Collaboration

Instant messaging (IM) will become a major force in the way organizations design their communications and Web sites, especially in the areas of customer service and customer support.

Collaboration

Instant messaging (IM) will become a major force in the way organizations design their communications and Web sites, especially in the areas of customer service and customer support.

In the last couple of months, two of IBM's principal competitors in the mainframe business, Amdahl and Hitachi, both announced that they intend to withdraw from the market for large-scale mainframe computers.

In the last couple of months, two of IBM's principal competitors in the mainframe business, Amdahl and Hitachi, both announced that they intend to withdraw from the market for large-scale mainframe computers.

The Cutter Technology Council's Assertion #22 reads: "Privacy will become one of the major constraints on the speed with which e-business replaces traditional business interactions." The purpose of this Executive Update is to consider whether there is evidence of this trend in industry today.

The Cutter Technology Council's Assertion #22 reads: "Privacy will become one of the major constraints on the speed with which e-business replaces traditional business interactions." The purpose of this Executive Update is to consider whether there is evidence of this trend in industry today.

In a recent Cutter Business Technology Trends and Impacts Council Opinion (" Instant Messaging," Vol. 2, No. 1), I suggested that the wireless Web will be bigger than the wired Web and that this change will happen faster than the time frame in which the wired Web became prevalent. Recently, we conducted a survey to see how IT professionals view the wired world.

In a recent Cutter Business Technology Trends and Impacts Council Opinion (" Instant Messaging," Vol. 2, No. 1), I suggested that the wireless Web will be bigger than the wired Web and that this change will happen faster than the time frame in which the wired Web became prevalent. Recently, we conducted a survey to see how IT professionals view the wired world.

Have you ever been associated with a project where the execution was flawless, but yet you were unable to achieve the business objectives? I have -- as a member of a cross-functional project team, whose charter was to design an electronic business solution for a retailer with hundreds of stores across the Midwestern US.

A couple weeks ago, I received an intriguing e-mail from a total stranger in the northwestern US:

A couple weeks ago, I received an intriguing e-mail from a total stranger in the northwestern US:

Business uncertainty, accentuated by the recent dot-com failures, seems to be having a paralyzing effect on businesses. The ambivalence between nurturing old business lines and heavy investment in new ones has led to a technological impasse in many organizations. In the name of uncertainty -- or unexpectedly magnified bottom-line deficiencies -- strategy implementations are being halted.

It's past the point at which one needs to describe component applications to prove the technology works or to prove the value of component reuse; most companies are convinced. The problem they are focused on is creating organizational structures to make it happen. Nevertheless, every so often I come across an implementation story that is so good that it's worth passing on.

In Part I of this Advisor (20 December 2000), we discussed the fundamental law of project failure: any project can fail.

Let's now explore the consequences of denying the law of project failure and examine how organizations might approach things differently if they acknowledged the possibility of failure.

In Part I of this Advisor (20 December 2000), we discussed the fundamental law of project failure: any project can fail.

In Part I of this Advisor (20 December 2000), we discussed the fundamental law of project failure: any project can fail.