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Northrop Wrist-Slap: Yes, Virginia, There's A Santa Claus
Dear Boss: I know my project's 9 months late but you shouldn't fire me because Northrop Grumman is nine months late on its Virginia project but will still continue to get paid $190 million per year thru 2014, which you must admit is a tad more than I make for delivering similar results. With Virginia showering clemency on Northrop, how can you not do the same for me??
Amazon Kindle's New Role: Script Reader
Lions Gate, the studio responsible for the film and TV hits "Crash" and "Mad Men," is using the Kindle e-reader to distribute scripts.
iPhone Exclusivity May End Next Year
Selling the iPhone on multiple carriers may be the only way for Apple to gain significant market share in the U.S.
USAirways And Barclays Send Creepy Credit-Card Message
A couple of friends and I recently met for beers at Slattery's and I paid the bill with a USAirways MasterCard from Barclays Bank. So imagine my surprise a couple days later when I got an email message from USAirways bearing the subject line, "How was Slattery's Midtown Pub?"
BP Outsourcing Cutbacks Set Trend For Multinationals
After seeing BP save an estimated $500 million by consolidating 40 outsourcers down to five, many other global corporations are looking into similar reductions to cut costs and reduce risk. "The next 12 months will see a fair number of deals triggered by vendor consolidation," says Gartner's research chief in India.
Ford Swaps New Cars For Twitter Chatter
Ford is seeding the U.S. market for the imminent introduction of its Fiesta model by giving Fiestas to 100 bloggers with a requirement that they upload Fiesta-related videos each month to YouTube and discuss their impressions of the car on Twitter, Facebook, and their blogs.
Global CIO: In The Age Of Facebook, IT Problems Become CIO Nightmares
For unknown reasons, a vital software application isn't delivering mission-critical information, and the end-customers are screaming mad. And they're airing their complaints very publicly on Facebook.
Accenture Extends 20-Year Relationship With BP: Update
In an extension of their 20-year relationship, Accenture "will be BP's strategic service provider for its SAP development work" and will "provide BP with information technology application-development services," an Accenture press release says. A report yesterday in Global CIO, based on unclear information from an IBM spokesman, misstated Accenture's role as a BP partner.
CIO Profiles: Jim Jones, VP And CIO Of Great River Energy
Look for innovation in the energy field to come from the smart-grid vision.
VMware CTO On Virtualizing Smartphones, And More
I recently spoke with VMware CTO Stephen Herrod, and what he had to say about virtualized desktops, "employee-owned" IT, and why it may make sense to put virtual desktops on an iPhone will make some CIOs uneasy--and some ecstatic.
Google, Microsoft Jockey For Enterprise Dominance
Microsoft and Google go head-to-head next year over online apps for business.
Global CIO: Salesforce.com Surge Pushes SaaS Into Mainstream
With sustained revenue growth and growing acceptance among larger customers, the SaaS community--led by Salesforce.com--has moved confidently out of the margins and into the mainstream.
Accenture Out, IBM In At BP; Wipro Also Makes BP List
BP has picked IBM to replace Accenture in managing all of BP's global enterprise applications, marking the end of a decade-long deal during which Accenture managed BP's SAP applications worldwide. BP also said that Wipro has made its new and shorter short-list of vendors building and maintaining applications for the huge global energy company.
Infosys, Tata Sign Big Deals With BP; Advantage To Tata?
Oil and gas giant BP has picked both Infosys and Tata to develop and maintain applications across BP's sprawling global operations on six continents in more than 100 countries. While carefully worded press releases from each company featured prominent and mostly consistent comments from BP CIO Dana Deasy, the fine print suggests that Tata won the larger opportunity.
Chip Sales Up 17% In 2Q
Semiconductor revenue will fall less than predicted this year, thanks to government stimulus packages and lower PC and TV prices, said Gartner.
Trend Micro Rips Lid Off Estonian Cybercrime Hub
An important Trend Micro paper, spotlighting a cybercriminal hub operating out of Estonia, has surfaced on Slashdot. The racket here is that a seemingly legitimate Internet Service Provider is in reality the headquarters for a rogue network, which extends into Europe and the United States. The breadth of the deception outlined in the paper is scary; doubly so because cybercrime is emerging as the single biggest security threat of the next decade.
Nokia Dials Up Mobile Payments
Consumers will be able to use their cell phones to send money to other people, pay for products, recharge prepaid SIM cards, and pay utility bills.
You Say You Want A CIO Revolution?
Global CIO's Bob Evans recently said it's time for a CIO revolution. But the former CIO of the U.S. Postal Service says different CIOs must pursue different objectives, and offers three role models for CIOs to evaluate.
Great Moments In IT Analysis: Computerworld Blogger Called HP 'Fools' For Buying EDS
Heck, we all say dumb things-even some really dumb things-from time to time. But imagine my surprise when, researching the hugely positive impact HP's acquisition of EDS has had, I came across this headline from Computerworld's "Cyber Cynic" in his I-hate-everybody analysis of the deal 15 months ago: "HP buys EDS: You fools! You fools!"
IBM Adding 1,300 Iowa Jobs, But At What Cost?
IBM has hired hundreds of workers at its new IT services center in Dubuque, Iowa, to provide "advanced information processing" services to global corporations with IBM outsourcing contracts. At a ribbon-cutting ceremony today, IBM said it expects the facility to employ 600 workers by the end of this year and about 1,300 by the end of 2010.
Paging AIM: Why Does Software Always Get Worse?
Two unpleasant bouts with updated software have led me to formulate Wolfe's First Law of Programming: An upgraded, enhanced, or otherwise supposedly improved software release will always perform more poorly than the rev which it replaces. My two cases in point are AIM 6.9.15.1 -- you gotta love their configuration control -- and Time Warner Cable's latest electronic programming guide.
VeriSign Sells Messaging Business For $175 Million
The domain registry firm is selling to Syniverse and continues to streamline in order to focus on Internet infrastructure and online security.
GM eBay Site Spurs 960,000 Searches But Only 45 Sales
Innovative sales channels don't always pan out as planned: through the first nine days of the much-ballyhooed initiative to peddle GM cars on eBay, only 45 cars were sold. On the bright side, the GM eBay Web site wracked up 960,000 searches of GM vehicles-does it have a future as a lead-machine?
SAP Exec Sees Banks, Energy Leading 2010 Recovery
Companies in banking, energy, and manufacturing are starting to open up spending a bit as they begin to prepare for an economic turnaround, SAP executive John Schwarz said in a recent interview. As for acquisitions, many software companies are looking to be bought but have inflated views of their value.
Global CIO: LG Transforms Global Operations With New Oracle ERP
After mapping and standardizing 440 critical business processes across 83 global subsidiaries, the CIO of $44 billion LG Electronics is making his company the first ever to implement Oracle's newest ERP platform.
Oracle CEO Ellison Cuts Salary To $1 Per Year
In a move that's wise as well as partly symbolic, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is cutting his annual salary from $1,000,000 to $1. It's wise because while the company certainly had a good year, the global economic downturn has been very difficult for many Oracle customers and shareholders. And it's partly symbolic because Ellison's total 2008 Oracle compensation was $557 million.
HP CEO Mark Hurd On R&D: 'Show Me The Money'
I wanted to share with you an insider comment I received in response to my Wednesday column, Recession Or Bust, R&D Spend HP Must. According to my correspondent, Hewlett Packard CEO Mark Hurd is a "show me the money" kind of guy. Which is not a criticism -- it simply means that company's research engineers have to earn their stripes every day.
Boomi CEO: EDI Lives On In SaaS World
I just talked with Bob Moul, CEO of the software-as-a-service integration company Boomi, and he's seeing more requests for companies to connect legacy, enterprise EDI infrastructure with SaaS applications.
Salesforce.com Sees Rise In 2Q Revenue
The CRM provider announced a year-over-year revenue increase of 20% for its second fiscal quarter ended July 31.
Steve Jobs' Blind Spot: CEO-Pals On Apple Board
Steve Jobs' spectacular performance as Apple's CEO, along with the cult following the company has built over the years, make it very difficult to doubt his methods. But a fascinating analysis of the composition and mindset of Apple's board reveals what could be an Achilles heel for Jobs: too many board-level CEOs with too much empathy for their peer's position.
SAS Institute: There Is No For Sale Sign In Our Yard
Forrester Research predicts that growing interest in predictive analytics will spur a new wave of consolidation in the business intelligence software market. So I asked the king of predictive analytics, SAS Institute, if the company is up for sale. Here's the answer: "We don't have a sign in the front yard by any means."
China Mobile Profits Dip 1.6%
The carrier will be relying on the continued rollout of its 3G network and Android-based devices to help it boost profitability.
Ericsson-Nortel Deal Nearly Complete
RIM's appeal to the Canadian government to stop the $1.13 billion acquisition appears to be falling on deaf ears.
AT&T Improves 3G Reception
The enhanced network quality may help the mobile operator reduce its churn rate after it loses exclusivity of Apple's popular iPhone.
JetBlue's Revolutionary Promo Sells Out Early
Not to say I told you so, but JetBlue's $599 unlimited-travel promotion sold out well ahead of its deadline as customers, in spite of the rotten economy, jumped all over the innovative plan. When it came out last week, we wrote a column about it called JetBlue Genius And Hollywood Lunacy and predicted other companies would start turning over more decision-making power to their customers.
AMD Revs Quad Core With Phenom II X4 965
The quad-core processor battle between Intel and AMD remains the most exciting arena in PC technology, where consumers can get the latest stuff at what amounts to cut-rate prices. The newest entry is AMD's Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition. The 3.4-GHz quad-core chip, which modders are already overclocking to 3.9-GHz, goes for $245.
Mercedes, Honda Open Virtual Showrooms; VIDEO
Dassault Systemes has begun marketing virtual showroom simulators to car makers and Honda and Mercedes-Benz have signed "large deals" for the systems in Australia and China. Car shoppers can get 360-degree views of the vehicles, open doors to view interiors, change features, and change colors via the 10-feet-wide screen. Click ahead to see a video demo.
Global CIO: An Open Letter To Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd
HP should leverage CIO Randy Mott's superb achievements and become The Transformation Company, helping CIOs reverse the deadly 80/20 ratio and become drivers of growth.
MySpace Acquires iLike
In buying the popular social music service, MySpace will gain a connection to users of rival social networks Facebook, Bebo, and Hi5.
Qualcomm Takes Stake In Pantech
The tech company will be acquiring about 15% of the handset maker after agreeing to a debt-to-equity conversion agreement worth about $76 million.
RIM Owns Half Of U.S. Smartphone Market
Apple iPhones sales jumped 365% in the second quarter, according to a market researcher.
Tech Execs See Light At End Of Recession Tunnel
About 39% of those polled believe the economy will recover by next year while 43% said they expect a recovery after 2010.
HP Slashes R&D Spending By $228 Million
Hewlett-Packard cut Q3 R&D spending by 25.5%, or $228 million, on a year-on-year basis, and by 6.9% when compared to the previous quarter. While pulling back on R&D, which many companies have done over the past year, is not necessarily a bad thing, HP is betting big that a new open-innovation approach will compensate for the big cuts in traditional R&D.
RIM Named World's Fastest-Growing Company
The BlackBerry maker has seen its profits increase 84% over the past three years, and now tops Fortune magazine's list of quickly rising companies.
IBM R&D Head Driving Open Innovation
While IBM, year after year, is awarded more patents than any other company, it has also become a huge proponent of the red-hot concept of open innovation that allows R&D to scale up and out across organizational boundaries. The concept has also caught on in big ways at GE, HP, Eli Lilly, USC, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Cybersecurity Guidelines Point Way To Network Protection
Recent criticism of NIST's cybersecurity guidelines for federal agencies raises the logical question: If government networks are at risk, how do I ensure that my operation is protected? One place to start is US-CERT's IT Security Essential Body of Knowledge.
Oracle's Ellison #2 Best-Paid CEO At $557 Million
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison received total compensation of $556.9 million in 2008, making him the second best-paid CEO in the U.S. behind the CEO of private-equity firm Blackstone. A year ago Ellison topped the list, and he's expected to stay near or at the top next year as well.
Should E-Health Records Be A Job Perk?
Vanguard Health is the latest company that's signed up with the Dossia Consortium to offer its employees electronic health records as a work benefit. But when will it become mainstream for any and all patients to access their health records electronically, rather than it being a rare job perk for some?
Suit: Virgin Mobile Undervalued In Sprint Deal
The class-action suit claims the deal has an unfair price and Virgin Mobile didn't take adequate steps to maximize shareholder value.
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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.
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