Vistaprint 2007 Annual Report Download - page 28

entity, e-mails sent from those addresses may be blocked if they are sent to any Internet domain or
Internet address that subscribes to the blacklisting entity’s service or purchases its blacklist.
Some of our Internet protocol addresses currently are listed with one or more blacklisting entities
despite our belief that our commercial e-mail solicitations comply with all applicable laws. In the future,
our other Internet protocol addresses may also be listed with one or more blacklisting entities. We may
not be successful in convincing the blacklisting entities to remove us from their lists. Although the
blacklisting we have experienced in the past has not had a significant impact on our ability to operate
our websites or to send commercial e-mail solicitations, it has, from time to time, interfered with our
ability to send operational e-mails—such as password reminders, invoices and electronically delivered
products—to customers and others. In addition, as a result of being blacklisted, we have had disputes
with, or concerns raised by, various service providers who perform services for us, including
co-location and hosting services, Internet service providers and electronic mail distribution services.
There can be no guarantee that we will not continue to be blacklisted or that we will be able to
successfully remove ourselves from those lists. Blacklisting of this type could interfere with our ability to
market our products and services, communicate with our customers and otherwise operate our
websites, all of which could have a material negative impact on our business and results of operations.
Interruptions to our websites, information technology systems, production processes or
customer service operations as a result of natural disasters, errors in our technology, capacity
constraints, security breaches or other causes could damage our reputation and brand and
substantially harm our business and results of operations.
The satisfactory performance, reliability and availability of our websites, transaction processing
systems, network infrastructure, printing production facilities and customer service operations are
critical to our reputation, and our ability to attract and retain customers and to maintain adequate
customer service levels. Any future interruptions that result in the unavailability of our websites,
reduced order fulfillment performance or customer service operations could result in negative publicity,
damage our reputation and brand and cause our business and results of operations to suffer. We may
experience temporary interruptions in our business operations for a variety of reasons in the future,
including human error, software errors, power loss, telecommunication failures, fire, flood, extreme
weather, political instability, acts of terrorism, war, break-ins and other events beyond our control. In
particular, both Bermuda, where substantially all of the computer hardware necessary to operate our
websites is located in a single facility, and Jamaica, the location of most of our customer service and
design service operations, are subject to a high degree of hurricane risk and extreme weather
conditions that could have a devastating impact on our facilities and operations.
Our technology, infrastructure and processes may contain undetected errors or design faults.
These errors or design faults may cause our websites to fail and result in loss of, or delay in, market
acceptance of our products and services. In the past, we have experienced delays in website releases
and customer dissatisfaction during the period required to correct errors and design faults in our
websites that caused us to lose revenue. In the future, we may encounter additional issues, such as
scalability limitations, in current or future technology releases. A delay in the commercial release of any
future version of our technology, infrastructure and processes could seriously harm our business. In
addition, our systems could suffer computer viruses and similar disruptions, which could lead to loss of
critical data or the unauthorized disclosure of confidential customer data.
Our business requires that we have adequate capacity in our computer systems to cope with the
high volume of visits to our websites, particularly during promotional campaign periods. As our
operations grow in size and scope, we will need to improve and upgrade our computer systems and
network infrastructure to offer customers enhanced and new products, services, capacity, features and
functionality. The expansion of our systems and infrastructure may require us to commit substantial
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