InformationWeek is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC
This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them.Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.
|
CIOs And The Art Of IT Project Triage
Global CIO guest columnist Howard Anderson has chimed in with a classic piece of strategic advice for CIOs on surviving these brutal times via artful negotiation of political minefields. Howard counsels CIOs on how to deal with suits seeking "shared pain," Sacred Cows, Godfathers, and Mahogany Row, and says to consider your pool of projects "one large Dungeons & Dragons game."
Salesforce CEO Benioff Claims Huge Wins Over Oracle
UPDATE: Bob Evans has just posted a new column about Salesforce and Benioff's challenges and opportunities in squaring off against Oracle, Microsoft and SAP.
Two months after Oracle CEO Larry Ellison told financial analysts his company was whipping Salesforce in head-to-head competition for cloud deals, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff hit back this week by releasing a list of customers h
Obama's IT Protectionism Rattles Indian IT Industry
President Obama's plan to penalize U.S. companies that use outsourcers from India and other countries will hurt the U.S. economy, the Indian economy, and the global economy, according to officials from the Indian technology industry. While it's not exactly a shocker to hear India's $63 billion IT and BPO market express such reactions, they underscore the central issue of just how damaging such a policy would be.
Unified Communications: Don't Forget The Glitz
Yes, we're in a recession, so now more than ever hard cash savings are the key reasons to adopt a unified communications strategy, and key to getting budget for it. Just don't forget that the gee-whiz features matter, too.
Intel Joins Dell In Challenging Netbook Trademark
Psion Teklogix has held the trademark for the term "netbook" since 2000, but PC makers say the word is now generic.
Yahoo CEO Bartz Shakes Up Management
While Yahoo's CFO and mobile czar pack their bags, the executive's first blog indicates a new focus on improving relations with customers and advertisers.
Microsoft Files Suit Against TomTom's Implementation Of Linux
The suit claims infringement of eight Microsoft patents related to car navigation systems and file management.
Yahoo's Mobile Leader Leaves
Marco Boerries' departure comes as new CEO Carol Bartz announces a reorganization of Yahoo management.
Obama's IT Protectionism: Just What Are 'Our Jobs,' Anyway?
"We will restore a sense of fairness and balance to our tax code by finally ending the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas," President Obama said last night. That begs the central question: In our massively interdependent business world where more and more products are designed, sourced, built, sold and serviced everywhere, how exactly do we define "our jobs"?
Stimulus Package Will Spur New Tech Jobs
Compared with other job sectors, the IT labor force has been holding up relatively well during the recession. And now there's an extra boost -- the government's economic stimulus programs should fuel demand for new tech talent in several key areas.
Honda Logistics Adds SaaS Link To Supply Chain
This success story highlights one of the reasons why CIOs in this rotten economy can't close their eyes to forward-looking innovation: a Honda warehousing unit says that a SaaS application from a small vendor called SmartTurn has exceeded all of its expectations and is leading to "a whole new change in how this type of business is done."
Global CIO: CIO As Chief Cost Cutter: It's Not Enough
When the upturn arrives, will your customers be satisfied with the capabilities your company had before it went into lockdown mode or will they be looking for growth strategies?
Microsoft Offers Rare Look At Its Global Oil-Industry Plan
Who knew Microsoft is pushing oil field-exploration and related energy initiatives in more than 70 countries? That it's helping Chevron deploy SOA and BI projects in the North Sea to extract more oil? And that Microsoft calls energy security the "über-challenge"? Here's a unique look inside this little-known side of Microsoft via video, text, and -- of course -- PowerPoint.
Microsoft Wants Chat With Yahoo About Search Deal
A partnership would make sense given Google's lead in search, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said.
Microsoft Won't Build Its Own Smartphone
CEO Steve Ballmer said he'll continue to focus on selling the software that runs mobile devices and let Apple iPhone have its "mojo" in the consumer market.
Ballmer Says Microsoft Won't Ship Office 14 This Year
Slow PC sales may have eased demand for a Web-based version of the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint bundle.
IBM Tops Indian Firms As Leading Outsourcer In India
In the highly fragmented Indian market for IT services, IBM grabbed the biggest market share for the second straight year as Indian CIOs are requiring outsourcing partners to offer end-to-end services and deep domain expertise and are putting less emphasis on low prices.
Symbian Gets $630 Million Boost
The European Investment Bank will provide Nokia with a loan to help make the Symbian-based smartphones more competitive.
Sprint Gets Rating Downgrade
Fitch Ratings reduced the carrier's rating following a quarter in which Sprint lost 1.3 million subscribers and $1.6 billion.
Canonical's Vision For Ubuntu Getting 'Cloudy'
CEO Mark Shuttleworth shines a spotlight on Ubuntu's road map and promises open source cloud management features and tools in an energy-smart package.
This CIO Does Get Respect -- Maybe Even Too Much?
A logistics and transportation company has just named a new CIO with hands-on industry experience as well as theoretical expertise from the academic world: certainly sounds like a good choice and worthy of that respect thing some CIOs are not getting these days. But in a press release, the new hire's boss says the incoming CIO "has driven hundreds of millions of dollars to the bottom line &
Vlog: Intel Core i7 Ushering In Era Of Ubiquitous Processing
A confluence of events -- faster processors, 32-nm fab technology, and the ubiquity of computing power -- make this an incredibly exciting time in the chip industry. So I made a video about it. Click through to see my eight minute vlog, where I opine on these trends and also show Intel's new Core i7 processor, the X-25 solid-state drive (SSD) that's taking the PC storage market by storm, and one surprisingly large heat sink.
The Case For A U.S. Innovation Officer
A recent Business Week column hits on a theme -- the need for a federal position to champion innovation -- that tech leaders such as Sybase CEO John Chen raise in our own coverage of what the federal CTO's agenda should be.
Is SaaS Cheaper? Depends On How Long You Have It.
Gartner published a report this week on the "five most-common SaaS assumptions." I agree with all of them, but must throw in my own two cents on the first assumption: SaaS is less expensive than on-premises software.
High-Tech Leaders Bolster Northeastern's Entrepreneurs Portal
Project supporters include alumni Richard Egan and Roger Marino of EMC; John Cullinane, founder of Cullinane Software; and Bob Davis, founder of Lycos.
The 'Un-Demise' Of Publishing
I've been having interesting conversations about content and content management of late with consultant Russ Edelman, an enterprise content management veteran and recent first-time author. I found his thoughts on the recent O'Reilly Tools of Change Publishing conference worth sharing.
Vista SP2 Release Candidate Raises Upgrade Path Questions
The Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista is in the news today, following an Ars Technica story reporting that Microsoft has offered up a release candidate of the update to select testers. This is actually pretty ho-hum news, since the SP2 beta has been around since last October. The more interesting question going forward is, what's the upgrade path to Windows 7 for current Vista
Russia May See Turbulence In Telecom Market
The Russian government may make business more difficult for foreign firms with ownership in the country's telecom companies, according to a Pyramid Research report.
AMD Stockholders Approve Manufacturing Operations Spin-Off
The joint venture with ATIC is expected to reduce AMD's costs and allow it to focus on designing rather than making microprocessors.
CIO Profiles: Peter Whatnell, CIO Of Sunoco
Sunoco's CIO is also the president of the Society for Information Management.
Where Does Apple Go From Here?
Apple's got room for future triumphs -- but it also faces threats from a battered economy, rejuvenated competitors, and a leadership crisis precipitated by Steve Jobs' illness.
Stimulus Package Makes It Harder To Hire H-1B Workers
The provisions are expected to affect new hires, not existing H-1B visa holders in the United States looking to renew their visas.
How Uncle Sam Is Already Saving Money With IT
The sweeping $787 billion economic stimulus bill signed yesterday by President Obama contains billions of dollars in tech-related spending. With this bill, and plans by the Obama administration to soon name "the first" federal CTO, one has to wonder how the federal government has been doing in its own use of IT till now.
The Upwardly Mobile CIO
Sears offers the latest evidence of a CIO moving into a business-unit role outside technology, tapping CIO Karen Austin to lead one of the company's business line leadership roles that are central to its turnaround strategy.
Top Windows Must-Have Apps: Dragon NaturallySpeaking
I'm writing (actually, speaking) this post using Dragon NaturallySpeaking. It's the first speech-recognition tool for the PC that's really ready for prime time. Indeed, since I started using it about six months ago, it's become one of my top 10 Windows must-have applications. Read on to see a video chat I had with Peter Mahoney of Nuance Communications, the maker of NaturallySpeaking.
Google's Presidents' Day Address
A company exec's rallying of Google employees leads to discussion on future offerings.
Down To Business: What Obama's CTO Should (And Shouldn't) Focus On
Though CIOs and CTOs abound across governmental agencies, President Obama's pick will be able to drive transformational change.
Can CIOs Lead The Hunt For Growth Opportunities?
While many companies struggle to find the bottom in this global recession, others are finding pockets of significant growth in unexpected areas: for example, the explosive market for mobile phones in rural India. CIOs can look for inspiration in this tale of untraditional opportunity as part of your effort to identify new markets and new customers in an otherwise brutal economic climate.
How To Stop IT Failures And The Four Horsemen Of Doom
What are the four main reasons IT projects fail? And do you know what the early-warning signs are for the approach of those dreaded Four Horsemen? Leon Kappelman, an IT professor who's been studying this issue for many years, will share the results of his extensive research into project failures in an upcoming Webinar. Leon is a prince of a guy and his Webinar is sure to be valuable.
Satellite Crash Shows CIOs Must Drive Data-Sharing
OK, folks, be honest: are you sharing data with customers, partners, and suppliers as aggressively as you should be? How about across divisions within your own company? If that makes you a little queasy, consider this: the recent collision of two space satellites has inspired a top U.S. military officer to urge better data sharing with Russia and China, and France. If our military's willing to go that far, what's holding you back?
Economic Stimulus Scam: Fake IRS Phishing E-Mail Making Rounds
It didn't take long for the online scum to come out of the woodwork and attempt to turn the just-passed $787-billion economic stimulus bill to their wayward purposes. On Friday evening, even before the final Senate vote approving the bill had been cast, I received an e-mail from the "Internal Revenue Service" (that always catches one's attention!) with the subject line "Submit your economic stimulus payment online form." What am I, a failed bank?
Warner Bros. Sends Jobs Out, United Pulls Some Back
With the relentless movement of jobs across borders, in a year or two these moves might hardly be noticed: filmmaker Warner Bros. said it is outsourcing about 300 jobs to India and Poland as part of a larger restructuring, and United Air Lines is closing a call center in India and moving 165 jobs back to the United States "to handle more sophisticated conversations with our guests."
White House Solicits Public Comment On Economic Stimulus Plan
Less than four weeks after Inauguration Day, the White House appears to be making good on promises to post bills for public review and comment.
When Robots Attack: A Look At 21st Century Warriors
P.W. Singer, author of the new book Wired For War, is concerned about how battlefield robots are changing IT perspectives.
SAP Says: We Don't Prohibit Use Of Third-Party Maintenance Providers
There was a good deal of chatter in the "blogosphere" this week about whether legalese in SAP contracts prohibits the use of third-party maintenance providers. But I don't know if anyone bothered to pick up the phone and ask SAP that question. So that's what I did.
GM's Bob Lutz, Car Guy Who Broke Mold, To Retire
Not to drop names -- which means I'm going to drop names -- but over the years I've heard many executives speak live, everyone from Bill Gates and Gordon Moore to Steve Jobs and President George H.W. Bush. Of them all, far and away the most charismatic orator was the late, great astronomer Carl Sagan, who passionately believed that we are not alone in this universe. No. 2 is outgoing General Motors vice chairman Bob Lutz, who just announced that he'll retire at the end of 2009.
Tata Tells CIOs: Show Me The Money!
After the recent Satyam scandal, most outsourcing clients rushed to assess the financial health of their software and BPO partners. But as the global rececession deepens, Tata Consultancy Services is shifting the burden of proof of viability from outsourcer to customers as Tata, burned by bankrupt client Nortel, looks to ensure its clients can pay their bills.
Down To Business: New Federal CTO Must Focus On Substance
The Obama administration must sort the populist and special-interest tech issues from those most critical to the country's future.
Charter Communications To Seek Finacial Protection
Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder and Charter investor, will hold the largest voting percentage in the restructured telecom company.
Tesla Motors Taking Orders For Roadster Sport
The company also plans to unveil a prototype of its long-awaited Model S four-door sedan on March 26.
|
The State of Cloud Computing - Fall 2020
Download this report to compare how cloud usage and spending patterns have changed in 2020, and how respondents think they'll evolve over the next two years.
2021 Top Enterprise IT TrendsWe've identified the key trends that are poised to impact the IT landscape in 2021. Find out why they're important and how they will affect you.
Tweet This
