Web - overview

Websites allow businesses to reach a far wider target market than by traditional means. A company’s website is vital to its online presence and branding, and is core to its online trading activities.

Businesses operating on the web must comply with a diverse range of legislation. These range from those dealing with e-commerce and mandatory business information, to those dealing with data protection and disabled access eg:

It is essential that legal compliance as well as risk areas such as the ownership of intellectual property rights in the website and its contents, and commercial trading terms are addressed.

Website design

Many of the issues relevant to software development are also relevant to website design, including the concern of 'scope-creep'. A specification setting out the requirements and functionality of the site together with a project plan with milestones will give a framework for the site development.

Of primary concern to customers when commissioning a website are its design, functionality and performance. Equally important, but which may be overlooked in the rush to get the website live, is the need to ensure that the site is legally compliant, particularly regarding:

Consideration must also be given to who owns the content, text, graphics and design of the site and the underlying software.

Website hosting

The hosting agreement will allow the customer’s website to be stored on a host provider’s publicly accessible server connected to the web. The website is physically located where the server is located. The host will, for a fee agree to host the site and subject to agreed downtime make the site continuously available. There may be a service level agreement (SLA) with an escalation and complaint’s procedure, service continuity and disaster recovery plan and exit management provisions.

Website terms and conditions

Website terms and conditions fall into two categories:

Privacy statement

A privacy statement should be written in a style that is easy to understand by visitors to the site. The privacy statement will cover:

Online subscription agreements

A variety of services may be offered online, from a subscription to a financial information service to the provision of software as a service (SaaS) where software is hosted on a site either by the supplier or a third party application service provider (ASP). For the customer there are advantages that the cost of an online service may be cheaper and with SaaS and the customer is relieved of the burden of installing and maintain the software on his own equipment.

Email disclaimers

The vast majority business communications are now conducted by e-mail. E-mail notices and disclaimers, usually attached as a footer to the e-mail, will set out: