If you are truly serious about offering quality customer service, your best option would be customer service software. With customer service software you can reduce customer service costs and increase your conversion rate at the same time. All the while, you will be making your customers happier, which will lead to more sales and an increase in ROI.

Customer service software helps small businesses and large businesses alike by offering customer service messenger, support messenger and support messenger. These offer 24/7 customer service to customers and potential customers. They can also allow you track customers online and track consumer behavior online as well.

Customer service software can offer live chat help and/ore animated avatar help, animated avatar service, animated avatar support and animated avatar guide. Many people prefer the avatar because it makes them feel more like they are talking to an actual person.

Serious quality customer service means a serious customer service solution. Consider customer service software for your online business if you would like to convert visitors to buyers and improve your ROI.

Are you Serious about Customer Service is a post from: Business Directory for Business Information | Joevsken.com

There are many setups for an answering service. Some software programs can virtually do all the work for you. There are also freelance operators and many organizations and companies that will do the work, live, around the clock. Once you know exactly what you need for your business, you’ll have the ability to search for the best option for your needs in no time. In fact, with Internet access, you’re able to find these options ready, waiting, and available for you right online. Knowing that there are these services available to take care of your business when you are not around to do so makes any business owner rest a little easier.

Answering Service is a post from: Business Directory for Business Information | Joevsken.com

All is well when it ends well. And until it ends be sure not to panic; no matter how bad it looks. Your customers only want you to do your best when they complain. They can see things that you might miss and every complaint will give you insight on how to improve your business. Here are some tips of handling with complains:

• Be empathetic and come them down – which means that you should acknowledge the person’s feelings (you don’t have to agree with them to do that). In the NLP practices this is called “to build rapport”. For example, you can say: “I understand how upsetting that might be…”

• Do not defend yourself – you will surely want to say something to defend yourself – don’t! Getting defensive will never help. The issue is not about who is right, it is about helping a disappointed customer and keeping their repeated purchases.

• Take responsibility – no matter whether you are guilty for the complaint or not, you still represent your company. Therefore, you should take the “blame”. By doing that, you emphasize the company’s trustworthiness and reliability. If you can’t handle the issue alone, be sure to hand the customer off in a classy manner.

• Make commitments – only that way the customer is assured that something will be done in a precise time interval. You have to state your actions clearly, for example: “Our team will come to your place tomorrow at 15:00″.

• Make some offer before they ask for refund – that’s what most of your customers say in cases of dissatisfaction: “We want our money back”. But that is the least you want, because it leaves your customer disappointed in your company. You will have to be cleverer and offer them something of a value for their trouble and time before they ask a refund.

• Do more – every company can do things the regular way. We are sure you can come up with something more. After all, the complaining customer only wants you to be better, and you can use this interaction to prove that you can.

• Walk the talk – make sure to do what you have promised.

• Follow up – check back with them after some period. Phone them up or e-mail them and ask if they need anything else and if the arrangement you made works properly. That way you show them that you care and can also trigger word-of-mouth referrals.

At the end, let’s use the statistics as a guide: it shows that about seven out of ten complaining guests will do business with you again if you resolve the complaint in their favor.

Angry customers – what can we do with them is a post from: Business Directory for Business Information | Joevsken.com

By the end of month of managing the device, I have learned that I
can comfortably rally around the tracks upon all toll bridges and
roads to adapt my motorcar into the Fastrak track, so I can
proceed through much faster than anybody else. Beside my track
is the Carpool track which takes up to three persons per
automobile and allow them to pass through without slowing and
paying the toll fee. Althouth I paid fee, but I don’t have to
wait and spent, I continued and keep on diving as if not a single
thing has happened. I find this less overstressing and it gives
me the satisfaction that I left all of the riders back to find
advantage of the time the riders there by sitting and waiting to
face the toll while I am taking advantage of the time to go where
I am diving much faster. In my instance it is my work where I
work to the other side of the Bay every day of the year.

While I have been getting gain of this device attached to my
vehicle, it too caused me to pause after I got my first violation
in the mail with my image noticeably upon ticket and my license
plate undoubtedly recorded. It had the correct date and down to
the second time of the violation. How this could happen? I had
been so used to just moving and proceeding where I had to move
much faster without difficulty that I forgot to increase my
account. Althogh I see the emails reporting me of the account
getting short in balance, it is only my duty to increase the
amount of my Fastrak device so that I can maintain passing
through the Fastrak track.

Following the surprise and shock of getting the traffic ticket I
immediately went online, added my account proportionately, and
done a mental note to myself as to never let this happen again.
Still, I was still caught with these traffic fine and had to
shell out for it. Luckily I visited a site on the net that would
agree for a credit card that other sites did not agree for my
violation. Nearly all sites only agree Visa and MasterCard, but
I desired to use alternative credit card to compensate for this
because I desired to compensate for this immediately and did not
have my check with me. BobCOP was the website I visited at
www.bobcop.com I was allowed to
effortlessly compensate for my Fastrak fine and I got my comfort.

Not only did this website grant me to compensate for my Fastrak
fine, it also approves each one to compensate for just about
everything for everything from pay citation, pay ticket, pay citations,
Pay tickets, pay ticket online, pay parking ticket, pay fastrak,
pay tickets online, pay traffic ticket, pay traffic tickets, pay traffic tickets online, traffic ticket, traffic citations, fastrak violations, red light violations, and even outstanding warrants. I was surprised. Nevertheless, followed by
straighting out my debt to the Fastrak Violations Bureau, I
continued to utilize my device to go through the FasTrak track
without slowing. I’m so relieved I purchased it and made an
attempt, for the reason that I was contemplating on doing this
for a long time. I don’t realize why I killed the time so many
days. If you are like me, a woman who exercises the expressways
to ride to office and cross the Bay Bridges and don’t intend to
wait and are short on time, then I greatly refer the purchasing
of the Fastrak device for your vehicle. It will save you a huge
amount of period and fewer stop. I learned that I have less
tension and anxiety when diving on the line of traffic with so
many hundred thousands of other cars. With my new device I can
leave the commuters behind instead of being slowdown with the
traffic.

Advantages of Fastrak Gadget for Passengers Moving Bay Area is a post from: Business Directory for Business Information | Joevsken.com

After reviewing the cost factors, their company made it easy for me to decide if it was more cost-effective for me to add additional lines to my current phone system or to purchase a new one. After consulting with the phone professionals, it was decided that a key system would be most effective for my business. This decision was made by weighing the costs of purchasing a new system versus upgrading an older one.

Ultimately, cost is most important in deciding the benefits toward one’s company future success. After consulting with my boss, we discussed the positives and negatives in purchasing a new system. While new equipment would be a great addition, we were concerned of the complexity of the new system. We would want to implement our current business activities into its use immediately and would have to be trained on using the new phones.

After great consideration, we purchased a new key system for our near 10 person customer service staff and 100 other employees. After an introduction meeting for the entire staff to the new system, employees were back at work immediately using the new system within an hour.

This decision has been very important to the continued success of my company. I have seen greater results with the speed in which calls are transferred to the appropriate representatives. This allows customers’ needs to be addressed in a more timely manner. Overall, this new system has positively increased the quality of our customer service.

By investing in a better system, the success of my company and the satisfaction of my customers are better dealt with. Quality definitely is essential to effective work equipment. And after taking the time to make a change in my company, I have continuously been satisfied with my decision.

Additional phone lines allows for greater customer-service success is a post from: Business Directory for Business Information | Joevsken.com

Yes, that person interviewing with your Human Resource Manger and other relevant executives, the one looking presentable and acting so bright and articulate may well be inventing his education. In most cases your candidate’s claim to a higher education is not necessarily a total invention. He may have in fact actually enrolled in the university listed on the resume. He just didn’t graduate from that school. Or any other school, for that matter.

But then there are those, a notable amount of employment candidates who have engaged in what we term a ghost attendance. That is to say they not only failed to graduate from the school, but they never enrolled at all. Why they chose that particular school as their fictional place of graduation is anyone’s guess. But enough candidates lie about graduating from schools they may have never seen, save for photos on the Internet. The HR person should always consider the ghost attendance a very real possibility.
As to which schools the job candidates may claim to have graduated, the selection is varied and sometimes darkly amusing. Some may choose the smaller and more out of the way schools as their fictional alma maters. They may select something arty and prestigious, one of those schools you may hear about but not know much about.. Or your candidate can take obscurity in another direction by listing on their resume some grievously remote or sub-par institute of higher learning that few ever even heard of..
There is certain logic to making such claims. By listing say, an obscure Mid-Western school or esoteric New England college, as his place of graduation, your candidate may believe he helps substantiate his credibility. Even the more astute HR person may well determine no one would actually lie about graduating from a Reed College, in Oregon, Amherst, in Massachusetts, or Lake Forest, in Illinois? Or for that matter as a defense against low self-esteem, who would dare boast of graduating from one of the legions of North Western Eastern Slippery Eel Teacher’s College in the far corner of the middle of nowhere? So, the thinking goes, you may accept their claim at face value and never bother to check it out.
Other candidates will take the alternate route. Most in fact, will choose the larger schools, believing their names and alleged graduation dates may well get lost in the bureaucratic shuffle. Of course, if they did attend for awhile, they hope their registered enrollment may mistakenly be interpreted as proof of graduation. What they lack in education, they make up for in audacity. Well, sort of.
Finally, there are the no degree degrees. These are the phony degrees awarded for “life experience” and are not representative of attendance or graduation from any legitimate or accredited college. They are totally bogus. But they are popular. The more enterprising among the duplicitous can purchase these degrees online for anywhere from fifty bucks to several hundred dollars. The graduate degrees are a little pricier than the mere Bachelors’ but they are available from any number of phony universities. Some of them even look impressive; provided you don’t look try to find the school’s physical address on the Internet.
Before you become too upset or overly suspicious, bear in mind that those who lie about their degrees comprise a minority of employment candidates. More often than not your candidate actually is who he says he is and did attend and graduate from the college listed in his resume. But bear in mind the operative phase here is “more often than not.” With that in mind, think of the ways you may cause embarrassment and even litigation if you mistakenly hire someone who has obtained only a fictional degree.
It may be true that lacking a Bachelor’s degree in certain disciplines may be irrelevant. There is a saying, for example, that a good sales person is born and not made, or something to that affect. And while that may be true in certain disciplines, in more than a few someone better have the qualifications afforded through the proper education. It may well be your new hire with his fictional degree may genuinely lack the skill sets required for the job. This reality can cause all sorts of problems and even lead to catastrophe in its myriad forms.
You have allocated time and money to his hire. You have distracted your work force, at least those who have conducted the various interviews. In hiring this person, you may have rejected a candidate who was truly qualified but is no longer available. You must now allocate additional resources to hire someone else. Such mistakes can detract from employee morale as well as your bottom line.
Additionally, by hiring someone not qualified by virtue of lacking his degree, you are jeopardizing your relationship with clients. You may have assigned this person to a client, and now your employee has screw things up through is lack of qualifications. This can make your client extremely unhappy. The client may demand compensation. They may even threaten a lawsuit. This is not only costly, but embarrassing as well.
If you think this doesn’t happen, you had better think again. These are not the stories executives like to brag about over lunch. These are the stories that are whispered, and the whispering is far more ominous and damaging to your business. Let’s face it, if your failure to perform due diligence causes proves detrimental to your client, then you will be held accountable. You will look foolish and cheap. You may also be looking for another client to replace the one who left you.
The moral to this story is that your Human Resources Management must check out everyone, no matter how trustworthy they sound. It is essential to have a pre-employment screening program in place and to include education verification as part of that program. The few bucks you spend up front to verify your candidate’s graduation can save you plenty in money and time as well as and potential litigation and embarrassment. Those who win contracts with major corporations, especially technology or defense and security related industries will find these companies mandate background checks for everyone who will be working on the project. This includes education verification. Often they will insist on verification of all degrees and not just the highest.
When conducting education verifications here are some things to keep in mind—
• Colleges and Universities typically provide verification either in-house or through the National Student Clearing House or another third party service. If the University is registered with a third party service, the degree can often be verified that day. Third party services will charge a fixed rate for access verification. Some background checking agencies will add on to this rate while others will pass it on at cost.
• Typically, degrees are verified by background checking services within a couple, few days. The process may take longer if your candidate has either graduated some years back or is not listed in the database.
• Verification may also take longer over the holidays, semester break or the summer. Be prepared to allow for more time for verification.
• Verification from foreign universities inevitably will take longer than domestic verification. Typically, the rates for foreign verifications are significantly higher than charges for a domestic university. Be prepared to pay more and wait longer for the foreign verification.
• Some schools will ask for your candidate’s disclosure and release form before issuing the verification.
• When providing your candidate’s information to the University or third party service, it is best to include the years attended, the year graduated, the actual degree and major, and for large schools the campus where your candidate attended.
• If your candidate is a female, be sure the information you submit reflects the actual name with which your candidate graduated. Sometimes your candidate applies for the position under her married name and fails to provide her maiden name, the name she used while attending school.
• This may also apply for foreign students. Sometimes foreign candidates will change their names after graduation, to make them more accessible in the American workplace. But they may have attended school, using their formal name. Your candidate is known to you as “Ben,” but in school he was still “Bao.” This can complicate the verification process.
• If the school or the third party service is having a difficult time verifying y our candidate’s degree, they may request a facsimile of his diploma or final transcripts.
• Be sure to keep your verification process uniform. You may decide to verify all degrees or only the highest degree obtained. Whatever you do for one candidate, you should do for all the rest.
• Make sure your background checking service stays in front of any complications that may arise in the verification process. Establish and maintain fluid communication channels so that the service can keep you informed and request additional information when needed.
Remember if for some reason and after all due diligence you are unable to verify your candidate’s degree, it probably means he never obtained one. They may try to talk their way out of it, but hold firm and insist they provide any information that has been requested. There is nothing exceptional about this information for anyone who has truly graduated from an accredited college or university. If they can’t provide that information, you may want to look for another candidate. Remember the axiom that if they lie about their degree then they’ll lie when on the job didn’t become accepted wisdom for no reason. Check them out before you hire.

A Brief Education on Education Verification is a post from: Business Directory for Business Information | Joevsken.com

24-7 & 9-5 Live Chat and Email management Solution for your website No Infrastructure expenses and NO employee to recruit. Outsource your Customer support & order taking service to PLACE Support.

Place Support is a comprehensive voice-chat-email support service provider. We take care of your customers, providing 24-7 and 9-5 customers support; freeing up your time to focus on other parts of your business. Our unique method allows us to bring these services to you at a very affordable price.

We offer: Live Chat Management, Ticket Management, E-Mail Management, Inbound Call Center Service and Order Taking Service

We look forward to helping your business grow and helping you create more time for the important things!

How unique is PLACE Support?

Place support always emphasizes on resolving the issue during the course of live support in real time.

We deliver high quality support services through our state of the art software application.

Affordable Price structure for all range of business

Our support agents are hired and trained according to your specifications.

Place support highly dedicated to security and strict policies.

Benefits & Advantages:

Less expensive labor and infrastructure facilities reduces cost about 70%

The resources would be recruited as per the client’s specification

Client can involve in the recruitment process and conduct the interview through video conference.

A dedicated project leader will be deployed to lead your team

You can be in touch with your team any time using IM & Video Conference

Detailed QA (Quality Audit/Assurance) and Production reports from our senior staff for each of your team members each month

Client can have the advantage of integrating any CRM application for their process.

24-7 & 9-5 Live Chat & E-mail management Solution is a post from: Business Directory for Business Information | Joevsken.com

Success in business would depend greatly on finding the right outsourcing company and for this you must:

• Determine clearly what your core business competencies are. Know your strengths and weaknesses.

• Clearly define your goals, future business plans.

• Create an outsourcing proposal that outlines your objectives as well as needs. State clearly the details of the project, expectations, timelines, as well as budgets.

• Do in depth research on outsourcing companies to find out which ones will satisfy your needs. Alternately one can hire a consultant to carry out the search.

• Search for an organization that can source many talents. Flexibility in operations is crucial.

• Interview at least 3-4 organizations. Check out their referrals and projects completed. Be sure to meet key personnel to gauge their competencies. And check out their technological expertise.

• Do a cost effectiveness study as also how the selected company will fulfill your needs. Whether their infrastructure and training will be in synchrony with yours. Systems must be compatible. The costing should address impact of increased flexibility, difference in productive and time management, which is the time taken to reach the market and its effect on competition.

• Study thoroughly the non-financial costs as well as advantages of outsourcing.

• Check with local chambers of commerce like the California chamber of commerce at www.calchamber.com or other associations that focus on human resource like the Sacramento Area Human Resources Association at www.sahra.org.

• Before making a final choice check whether the outsourcing company or vendor is trustworthy, find out what kind of security measures they use, check the company’s reputation in the market; determine in no uncertain terms whether they have the right qualifications.

• Seek answers to: are they an established and financially sound company; what is their customer service philosophy; what is their service record; who are their current clients; is their estimate transparent or are there any loop holes; are they limited or can they expand along with your growth; is there an implementation plan; what about disaster recovery mechanisms; can they deliver?

• Check whether communications will be smooth and trouble free and if there are any cultural differences between you and the vendor. If yes will you be able to bridge the difference.

The cornerstones of a good and ideal outsource is a company that will enhance your performance; partner you in growth by infusing talent and technology; will share your visions; and contribute positively.

Interview the companies. After you select one discuss in detail the contractual terms. Be sure to protect your own interests well. It takes trust, collaboration, communication, and chemistry to make an outsourcing successful.

12 Essential tips to finding the best outsourcing company is a post from: Business Directory for Business Information | Joevsken.com

* Definitions and safe harbor provisions for the routine alterations of electronic files during routine operations such as back ups [Amended Rule 37(f)]

* Information about how to deal with data that is not reasonably accessible [Amended Rule 26(b)(2)(B)]

* How to deal with inadvertently produced privileged material [Amended Rule 26(b)(5)]

* ESI preservation responsibilities and the pre-trial conference. [Amended Rule 26(f)]

* Electronic file production requests [Amended Rules 33(d), 34, 26(f)(3), 34(b)(iii)]

There are many opinions about how ESI should be planned for, managed, organized, stored, and retrieved. Some of the available options are extremely costly in terms of their required financial and time commitments. Constantly changing technologies only add to the confusion. One area of confusion is the distinction between computer forensics and electronic discovery; there is a significant difference. These are described in the sidebar Computer Forensics vs. Electronic Discovery.

Making the Right Choices

Successfully responding to e-discovery within the constraints of the amended FRCP requires organizations to make many critical decisions that will affect the collection and processing of ESI.

Processing Choices

Because of the volume of information available in even the smallest of collections, it becomes necessary to manage the process to control time and budget. The following questions need to be answered:

1. Who are the key people?

The people important to a case should be identified. These key individuals include not only executives, but also assistants and other support personnel from the technology, accounting, sales and marketing, operations, and human resources departments.

2. Where are the files located?

All the potential locations of electronic evidence should be identified. These include home computers and all computers that a key person would use elsewhere (such as a girlfriend or boyfriend?s home), cell phones, PDAs, Blackberries, and any other digital device that might be used. It is important to note that MP3 players, such as iPods, can also be used to store documents or important files.

3. How can the collection be culled?

Methods for limiting the number of files collected may include collecting only those in certain date ranges or only those containing selected key words or terms. This can be done either before or after an entire hard drive is collected forensically. Known file filtering can also reduce the collection by removing standard application files common to all computers (such as the Microsoft Windows? logo file).

4. How should password-protected/encrypted files be handled?

Encrypted files cannot be processed until the encryption is broken. In some instances, files with exact or similar names may be available without using passwords or encryption. File locations may also provide information about the value decryptions provide. Decryption may require significant time. Sometimes a password can be obtained simply by asking for it, so this should be the first step. If that fails, using a subpoena may be successful.

5. How should duplicate and near-duplicate documents be handled?

Electronic file collections almost always include duplicates. Multiple individuals may have the same e-mail, with the same attachments. Two or more people may have reviewed key documents, saving them on their hard drives during the process. In processing electronic collections, it is possible to identify exact duplicate files and limit the number of documents that require review.

Identifying exact duplicates usually occurs during the phase in which the metadata is identified and extracted from the files. De-duping the collection will minimally delay the processing.

Standard de-duping involves identifying files that are exact duplicates and eliminating them. If anything has changed within a document, including formatting such as a change of font, it is no longer an exact duplicate and is not de-duped.

It is imperative that both sides of a case agree on what is meant by ?de-duping.? Many electronic discovery systems literally delete the files so they are gone from the collection. The forensic tools used in law enforcement, however, usually do not delete the duplicates, but merely identify them for future use.

Discussing this definition during the pre-trial conference to ensure that all sides of a case use the same definition is imperative to ensuring that there is not a discrepancy in the number of files that each side later has.

A more significant portion of any collection will be ?near duplicates.? This includes files that have been significantly altered or contain only a portion of the main document. For some projects, the sheer file volume requires that near duplicates be identified and reviewed as a group. This significantly reduces review time and costs when compared to traditional linear review.

Identifying near duplicates requires comparing each document to every other document or using sophisticated software applications that require additional processing time. This technology increases consistency of review categories, reducing the chance of near-duplicate documents being identified as both privileged and non-privileged.

6. What form should the collection take?

The new rules state that the parties will meet and determine the format in which they wish to receive electronic evidence. In the absence of an agreement, the format will be that ?in which it is ordinarily maintained? or in a ?reasonably usable? format.

The choices a legal team has include whether each side prefers to receive the electronic evidence in native file format, converted to TIF or PDF, or in some other form. Often, this will depend upon the team?s standard litigation review system.

Such systems handle both native and converted files, with or without associated metadata and full text. There are pros and cons for both options. Native files with extracted metadata reflect the exact original file; however, they cannot be Bates labeled, which is a technique to mark documents with a unique identification code as they are processed, and are subject to inadvertent change.

Converting native files to TIF or PDF is time-consuming and is the most expensive task in electronic discovery. Because 60 to 80 percent of the files in a collection may be non-responsive or irrelevant, both the time and finances expended in conversion may be counter- productive.

The best compromise involves receiving files in native format, reviewing them for relevancy, and choosing only those that may be produced or used extensively for conversion to image format.

Managing the vast amount of electronic files for litigation requires preparation planning for the production, organization, and retrieval of pertinent and relevant documents and managing both cost and time budgets. Because every case presents unique circumstances, there are no absolute correct answers to the questions above. But a team that understands the choices and their ramifications is prepared to make the informed decisions that will result in the best possible outcomes for the case and the organization.

10 Critical Decisions for Successful E-discovery Part 2 is a post from: Business Directory for Business Information | Joevsken.com

* Definitions and safe harbor provisions for the routine alterations of electronic files during routine operations such as back ups [Amended Rule 37(f)]

* Information about how to deal with data that is not reasonably accessible [Amended Rule 26(b)(2)(B)]

* How to deal with inadvertently produced privileged material [Amended Rule 26(b)(5)]

* ESI preservation responsibilities and the pre-trial conference. [Amended Rule 26(f)]

* Electronic file production requests [Amended Rules 33(d), 34, 26(f)(3), 34(b)(iii)]

There are many opinions about how ESI should be planned for, managed, organized, stored, and retrieved. Some of the available options are extremely costly in terms of their required financial and time commitments. Constantly changing technologies only add to the confusion. One area of confusion is the distinction between computer forensics and electronic discovery; there is a significant difference. These are described in the sidebar Computer Forensics vs. Electronic Discovery.

Making the Right Choices

Successfully responding to e-discovery within the constraints of the amended FRCP requires organizations to make many critical decisions that will affect the collection and processing of ESI.

Collection Decisions

The following questions need immediate answers:

1. Are e-mail files part of this project? If so, do any key people maintain an Internet e-mail account, in addition to their corporate accounts?

The sheer volume of transactions for large e-mail providers prohibits the storage of massive amounts of mail files. Many Internet e-mail account providers, such as AOL, BellSouth, and Comcast, retain their e-mail logs no longer than 30 days. If a case could potentially require the exploration of e-mail from Internet accounts, the discovery team must expeditiously request the records, or they may be gone forever. This usually requires a subpoena. In rare cases, fragments of Internet e-mail may be recovered forensically from an individual’s hard drive.

2. Is there any chance illegal activity may be discovered?

Many cases involving electronic data uncover wrongdoings. These situations may involve a member of the technology department or a highly technical employee. In these cases, an organization’s first inclination may be to terminate the employee(s) involved and determine the extent of any damage prior to notifying law enforcement agencies.

This may be exactly the WRONG thing to do. If the wrongdoing is by a technical person, there is a chance that he or she is the only person who knows how to access the files, find the problem, or fix it. This is often the person who knows the passwords for mission-critical applications. The technical employee usually has the ability to work and access company files remotely. Unless such access is eliminated prior to the employee’s termination, it is possible that a terminated or disgruntled employee may access the network and do great damage.

A better solution is to restrict the employee’s complete access privileges, both local and remote. The employee is then notified of management’s knowledge of the situation and given an opportunity to cooperate to minimize the damage. If the situation involves criminal matters, especially if financial or medical records have been compromised, a good decision is to involve law enforcement as early as possible. Electronic criminals frequently disappear and destroy all evidence of their activities.

3. Is it possible that deleted or hidden files may play an important role in this case?

There are three ways to collect electronic files for discovery:

* Forensically ? as described in the sidebar

* Semi-forensically ? using non-validated methods and applications to capture files

* Non-forensically using simple cut and- paste copy methods to move copies of files from one location to another. These methods do not include hashing files to ensure the files have not changed, which involves using a hash algorithm to create a mathematical fingerprint of one or more files that will change if any change is made to the collection.

For some matters, the content of electronic documents is all that matters. The context of the files ? who created them, how they are kept, how they have been accessed, if they have been changed or deleted ? is not as important.

For other cases, contextual information, including finding deleted files, is vital and requires a forensic collection. This includes

* Ensuring legal search authority of the data

* Documenting chain of custody

* Creating a forensic copy using validated forensic tools that create hash records

* Using repeatable processes to examine and analyze the data

* Creating a scientific report of any findings

Determining the value of electronic forensic file collection must be done prior to any data being captured. Once semi- or non-forensic methods have been used, it is impossible to return records to their original states.

4. Are backup tapes part of an active collection?

Some cases involve historical issues, making the method of handling computer backups important to address immediately.

Most businesses use a schedule of rotating their backup media. For example, in a four-week rotation, daily backups are done for a week and then those tapes (or drives) are taken offsite for storage. A new set of media is used for the second, third, and fourth weeks, and then those three tapes are stored offsite. On the fifth week, the tapes/drives from the first week are reused. This process is done for financial reasons, as it is extremely cost-efficient.

Backup tapes may become part of the active information required to be kept under a litigation hold. This requires cessation of any rotation schedule, and the 2006 amendments to the FRCP make it critical for the legal team to convey that information to the technology employees responsible for business continuity processes.

10 Critical Decisions for Successful E-discovery Part 1 is a post from: Business Directory for Business Information | Joevsken.com