corporate users

OS X beats Vista in enterprise survey

Mehan Jayasuriya — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:58:31 -0400

Surprising though it might be, there are a few businesses out there that run an all Mac shop. And by and large, those businesses are more satisfied with their OS of choice, OS X Leopard, than businesses running Windows Vista, according to a new survey conducted by ChangeWave Research. In the survey of 2,200 corporate users, ChangeWave found that 53 percent of Mac OS X 10.5 users were "very satisfied" with their OS. On the Vista side, however, only 8 percent of users were "very satisfied." Said Paul Carton, director of research at ChangeWave Research, "Apple continues to set the standard for corporate customer satisfaction."

For more on happy Mac users in the enterprise:
- see this Computerworld article

Google tries to sneak one past IT

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 06:59:58 -0500

During the last year, we've seen Google slowly sneaking into the enterprise, with a series of solutions that bring the company's web-based consumer technologies into a corporate environment. Just this past week, we saw the latest such product from Google, an email security/discovery suite based on Postini technology. Despite Google's best efforts, however, we haven't exactly seen enterprises rushing to deploy Google's software, which has proven quite popular with consumers. So, what's a Google to do? Why, sneak its software into the corporate world, of course.

The company's latest enterprise product, Google Apps Team Edition, is a version of Google Apps that's designed for corporate users but can be used without the IT department's knowledge. "Current business versions of Google Apps are linked to an organization's Internet domain and therefore require IT approval and at least some degree of administration," Ars Technica writes. "Team Edition eschews this approach, and allows end-users to create sharing workgroups so long as the individuals in question have valid e-mail addresses within the employer's Internet domain."

So, what's the big idea? Seems like Google is aiming to use GATE as a sort of Trojan horse--a way of convincing businesses to deploy Google Apps. "Google Apps has been, by definition, an IT project, and now we want to let people use it without IT involvement," Google Apps senior product manager Rajen Sheth said. "The IT department always has the option to sign up for the Standard Edition for free if they want to provide control over this. This is a solid, happy medium."

For more on Google's sneaky new product:
- see this Ars Technica article

Get ready for widgets in the workplace

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 20:01:38 -0400

Widgets, downloadable applications that display data from the Internet on websites or a desktop, may have started in the consumer world but they are quickly making their way into the enterprise. Widgets offer many benefits to corporate users; unlike the reams of software, passwords and security layers users must go through to access corporate applications, widgets downloaded to the desktop are simple. They are designed for a single purpose, such as entering a new contact into a customer database or tracking sales quotas. The IT department also wins. No data is stored locally, so if a laptop is stolen, IT administrators can just turn off the widget's network access. Major vendors are getting into the game. SAP, for example, is actively looking at using desktop widgets at work, while Windows Vista and Mac OS X both support widgets. Yahoo and Google are also on board. But adoption will take time.

For more about widgets in the workplace:
- read the article at Business 2.0

Wireless data access goes mainstream

Sun, 04 Feb 2007 19:01:38 -0500

Wireless data access is quickly becoming a requirement for enterprises that want to remain competitive. The most popular platforms through which corporate users are accessing data wirelessly are laptops, followed by smartphones. Generally, employees are using these devices to access desktop applications, but increasingly, employees want to access enterprise-wide applications, such as ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and salesforce/fieldforce automation apps. To plan for this inevitability, CIOs should start thinking about how to choose a carrier, plan and device and how to manage plans centrally and develop policies that address data auditing, security and budgeting.

Learn more about the inevitability of wireless data access in the enterprise:
- read the article at Network Computing

Blurring lines could lead to OS X in the enterprise

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 19:01:38 -0500

PCs are changing rapidly, due in large part to the increasingly blurry line between Mac OS X and Windows. More and more products will start to take advantage of that blurred line to introduce solutions that enable organizations and individuals to run both operating systems simultaneously on a Mac. All of this might enable corporate users to switch to Mac OS X.

Read more about this interesting topic:
- read the full text at Fortune

ALSO NOTED: Bot writers borrow from open-source development; Intel's tiny chip arrives?; and much more...

Mon, 17 Jul 2006 20:01:33 -0400

> Bot writers take a page from open-source development. Article

> Corporate users force Microsoft to pull encrypted folder feature. Article

> Quality issues still linger with Voice over Internet Protocol. Article

> Intel's long-awaited Montecito chip may arrive this week. Article

And Finally... The latest fabric ingredient is corn. Article