Baseline articles from December 2002

Baseline archives from December 2002

Microsoft Backs Up Its Support Plan.
December 1, 2002... Delays in the release of Windows .NET Server aren't the only changes that Microsoft is making to its calendar. Due to popular demand, the retirement dates of two older versions of Windows also are being pushed back. In response to what a...

What You Can Do for Your Country.
December 1, 2002... A Marine friend once gave me a copy of "Murphy's Laws of Combat." Three laws were underlined: "The important things are always simple. The simple things are always hard. The easy way is always mined." Apparently, the person responsible for...

How Autotote Insider Rigged the System.
December 1, 2002... Serious handicappers betting on ponies know they're always bucking the odds. But the rigging of the Pick Six payoff at the Breeder's Cup championship showed how trusted insiders can manipulate networks to steal from unsuspecting...

Round-The-Clock Rating.
December 1, 2002... Remember how you felt when grades came out in school? Now manufacturers are giving report cards around the clock to suppliers and expecting them to measure up. Get ready for your customers to do the same. Chrysler Group, the North...

The Bottom Line Per Thomas A. Fisher.
December 1, 2002... Thomas A. Fisher, Ph.D., is vice president of global information technology at Applica Consumer Products, which includes Windmere and Black & Decker Household Products (a spin-off from the toolmaker). Since joining Applica in June 2001, Fisher...

Can He Prevent Indigestion?
December 1, 2002... It's offering zero-percent financing on everything from appliances to treadmills. It's trying out a two-word tagline--"Where else?"--which tries to build on its long relationship with American consumers. It's absorbing one of the nation's most...

Past-Forward.
December 1, 2002... A few years ago, Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center helped establish a groundbreaking data network that met the strict requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. ("The Napkin Network," Case 009,...

Thrift Is the One Metric That Matters Anymore.
December 1, 2002... For the job I do--advising financially troubled companies how to restructure their technology operations--being able to pinpoint inefficiencies is key. I focus on structural cost reduction--things you can do to lower your cost of doing...

Russ Berrie Tells Vendors: "Let's Define a Deal".
December 1, 2002... Things got scary for Alan Heger, VP of Information Systems at Russ Berrie & Co., when customer orders started to vanish from the company's internal records. It was June 1999 and Russ Berrie, which sells plush toys and home gifts, had spent...

Hershey's Sweet Victory.
December 1, 2002... Was it a fluke? In September, Hershey Foods said it had completed an upgrade to mySAP.com--on schedule and below budget. It was a significant turnaround for a company that had become an example of how not to do a major software project. In...

Roadblock: When Technology Is Ignored.
December 1, 2002... THE OBSTACLE: Salespeople are not using the tools they're given. Prada spent millions of dollars creating a new type of handheld terminal, implementing new technologies to control video monitors, and attaching antennae in tags to thousands...

Gotcha! Installing a Radio Frequency Identification System.
December 1, 2002... Did you know that: ? The biggest expense in implementing radio frequency identification (RFID) systems might not be the transponders and receivers The biggest expense may well be the cost to beef up your data so that applications can...

What People Buy, and How They Buy It.
December 1, 2002... Twenty years ago, Herb Sorensen had his great flash of insight into how people shop. The researcher of customer behavior sat in his living room leafing through an old Time-Life book, when a picture of cars moving through an intersection caught...

Texas Instruments: Radio Frequency Identification Systems.
December 1, 2002... Tag, You're It Talk to anyone at Texas Instruments (TI) in the Radio Frequency Identification Systems (RFID) division, and they'll quickly point out that the technology is far from new. In fact, RFID systems have been around in various...

Why Tech Analysts Feel Your Pain.
December 1, 2002... The only thing worse than working for a technology company over the past year, so the joke goes, is being an adviser to users of technology. This year has, in fact, been difficult--if not downright grim--for analyst firms. After several...

Voice of Experience: John McLaughlin, The Gillette Co.
December 1, 2002... John McLaughlin The Gillette Co. Director, Supply Chain Process and Systems Boston, Mass. www.gillette.com Manager's Profile: As a manufacturer of the Mach3 razor, Oral-B toothbrush and other brand-name products, The Gillette Co. maintains...

Dossier: Gartner Inc.(Company Profile)
December 1, 2002... Biggest and Broadest Gartner Inc. is to the technology analyst industry what IBM is to computer technology. It's a fitting comparison considering the company's origins. Gartner was founded in 1979 by Gideon Gartner, an IBM staffer...

By the Numbers: December 2002.
December 1, 2002... Behind the Hype of Wireless Technology Cellular and Wi-Fi are tied as the leading technologies for mobile devices, says an IDC study. While cellular serves wide-area network (WAN) systems that stretch for miles, the most popular short-range...

Dossier: Meta Group.
December 1, 2002... Winning Hearts and Minds Looking to differentiate itself from market monolith Gartner, Meta Group has chosen specialized customer service as its defining trait. Meta calls this "cultivating client intimacy"--but it means sacrificing...

Dossier: AMR Research.
December 1, 2002... Earning Respect Steve Hammond, vice president of information services at Plasti-Line, views AMR Research as an important ally in achieving his company's business goals. When Hammond undertakes a new initiative, such as the deployment...

What You Should Do When Selecting a Vendor.
December 9, 2002... Here are some of the smart things the Teddy-bear company did the second time around, before giving the business to J.D. Edwards: *Evaluate at least three vendors. A wildcard fourth will also help you test assumptions about the genre of...

Don't Think CEO Is Alone on Hot Seat.
December 11, 2002... In this humbling year for American business, technology executives have been made to know their place. And that's not altogether a bad thing. The Andrew Fastows with their off-balance-sheet partnerships, the Dennis Kozlowskis with their...

How to Judge Wireless Success.
December 11, 2002... Clearly, Prada focused on coolness, not return on investment, when planning its Epicenter store in Soho. As a result, it may have achieved only 20% of what it might have, for its investment. If Prada had focused on the returns it could...