This month, we have tapped into the expertise and knowledge of two contributors with significant backgrounds in e-learning.

Today's BI providers struggle with lightning-fast data mining and presentation -- two things that sports intelligence providers have mastered. The announcer's teleprompter and on-screen graphics prove that information can be both instantaneous and engaging.

After decades of attempting to reach end users, business intelligence (BI) vendors and user organizations need to rethink what the intelligence is for, who it is for, and how to best serve that end user.

Cloud computing and agile development are complementary concepts that have come together in myriad ways to aid in the rapid development and deployment of software to meet real business requirements. Both are currently in a state of evolution, which is creating interesting synergies as the enterprise IT environment continues to advance.

Agile development and cloud computing represent two recent evolutionary trends that have become important components of the emerging IT environment. Both represent responses to similar pressures that have resulted in what might be termed a "tectonic shift" in technology, and both signify the current phase of an extended revolution. The fact that they should fit so easily together, then, should be viewed with little surprise.

In this Executive Report by Dr. Leslie P. Willcocks and Catherine Griffiths, we examine the key roles that middle managers (MMs) play in outsourcing on both the client and the supplier sides. Most senior executives ignore these less headline-grabbing roles at their own peril.

In this Executive Report by Dr. Leslie P. Willcocks and Catherine Griffiths, we examine the key roles that middle managers (MMs) play in outsourcing on both the client and the supplier sides. Most senior executives ignore these less headline-grabbing roles at their own peril.

Working in technologically and organizationally complex, globalizing environments, modern middle managers (MMs) are now found to be the glue that holds organizations together. 1 Senior managers will make the agenda-setting decisions that determine an organization's course, but MMs have considerable influence on the long road to implementation. They make day-to-day choices and key tradeoffs that escape top management's attention, know-how, and interest yet are central to performance.

Working in technologically and organizationally complex, globalizing environments, modern middle managers (MMs) are now found to be the glue that holds organizations together. 1 Senior managers will make the agenda-setting decisions that determine an organization's course, but MMs have considerable influence on the long road to implementation. They make day-to-day choices and key tradeoffs that escape top management's attention, know-how, and interest yet are central to performance.

Assertion 191: The current mode of flat-rate pricing for wired and wireless data communications discourages space-efficient software, encourages unlimited consumption, and is unsustainable. Rising capital and operating expenses to keep pace with increasing demand will force carrier pricing upward. Simultaneously, customers will tire of subsidizing peak users, pressuring prices downward. A pay-per-use model can address both issues. 

I have experienced and witnessed an explosion in system design problems that are the byproduct of missing or incompetent systems analysts. Whether the development approach taken by a company is agile or traditional, the success or failure of the system is determined by the effectiveness of the analysis and design activities.

While the iPad continues to sell briskly, bloggers, pundits, poets, everyday people, and competitors wax on, admirably, jealously, and, once in a while, eloquently. More than probably any other device, this one found a truck-sized hole where none was seen. Standing in the no man's land between the cell phone and the laptop, it found this so-called desert fertile enough.

While the iPad continues to sell briskly, bloggers, pundits, poets, everyday people, and competitors wax on, admirably, jealously, and, once in a while, eloquently. More than probably any other device, this one found a truck-sized hole where none was seen. Standing in the no man's land between the cell phone and the laptop, it found this so-called desert fertile enough.

While the iPad continues to sell briskly, bloggers, pundits, poets, everyday people, and competitors wax on, admirably, jealously, and, once in a while, eloquently. More than probably any other device, this one found a truck-sized hole where none was seen. Standing in the no man's land between the cell phone and the laptop, it found this so-called desert fertile enough.

How does your organization provide feedback about the performance of its people?

The Internet changes everything -- or does it? New business models; Web 2.0; social networking; interactions with customers, employees, and partners, etc., are being revolutionized. The change is so rapid, how do we keep up?

The ability to host high-performance analytic databases1 on public cloud environments -- particularly Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) platform -- has received a fair amount of attention over the past year or so. We have also seen a number of vendors (e.g., Vertica Systems, Teradata, Greenplum) offer versions of their high-performance analytic databases for use on Amazon EC2.

I recently bought a new car. It's a Volkswagen Jetta, and it was made in Mexico. Not all of it -- most of it. Many of the parts were made in Germany, China, Hungary, the US, and several other countries. It's getting increasingly difficult these days to nail down the country of origin when you buy a new car.

This article is the next in a series of Advisors that articulate the use of the Agile Triangle. It also introduces another project management tool, the Tradeoff Matrix, and describes how these two tools are used together.

The past few weeks have been both discouraging and heartening if you are an enterprise risk manager, for both the best and the worst aspects of ERM have been on very public display.

The past few weeks have been both discouraging and heartening if you are an enterprise risk manager, for both the best and the worst aspects of ERM have been on very public display.

For the past decade, search technology innovation has been largely static in that it has been fixed and unchanging. Further, we, as business and technology executives, have been "snowbound" in a digital whiteout of epic proportions -- if you will, an Internet Static Age.

For the past decade, search technology innovation has been largely static in that it has been fixed and unchanging. Further, we, as business and technology executives, have been "snowbound" in a digital whiteout of epic proportions -- if you will, an Internet Static Age.

It may seem like IT is the culprit of many problems, including data integration for the enterprise, but the issue may very well be something upper management brought on itself. Each year, IT is asked to do more with fewer resources such as hardware and software. People are also reduced every year because IT is seen as overhead in many organizations. So to balance things out, some applications are outsourced to another company. By outsourcing applications, more complexity is introduced into the IT group or any enterprise project.