inroads

Saas comes of age

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 06:59:58 -0500

Software as a service is coming of age. And any CIO who hasn't adopted Saas into their portfolio is woefully behind the times. The trick is to spot the best uses of Saas to enhance such tasks as project management and internal collaboration. More than a third of small and large businesses will adopt software as a service (Saas) into their technology portfolio during the next year to help bolster activities such as project management and internal collaboration, according to report by THINKstrategies and the Cutter Consortium. About 80 percent of the 100 companies surveyed said they planned to adopt it in the next year.

Rebecca Wetteman, an analyst at Nucleus Research which does technology research, says, "If IT wants to be in the conversation, they need to get ahead of the curve in presenting these to end users." She predicts that on-demand productivity apps such as Google Apps and Zoho will have a good year as they make inroads with customers looking to save money on expensive on-premise software for people who aren't power users. "Businesses might look at tiering their office apps, particularly as they look at the next version of Microsoft Office," she says.

For more on Saas:
- Check out this CIO Magazine Article

Dow CIO focuses on 10 RFID initiatives

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 06:59:58 -0400

As Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology begins to make inroads into some enterprises, CIOs can learn a detail or two from Dow Chemical Chief Information Officer Dave Kepler. After Dow internally asked for RFID project proposals two years ago, it received more than 450. It quickly evaluated the proposals and, based on the company's Six Sigma methodology, started to eliminate the projects down to 10. Dow also established a center of expertise dedicated to RFID. Employees in the group were responsible for identifying the projects and evaluating emerging RFID technologies. After a
six-month evaluation period, the projects approved include: Cylinder tracking-using RFID tags and readers to monitor the transport of gas cylinders; Tanker truck tracking; Rail car tracking and product monitoring; Intermodel container and content tracking; Warehouse and inventory management; Product consignment inventory management; Pipeline worker monitoring; Tracking inventory in the company's Agro Sciences unit; Hazardous material tracking; and Maintenance parts tracking.

For all the details on RFID and Dow Chemical:
- see the article in Baseline

Cognos acquires Applix for $339M

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 06:59:59 -0400

With vendors like Oracle and Microsoft making inroads into the massive $6.25 billion business performance and analytics software market, smaller vendors are doing all they can to remain competitive. In the latest move, Cognos this week said it would acquire Applix for $339 million in cash. "What's interesting about the deal is it gives Cognos the potential to really focus on finance professionals, making their offering that much more complete and therefore more differentiated from standard budgeting, planning and performance-management tools out there," Rob Kugel, senior vice president at San Mateo, Calif. based Ventana Research, told internetNews. Cognos controls 10 percent of marketshare and ranks third behind Business Objects and SAS in total share of the business intelligence market.

For all the details on the acquisition:
- read the article in Internetnews.com
- and see this press release

ITIL: Not ready for prime time in the midmarket?

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 20:01:38 -0400

Although the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)--a sort of roadmap of best practices that helps IT departments adopt more efficient service management--is making great strides in the enterprise, some say that smaller companies won't get the benefits, at least not yet. Implementing ITIL requires making some big changes in infrastructure and working style, and it can be expensive and time-consuming. If you are set on it, though, try service management-specific solution providers like Pink Elephant, Service-now.com, Getronics and TraverseIT LLC, which help companies implement ITIL. Ultimately, however, ITIL will make inroads in the midmarket, and will make IT services more efficient in these companies. By mastering five processes that make up ITIL--incident management, problem management, change management, configuration management and release management--companies can minimize the time to identify and resolve service incidents.

Learn more about ITIL in the midmarket:
- read the article at CIO Decisions

ALSO:
- read this on the ROI of ITIL
- and this on putting business ahead of technology

Security shored up at VA agency

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 19:01:36 -0500

The much-publicized laptop theft and related data security issues at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs might have been the best thing to ever happen to the federal organization's IT department, as it prompted tech leaders to shore up security, improve processes and overhaul some outdated systems. According to CIO Robert Howard, the agency has made some tremendous inroads in revamping the IT infrastructure, describing the reorg effort as "dramatic."

For more on the agency's security effort:
-read the article at Computerworld

Case Study: Making e-healthcare a reality

Tue, 05 Dec 2006 19:01:37 -0500

A leader in the field of electronic healthcare, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's CIO, Dan Drawbaugh, has already launched an ambitious e-medical record system in all but one of the center's 19 hospitals. The foundation is a service oriented architecture that uses deep Web services. The ultimate goal, says Drawbaugh, is interoperability between the center's disparate IT systems. The task isn't easy though, given that those systems feature tools and applications from more than 120 vendors. Yet Drawbauch is pretty confident in his ability to build an integrated, interactive system for patient information.

For more on making e-healthcare a reality:
- read the case study at InformationWeek

Related Article: Other inroads in e-healthcare. Article

Dell's fighting the good customer service fight

Sun, 20 Aug 2006 20:01:35 -0400

It's got to be a bit tough working at Dell these days as the top PC maker was making strong inroads in boosting customer service until it was stopped in its tracks by a massive recall of the Sony batteries in its laptop product line. Yet the company's head, Michael Dell, says that the vendor is forging ahead and doing right by its customer in dealing with the recall and expects that customer satisfaction will not only stay high but will even increase as a result. However, as one of today's Also Noted items highlights, Dell is losing some top executives to growing competitors and that could stall their hopes just a little.

For more on Dell's customer service strategy:
-read more at C/Net News.com

Enterprises not running from spyware battle

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 20:01:37 -0400

The recent State of Spyware report from security vendor Webroot, an anti-spyware software company, isn't very pretty. Spyware creators are only getting nastier and smarter and the infection rate keeps climbing. Spyware developers are now using social networking sites to push adware and spyware onto users' desktops and there are now over 500,000 such malicious sites on the web, according to Webroot. Furthermore, the report notes that a staggering 89 percent of all consumer PCs are infected. In the face of this threat, business IT security teams are not just sitting idle and are making significant inroads in the battle with spyware. Infection rates are slightly decreasing on the enterprise level with the average infected work PC housing 19 pieces of spyware--two less than a year ago.

For more on the spyware battle:
-check out this CIO Today article

Open-source networking making strides

Sun, 30 Jul 2006 20:01:35 -0400

Open-source computing is reaching new heights as its pushed forward by vendors and organizations, but it's just spreading its roots when it comes to networking, though more than a few vendors hope to plant it deeper within organizations. While a report from research firm TheInfoPro indicates that just 10 percent of businesses plan to either evaluate or use open-source routing within the next year, Vyatta hopes its Open Flexible Router will push that percentage ahead, and as it's got resource backing from some big players, it may just be able to make it happen.

For more on open-source networking inroads:
- take a look at this article at InformationWeek

The challenges facing China's CIOs

Mon, 05 Jun 2006 20:01:36 -0400

Tech leaders in China are still grappling with issues that U.S.-based CIOs have hurdled and put behind them, according to a new study. CIOs in China are facing three major issues these days: Mis-perception over their role, poor communication with counterparts in the enterprise and cultural issues that are impeding their growth as corporate business leaders. The biggest skill that needs improvement is also communication. But despite all the challenges Chinese tech leaders are making inroads using some innovative programs and undertaking specific programs to get past the obstacles in their career.

For more on Chinese CIO challenges:
- see this article at Optimize