Alignment, staffing and culture are often more critical than software and apps
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Does anyone still make travel arrangements offline? Yes, and their numbers are growing , reports the New York Times . This according to Forrester Research, which saw a 9 percent decline in t... More >
We blogged recently about increasing interest from U.S. companies in locating operations in small American towns rather than offshore locales like India. With offshore salaries on the rise, it's an... More >
Boy, did blogger Khoi Vin ever hit a collective nerve with a post about enterprise software in which he minces few words. The first sentence: "Enterprise software, it can hardly be debated, is pret... More >
As the value of the U.S. dollar drops, the business case for offshoring software development and other IT work becomes far less compelling. We've blogged about this before, citing research that shows... More >
It's been less than two months since we last blogged about the increase in iSCSI options for SMBs , from the likes of IBM, HP and Dell. Now there is yet another entrant, this time one aimed a... More >
In one of our earlier blogs on Dell's fledgling efforts to create products and services geared toward SMBs, we noted that Dell's market push would likely inspire competitors to reassess their SMB o... More >
The premise of an interesting InformationWeek article, that increasing use of Web 2.0 tools like wikis, social networks and mashups could result in tech-savvy users supplanting IT , is one that we... More >
Because it looks as if staffing shortages won't go away any time soon -- and in fact, may get worse before they get better -- we are always on the lookout for articles on gaining a hiring edge over... More >
Though America once set the gold standard for manufacturing, in more recent years it has lost ground to countries like Japan (which produces the Boeing 787) and Taiwan (the iPhone). Two educat... More >
It would be simplistic -- not to mention just plain wrong -- to assume that SMBs have only basic infrastructure needs. As a recent IT-Director.com column written by a Quocirca analyst points... More >
Though folks are buzzing about Microsoft's decision to pony up $240 million for a minority ownership stake in Facebook, we were also quite interested in the news that Facebook is integrating its We... More >
Is familiarity with technology creating a lack of interest in IT careers among today's students? Maybe so, says Kate Kaiser, an associate professor of IT at Marquette University who is quoted in an... More >
Just what is the target demographic for the book, "How to Do Everything With Second Life?" Based on the chapter titles, "Amp Your MySpace Page" and "YouTube 4 You," it appears to be either preteens o... More >
Even as executives from America's high-tech companies continue to criticize the country's immigration policies, which they contend don't do enough to help skilled foreign workers relocate to the U.... More >
While free stuff is appreciated by companies of all sizes, no-cost software is especially attractive to SMBs since they tend to have fewer dollars to throw at IT than their bigger brethren. So... More >
It's beginning to look as if companies are willing to go to the ends of the (virtual) earth to find the right employees. We just blogged about the British intelligence agency that apparently i... More >
It remains to be seen how Indian outsourcing firms will deal with a convergence of market forces that experts say could make the country a less popular offshore destination. But folks appear to be ke... More >
Not surprisingly, since the United Kingdom is the home of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), European companies still lead their North American counterparts in the adoption and execution of ITIL. ... More >
Echoing its findings from earlier this year , outsourcing advisory firm TPI says that outsourcing business is sluggish in the U.S. in the third quarter, but looking quite lively in Europe and Asia. ... More >
Can something as seemingly innocuous as an electrical plug prevent SMBs from adopting new technology? In the case of blade servers, maybe so. Both HP and IBM make much of the fact that their n... More >
A few months ago we blogged about a study from IBM and a company called Seriosity that found parallels between the kinds of skills used in online role-playing games and those needed to succeed in t... More >
Earlier, we blogged about the two extremes of social networking : monoliths like Facebook that seek to be everything to everybody, contrasted with networks built by companies like Dow Chemical Co. a... More >
We blogged about a Citrix Online survey released over the summer that found SMBs somewhat less willing than their larger counterparts to let employees work away from the office. However, new AMI-Pa... More >
Call centers, once the star of India's outsourcing industry, are increasingly viewed as an undesirable employment option by Indian university graduates, reports TIME . In fact, several coll... More >
YouTube is one of those Web 2.0 wonders that, at first blush, doesn't appear to have much crossover appeal for the enterprise. In fact, early marketing efforts on YouTube have not always been success... More >
Outsourcing giant EDS has experienced its share of troubles lately, including a plunging stock price and a restructuring that has it trying to coax 12,000 American employees into taking early ret... More >
As we've blogged before, there isn't a tech vendor out there that doesn't want a piece of the lucrative SMB market. Not a day goes by without an SMB-oriented product announcement, from the likes of I... More >
A recent CIO Insight story breaking out results regarding business intelligence from a broader IT spending survey offers some interesting takeaways . Nearly 90 percent of respondents say they are ... More >
Financial results for Indian outsourcing firms in the latest quarter are decidedly mixed, with the companies reporting financial gains but lowering future guidance in the face of continued problems w... More >
A comment on one of my recent posts, about whether outsourcing could help companies achieve energy savings in the data center, makes me realize how often folks appear to assign the same meaning to ... More >
While there has been much talk of making business intelligence more "democratic" by distributing reports and scorecards to folks other than analysts and other power users, there has been relatively l... More >
I long ago figured out a way to abruptly end many heated political discussions. Before the person on the other end of the conversation escalates his criticism of a public official into full-on offens... More >
iSCSI is a nice fit for many SMBs because, as IT Business Edge blogger Art Cole points out , it's a "tremendously effective approach for low-cost SANs, as long as you are willing to give up some of ... More >
We've been blogging fairly regularly about the importance of recruiting and retaining top IT talent here in the U.S. As pressing as the problem is domestically, however, it appears to be even worse... More >
Even before the ink was dry on all of the analysis surrounding SAP's recently announced acquisition of business intelligence pureplay Business Objects, BusinessWeek predicted that the deal would ... More >
Poor Teradata. Despite its best effort to keep journalists in attendance at this week's Partners conference in Las Vegas focused on its recently finalized spinoff from NCR Corporation, the scribes pr... More >
Teaching my son to read has been quite an experience. One day when he read a sentence to me and I congratulated him, he said in a somewhat anguished voice, "But I didn't read it. I just knew the word... More >
In a post-"Inconvenient Truth" world, companies appear to be putting more thought into conserving energy in their data centers, as this Analyst Perspectives report makes clear. The report cites a... More >
VMware just came out with a slew of upgrades to its Virtual Infrastructure, duly noted by IT Business Edge blogger Art Cole, many of which should be welcomed by SMBs. An Info-Tech Research G... More >
Teradata has an image problem, it occurs to me. This insight hits me after several folks I see at this week's Partners User Group conference in Las Vegas tell me, "People think that Teradata is reall... More >
At the Teradata Partners User Group conference, which I am attending in Las Vegas this week, the data warehouse giant hosted a press event to announce its newly forged strategic partnership with SAS.... More >
Earlier this year we blogged about the rise in labor costs in China , where wages grew 16 percent in 2006, up from the more typical 3 percent to 5 percent increases of previous years. The ste... More >
With labor-related costs accounting for such a big chunk of IT budgets -- up to a third by some accounts -- it's no wonder that companies are looking to control these expenses. Twenty-five percent of... More >
If there is one thing that most IT departments love, it's automation. Taking people out of processes reduces potential for error and makes everything nice and predictable, just the way IT likes it. &... More >
IBM, a company which has taken some heat over its own increased use of offshore labor, is trying to obtain a patent for a software application that will help companies determine which tasks are bes... More >
An InformationWeek story asks if Canada could "become the next India for American-based software companies outsourcing work." The question is posed based on Canada's mention in a recent sur... More >
When we last blogged about VoIP solutions for the SMBs , we noted that even as vendors like Cisco, Nortel and Microsoft talked up their SMB-friendly products, none of them seemed to be able to strik... More >
While folks are using social networks for business and for pleasure, there has been a fairly clear line of separation between the two -- at least until now. The rule of thumb: LinkedIn -- and more sp... More >
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman's contention that "The World Is Flat" has not only sold a lot of books, but also helped radically alter the way that many companies do business. But wh... More >
Like most bloggers, we love the occasional opportunity to take some corporate weasels to task for their questionable business practices. Because SMBs are far more inclined to mimic consumer behavior... More >
We've blogged before about the disconnect between the predictions of some experts that more companies will offshore innovation-driven activities and the apparent dissatisfaction experienced by compan... More >
One of the most interesting aspects of the whole software-as-a-service phenomenon, which we blogged about recently , is how often business users rather than IT provide the impetus for adoption. &nbs... More >
Selecting an offshore services provider based primarily on the country in which it is located is a bit like choosing a car based on the fact that it has wheels and an engine. While those features mus... More >
Technology resellers must feel like the stereotypical geeky girls who, after years of being ignored by the guys (vendors like IBM and Oracle, in this belabored example), now have all of the attention... More >
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