Business Process Improvement

Software works the way it was designed because of a group of downtrodden, undervalued and unsung heroes. Often dismissively described as testers, these champions of precision can be more accurately termed Quality Assurance. They set the bar high and work hard to ensure that the ... (more)

Cloud computing is changing the rules of the game for many industries. Every day we hear compelling stories about how banks use cloud-based solutions to help customers pay bills online, health care institutions tap cloud networks to collaborate on medical care, and colleges lever... (more)

Need to get that contract executed today, but you are sitting in the airport heading to a conference? The popularity of Apple's iPad and iPhone mobile devices are liberating employees and users from their desks, and with SmartSign Web allows them to sign anywhere, anytime. The ... (more)

A few months ago, I wrote an article about the relationships between business intelligence platform vendors and their distribution networks, and where these relationships are headed. The key message in that article was that Value-Added Resellers (VARs) must understand that self-... (more)

Hubspan on Thursday announced record growth across multiple areas of its business in the first half of 2010, including channel and direct sales, new customer acquisition, network connections and transactional volume. Hubspan attributes this growth to multiple factors, including i... (more)

I recently watched an episode of the classic BBC series ‘Yes, Minister’. In this episode, the minister asked his assistant, Bernard, to inquire about a new hospital where there are supposedly no patients and a ridiculous amount of administrative staff. Bernard conducts some researc... (more)

Everyone has heard the business maxim: you cannot manage what you cannot measure. No one seems to be given original credit for this quote, but chances are there are many frustrated Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) that have used it many times tr... (more)

My partner and I consult with a variety of firms on the topic of cloud adoption. It is surprising how few really understand the strategic and ROI benefits of its application. Total Cost of Ownership is an important number to use when evaluating IT and in particular when comparin... (more)

In speaking with Service Providers, the conversation around cloud often moves away from the technical challenges of delivering a large-scale multi-tenant on-demand offering, and into business considerations such as the readiness of customers to consume cloud services and the prio... (more)

Many trumpet increased availability as a reason to move to the cloud but what happens when your cloud provider is no longer available? Some companies are faced with this very question this week as storage provider, EMC  announced its plan to shut down its Atmos Online cloud stor... (more)

The third driver to the current revolution in business and institutions is shifting demography and not just age, but of culture. Global migration is the least understood and least governed area of globalization. The labor pool and customer base is being shifted in ways that have ... (more)

Globalism is here but its impact has not truly been realized yet. Many companies just are not aware of the opportunity that is available to them in resourcing large portions of their costs to outsourced inexpensive freelancers. I do it and you should consider doing it to. Jeff B... (more)

Today we launched the commercial version of our CloudSwitch Enterprise software at Structure 2010 in San Francisco. We’re ready for business and making our innovative software generally available. It’s an exciting moment for us, but it also reflects the evolution of the cloud ind... (more)

Manticore Technology and Bulldog Solutions have released a new white paper that addresses some misconceptions that B2B marketers may have about marketing automation. As they point out, it's terrific when an application is intuitive and easy to use, but marketing automation must b... (more)

Why is a 90% failure rate ok? is a post from: Sharon Drew Morgen The sales model builds in a 90% failure rate and we expect that! We build it right into the entire system: We hire 10X more sales people to get the results we seek, we expect and get 50% longer sales cycles than we c... (more)

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) After the Enron debacle, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) assumed a leadership role in the rush toward an international set of accounting standards (IFRS). The long and proud independent standard s... (more)

No, I didn’t drop dead and I didn’t win the lottery and just abandon writing a blog. I got lazy for a week, had the flu the next week, had too much work for a couple of weeks and then had a revelation. It’s hard to take time out and write a blog post amidst all that. But now the... (more)

Innovation is occurring at 1997 levels again. Fueled by a new type of consumer, global manufacturers are busy retooling their websites and infrastructure to meet what they believe will be a  huge post recessionary demand. Enterprises around the globe, many that have been on a te... (more)

Contributed by Richard Medcalf, Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) Global Innovations Practice Buying flowers for your loved one is a great thing to do: it creates goodwill and strengthens the relationship and makes the house look and smell nice. Why would you not wa... (more)

There are data quality objectives for everyone. Google indicates that the term "data quality" is used in 135,000 global searches every month. It's not Taylor Swift with 55 million or Microsoft with 101 million.But it represents a fairly decent amount of interest for a rather mundan... (more)