Having an ownership article in the contract is an important step, but it is not enough. Whether the assets are in practice in the organisation or not is a separate question.
Ownership on paper must be tried out
It is tried out periodically whether the memory and the termbase can really be delivered. The first trial more often than not brings to light a gap in format or in scope.
The format must be open
A file that can be opened in only one system does not count as delivery. Common and open formats are written in as a condition.
The reasons are handed over too
If the reason for the terminology decisions is not carried over, the list can be applied but cannot be defended. In the first dispute the decision is questioned.
Periodic delivery is taken
Handing over the assets once a year ensures that the accumulated work is in the organisation without waiting for the moment of separation, and at the same time it serves as a backup.
The place of storage is decided
If it is not defined where in the organisation the files received will be kept and who will have access, the delivery lands in a folder and is forgotten.
The responsibility for maintenance is separate
Ownership and maintenance may not be on the same side. If it is not written down who is to do the updating, the assets are technically in the organisation but in practice remain unmaintained.
Personal data is scanned for
Client or employee data may have remained in the memory. These entries are cleaned out during the handover.
Counter-view: this burden does not belong to the organisation
It may be thought that managing the infrastructure is the supplier's job. But ownership is not a management burden, it is an assurance of options; when the assets are in the organisation, the decision to stay really becomes a choice.
It is mandatory with multiple suppliers
If the organisation works with more than one party, the shared infrastructure has to sit in the organisation; otherwise every supplier builds its own language.
The archive is an asset too
Delivered translations, when aligned, are the source of a new memory. Having the archive in the organisation is part of ownership.
A handover test is carried out
It is tried out whether the file received can be opened and used in another environment. A delivery that has not been tried does not count as delivery.
The version is tracked
It is recorded which date the memory that was received bears. Otherwise it cannot be known which decisions are in it.
The right of use is written reciprocally
Even though ownership lies with the organisation, the supplier needs access in order to be able to work. This condition too has its place in the article.
The value grows over time
The accumulation increases every year, and the value of the handover rises in the same proportion. An arrangement set up early calls for far less effort than one set up afterwards.
The handover is not a one-off job
A memory that has been received once will go out of date again in the time that passes. If a periodic rhythm is not defined, the copy in the organisation drifts away from the current accumulation over time, and the handover becomes a job that has to be done again.
Takeaway
Ownership of the assets is not an article but a practice. Trying out the delivery periodically, the open format condition, handing over the reasons and defining the responsibility for maintenance separately: without these four, the ownership article in the contract remains nothing more than a declaration of intent.