Baseline articles from January 2006

Baseline archives from January 2006

Preventing Fraud from Trusted Sources.
January 6, 2006... Natarjan Venkataram funneled $11.4 million in funds from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency)--;money earmarked to help New York City build computer systems to identify the remains of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks--;to...

IT Budgets Remain Under Close Watch for 2006.(survey)
January 6, 2006... We face another year of living moderately, at least with regard to technology spending. A just-completed survey of 115 senior information technology executives in big companies by CIO Insight, a sister publication to Baseline, shows a 1.3...

Glitchy Systems Worsen Drug-Benefit Snafus.
January 11, 2006... As the year ended, Bonnie Burns--;a training and policy specialist with California Health Advocates, a nonprofit that counsels people on Medicare--;was stretched to the limit. She was swamped with requests for help from senior citizens...

Primer: Virtual Servers.
January 14, 2006... What is a virtual server? Virtual servers make it possible to place multiple applications on a single physical server, yet run each within its own operating system environment, known as a virtual machine. So, when one virtual server crashes or...

Calculator: When Leasing Hardware Makes Sense.
January 14, 2006... Should you lease or buy equipment? When it comes to I.T. hardware such as desktop PCs, it makes sense to lease if you plan to hold onto equipment for only three years, according to Adam Braunstein, senior research analyst at Robert Frances...

Don't Send the Wrong Message on Outsourcing.
January 14, 2006... The stickiest management problem you'll ever have isn't getting outsourcing to work well, although that's probably a close second. It's surviving the angst of outsourcing tech work in the first place. One network administrator, who said he...

A Better Way to Do the Monster Mash.
January 14, 2006... Among hard-core Web developers and the aficionados of all things Web 2.0, there is a lot of excitement over the concept of creating new Web applications by mashing together diverse sets of data. The most obvious instance of a mash,...

The (Continuing) Tale of the Lost Tapes.(ABN AMRO Mortgage Group Inc. and Marriott Vacation Club International lost their customer informations )
January 14, 2006... Right before Christmas, ABN AMRO Mortgage and Marriott Vacation Club International sent their customers a nice little present--;news that they had lost backup tapes containing their names, Social Security numbers and other personal information....

JPMorgan Chase Retakes Control of I.T.(Company Profile)
January 14, 2006... In September 2004, JPMorgan Chase & Co., freshly merged with Bank One, pulled the plug on its $5 billion contract with IBM Global Services to operate and maintain its technology infrastructure. The death of the then-largest outsourcing deal in...

I.T., Not Just Elbow Grease, Help Utility's Recovery.
January 14, 2006... Talk about being proactive. Southern Co., the energy company that produces electricity for much of the Gulf Coast region, began preparing for Hurricane Katrina more than a year before the storm struck. In fact, even before Katrina's...

Videoconferencing Kept Lord of Rings on Track.
January 14, 2006... In the pitch-black night of the New Zealand winter, Duncan Nimmo, information technology manager of 3Foot6 Ltd., and his two-man crew hoisted heavy equipment--;including spools of military-grade fiber-optic cable, a battery pack, wireless...

Ketera Technologies: Slow Starter?(Company Profile)
January 14, 2006... Ketera Technologies has won customers with a relatively low-cost hosted software model and an emphasis on easy-to-use, Web-based applications. But some say the company has delivered subpar service: At least two customers complain that Ketera...

Frictionless Commerce: Small But Sharp.
January 14, 2006... Frictionless Commerce rubs customers the right way. Though at times constrained by its small size, the 85-person company is praised for being open and responsive, and for providing a well-rounded spend management software suite. Anthony...

Ariba: After the Gulp.
January 14, 2006... Over the past two years, according to customers, Ariba had a rough time ingesting FreeMarkets, formerly a bitter rival in the online sourcing market. But now that the combined company's indigestion is subsiding, they say, Ariba has become...

Voice of Experience: Purchase Manager Saves With Auctions.
January 14, 2006... MANAGER'S PROFILE: Oversees about $1.3 billion in annual spending on goods and services. PPG, with sales of $9.5 billion in 2004, makes paints, adhesives, glass and industrial chemicals. HIS PROJECT: For the past two years, PPG's 150 buyers...

Is Your Supplier's Price Really Right?
January 14, 2006... Any business knows what it pays suppliers--;just tally up the invoices. But are there sweeter deals to be had? Spend management and analysis software can show where the money's going, and provides electronic tools to bargain with...

Player Roster: Nestle.(management and executive details)(Company Profile)
January 19, 2006... Peter Brabeck-Letmathe Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Driver of business efficiency at Nestle. Urged the company to spend more than $1 billion on the GLOBE (Global Business Excellence) project, to automate and integrate all of its...

Base Technologies: Nestle.
January 19, 2006... For five years, Nestle has been rolling out a standard set of software, to simplify and unify the way it manages its supply chain and operates back-office functions, like purchasing and invoicing. Its GLOBE project involves the largest rollout...