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Question

What will be the impact of Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility?

Posted May 22, 2012 - 1:05 pm

Will there be anything that the average person will notice now that the acquisition of Motorola Mobility has been approved by essentially every relevant regulatory agency in the world? From what I understand, a lot of the reason for the purchase was to gain rights to patents owned by Motorola Mobility.
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Question

How wise would it be to buy stock in Facebook at the IPO?

Posted May 18, 2012 - 1:34 pm

There has not been an IPO that has generated the same sort of buzz as Facebook in quite a while. Sure there was Zynga (or as I like to think of it, Pets.com-ville). Are the people jumping on the Facebook train getting on early for a long and profitable ride, or did they just buy tix on a trip to financial nowhere?
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Question

How much does it matter than Yahoo's CEO had an inaccurate resume?

Posted May 8, 2012 - 12:35 pm

Scott Thompson didn't exactly have the educational background that was listed on his resume. Oops. I have gotten resumes from people that went to the same college I graduated from, and on two separate occasions an applicant claimed to have a degree that I know my alma matter doesn't offer and never has. Again, oops.
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Question

Is it worthwhile to do a Daily Log Review?

Posted May 3, 2012 - 3:10 pm

Time is always at a premium for IT staff, I get that. I just started a new job, and one thing that they don't do is a Daily Log Review, which was something that we allocated time for every day at my previous position.
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Question

How important of a development for start-up companies is the JOBS Act and crowdsourcing?

Posted May 2, 2012 - 10:45 am

The JOBS Act that was signed into law recently has an interesting component that removes a lot of existing restrictions, and allows start-ups raise money from individual small investors in a process known as "crowdfunding".
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Question

Who is going to win the big legal battle between Google and Oracle?

Posted April 26, 2012 - 3:15 pm

I feel like I'm watching a very long hockey game between Oracle and Google - big boys playing for big bucks. I think Google is more likely to prevail; Java was promoted like crazy as open source, and Google worked with Sun during the early days of Android development.
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Question

Online fax Service

Posted April 18, 2012 - 11:53 am

Hi! I am needing advice on some online fax software for small businesses. I would like to know what features to consider and are necessary when selecting a service as well as a service the provides the best service ti send faxes to your mobile phone. Thanks in advance!
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Question

Why has patent litigation become such an epidemic?

Posted April 4, 2012 - 2:04 pm

It seems like every day there is another lawsuit filed alleging patent infringement. Yahoo sues Facebook, Facebook sues Yahoo, Samsung sues Apple, Apple sues Samsung, and on and on. It isn't only in the US, it is around the world.
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Question

How big of a challenge is it to implement a Content Management System?

Posted April 3, 2012 - 2:52 pm

We are looking at a new Content Management System deployment, which will be a major purchase for our company. I have no experience with this platform, and in fact there is only one person here who has any background using it, and even that was a few years ago.
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Question

How does "gamification" provide benefits to businesses?

Posted March 14, 2012 - 11:18 am

One of the buzzwords that is being thrown about quite a lot recently is "gamification." I don't really understand how it is something that could provide a benefit to businesses, but maybe I don't understand the concept fully.
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Question

Will Apple selling its products through big box stores like WalMart damage its brand image?

Posted March 13, 2012 - 1:07 pm

I don't shop at Walmart (see documentary "The High Cost of Low Prices" for an explanation as to some of the reasons why), but I needed a new fishing license and the closest place in the area was the sporting goods section at Walmart. I actually did an as-seen-on-TV double take when I walked by a display case filled with Apple products.
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Question

How hard is it to get Microsoft Gold Certification?

Posted March 9, 2012 - 12:07 pm

How difficult is it to gain Microsoft Gold Certification? My supervisor suggested it might be worthwhile for our company if it doesn’t require excessive much time/effort.
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Question

What are the chances that crowdsourcing will be used by mainstream business?

Posted February 27, 2012 - 6:06 pm

Will crowdsourcing be soon be used by mainstream businesses? There have been a couple of projects that I am aware of: DARPA and Wikipedia being the main ones. Is there a future for crowdsourcing as a tool for small to medium sized businesses?
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Question

How important is ISO 9001:208 certification when evaluating a company?

Posted February 21, 2012 - 11:01 am

: How important is ISO 9001:2008 certification when evaluating consulting companies? Is it just something that merely requires filling out some paperwork and sending in a check to get a shiny new certificate, or can it actually be used as a meaningful factor to assess a potential corporate partner’s business model?
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Question

In what areas does your company plan big IT expenditures for 2012?

Posted February 17, 2012 - 3:48 pm

It seems that over the past few years there has been a new annual big ticket IT expenditure. One year it is increased spending on The Cloud, the next year it is business intelligence/big data, and so on. What things are businesses looking at for increased 2012 IT budgeting?
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Question

How do you bill for independent sales reps in a company IT contract?

Posted February 8, 2012 - 9:53 pm

I have a support contract with a client who has sales reps that are only paid commission. Since the reps own their own laptops, the company doesn't want to pay for their IT support.
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Question

Why and how does AOL still exist...and earn money!?

Posted February 1, 2012 - 2:24 pm

I saw the financial results for AOL in the business section today, and the first thing that came to mind was, AOL?!? Who the heck is using AOL? I asked around the office and almost everyone had a similar action.
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Question

What will result from the exposure of FoxConn working conditions?

Posted January 30, 2012 - 12:16 pm

Apple got a serving of bad publicity along with the good recently. At nearly the same time astonishing revenues were being announced, we started to hear about the working conditions at FoxConn, the Chinese factory where iPads and iPhones are assembled.
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Question

What do you do when employees BYOD despite it being against company policy?

Posted January 26, 2012 - 4:59 pm

Cisco released a study of CIO attitudes that showed 48% of companies would NEVER authorize employees to bring their own devices to the workplace. What made me chuckle was the follow sentence pointed out that 57% of IT managers said that employees do it anyway. �There is clearly a bit of a disconnect there.
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Question

How much difference will it make that Thorsten Heins has been named the new CEO of RIM?

Posted January 23, 2012 - 6:10 pm

RIM has been struggling for a while now, and at least in the US, facing declining market share. Service interruption issues and a limited product line have not helped RIMs standing in the business community, the traditional foundation of the company's customer base.
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Question

What are some ways that a company can minimize internal resistance to a new ERP implementation and create a cohesive environment

Posted January 20, 2012 - 5:09 pm

It can be difficult to change direction when one is aboard a large ship. What are some effective methods that can decrease resistance to a new implementation and what should be considered when dealing with change management issues?
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Question

How much of a stigma is there to use of a web-based email address?

Posted January 6, 2012 - 12:45 pm

Whether the use of a web-based email in a business context gives an unprofessional impression was the topic of a casual debate with a few co-workers over lunch. We all agreed that the use of a hotmail or yahoo account in business would cause us to notice it in a negative way. However, the was no such agreement on gmail.
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Question

What do you think about VW's decision to disable employees' Blackberry email after work hours?

Posted January 3, 2012 - 11:45 am

I read that Volkswagen has decide to turn off after hours access to employees BlackBerry email accounts, starting 30 mins after their scheduled work hours end.
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Question

How much use does your company make of social media in its business model and how much of a benefit do you see?

Posted December 19, 2011 - 2:40 pm

It is pretty much standard operating procedure for most businesses to have an online presence consisting of a company website and a presence on facebook.
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Question

Why does IT outsourcing to China continue to increase despite higher costs than competitors?

Posted December 8, 2011 - 2:45 pm

China exports billions of dollars worth of IT services per year. However, in my experience, cost for Chinese IT outsourcing is significantly higher than for Indian or the Philippines, the other two main outsourcing players, and the average grasp of English is much worse among Chinese compared to Indians and Filipinos.
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BusinessWhite Papers & Webcasts

Webcast On Demand

Delivery Management -- Extending Lifecycle Management

Date: Wednesday, June 20, 2012, 1:00 PM EDT Siloed organizations continue doing the wrong things and doing things wrong, leading to increased costs, project delays, lower quality, and time-to-market delays. Providing a collaborative platform where the whole organization can prioritize, share and manage deliveries with more transparency can help the organizations make more informed decisions at all levels, and greatly improve communications and traceability between teams. Hear from application lifecycle management experts how to increase delivery efficiency and effectiveness with a new approach to Delivery Management.

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Gartner: Magic Quadrant for Midrange and High-End Modular Disk Arrays

This Magic Quadrant represents vendors that sell into the end-user market with branded midrange and high-end modular disk array storage systems that support block-access protocols. Despite rather gloomy macroeconomic conditions worldwide and ongoing geopolitical unrest in the Middle East, the midrange and high-end modular disk array storage market grew 8.2% from 3Q10 through 2Q11, compared with the same period the year before. Propelled by technological innovation and enhanced scalability, this continued growth in vendor revenue supports the observation that IT executives are willing to invest in modern midrange and high-end modular disk storage systems to improve operational efficiency, to support deployments of virtualized IT infrastructures, and to address the impact of unabated terabyte growth.Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

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Seven Priorities for Integrated Network Management - How HP Intelligent Management Center Delivers an Enterprise-class Solution

This white paper describes the major requirements for network management solutions to help the organizations become more profitable, efficient and reliable.Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Webcast On Demand

Operational Analytics - Changing the Competitive Dynamics of the Business

Date/Time: June 5, 2012, 11:00 a.m., EDT, 4:00 p.m. BST / 3:00 p.m. UTC Please join us for this webcast, as Dr. Barry Devlin, Founder and Principal, 9sight Consulting, describes what operational analytics can do for your business and reviews an architectural approach that will enable you to make it a reality.

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Centage/IOMA Budgeting Survey: Benchmarks and Issues

How are other financial professionals dealing with the issues you face? This report offers you an inside peak into what the minds at over 200 financial executives are thinking and doing to impact their own bottom line.

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