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Black Swans and Blue Birds
November 04, 2009
I just finished reading The Black Swan, a book that has been on my list since it came out in 2007, and I highly recommend it, though it is not easy reading. There is a great deal of set up before you get to the whole point of the book in the last 50 pages. The Black Swan is about uncertainty in the real world, and the subtitle explains it all: "The Impact of the Highly Improbable."
Workforce Management: Beyond Time and Attendance
November 02, 2009
In both the best and worst of economic times, worker productivity is a major management goal. Making sure that employees efficiently carry out their tasks is critical to the success of both government and business enterprises. First, of course, the workers have to show up.

B2B TeleServices: Bring the Right Intel to the Table
October 29, 2009
In research conducted among over 200 companies in 2008 for a reported titled "B2B TeleServices and Appointment-Setting: Less Risk, Less Reward?," Aberdeen Group found that end-user sales organizations relying primarily on external appointment-setting vendors for lead generation realized dramatically lower business results if the vendor deliverable was limited to simple appointments.
SFA May Be Mature, but It's About to Have a Growth Spurt
October 26, 2009
Sales force automation -- nimble, lightweight and usually mobile -- seems to have little in common with its staid parent, enterprise resource planning. Until you consider this: After years of widespread adoption, SFA has also become mature -- but in its own way. Yet the space is not remaining static.

Tempering the Supply Chain With Better BI
October 22, 2009
Many organizations in the consumer packaged goods industry are experiencing a trade-off between the benefit of high product volume sales coming at the expense of extreme data complexity. At the same time, these companies struggle to maintain open lines of communication with their retail customers and distributors in order to better manage the upstream flow of product.
Leveraging Social Media to Boost E-Commerce Holiday Sales
October 21, 2009
Word of mouth has long been a priceless asset to any business, and technology has expanded the playing field in a whole new way with mobile messaging and social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and more. Every day, it seems hard to avoid the buzz about social media -- who's on it, what they're doing and what the latest trend is.

Sales Forecasting and Say's Law
October 21, 2009
I have been studying sales forecasting and forecasting tools a lot recently, and I have come to the conclusion that we need better tools as well as better ways of using them. There is a lot that can be said about forecasting, its current state and how to improve it, and I don't want to leave anything out but I will try to be brief. First off, how we forecast says a lot about our views on economics.
The Big Bilski: A Hope for Clarity on Business Method Patents
October 20, 2009
One year ago, the Court of Appeals that handles all appeals of patent cases in the U.S. issued a landmark decision. In re Bilski sent shockwaves through the high-tech legal community. The court held that in order to be patentable, a method must either be "tied to a particular machine," or "transform[ ] a particular article into a different state or thing."

Sailing Toward the New Supply Chain Management World
October 19, 2009
You might say that supply chain management has entered the philosophical realm. SCM investment has flatlined to a large extent, and the market's focus has changed as supply chain headaches become more complex and cut a broader swath. Although there is no one compelling trend in the SCM space, cost optimization and fulfillment are becoming top priorities.
CRM + BPM: Raising the Customer Experience Bar
October 16, 2009
For decades, organizations have been dealing with the challenges of driving more effective customer service. Traditional CRM solutions have focused on presenting consolidated customer information, but they still rely heavily on employees to resolve customer issues. This means that the customer's experience can vary greatly depending on the manual processes and efficiency of the staff at any given organization.

Oracle's Ellison Challenges IBM to Server Duel
October 15, 2009
Larry Ellison ratcheted up his rhetoric against IBM on Wednesday, challenging Oracle's longtime partner and rival to "make our day" in a battle over business software performance. Ellison, Oracle's billionaire CEO, shook up the technology world in April by outbidding IBM and snatching up struggling server and software maker Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion.
The Data-Driven Marketer: Show Me the Numbers
October 15, 2009
The role of the chief marketing officer has evolved dramatically over the last 10 years. The average CMO is on the job for just 23.6 months. The CEO and board of directors are demanding a new level of accountability from senior marketing leaders, which requires tangible justification for marketing decisions.

Gearing Up for the Project Management Explosion
October 12, 2009
The economic stimulus assistance injected into major industrial countries to counter the effects of a global recession shone a spotlight on the need to rebuild their infrastructures. The need to manage such public works investments efficiently has generated a huge potential market for project management software and related services.
Filtering the BI Fire Hose
October 11, 2009
How can we make the most of Web data services for business intelligence? As enterprises seek to gain better insights into their markets, processes, and business development opportunities, they face a daunting challenge -- how to identify, gather, cleanse, and manage all of the relevant data and content being generated across the Web.

The Cutting Edge of Law Enforcement Technologies
October 06, 2009
Not so long ago, Motorola was hailed as the bane of criminals. "You might outrun the cop, but you'll never outrun Motorola," went the saying. The Motorola two-way radio was one of the first technologies to tip the scales in favor of law enforcement. However, it was by no means the last.
Continuous Intelligence: Where Message Meets Moment
October 06, 2009
Online measurement has become increasingly focused on the integration of online behavior with customer marketing touch-points. Taking a complete view of the customer acquisition life cycle will often generate numerous potential integration points that can be profitably exploited. The goal of every marketing organization should be to achieve consistent relevance around both "message" and "moment."

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