Information Age (London, UK) articles from July 2003

Information Age (London, UK) archives from July 2003

Leading Geeks.
July 10, 2003... Everyone knows the stereotype: pizza-eating, coke-swilling, socially inept, hygiene-challenged, sci-fi loving geeks; they cannot and will not fit in with corporate culture, will laugh at a manager that tries to pull rank, use their technology...

Rights issue.
July 10, 2003... When Microsoft agreed to settle its long-running legal wrangles with arch rival AOL Time Warner in May 2003, it signalled the start of a new era for digital content. Both parties needed to settle the dispute so they could move on to...

Month in review.
July 10, 2003... Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has long said the enterprise applications market was ripe for consolidation. And he proved his point in early June, when he launched one of Silicon Valley's most audacious takeover bids. His hostile move on PeopleSoft...

Right here, right now.
July 10, 2003... When NextiraOne was founded in April 2001, arguably the most unenviable job fell to CIO Loren Tobey. The network services operator was formed by bolting together three companies on two continents, each running a different enterprise...

Defining characteristics.
July 10, 2003... There are many champions of the real-time enterprise, but most argue the merits of the approach from a largely partisan position. Their products have the sufficient breadth of function to support certain aspects of real-time business - data...

Supplier synchronicity.
July 10, 2003... Few companies can honestly claim to manage their suppliers efficiently. Without even noticing, many are overcharged for orders or take delivery of shipments late. They pay whole teams of employees to perform the administrative tasks generated...

Called to account.
July 10, 2003... These are challenging times for Geoffrey Mitchell, director of finance projects at Barclays Bank. His latest project must be completed before the end of 2004 and, unlike most IT projects, this deadline is not moveable. His task is to...

Drive towards real-time.
July 10, 2003... Information Age (IA): What structural factors influence Avis Europe's moves towards becoming a 'real-time enterprise'? Mittu Sridhara (MS): Although Avis Europe and Cendant [which runs Avis Americas and Australasia] are separate entities...

Document dilemma.
July 10, 2003... Most major businesses generate millions of emails and other electronic files, plus mountains of paper documents. Obviously, companies are tempted to overwrite and delete electronic documents or to shred paper files, rather than pay to store and...

CRM market slowdown continues.
July 10, 2003... Sales of customer relationship management (CRM) software have declined for the second year, according to research from Gartner. New software licence revenues worldwide fell 24.7% to $2.8 billion in 2002, down from $3.7 billion in 2001. Revenues...

Web skills move in-house.
July 10, 2003... More than half (53%) of Times 2000 UK businesses built their websites in house, according to research commissioned by software vendor Macromedia. External consultants built the websites of 30% of the companies, and 17% built their sites using...

Cyclone storms ecommerce management.
July 10, 2003... By its very nature, B2B collaborative ecommerce is complex and expensive. Transacting with suppliers, customers and partners can be carried out using a multitude of methods - some based on new standards, some rudimentary and ancient. And as the...

The <i>Information Age</I> interview.
July 10, 2003... Information Age (IA): Manchester United inspires the kind of loyalty in its 'customers' that most businesses would die for. So what prompted the thinking that it needed a CRM package? Ben Hatton (BH): One of the main strands of our strategy...

Defection in Munich.
July 10, 2003... It was clear how seriously Microsoft was taking the risk of customer defection when CEO Steve Ballmer cut short his Spring skiing holiday in Switzerland and diverted the corporate jet to Munich, the 'IT capital' of Germany. Called in by...

Glued to the zero line.
July 10, 2003... The IT industry continued its progress towards positive growth in June, but signs of a full recovery in the months ahead are still tentative. The Infoconomy Global Index, which measures the overall growth rate of the world's top 200 IT...

Linux server sales to triple.
July 10, 2003... Shipments of Linux servers in Western Europe will triple from 162,000 in 2003 to almost half a million in 2007, according to a report by IDC Research, sponsored by LinuxWorld. This will push the value of the market from $621 million to $1.9...

The bear facts.
July 10, 2003... It was 1986, and Richard Holway, future scourge of the UK technology vendors, had left his job as managing director of systems integrator Wootton Jeffreys to launch his own consultancy practice from his Surrey bedroom. Holway's first contract...

Penguin's progress.
July 10, 2003... Linux tends to arouse strong feelings. Think of those passionate techies, who would rather make nocturnal modifications to the open source operating system than get a good night's sleep. Or the proprietary software sales people, whose fierce...

On the death of IT strategy...
July 10, 2003... If there is one magazine that can really change the way people think about business, it is the Harvard Business Review (HBR). It is the world's most influential management magazine. It can be dry, but it is also deep, thoughtful and...

Security spending continues to grow.
July 10, 2003... Security spending has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 28% from 2001 to 2003, according to figures from Gartner. IT budgets have grown at only 6% a year over the same period. It estimates that in most industries, 2003 will be the first...

IT spending varies widely between vertical sectors.
July 10, 2003... IT spending by discrete manufacturing companies in Western Europe will decline by 3.1% to $32 billion in 2003, says IDC. But in 2004, spending will start to rise at a compound annual growth rate of 3.4%, to reach $36.7 billion by 2007. ...

Rollercoaster.
July 10, 2003... As the mobile phone prepares for its next great adventure - breaking into the world of corporate IT applications - it has become a good time to take stock of the industry's biggest service provider and one of the UK's great corporate success...