University Essay: Big Data Application Issues in Contract Management

This essay examines the application of big data in contract management, focusing on the challenges faced by companies, particularly multinational corporations. The essay highlights two primary issues: interruptions in data flow due to internet crashes or power outages, and the security threats associated with storing and accessing confidential contract information. These interruptions can lead to hasty decisions and potential disputes, while security breaches can expose sensitive data to unauthorized access, leading to financial and legal risks. The essay underscores the need for companies to strengthen their knowledge systems to effectively manage the vast amount of data related to their contracts with employees, suppliers, and other stakeholders. The essay uses references to support the arguments.

Running head: APPLICATION OF BIG DATA IN CONTRACT MANAGEMENT
Application Issues of Big Data in Contract Management
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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APPLICATION OF BIG DATA IN CONTRACT MANAGEMENT
The essay would shed light on the issues of applications of big data in contract
management. Big data refers to the immense amount of data, which is deposited in the digital
space by people and organisations from all round the world. It encompasses massive amount
of information on diverse areas like defence, business information, technology and law.
Contract management refers to the management of contracts business organisations have with
their employees, customers, partners and suppliers. One can point out that today companies,
especially the multinational companies use big data to management the immense number of
contracts they have with these stakeholders. However, big data have several shortcomings,
which make contract management very difficult and expensive.
The first ‘wrong’ or issue which the companies involved in contract management
using big data are facing is rampant interruptions in the flow of data. The companies,
especially the multinational companies today employ people and engage business
transactions with suppliers and logistics chain all round the world. They keep on either
introducing new products or upgraded versions of existing products. This requires them to
acquire knowledge about thousands of raw materials. Moreover, they have to enlist
themselves on several stock exchanges and enter into contracts with several financial
institutions all over the world. This vast scale of operations necessitates the companies to
access information the diverse information categories like raw materials and stock exchanges
using big data (George, Haas & Pentland, 2014). This intense pressure on hundreds of
operators from all round the world often causes the internet to crash. Electrical blackouts
prevent organisations from accessing crucial information pertaining to contracts with their
employees and suppliers. They, often due to time constraint have to take hasty decisions in
absence of access to the digitally saved contracts. These inappropriate decisions often cause
dispute with organisations and these stakeholders owing to breach of contracts with results in
huge legal expenses.

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APPLICATION OF BIG DATA IN CONTRACT MANAGEMENT
The second issue big data is the security threat, which individual and organisational
users perceive and feel. The relevant departments like HR and legal departments managing
these contracts companies have with stakeholders like employees, suppliers and banks, have
to input certain confidential information to access the big data. These personnel often do not
feel secure while inputting the confidential information while logging into the system
(Sagiroglu & Sinanc, 2013). Kitchin (2014) support this opinion of Sagiroglu and Sinanc
stating that data theft has emerged as one of the biggest threats companies face while
managing confidential information like contracts with stakeholders. Unauthorised
infiltrations happen on regular basis into the data, which organisations maintain to gain
undeserved benefits. For example, contracts between a multinational bank and an
organisation reveal the financial strength of the latter. Illegal organisations can use this
information available in the contracts to extort money from multinational companies to fund
their illegal activities. Thus, security threat is one of the biggest threats, which companies
today face while managing contracts on the big data platforms.
One can sum up from the discussion that there are two big issues, which companies
face while managing contracts with their stakeholders namely, sudden interruptions in power
or internet flow and security threats. The companies require maintaining and strengthening
their own knowledge system to manage the vast multitude of data pertaining to business
contracts they have with their stakeholders.

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APPLICATION OF BIG DATA IN CONTRACT MANAGEMENT
References:
George, G., Haas, M. R., & Pentland, A. (2014). Big data and management. Academy of
Management Journal, 57(2), 321-326.
Kitchin, R. (2014). The real-time city? Big data and smart urbanism. GeoJournal, 79(1), 1-14.
Sagiroglu, S., & Sinanc, D. (2013, May). Big data: A review. In Collaboration Technologies
and Systems (CTS), 2013 International Conference on (pp. 42-47). IEEE.
Singh, H., & Singh, G. (2017). Big data-A review. I-Manager's Journal on Information
Technology, 6(1), 25-35. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-
com.ezproxy2.apus.edu/docview/1920564759?accountid=8289