Thursday, November 29, 2007

Dark secrets and ugly truths: When ethics and IT collide

There is a whole new set of ethical issues for IT workers these days. And very little guidance for them. They center around the issue of what does an IT person do when they find evidence of wrongdoing on an executive's - or a peer's - computer. How far do they push it? It can be a perilous journey. Dark secrets and ugly truths: When ethics and IT collide

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Retailers expect this Christmas to be the weakest season since 2002. To try to counter that, they are beefing up their web offerings with special offers. It's an example of how online sales strategies can be lined up with traditional offline sales to benefit the whole company. Technology Review: Online retailers see surges in traffic as the online holiday shopping season offically begins

Monday, November 26, 2007

Google: In Search of Itself - Knowledge@Wharton

Google has been one of the most successful companies in history. But its very success has raised a host of issues for it, not the least of which is its strategic mission. Is it enough to excel at innovation or must there be something more to tie a company's strategies together? http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1839

Saturday, November 24, 2007

PayPal, E-payments Gain Online Ground

This Christmas season, internet payment systems like Paypal and Google Checkout are more popular than ever. The trend appears to be driven by fear of identity theft and online fraud. PayPal, E-payments Gain Online Ground

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Virtual Worlds, Real Business?

Virtual worlds, like Second Life, are often touted to have great commercial potential. In this article Accenture provides a good overview of that potential and offers up a realistic prespective on these unreal worlds. Virtual Worlds, Real Business?

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Technology Review: Wireless Internet links give businesses an alternative to the telephone company

Wireless has been spreading for a few years now, and its use has been increasing. It is likely that all internet access will be wireless in the longer term. One of the catalysts for change to wireless will be Wimax, a newer technology that is being rolled out by Sprint and others soon. It has a range of several miles, and therefore can cover whole cities with high speed, high quality wireless service. Some smaller providers are beginning to offer it. Look for a lot more. Technology Review: Wireless Internet links give businesses an alternative to the telephone company

Friday, November 16, 2007

A UN Committee has approved the transfer of spectrum from land based television to mobile devices. That means more spectrum will become available in most parts of the world, and will enable the spread of high speed internet to most of the world. The implications of this will be profound, in both economic and social terms. UN approves opening TV spectrum to wireless devices

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Technology Review: US control over Internet dominates discussion at UN conference in Brazil

At a major UN conference currently taking place in Rio de Janiero, there is once again considerable debate about the control that the United States exercises over Internet addresses. The issue exists because the US developed and funded the internet in its early stages, and has been reluctant to give up its influence since then. Technology Review: US control over Internet dominates discussion at UN conference in Brazil

Monday, November 12, 2007

Electronic Commerce in Canada - e-News

Last week, StatsCan released a report assessing the use of Government Online (GOL) with a thorough analysis of demographics of users, motivations, areas used, etc. It provides an interesting insight into this important government initiative. Electronic Commerce in Canada - e-News

Thursday, November 08, 2007

The Benefits of the XBRL Voluntary Filing Program
Contributed by Bob Schneider, who is the editor of Data Interactive, the Hitachi XBRL blog.

The SEC began its XBRL Voluntary Filing Program (VFP) in April 2005; currently, about 40 or so companies are enrolled. Although the Commission has tried to put the best face on the participant numbers – in September, it released a press release stating that the companies' combined market cap exceeds $2 trillion – there’s reason to believe that SEC Chairman Christopher Cox himself is disappointed in the enrollment rate. The Orange County Business Journal conducted an interview with the Chairman in late October and reported:

Cox expressed frustration with the slow pace of voluntary implementation and the reluctance of businesses to embrace superior technology that he said is demonstrably inexpensive to adopt. “Whatever the SEC says doesn’t go into the part of the business brain that says, ‘Here’s how we earn a profit.’”

With CFOs having so much else on their plates, it's not surprising that many have chosen not to get involved with XBRL before they have to. Nevertheless, I think they are missing out on an excellent opportunity to position their companies for XBRL adoption. Here's how Neal Hannon -- currently Director, Financial Reporting Technologies, Financial Accounting Foundation – describes the advantages of enrolling in the VFP:

...The benefits from filing in the voluntary program will be many. First, the companies that participate will be looked upon as supporting a more transparent financial disclosure system. Studies have shown that if more information is available to capital markets, the risk associated with the company securities will be reduced. Second, the process of preparing a marked-up filing using XBRL tags requires a deep level of understanding about how the company puts financial information together. The benefit to the filing company will come from additional discovery that will happen during the filing process. This in turn will increase the quality of both the official and the voluntary filing to the SEC. Third, the creation of financial data in an XML-based language will prepare the filing companies for the reuse of this data for internal reporting activities. These activities might help a company improve its internal controls, which would benefit compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley requirements.

Neal made his comments shortly before the VFP was introduced, and it’s now apparent several more plusses can be added to his list:
VFP participants can enjoy expedited reviews of registration statements and annual reports;
In a recent article in the Journal of Accountancy, John Stantial -- Director of Financial Reporting for United Technologies -- notes that once the initial learning curve for XBRL filings is eliminated, the company's XBRL filings proceeded smoothly. If UT’s experience is representative, the earlier companies get their initial XBRL expenditures behind them, the greater will be the return on their XBRL investment.
Early XBRL adopters enhance their reputation not only as corporate role models for transparency, but also as technology leaders receptive to innovation. A reputation as a leader in both areas may be particularly useful to smaller firms eager to receive analyst coverage in a time of contracting equity research departments.
It seems more and more probable that XBRL will be mandated for filers within the next few years. With adoption increasingly likely, early adopters can ease the transition to XBRL statements over time and be prepared when XBRL filings are required.

Canada introduced its own VFP in May; most of the benefits enumerated above should also accrue to participants in that program. As the adoption of XBRL for financial reporting comes into clearer view, North American companies will be wise to consider (or reconsider) their participation in the voluntary filing programs available to them.

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Google has a bold business plan. They have been expanding rapidly and have a real knack for selecting fields of endeavour that pay off. This article summarizes their immediate plans and also includes a number of links to related articles, providing an interesting overview of Googles business model. Google's Growing Grasp - Forbes.com

Monday, November 05, 2007

globeandmail.com: Forget your wallet, use the cellphone

Cellphone payments have been in use in Asia for years. But North Americans have been slow to adopt the technology. In fact they have been less than speedy to adopt so-called contactless payments, like Paypass, although it was recently adopted by Tim Hortons. But the time for Cell phone payments may be here. RBC has launched a pilot, which will be carried out in conjunction with Visa. The latter recently conducted a suurvey which showed that over 50% of the respondents favoured some type of cell phone payment system.
globeandmail.com: Forget your wallet, use the cellphone

Friday, November 02, 2007

A 4G Standards War Is Brewing

Here's something to watch - the big wireless companies are moving away from third generation wireless technology CDMA. But they are looking at two possible directions - LTE and WIMAX. Which way a company goes could spell success or big trouble for it down the road. It's one of those major strategic decisions that comes along only once every several years. The last big shift in wireless technology was in the 90's. A 4G Standards War Is Brewing