Computer technology has revolutionized the way
businesses operate in today’s market. Companies that rely upon computer
technology advances to support their business are often unaware of the impacts
that technology can have on business disputes and the extent to which computer
advances have altered the legal landscape. By better understanding the changing
landscape, business can more effectively prepare to confront litigation,
protect business interests, and minimize the effect of legal disputes on daily
operations?.
It is now routine for businesses to market and sell
products over the internet and to negotiate business deals by email. However,
businesses should understand the legal implications of these activities on legal
disputes. For instance, a local business selling products through a website may
be surprised to learn that it has subjected itself to a potential lawsuit in a
state where it has never physically done business. When a legal dispute ensues,
the business may encounter the increased litigation expense and inconvenience
of defending itself in a distant forum.
In addition, simple emails exchanged between partners,
customers, and vendor can significantly impact business’ legal rights. In past,
business owners often conducted contract negotiations in – person or by
telephone. Today, business proprietors commonly negotiate business deals
largely – oven exclusively – via email. The effect can be substantial. Email
negotiations are often sufficient to establish an enforceable contract.
Further, while parties generally do not maintain detailed records of their
verbal negotiations, negotiations conducted by email generate a verbatim
transcript of the parties’ interchange, which can later be used at trial.
Computer technology has also dramatically impacted the
discovery process in business litigation. Discovery’’ is the process by which
parties to a legal dispute exchange documents and information relevant to the
dispute. With the advent of email, document management system, voicemail
system, and other technologies that allows business to transition to paperless
operations, the amount of potentially discoverable information has increased
exponentially. Moreover, the current trend in courts is to allow adverse parties
to obtain extensive access to this electronic information. The result has been
a more complex and intensive discovery process in which parties to a lawsuit
may be required to expand substantial resources reviewing and producing
electronic file.
This problem is often compounded by the fact that most
business today backup their data, making it possible that many more potentially
relevant documents are available than are shown on the network, including
documents thought to have been deleted. To minimize these concerns, more and
more business are involving information systems personnel in legal disputes,
implementing software to narrow the categories of data to be considered and
developing more finely tuned document retention policies.
Many businesses are also unaware that electronic files
contain information that is unavailable in a paper version of the same
document. Metadata, for example, is “hidden” data that exist behind what is
viewed on the screen. It can disclose information regarding the document’s author,
its creation date, modifications made to it, etc. This information may place an
organization at risk in a legal dispute. As a result, many companies now
implement metadata assistants that strip metadata from documents or that remove
data signatures. Also, more companies convert electronic to PDF or other less
revealing formats before distributing them.
Electronic case management is also impacting the
handling of litigation in federal courts and in some state courts around the
country. Various courts, including the U.S District Court for the District of
Utah, are now or will soon be posting court fillings on internet-based
database, allowing litigation pleadings to be accessed remotely. The system
increases the risk that confidential or sensitive information may be more
readily disclosed or misused. This is particularly true where, as in the
federal case management system, the database is searchable and anyone can
access the system.
For business owners, the availability of information
regarding a legal dispute may pose particular concern. For instance, a business
involved in a legal dispute or a bankruptcy may want to prevent competitors or
others form obtaining information about its customers, products, or assets.
Some protections exist to prevent such information from being disclosed.
However, These
protections are not without limits business involved in legal disputes should
consult with counsel to understand the information that may be used during a
legal dispute and the way in which it can be protected from disclosure.
Advances in
technology have changed the way businesses compete in today’s market. But even
tech-savvy business sometimes overlooks the way technology has changed the
legal disputes they may face. Understanding those changes and the impact they
can have on a business will allow a company both to avoid some disputes and
more effectively manage those that cannot be avoided.
Computer
revolutionized small business also,
Finding
computer applications for various aspects of a company’s operations have in
recent years; become an increasingly vital task of many small business owners.
Indeed, computer an integral part of the business landscape today, in part
because they can be an effective to so many different aspects of a business
daily operations. Computer systems are now reliable for a broad spectrum of
duties, including bookkeeping, business communications, production design,
manufacturing, inventory control and marketing. Indeed, a 1997 survey conducted
Sale & Management magazine indicated that 85 percent of respondents felt
that technology was increasing the efficiency of their sales force, while
another 62 percent concluded that helping them increase their sales.
Entrepreneurs
and other small business owners utilize today’s rapidly changing computer
technology in many different realms of operation.
BOOKKEEPING:
Computer
systems are heavily utilized for a variety of accounting function including
employee payroll; cash flow analysis; job costing; tracking of vendor and
customer payments and debts; federal, state and local taxes; and other expenses
and revenues that impact on the business’s fiscal health. Small business owners
use computers for bookkeeping more than for any other purpose, and software
programs designed to help even inexperience business owners with their
bookkeeping have proliferated on the market place in recent year a result.
BUSINESS
COMMUNICATIONS:
The
introduction of computer faxes and especially electronic mail systems have
revolutionized the way that business communicates either one another. Moreover,
e-mail has significantly altered how employees within the same company interact
with one another. The savings, both in time and money that have been realized
through this computer technology have been consideration. E-mail, for instance
not only enable.
Users to save
significant sums of money that would otherwise go to long-distance telephone
delivery charges, but also speeds up to be process of information delivery.
Computer faxes, meanwhile, also enable businesses to ‘’save, labor, office
supplies, and long-distance phone charges’’ that are associated with regular
fax machines, noted Sandi Smith in the Journal Accountancy. ‘’The savings: You
don’t have to make a paper copy, go to the fax machine, we be sure the pages don’t
jam – and if the do, resend, the cost of sending a fax via computer fraction of
the cost of sending a machine fax’’.
PRODUCT
DESIGN
Product design
is one of the most popular computer applications in the business world today.
Computer – aided design (CAD) involves creating computer models of products
that are ultimately transformed into reality. CAD systems enable designers to
view objects under a wide variety of representations and to test these objects
by simulating real world conditions.
MANUFACTURING
Computer –
aided manufacturing (CAM), meanwhile use uses geometrical data to control
automated machinery and other production processes .since both CAD and CAM use
computer bas methods for encoding geometrical data, it is possible for the
processes of design and manufacture to be highly integrated. Computer-aided
design and manufacturing systems are commonly referred to as CAD/CAM
In recent
years, technological advances have triggered fundamental changes I many CAD/CAM
systems. Whereas CAD/CAM applications used to be limited to older mainframe and
workstation-base systems, advances in personal computers and software programs
spurred a dramatic upsurge in their use among small business owners, who are
now better to afford the technology. The greater viability of personal
computers for CAD/CAM applications results from their ever-increasing
processing powers. An important trend is to be the standardization of software,
so that different packages can readily shares data. Standard have been in place
for some time regarding data exchange and graphics; users interferes and
rapidly going the same route, In the realm of electronics design automation
software in greater sophistication of visual representation and greater
integration of modeling and testing application.
INVENTORY CONTROL
Small businesses are increasingly using computers to
track all aspect of their inventory, including warehousing, ordering, receiving
and distribution. In addition many computer systems maintain programs that
integrate inventory control needs with aspect of the business’s operations,
which helps the company perform in a cohesive and intelligent manners as it
negotiates the various obstacles of the business world.
MARKETING
Computer applications for marketing have surged in
recent years. Whereas computer applicants for other business needs have been a
part of the picture for a decade two now, the widespread use of computers to
shape a company’s marketing strategies and campaigns is a relatively new
development. “Firms... are gathering tremendous amounts of information about
customers, markets and industries by using an array of relatively inexpensive
software and computerized data bases” wrote Tim Mc-Collum in Nation’s Business.
“These resources can help entrepreneurs increase their effectiveness in
targeting markets, cultivating leads, and closing sales... whether it’s called
database marketing, small marketing, or target selling, it boils down to using
technology to delivery information that boost sales”.
CONCLUSION:
Ultimately, however, Nation’s Business Magazine noted
that although computers can be a valuable marketing resource for small firms,
“Technology itself won’t boost sales... For sales to climb, information must be
carefully integrated into a total marketing strategy.”
The magazine thus made the following recommendations
to companies looking to apply computer resource to marketing efforts:
- Build a database of customers and prospective
customers, and update it regularly.
- Decide what marketing information is needed and
establish a plan to obtain it.
- Use demographic and geographic data to put together a
profile of current customer which can be then used to identify potential new
markets.
- Use data to identify long-term interests and buying
habits of clients.
- Involve sales force (if any) in introduction of new
technologies; “if sales people don’t the automated system will benefit them,
they won’t use it.”
- Share information throughout thee company.
- Use computer resources to personalize and coordinate
direct mailings and other campaigns.
- Arrange so that pertinent customer information is
available to those who need it.
good good piece
ReplyDelete