How do you choose a software developer for a university or learning centre in Uzbekistan, and what drives the cost?

Short answer. If your process is common, a ready product goes live sooner; if it cannot handle HEMIS, several campuses or your own regulation without changes, you need a custom build (our reading). Scope, integrations, data migration and maintenance drive the cost. The contract should cover code rights, data, staged acceptance, warranty and exit: rights it does not name are not transferred.

A ready product or a custom build?

There is a middle way: a ready base with the modules you need on top. One question decides it: how much of today's work the ready product does without changes (our reading).

What drives the cost

There is no single price for everyone; it adds up from these factors.

1. Scope: modules, roles (student, teacher, department, dean's office, rector's office), reports.
2. Integrations: HEMIS, payment systems, Telegram, accounting: each one a piece of work of its own.
3. Moving data in: how many spreadsheets, how tidy, whether the old system can export.
4. Size: the number of campuses, branches, users and interface languages.
5. Legal requirements: for example, biometric data on a server in Uzbekistan only (Personal data: the law).
6. The rights model: a transfer of the exclusive rights usually costs more than a licence, because the developer cannot reuse the code for another client (our reading).
7. After launch: maintenance is a separate cost every year.

A works contract (pudrat) states the price of the work or how it is set; the estimate is approximate or fixed, and if the contract does not say which, it is fixed. If an approximate estimate has to be exceeded significantly, the contractor must warn the client in good time; a client who does not agree may withdraw and pay for the part already done. A fixed estimate, as a rule, cannot be raised by the contractor (Civil Code, article 636). Ask for the offer in stages (our reading).

What to ask a developer before you sign

1. Where does a similar system of yours run today, since when, and in what status? May we talk to that client?
2. Can you show the system on our own data before the contract?
3. Who writes the code: your own staff or another contractor? Unless the contract says otherwise, the exclusive rights to a work made in the course of employment belong to the employer (Civil Code, article 1062); if another contractor writes it, ask whether its rights pass to the developer and then to you: rights received under an author's contract can be passed on only where that contract expressly allows it (Law on Copyright and Related Rights, article 39).
4. What is ready, and what will be written new? Which open-source components are used, and under which licences?
5. Where is the server, who can get into it, and how often are backups taken?
6. After launch, who answers, in which hours, and how fast?
7. If we leave or you stop working, what happens to our data (in what format, within how many days), the system and the code?

What to put in the contract

1. The work and its stages. Building a system is usually contracted as a works contract (the Code names no separate software-development contract; our reading): the contractor does the work and hands over the result by the agreed date, and the client accepts and pays for it (Civil Code, article 631). The specification, and each stage's result and date, go in an annex.
2. Rights to the code. A program, both its source text and its object code, is protected by copyright; the right arises when the work is created, with no registration (Law on Copyright and Related Rights, articles 6 and 10). Holding a copy does not transfer copyright (article 38; Civil Code, article 1038). Rights pass by a written contract (article 42); unless it expressly says otherwise, they are non-exclusive (article 38); rights it does not name are deemed not transferred (article 39; Civil Code, article 1035). There are two routes: a transfer of the exclusive rights (Civil Code, article 1035) or a licence (article 1036). A licence must state the rights, the limits and the term of use; unless it says the licence is exclusive, it is a simple (non-exclusive) one.
3. Source code and documentation. Whatever the rights model: where the source code is kept, when and in what state it is handed to you, with installation instructions and documentation (our reading).
4. Acceptance. The time and procedure for checking each stage. Check whether the work counts as accepted if you do not answer in time, and whether that time is enough for you (our reading). Write every defect in the acceptance certificate: a defect you found at acceptance but did not note there cannot be raised later; a client who accepts without checking loses the right to raise obvious defects; hidden defects must be reported within ten days of finding them; in a dispute, an expert examination is ordered (Civil Code, article 646).
5. Warranty. If the contract sets a warranty period, the contractor answers for the result meeting the requirements for the whole period (Civil Code, article 648). Write down what counts as a defect and how fast it is fixed.
6. Data and confidentiality. Whose data they are, and in what format and within how many days they come back. A party may not pass on to third parties, without the other's consent, new solutions and commercial secrets received from it (Civil Code, article 654). This article covers solutions and trade secrets, not students' personal data: write the terms for processing those separately. Which data must stay in Uzbekistan: Personal data: the law.
7. Maintenance. Work after launch is paid services (Civil Code, article 703), under a separate contract or in a separate section (our reading). Write down: hours, response time, backups, monitoring, updates.
8. Exit. Unless the contract says otherwise, the client may withdraw at any time before the result is handed over, paying the share of the price for the work done; it also covers the contractor's losses, up to the difference between the price of the work done and the price of the whole work (Civil Code, article 642). Write down what is handed over when you leave (the data, the code if the rights are yours, access) and in whose name the domain is registered (our reading). Whoever lawfully holds a copy may fix obvious errors and, unless the contract says otherwise, adapt the program (Law on the Legal Protection of Computer Programs, article 12); but adaptation only means making it run in your conditions without changing the source text (article 1). Write the right to change the code into the contract in so many words: whether another developer can change the system after you leave depends on it (our reading).

For a state university: public procurement

The Law on Public Procurement applies to purchases paid from the budget and from other funds set up in budget organisations, and to purchases state customers make in the course of their economic activity (article 2); state institutions and budget organisations are state customers (article 19). Check with your procurement office whether your university and its source of funds fall under it (our reading).

• The description is objective and functional; it names no specific brand or maker, and where it must, it adds «or equivalent» (article 34).
• Save where the law provides otherwise, a supplementary agreement cannot change the contract's essential terms (the work, its quality, a higher price, a later date) (article 34): put the rights to the code, the data, acceptance and maintenance in the procurement documents themselves (our reading).
• Where no other supplier can do it, support and functional extension of software bought earlier may be bought by a direct contract (article 71, item 8), and so may a purchase from the holder of the exclusive rights when no other supplier can supply (item 5). So the first choice, and who holds the code rights, can shape the years after it (our reading).
• Developing, running and supporting a budget-funded ICT project is financed in agreement with the E-government Projects Management Centre; its specification and tender documents go to the Centre for expertise; without positive conclusions from the Ministry of Digital Technologies and the Cybersecurity Centre a system is not accepted into use or integrated with «Digital Government» systems (Presidential Resolution PQ-4328 of 21 May 2019, item 3). Check with your procurement office whether this applies to your university (our reading).

A private university or a learning centre that spends no budget money signs with the developer directly (our reading).

Example: Avada's projects and its standard contract

Zarmed University, an Avada project: "Six systems on one base, each at the university’s own address"; "A student is confirmed once through HEMIS, then signs in to the LMS with their own password"; status: "in operation · the LMS rolling out". Innovative Centre, an Avada project: "A CRM for the whole centre. We built it and maintain it."

Avada's standard contract is open on the site, in Russian and Uzbek, as PDF and DOCX. The contract page says: "Your data is yours: at your request, we hand it back to you"; "Acceptance stage by stage: 5 working days to review each stage". Check it against the questions on this page, the one on code rights included.

Questions and answers

How do you choose a software development company for a university? In three steps: see a system of theirs that runs, and talk to that client; ask them to show the system on your own data; check that the contract states the rights to the code, the return of your data, staged acceptance, the warranty, maintenance and the exit. What the contract does not say is only a promise (our reading).

How much does a university system cost to build, and what does the price depend on? There is no single price for everyone. It depends on scope, integrations, data migration, size, the rights model (exclusive rights or a licence) and maintenance after launch. Write in the contract whether the estimate is fixed or approximate (Civil Code, article 636).

Which companies build custom software for universities in Uzbekistan? We do not rank them: directories list companies but do not show running systems. Ask a company which system it runs at which university, since when and in what status, and talk to that university. Our own example is the Zarmed University project above.

Does it matter whether the developer is in Samarkand or in your own city? Not the city, but three things: who answers and how fast; whether they can come on site for training and launch (to two campuses, say); where the server is. The law requires biometric data to be stored in Uzbekistan only: Personal data: the law.

If we paid for the software, is the code ours? Not by itself. Holding a copy does not transfer copyright; rights pass by a written contract, are non-exclusive unless it expressly says otherwise, and any right it does not name is not transferred (Law on Copyright and Related Rights, articles 38, 39, 42; Civil Code, article 1035). Exclusive rights or a licence: write it in the contract in so many words.

Can a state university pick a developer directly? A purchase paid from the budget goes through one of the law's procedures: the e-shop, an auction, a selection, a tender and others. A direct contract is allowed only in the cases the law lists, for example to support software bought earlier when no other supplier can (Law on Public Procurement, articles 2, 30, 71). Check your own case with the procurement office.

One step: put question 2 above to Avada too: ask for a demo on your own data — leave your number and choose "Our own project — a new system". Before you talk, read the standard contract (in Russian or Uzbek).

This page is general information, not legal advice. Have a lawyer read the contract before you sign it.

Sources (lex.uz, official texts in Uzbek; Checked: 26 October 2026):

• Civil Code (part two): articles 631 (works contract), 636 (estimate), 642 (client's withdrawal), 646 (acceptance), 648 (warranty), 654 (confidentiality), 703 (paid services), 1035 (transfer of exclusive rights), 1036 (licence), 1038, 1062 (works made in employment) — lex.uz/docs/-180552 (Russian: lex.uz/docs/180550)
• Law on Copyright and Related Rights (ZRU-42 of 20 July 2006): articles 6, 10, 38, 39, 42 — lex.uz/docs/-1022944 (Russian: lex.uz/docs/1023494)
• Law on the Legal Protection of Programs for Electronic Computers and Databases (No. 1060-XII of 6 May 1994): articles 1, 12 — lex.uz/docs/-143983 (Russian: lex.uz/docs/143970)
• Law on Public Procurement (ZRU-684 of 22 April 2021): articles 2, 19, 30, 34, and article 71 items 5 and 8 — lex.uz/docs/-5382974 (Russian: lex.uz/docs/5382983)
• Presidential Resolution PQ-4328 of 21 May 2019: item 3 — lex.uz/docs/-4346966 (Russian: lex.uz/docs/4346983)