Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is in theory built on Web Services stringing business processes together, but it may not be happening this way. Some organizations are using older technologies, like EAI and not making the investment required in Web Services. This may be a mistake for the long run. Web Services offers far more flexibility than the alternatives. Start with the Logic - Pundit - CIO Magazine May 15,2004Service

Monday, April 25, 2005

PDA's like the Blackberry have been making strong inroads into the e-mail world. However it seems more possible now that some and perhaps much of this market will be taken over by cell phones. Vodaphone has issued a new service in Europe, and Rogers is considering one in Canada. If this happens, it will make serious competition for PDA's e-mail, simply because many more people have cell phones than PDA's. InformationWeek Weblog

Friday, April 22, 2005

A new cyberterrorism Center - The Cyber Incident Detection Data Analysis Center (CIDDAC) is opening in the US to act a buffer for critical industries by offering high end intrusion detection systems. the idea is to monitor attempted intrusions and gather data about them to forward to the legal agencies such as the FBI. It is felt the companies will be more amenable to a private non-profit organization monitoring their system than agencies such as the FBI. Intrusion Detection has been a major IT issue for several years, and of course has assumed considerable importance since the rise in terrorism of recent years. Likely this new service is a harbinger of other initiatives to come. U.S. gets new cyberterrorism security center - Computerworld

Thursday, April 21, 2005

The Economist Intelligence Unit has released its annual report on the E-Business readiness of countries around the world. Scandinavian countries continue to dominate the top of the list because of their solid infrastructures. The US has moved up to number two spot, because of the growing strength of its broadband and mobile connectivity. Extended Enterprise > Online Retailing and Ecommerce > Europe blazes trail for e-biz boom

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Security continues to grow in importance, in the face of privacy concerns, identity theft and other threats. Passwords are a poor answer, as anyone who has to manage 30 different passwords for 30 different systems knows. Also, crackers are used to getting past them. Biometrics is the likely answer. Newer technologies, like the new IBM T42 laptop have fingerprint accesss built it. Soon, your fingerprints will be needed to access the corporate network, bank machines and many other facilities. While people will continue to be concerned with having themselves fingerprinted, nevertheless, it will be common in a few short years. That's a prediction! A Touchy Subject - CFO IT - Spring 2005 Issue - CFO.com

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Are newspapers obsolete? Will they be replaced by online news? It's clear that traditional newspapers are experiencing declining readership and need to embrace the Internet. But how do they do that? Do they offer the news for free? Or do they require people to subscribe to their online offerings? Or perhaps get them to buy individual articles? The impact of the internet on the newspaper industry is a classic case of e-business re-invention - the need for companies in the face of increasingly intrusive technology to reinvent themselves by creating new business models. Globetechnology: Web growth, innovation threaten papers

Monday, April 18, 2005

Auditors have long been the bane of the iT department's existence. That may be changing, partly because of Sarbanes-Oxley and the increased role of internal auditors in making sure the systems are adequate. Some, perhaps many, companies are benefiting as a result.Wall Street & Technology : Internal Auditors

Friday, April 15, 2005

A recent Fraud case in India has focused attention on the need for taking precautions with security when engaged in outsourcing to foreign sources. It's a risk that may not be receiving the attention it deserves by some companies. Fraud Case Focuses Unwelcome Attention on Indian Outsourcing

Thursday, April 14, 2005

As another example of the forward movement of XBRL, Software AG and Rivet Software are collaborating to produce software that records and stores information using XBRL. XBRL is attracting the growing attention of regulators around the world, including many taxation authorities and securities related agencies, including, notably, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the US InfoWorld: Software AG, Rivet Software collaborate on XBRL: March 29, 2005: By : BUSINESS : DATA_MANAGEMENT
Although outsourcing has been common in the past few years, companies are finding it can be hard to maintain standardization of business processes, especially in international environments. The implication is that core processes need to be kept in house, according to participants at a recent Informationweek Conference.InformationWeek > Business Processes, Global Sourcing > Safeguarding Business Processes Is One Challenge Of Global Sourcing > April 12, 2005

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

VOIP is being tried by numerous major players, but there are unresolved issues regarding the use of the technology and technical issues. Wall Street & Technology : Two Worlds Come Together

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

There's an interesting new XBRL website called XBRLCentral and a related blog at this location: XBRLCentral
There are interesting questions arising out of the search engine world, where Google has risen quickly, but is meeting stiff competition. One of these questions iis whether Google needs to go open source in their approach. it also raises again the question of whether Microsoft is becoming more vulnerable to competition by remaining proprietary, and maintaining a control position with proprietary software. Eventually, competitors will find a way to launch newer, more modern products to compete effectively. Google and the Coming Search Wars, Revisited

Thursday, April 07, 2005

GE has several ERP systems and needs to knit them together. They are considering outsourcing the whole thing - a monumental effort. InformationWeek > Outsourced ERP > GE Mulls Massive ERP Implementation > April 6, 2005

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

VoIP marches on, and the CRTC has just ruled that it must include 911 capabilities. That'll help make it more mainstream. Globetechnology: VoIP must offer 911, CRTC rules