Stories by Thomas Wailgum

Rob Reeg took over as president of MasterCard's Global Technology and Operations in May 2008, the de facto chief of IT at the US$4 billion credit-card and electronic payment provider.

I'm always amazed that people-even IT people-don't know enough about what's really going on with SAP or seem to really care about it. This is, after all, a $16 billion company whose software pumps the lifeblood of most large enterprises and, if SAP execs have their way, small and midsize companies in the near future.

Not many people-including business analysts themselves-are able to agree upon a standard job description, typical skill sets, proper training methods or a well-defined career path for the business analyst position.

That would be Forrester Research's Ray Wang and his analyst firm.

While a business analyst's responsibilities may vary by company and project, every IT employee and businessperson knows a good or bad BA when he sees one. Here's what the good ones do very well

If survey results are an accurate predictor of future calamity, then IT will soon find itself in big data-management trouble. In this case, the cause for alarm is a "mushrooming explosion of data" that is barreling down on enterprises and will be a "global and unstoppable force poised to overwhelm the complacent or unprepared."

The hits just keep on coming for Microsoft. Literally.

The results from the Business Software Alliance's fifth-annual study on global software piracy revealed some statistics that would put a smile on any software company executive's face: Of the 108 countries that are covered in the recently released report, the use of pirated software dropped in 67 countries. In just eight countries did the piracy rate increase.

Everyone knows who the business analysts are in their organization, but not everyone knows what they actually do and what they are responsible for during software implementation projects

Microsoft spent three months officially wooing Yahoo and ended up with nothing but a big, fat rejection for all its overtures, financial enticements and grand plans. In fact, one news account of the saga termed the negotiation process between Yahoo and Microsoft, when there actually were talks between the two, as "bizarre."

A new executive survey shows that innovation is a top business strategy, but execution on the CEO's innovation vision is faltering. And that's an opportunity for IT veterans to show leadership

Most every IT department employee, from CIO to database administrator to project manager, can probably recall a software implementation that took too long, cost too much money and never worked as the software salesman had promised because, they believe, they were sold bad software.

Oracle's Larry Ellison had a memorable year ($US61 million in total compensation). And while Apple's stock rose 99 percent in value, CEO Steve Jobs took home just $1

Analyst estimates say recurring maintenance fees can account for nearly 50 per cent of most application vendors' total revenues.

In a span of three short years, between 2000 and 2002, Nationwide Insurance got a new CEO, CIO and CFO. Jerry Jurgensen, elected by Nationwide's board in 2000 to replace the retiring CEO, was hired for his financial acumen and his ability to transform a business's culture