E-Business Issues

Seminar A: Building the e-Commerce Infrastructure to Achieve Success and Avoid the Million Dollar Mistake: A Legal Perspective to Problem Solving Through Careful Planning

"In five years, if your company is not doing e-commerce, your company will not exist." (you pick the pundit who said it first)

Acquiring and building the infrastructure to "do e-commerce" is no simple task, particularly given the pace at which technology, the business world and the law are evolving today. Most of our clients have felt the push from their Board of Directors to create an on-line presence, get "linked" with customers and automate business processes. Our consulting clients have felt the pressure from their customers to develop software and implement solutions necessary to make their customers an Internet player overnight. The developer and the customer should share the goal of creating a partnership that will increase the likelihood of successfully completing the process of developing the e-commerce infrastructure. Planning how to successfully achieve this goal from the outset of an engagement is the focus of our discussion.

Most of the e-commerce seminars offered today revolve around what to do on the Internet or how to transact business once you are there. Very few seminars offer to assist the customer and e-commerce consultant/software developer in establishing the solid legal infrastructure needed to assure a clear understanding of what their respective duties are and how each parties' goals can be achieved. Our experience in representing the partners in the development process in several settings include: pure consulting engagements, software licenses, ERP and CRM implementation, e-commerce infrastructure development, custom application design, CBT development, and website hosting/development agreements. Our experience enables us to provide the attendees with the issue spotting and problem-solving skills needed to enhance their partnering relationships and assure a successful engagement. The breadth of our experience, from developing cutting-edge agreements to successfully enforcing clients' rights in court when the development process becomes unsalvageable, provides a vital perspective to our discussion.

Topics of our seminar will include an analysis of the critical issues in custom-designed software contract negotiation, website hosting/development agreements, and license agreements, including ERP, CRM and EDI software and enterprise management systems. Our focus is not only on what should be included in your agreements, but also how to utilize the contract to assist in the process of achieving critical success and minimizing the potential for dispute.

Seminar B: Implementation Agreements for Licensed Software

Learn the fine points of negotiating and drafting agreements for the implementation of licensed software, such as enterprise-wide ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), CRM (Customer Relationship Management), and supply-chain management software. While making million-dollar investments in software, your clients cannot afford to skip a thorough examination of the implementation agreement for the software or the service level expectancies. From the inception of the relationship between the customer and the software licensor, the need to properly identify the critical issues, negotiate them, and draft the results into your client's implementation agreements will help your client avoid multimillion dollar mistakes. Sample contracts, negotiations, role-playing, and real-world issues will provide the tools for understanding these complex transactions and protecting your client's investment.