are clearly the owner of the asset in question. (ii) make sure that you have the credentials to access that asset. (iii) make sure you check regularly that those credentials work.