A pilot agreement—sometimes also called a trial or evaluation—is a short-term contract that allows a prospective customer to test a product or service before committing to a longer-term deal. These agreements help both parties manage risk and gather data to inform future decisions. If the pilot is successful, it may lead to a full commercial agreement such as a Cloud Service Agreement (CSA) or Software License Agreement.
Companies may choose to use a standalone Pilot Agreement when a customer is not ready to commit to a CSA or Software License Agreement. Pilots generally do not come with the same protections for the customer as a full commercial agreement, but have a more limited scope, reduced time commitment, and are easier to terminate. Pilots can be paid or provided for free, and the agreement may be quicker to negotiate.
Customers who are able to commit to a long-term contract but want a pilot period before their full subscription starts can leverage the Pilot Period option contained in the Common Paper CSA or Software License Agreement. This gives reassurance to the vendor that the customer is committed to purchasing the product while giving the customer a chance to evaluate the product and, in some cases, terminate the full commercial agreement if they are not satisfied during the pilot period.
To use this Pilot Agreement, first download a copy of it in your preferred format. Then, fill in the details in the Order Form. Finally, sign the Order Form with your counterparty via the signing process of your choice.
Common Paper agreements are free to use and modify under CC BY 4.0.
Use a node version higher than 16.x.
npm install markdownlint-cli
npx markdownlint "Pilot-Agreement.md" --config="config/lint.json"