You can tell a lot about a company by the discipline it practices [1]. Some companies perform due diligence, while others make decisions based on what the brother-in-law thinks. There are also consultants who will tell you how to think -- for a price, of course.

Over the years, many large companies have used the Object Management Group's (OMG) CORBA middleware to link large enterprise applications. The leading vendor of CORBA -- IONA -- for example, claims it has more than 4,500 customers that rely on CORBA solutions. In many cases these are the same applications that companies are now considering integrating via the Internet to create Web services.

There's been a lot of talk at data warehousing conferences and in the press (and by the extraction, transformation, and loading [ETL] tool vendors) about the need to update and refresh data warehouses in real time. In practice, however, few organizations are currently conducting real-time (or near real-time) data warehouse updates and refreshments.

Editor's Note: Cutter Consortium asked Helen Pukstza to revisit this Advisor, originally published in 2000. Here she provides guidance for companies surviving the current economic climate.

Editor's Note: Cutter Consortium asked Helen Pukstza to revisit this Advisor, originally published in 2000. Here she provides guidance for companies surviving the current economic climate.

This week I want to talk about a problem I'm interested in and invite you to suggest options or products I haven't considered.

Editor's Note: Cutter Consortium asked Helen Pukstza to revisit this Advisor, originally published in 2000. Here she provides guidance for companies surviving the current economic climate.

Editor's Note: Cutter Consortium asked Helen Pukstza to revisit this Advisor, originally published in 2000. Here she provides guidance for companies surviving the current economic climate.

This week's announcement by retailer Best Buy that it is changing its privacy policy highlights just how meaningless customer data privacy policies actually are for consumers. Moreover, for our interests, it also makes one wonder just how much emphasis (or effort) companies should place on defining their privacy policies if they can change them to suit their needs any time they want.

This week's announcement by retailer Best Buy that it is changing its privacy policy highlights just how meaningless customer data privacy policies actually are for consumers. Moreover, for our interests, it also makes one wonder just how much emphasis (or effort) companies should place on defining their privacy policies if they can change them to suit their needs any time they want.

This week's announcement by retailer Best Buy that it is changing its privacy policy highlights just how meaningless customer data privacy policies actually are for consumers. Moreover, for our interests, it also makes one wonder just how much emphasis (or effort) companies should place on defining their privacy policies if they can change them to suit their needs any time they want.

This week's announcement by retailer Best Buy that it is changing its privacy policy highlights just how meaningless customer data privacy policies actually are for consumers. Moreover, for our interests, it also makes one wonder just how much emphasis (or effort) companies should place on defining their privacy policies if they can change them to suit their needs any time they want.

As Microsoft gets ready to release its first customer relationship management (CRM) product, there is a great deal of speculation as to whether or not Microsoft will come to dominate that market.

As Microsoft gets ready to release its first customer relationship management (CRM) product, there is a great deal of speculation as to whether or not Microsoft will come to dominate that market.