s market

Customer data should drive IT decisions

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 06:59:58 -0400

Michelle McKenna, the CIO at Universal Orlando Resorts, has some advice for her members of her profession--think like your customers and use your data to focus on your company's markets.

"In today's contracting economy, it's more critical than ever for CIOs to study market trends and find ways to maximize business opportunities,'' McKenna said. Although her IT unit always has had valuable market-defining customer data, McKenna said she didn't always know how best to leverage it.

"Fortunately, I've been able to work closely with executive peers to implement business intelligence that triggers a more analytical, customer-centric approach to marketing and sales,'' McKenna said.

And her knowledge of her company's market, she said, has helped her "drill down into our data to understand what is really happening in our business.''

To read more on the CIO's role as marketer:
- see this CIO.com article

For more tech stories from the FierceCIO network:
> Encryptor 2.0 spotted at 1024-bits. Article
> IBM turns to water to cool processors. Article
> Intel shows off atom processors. Article

So, where is your main frame?

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 07:59:58 -0400

Sometimes, old technology gets a new life. Even if you are purchasing newer software and hardware, remember that some old tools can have a second life. That's the case with the IBM mainframe. It remains a mainstay in much of the global trade economy. IBM has retooled the technology, cut prices and revamped its strategy. Although mainframes are a tiny piece of IBM's market these days, the technology still exists and is being used.

The mainframe stands as a telling case in the larger story of survivor technologies and markets, the New York Times reports. "The demise of the old technology is confidently predicted, and indeed it may lose ground to the insurgent, as mainframes did to the personal computer. But the old technology or business often finds a sustainable, profitable life.'' So, as you start retiring your old tools, keep in mind that some of them may come back for a second life.

For more on the old technology that getting a new life:
- See this New York Times article

Goldman Sachs says tech spending dropping

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:59:59 -0500

Goldman Sachs is the latest financial group to predict a drop in tech spending in the U.S. market. They predict a decline from 7 percent in 2007 to 5 percent this year. Nevertheless, software executives at a Goldman Sachs conference this week in Las Vegas said the slumbering U.S. economy won't hurt their business. And they say there is little to fear in the long term. Here's one optimistic view: "The positive side of the recession is it kind of shakes out the weaker companies. It's all good for the company if you have a good balance sheet," said Global Payments Chairman and CEO Paul Garcia. "There's nothing better for good companies than a good downturn."

For more of the IT economic play:
- See this eWeek article

Internet gambling downsized

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

CIOs should have no fears that employees will be diverted during the workday to online gambling from overseas. A new agreement between the United States, the European Union, Japan and Canada will keep the foreign Internet gambling market closed to U.S. residents. At the same time, the United States is keeping the door open a crack as it continues talks about the gambling market with India, Antigua and Barbuda, Macau, and Costa Rica.

"We are pleased to confirm that the United States has reached agreement... with Canada, the EU, and Japan," Gretchen Hamel, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Trade Representative's office, said in a statement several hours after the EU announced details of the deal it had reached with Washington last week. European gambling companies unsuccessfully argued that the EU was entitled to as much as $100 billion in compensation for being denied access to the U.S. market. But the idea never got off the ground and apparently has gone nowhere. There is a positive note in this development, too. The agreement "involves commitments to maintain our liberalized markets for warehousing services, technical testing services, research and development services, and postal services relating to outbound international letters," Hamel said.

For more on this ban on overseas Internet gambling
- Check out this Red Herring Article

Hiring Talent In A Competitive Climate

Sun, 03 Jun 2007 20:01:37 -0400

Katherine Spencer Lee of Robert Half Technology explains that attracting the most qualified IT candidate can be difficult in today's current market. She points to Bill Gates' recent testimony before the Senate requesting an increased allowance for IT staff from foreign countries. However, she writes in CIOUpdate that there are several strategies that CIOs can take to simplify the process, which include building industry buzz by speaking at user-group meetings and writing articles for technology publications or web sites.

For more on hiring in today's market:
- see this article from CIO Update

HP retains top spot, Dell continues to lose ground

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 19:01:38 -0500

According to both IDC and Gartner, HP has retained their spot as the top seller of PC hardware, beating out Dell for the second quarter in a row. During the fourth quarter of 2006, HP sold more than 11 million PCs, compared to Dell's 9.5 million. In terms of yearly totals, the two companies appeared to be tied, both having sold somewhere between 15.9 and 17 percent of the total number of PCs shipped worldwide (IDC and Gartner differ on these numbers). While Dell remains the top seller of PCs in the U.S., the company is at risk of losing that title to HP as well. "Dell's market share was its lowest in four years," said Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa. "It lost market share across all segments in the [U.S.], particularly the home market. The fourth quarter's consumer bias favors HP; however Dell's accelerated shipment decline in the fourth quarter is surprising." In the third quarter of 2006, HP shipped more PCs than Dell worldwide for the first time since 2003.

For more on fourth quarter PC sales:
- see this eWeek article

Windows exec makes a unique Vista security claim

Sun, 12 Nov 2006 19:01:38 -0500

Whether it's just a marketing ploy or not, the fact that Windows co-President Jim Allchin lets his son work on a PC free of any anti-virus software is a statement that you can't ignore. As Allchin explains, he's so confident that Vista is secure that he doesn't think any other security program is necessary. Yet, as one security expert notes, the fact that his son is in elementary school and the machine is locked down with parental control features is somewhat of a unique situation. Security analysts say Vista requires anti-virus software as typical users are downloading files on a pretty regular basis.

For more on Allchin's Vista security claim:
- check out this item at InformationWeek

Related Articles:
Big concerns over Vista security features. Report
Ballmer's take on Vista's market impact. Report
Microsoft to security vendors: Hands off my kernel. Report

AMD making chip race tough for Intel

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 19:01:35 -0500

Nothing stays the same in the chip making business, primarily due to the fact that the industry has two big players chomping to grab each other's market share. While AMD has been viewed by some as the youngest sibling hoping to knock the elder (Intel) off the pedestal, it actually seems to be making headway and creating a close race to the chip market share winner's circle. There's some interesting talk happening between AMD and Dell to get AMD chips on Dell's servers, and it's catching investor, and user, attention big time.

For more on the chip industry race:
- read this article at BusinessWeek