June 30, 2008
SMBs and the Outsourcing Decision
When CIO Insight asked companies about their IT spending earlier this year, SMBs showed far less interest in outsourcing than their larger competitors, planning to spend less on consulting/outsou... More >
Best Way to 'Fix' Project: Keep It from Going Bad in First Place
Project failure is a reoccurring theme on this blog, because it's an issue that seems to dog IT like no other . Up to three-quarters of IT projects can be considered failures, according to an often-... More >
Europe Accounts for 36 Percent of Outsourcing Deals in Q1
I wrote last summer about Europe's growing appetite for outsourcing , citing a TPI report that indicated continental Europe accounted for a third of all global outsourcing activity, up from just 12 ... More >
June 27, 2008
Could Lack of H-1B Cap Attract Companies to Guam?
With no end in sight to the H-1B visa shortage, some companies are considering alternative visas for foreign workers such as the L-1, and wecloming a rule change that extends the amount of time f... More >
Cisco Another Example of Solid Use of Sexy Web 2.0 Tech
Web 2.0 is a sexy little minx. While it attracts lots of lustful gazes from CIOs, most of them cling to their solid yet unspectacular communications tools because they fret that Web 2.0 might break t... More >
Citigroup BPO Sale Should Go Through This Time
Just about a year ago, reports of Citigroup's intent to sell its captive BPO operation in India started appearing everywhere, creating buzz of a coming flurry of such sales. Neither that deal nor t... More >
June 26, 2008
Social Networks: Smoke, Mirrors and Valuation
I was so shocked -- not -- to find out that most Facebook applications are "just for fun," gaming or sports, according to a Flowing Data study released earlier this year. I had a similar rea... More >
India Thinking Big to Tackle Talent Shortage
Last week I wrote about a study that indicates that U.S. job losses due to offshoring are offset by growing sales of U.S.-produced services in other countries. This doesn't mean there won't be "los... More >
New Tool Minimizes Shipping Hassles for SMBs
As a sometime seller on eBay, I find myself hunting for answers to questions I couldn't imagine caring about in my pre-eBay days. Why do so many people in Japan want an Emerald the Enchanting Witch ... More >
June 25, 2008
Everyone Can Hear You Bitch on the Internet, or Why Communication Policies Need a Refresh
I wrote last week about an article on Workforce.com cautioning human resources professionals that they could open themselves up to employment discrimination lawsuits by checking out job candidates ... More >
Virtualization: Yet Another IT Skills Gap
Earlier this week, I wrote a blog post about how companies' insatiable appetite for new infrastructure is feeding a high demand for data center specialists . Of course, there's generally a strong co... More >
Some Smartphone Love from SMBs
Back in November, I wrote about a BlackBerry product introduction geared toward SMBs, a streamlined version of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. I also cited some interesting stats from a Computing... More >
June 24, 2008
Single-Supplier Voice/Data Deals Yield Outsourcing Savings
Though many companies now prefer to contract with multiple outsourcing providers rather than just one, as I wrote back in January, telecommunications appears to offer a notable exception to this ... More >
Lenovo Rolling out New ThinkPads for SMBs
Back in January, IT Business Edge noted several moves by Asian PC manufacturers to target the U.S. market, including Lenovo's introduction of a low-cost line of computers targeted to home users and... More >
Visa Launches SMB Network on Facebook
I wrote back in December about Facebook's efforts to woo SMB advertisers . The site is now getting a big boost from Visa, and its well-oiled (and funded) marketing machine . According to an ... More >
End User Is 'Ultimate Judge' of IT/Business Alignment, Says Forrester
I've written in the past about the difficulty in creating appropriate SLAs in outsourcing agreements and how an over-emphasis on SLAs can often be counterproductive . Turns out many of the same issu... More >
June 23, 2008
AMI Partners' SMB Spending Study Sounds Familiar
Shortly after I began seeing articles detailing AMI-Partners' recent research on SMB technology adoption and spending patterns, like this one on eChannelLine , I got a strong sense of deja vu. AMI... More >
Data Center Engineers Are in Demand
Just last week I wrote about how the roles and responsibilities of IT staff will change as cloud computing becomes more accepted in the enterprise, with engineering types working for managed servic... More >
June 20, 2008
It's Now Harder to Fight Age Discrimination Suits, Thanks to Supreme Court Ruling
The technology industry is often seen as favoring young hotshots over more experienced employees. Earlier this year, I wrote a blog about that preference, citing research from both Duke University'... More >
Checking out Job Candidates on Facebook Could Get You Sued
When it comes to Facebook and other social networking sites, employers tend to worry about employees spending too much time poking friends and possible compromises of sensitive company data. Some eve... More >
Reading, Writing and Facebook: Social Nets Can Make School More Relevant
Can Facebook and other social networking sites make you smarter? Yes, according to a new University of Minnesota study of teens from 13 urban high schools in the Midwest. Or if not smarter, mo... More >
June 19, 2008
Will IT Staff Get Lost in the Clouds, or Gain Greater Business Altitude?
At this point, not much is clear about the ultimate impact of cloud computing, as IT Business Edge blogger Art Cole pointed out just last week. However, one thing seems certain: Cloud computing and... More >
Profiling Could Improve Enterprise Search
Despite a number of developments in the enterprise search space this year by vendors, including Microsoft's moves to offer products across a broad spectrum of price and sophistication and Google's... More >
June 18, 2008
Student Visa Extension Way of Circumventing H-1B Cap, Says AFL-CIO
Earlier this month, several groups including the Immigration Law Reform Institute and The Programmers Guild filed a lawsuit challenging the Bush administration's decision to extend the amount of ti... More >
Can SMBs Go up Against Google for Employees?
As I've written before, it's no secret that it can be tough for SMBs to compete for tech talent, since it's often tough for them to match the salaries and other benefits offered by bigger companies... More >
Employee-Owned Laptops: Is More Control Worth Added Cost?
Last spring and again last summer, some of us at IT Business Edge kicked around the idea of employee ownership of laptops. Gartner has been espousing this idea since 2005 , when it predicted that 10... More >
Some Practical Advice from Web 2.0 Adopters
With all of the buzz about folks bringing Web 2.0 technologies with them to the office because they find them so easy and intuitive to use, it's easy to assume that workers will welcome new collabo... More >
June 17, 2008
Bill Encourages Telecommuting for Feds
When I wrote recently about some early advocates of telecommuting that were having second thoughts about the practice, I cited an eWEEK article that mentioned HP, AT&T and some federal govern... More >
Yahoo 1, Shareholders O in Severance Ruling
Earlier this month, I wondered What Will Shareholders Think of Yahoo's Sweet Severance Deal ? They thought so little of it, in fact, that they filed a lawsuit seeking to have the controversia... More >
Problem with 'Social' CRM: Salespeople Want Commissions, not 'Community'
CRM seems like a enterprise application practically crying out for elements of Web 2.0. After all, sales and marketing are among the most "social" functions at any company. So it seems logical... More >
June 16, 2008
Pharma Companies, not FDA, Should Monitor Offshore Suppliers
Just last month I wrote about an IMS report that predicted that profit-challenged U.S. pharmaceutical companies would offshore more manufacturing , followed by offshoring of other activities includi... More >
Offshoring Will Create Winners -- but Let's Not Forget 'Losers'
Earlier this month I wrote about a UK survey that seemed to indicate that offshoring depressed entry-level IT salaries . The Association of Technology Staffing Companies found that while entry-level... More >
SaaS Makes Sense for SMB E-Mail Archiving
We all know e-mail security is important, since malware and lots of other bad stuff can enter a company through e-mail. But compliance is important too, as companies are increasingly expected to reta... More >
My Facebook Mea Culpa
A couple of lessons learned from my recent blog post on the generational gap between people who'd seriously entertain the idea of leaving a job over restricted Facebook access and those who wouldn'... More >
June 13, 2008
Want a Great Job Reference for Tech Talent? Try Uncle Sam
Employers are exploring online avenues for tech talent, including virtual environments like Second Life . Yet many of them continue to overlook relatively untapped real-world options like consultan... More >
June 12, 2008
Glassdoor Throws Salary Secrecy out the Window
A common taboo at most workplaces is asking co-workers how much they earn. That's not to say that some folks don't do it, but now it's easier than ever with Glassdoor , a Web site that does it for y... More >
June 11, 2008
Expert Advice on Making Outsourcing Initiatives Work
Back in February, I wrote about how many companies achieve cost savings but not broader business benefits with their outsourcing initiatives. I cited a Deloitte report that highlighted five areas u... More >
The CIO as 'Practical Visionary'
The most innovative business strategies won't do much good if a company can't keep its network up and running. That's one of the lessons contained in an interesting strategy+business article ... More >
Oracle is on Target with Accelerate Program for SMBs
I've written quite a bit in the last few months about SAP's efforts to win SMBs and its problems with Business ByDesign , the product it created for that audience. But it's been almost a year since ... More >
June 10, 2008
Another Case of Government IT Gone Horribly Wrong
Last month, I wrote about the unfortunate tendency of organizations to stick with projects gone bad, something that Baseline terms "deadly project lust."Among the problems that can derail a proje... More >
Lots of Room for Growth in SMBs Buying BI
Last summer, a Forrester Research study concluded that the SMB market for business intelligence was pretty wide open , considering that 45 percent of SMBs in 2006 were not using BI. Despite a... More >
Survey: Telecommuting Tech Pros Would Work for Less Money
Companies may be somewhat ambivalent about telecommuting , as I wrote last week. But employees sure aren't, based on the results of a survey in which 37 percent of tech workers said they'd t... More >
June 9, 2008
Won't Try SaaS? Let Us Count the Reasons
Most outlooks for software-as-a-service are pretty rosy, including Gartner's forecast that SaaS applications will see annual growth of 22 percent through 2011, vs. annual growth of 9 percent for th... More >
What SMBs Should Know When Shopping for Contact-Center Software
IT Business Edge blogger Carl Weinschenk in April wrote about the many benefits of IP applications in the contact center. According to a recent NewsFactor Network article, the benefits may be ev... More >
How Far Will Facebook Go for Business?
In crotchety "when I was your age" form, I recently blogged about my disbelief that young folks would seriously consider leaving their jobs if they weren't allowed to use Facebook at work. I was quic... More >
Does Offshoring Depress Entry-level IT Salaries?
Back in March, I wrote about the contention of several experts, including Duke University's Vivek Wadhwa and Ron Hira of the Economic Policy Institute, that the tech industry's use of immigrant labor... More >
June 6, 2008
Gmail Labs Will Make Us All Mad Scientists
Product developers no longer sit in an Ivory Tower. Now they mingle with the masses, the better to find out what they want. In some cases, the masses become the product developers . Benefits ... More >
Lack of Facebook Access Makes You Want to Quit? Grow up, Punks
What would make you quit your job? Lack of insurance or other benefits? A lengthy and expensive commute? Limited advancement opportunities? No Facebook access? A recent survey by IT services p... More >
Job Losses Show Can't 'Spend Our Way to Prosperity'
When the Labor Department released its employment statistics for April, most media portrayed the loss of 20,000 jobs as a good thing -- because experts had expected the losses to be greater. At the... More >
June 5, 2008
Soaring Oil Prices Erode China's Wage Advantage
It's no secret that companies move their manufacturing operations to countries like China to gain a labor arbitrage advantage. But a number of wrinkles in this strategy are emerging. First, w... More >
IM Users Have Only Themselves to Blame for Unproductivity
Is instant messaging a valuable collaboration tool or an invasive time-sucker? It can be both , say researchers from Ohio State University and the University of California. According to The I... More >
Another Promising Outlook on Mobile CRM
Two weeks ago, I wrote about companies' interest in offering employees access to enterprise apps , notably CRM and business intelligence, on mobile devices. I referenced recent moves by SAP and IBM ... More >
What Will Shareholders Think of Yahoo's Sweet Severance Deal?
I've written about some of the cultural aspects of Microsoft's proposal to buy Yahoo, namely how important rank-and-file workers were likely to be to the deal. One person who seems to get this is Y... More >
June 4, 2008
Architectural Approach Key to Innovative App Development
Shortly after reading an interesting blog post by IT Business Edge's Loraine Lawson, about the debate over the importance -- or lack thereof -- of enterprise architecture, I found an entry on Info... More >
Investing in U.S. Makes Sense for Chinese Companies
I wrote in March about several Indian outsourcing companies, including Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services, establishing operations in the United States . Prompted by some of the same market ... More >
Trend Micro Adds Security Options for SMBs
Trend Micro is rolling out a new series of security products and services for SMBs, many of which are designed to address shifting work practices, reports Computer Technology Review . For i... More >
Surveys Show Mixed Support for Telecommuting
When I wrote about telecommuting last week, a couple of readers took me to task for passing along the news, published in eWEEK , that several large corporate proponents of telecommuting, including... More >
June 3, 2008
Author Raises Questions About Feds Outsourcing Intelligence
When I wrote last summer about the federal government's increasing tendency to hire contractors to perform intelligence tasks , a key issue was the droves of employees leaving government agencies to... More >
Does Data Drive Demand for BI?
It seems logical. As companies accumulate a growing pile of data, they want to derive as much value as possible from it. That desire is driving an increased interest in business intelligence, con... More >
Google Tweaks Hosted Site Search, Updates Mini
Google appears to have larger enterprise aspirations for its hosted site search. Though the product was largely geared toward SMBs when the search giant introduced it last July, it's now adding a n... More >
June 2, 2008
CIOs, Do You Have the Right Skills?
I write fairly often about the role of the CIO, whom I once called the James Brown of the Enterprise . Reoccurring themes include the often thankless nature of the job and the increasingly... More >
Lawyer Raises Constitutional Question about Legal Process Outsourcing
I wrote last spring about India's coming growth in knowledge process outsourcing , in particular in the area of legal outsourcing. As if to confirm the trend, Indian outsourcing giant Infosys Techno... More >
Are SMBs Confused by Broadband Options?
Just last month I wrote about how SMBs were getting more broadband options , thanks largely to competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) and Multiple-system operators (MSOs) eager to tap into the ... More >
