e-Commerce Changes Everything ' Again

e-Commerce Web sites' only constant is change. They must nimbly adjust prices and offerings on the fly to meet market conditions and customer profiles. And those aren't all of these sites' ongoing change requirements.<br/>One thing that doesn't change, however, is their reliance on data ' customer preferences as well as transaction information. Although e-commerce Web sites are an inherently transient medium, that data is as worthy of preservation as a treasure map or share certificate of old, because, in many ways, it is worth more than money.<br/>For these firms, a record-keeping and record-retention policy seem to be electronic oxymorons, as much as an 'inexpensive lawyer' or 'friendly litigation' may seem to many people The controlled destruction of records typically associated with such policies in the post-Enron and Arthur Andersen era appears to fly in the face of the needs and realities of e-commerce, as much as do traditional notions of photocopying and saving every paper business record.

33 minute read March 29, 2006 at 10:47 AM

By

Stanley P. Jaskiewicz