Global companies labor under fixed costs such as taxation but can control variable costs such as labor, IT infrastructures, and repetitive processes. Both wireless technology (e.g., RFID, GPS, real-time location systems, and mobile computing) and the continuous improvement discipline (including lean and Six Sigma) target variable costs; together, they provide a methodology of creating and applying business rules that drive down variable costs. This Executive Report examines this combined "lean wireless" paradigm.

Global companies labor under fixed costs such as taxation but can control variable costs such as labor, IT infrastructures, and repetitive processes. Both wireless technology (e.g., RFID, GPS, real-time location systems, and mobile computing) and the continuous improvement discipline (including lean and Six Sigma) target variable costs; together, they provide a methodology of creating and applying business rules that drive down variable costs. This Executive Report examines this combined "lean wireless" paradigm.

In recent Advisors, I have talked about data security and perimeter security (see "Are You at the Controls? Do You Know Where Your Data Is?" 10 June 2009 and "Is Your Perimeter Secure?" 17 June 2009).

In the days before computers, businesspeople designed, tested, and deployed their own business systems. Then along came IT, with its huge benefits, but application development had to be done by specialists in a separate IT organization. Is this separation -- the "business-IT divide" -- permanent?

The accompanying Executive Report proposes a lasting solution to the business-IT divide. Essentially, the solution is to remove the divide by bringing computing back to the people -- the businesspeople.

Humans have always had a love-hate relationship with technology in general and IT in particular. We like the potential that it offers in terms of productivity, research, improved quality of life, more responsive service, and its general association with progress. But at the same time we fear the risks of depersonalization, deskilling, and job loss associated with IT, and we react negatively — just like modern-day Luddites.

The world's book shelves are full of productivity systems and approaches, such as Getting Things Done, Zen to Done, Do It Tomorrow, The Now Habit, The 4-Hour Workweek, and so on.

This survey investigated the effect of various factors on personal productivity and the ways in which respondents manage their productivity. Thirty-three percent of the 60 respondents hold IS/IT management or senior management/policy making titles, while 18% are in consulting, and the remainder hold a variety of titles. Half of the respondents' organizations are headquartered or based in North America, 20% are in Europe, 17% are in Australia/Pacific, 10% in Asia, and 3% in Africa and the Middle East.

This Executive Report by Dr. Laurence Lock Lee focuses on the relationship aspects of business intelligence (BI). First, we examine the radical changes that are being experienced in today's business environment that potentially could render many existing BI solutions obsolete.

Conventional business intelligence (BI) has evolved from an age when the "factory" was the dominant business infrastructure and computers were employed to accelerate factory processes.

Agile methodologies are helping teams deliver software faster and with much higher quality than ever before. Given the success of agile at the team level, many managers are exploring the possibility of implementing these methodologies across the entire product-delivery organization.

Agile methodologies are helping teams deliver software much faster and with much higher quality than ever before. Given the success of agile at the development team level, many managers are exploring the possibility of broadly implementing these methodologies with the intent of achieving the quality, productivity, and ROI benefits across the entire product-delivery organization.

Performance reviews seem to be an unpleasant necessity for most managers (and the people who receive them). Reviews of contract performance are probably treated with even more apprehension.

Performance reviews seem to be an unpleasant necessity for most managers (and the people who receive them). Reviews of contract performance are probably treated with even more apprehension.

Performance reviews seem to be an unpleasant necessity for most managers (and the people who receive them). Reviews of contract performance are probably treated with even more apprehension.

Organizations that review their contracts on a systematic and regular basis will get more out of them in terms of both quality and financial results. Making the comprehensive reviews a core part of contract management practice signals to everyone involved in delivering and/or managing the arrangement that performance matters.

Organizations that review their contracts on a systematic and regular basis will get more out of them in terms of both quality and financial results. Making the comprehensive reviews a core part of contract management practice signals to everyone involved in delivering and/or managing the arrangement that performance matters.

Organizations that review their contracts on a systematic and regular basis will get more out of them in terms of both quality and financial results. Making the comprehensive reviews a core part of contract management practice signals to everyone involved in delivering and/or managing the arrangement that performance matters.

The software as a service (SaaS) model has matured as a viable strategic alternative to conventional software service options. With SaaS, customers do not own software but instead share a common code base and set of data definitions that clients are unable to modify. Customer-specific configurations and functional extensions are logically separated from the common code, and customers maintain them.

The software as a service (SaaS) model has matured as a viable strategic alternative to conventional software service options. With SaaS, customers do not own software but instead share a common code base and set of data definitions that clients are unable to modify. Customer-specific configurations and functional extensions are logically separated from the common code, and customers maintain them.

E-business

E-mail -- the 20th century's killer app -- is running into serious resistance in the 21st. Young people in particular are communicating in niche media; thus, the entire domain of business communication is becoming more and more fragmented.

E-business

E-mail -- the 20th century's killer app -- is running into serious resistance in the 21st. Young people in particular are communicating in niche media; thus, the entire domain of business communication is becoming more and more fragmented.

After almost four years, BI software as a service (SaaS) provider LucidEra is calling it quits. LucidEra, which was founded in 2005, offers a number of on-demand BI applications, including those for customer lead insight and pipeline and order analysis.