Everyone involved in software development knows the labor market is very tight. It's hard to find good people for almost any important task. In the past few months, the Cutter Consortium conducted a survey to determine what the demand was for developers of distributed, component-based systems.

Once a year, I take a step back and examine what the new product developments mean in the overall context of applying data warehouse and business intelligence (BI) technology.

Sagent Technology has announced a new XML-based information service for dynamically delivering -- at the point of customer interaction -- geographic, business-to-business (B2B), and demographic data from third-party content providers. The new service, called Centrus Real-Time, provides Web access to this information on a per transaction basis in real time as opposed to traditional batch load (daily, weekly, quarterly, etc.) updates.

One requirement for e-business is that IT professionals' skills be both "deep and wide." They should have a strong technical foundation in a number of areas, and they have to be more attuned to what's happening in their nontechnical business arena than was required before e-business.

© 2000 by Andersen Consulting. All rights reserved.

If we lived in a perfect Internet world, an e-commerce1 site would meet the needs of its customers in terms of providing an effective user interface, meaningful information, easy navigation, fast performance, high reliability, and ongoing security.

If we lived in a perfect Internet world, an e-commerce1 site would meet the needs of its customers in terms of providing an effective user interface, meaningful information, easy navigation, fast performance, high reliability, and ongoing security.

Walt Kelly, creator of the Pogo comic strip, used this line about the real nature of many problems long before the Internet and the World Wide Web were invented. However, nowhere is it as true as when a group of otherwise sane human beings attempt their first large e-business project. Herein is a list of some of the Worst Practices (with a capital W) for putting your brainchild on the Web.

© 2000 by Satisfice, Inc. All rights reserved.

In the minds of some, the debate still rages: is e-business merely another overblown trend, or is it (as many analysts claim) a monumental change on the order of the industrial revolution?

In the minds of some, the debate still rages: is e-business merely another overblown trend, or is it (as many analysts claim) a monumental change on the order of the industrial revolution?

The majority of this Executive Report focuses on a case study that traces the outsourcing process at Amtrak from its inception and, with the advantage of hindsight, relates the lessons the company has learned. It explores the impact of Amtrak's failure to adequately focus on the strategic benefits of outsourcing as a result of placing too much emphasis on tactical, short-term goals.

The majority of this Executive Report focuses on a case study that traces the outsourcing process at Amtrak from its inception and, with the advantage of hindsight, relates the lessons the company has learned. It explores the impact of Amtrak's failure to adequately focus on the strategic benefits of outsourcing as a result of placing too much emphasis on tactical, short-term goals.

The accompanying Executive Report begins with an outsourcing case study and follows with a look toward the future of outsourcing. The case study starts with a history of the organization: Amtrak. US Congress passed the Rail Passenger Service Act in 1970, creating the National Passenger Railroad Corporation (Amtrak) to provide intercity rail passenger service in the US.

The accompanying Executive Report begins with an outsourcing case study and follows with a look toward the future of outsourcing. The case study starts with a history of the organization: Amtrak. US Congress passed the Rail Passenger Service Act in 1970, creating the National Passenger Railroad Corporation (Amtrak) to provide intercity rail passenger service in the US.

As outsourcing becomes entrenched as a means to deliver IT solutions, horror stories from vendor projects are becoming commonplace. The landscape is littered with multimillion dollar failures in which years of investment leave buyers with partially functioning systems or with the necessity of having multimillion dollar annuities to keep systems operating.