Stories by Thomas Wailgum

The App Store effect on BI applications and IT

Of the many consequential effects of the "App Store" phenomenon, there is one staring down IT departments today: Not only does your average consumer now expect application selection, purchase and delivery to be pretty darn seamless, so too does your smartphone-toting knowledge worker and line-of-business manager.

Written by Thomas Wailgum02 Nov. 10 05:27

5 signs there's probably no Wi-Fi on your next flight

In CIO.com's article In-Flight Wi-Fi Turbulence: Travelers Reluctant to Pay, research from In-Stat showed that airlines are investing heavily in Wi-Fi systems-estimated at nearly half a billion dollars by 2013-while passengers now expect the service to be as free as the pack of nuts and half can of Diet Coke.

Written by Thomas Wailgum27 Oct. 10 03:30

The trouble with supply-chain best practices

Best Practices: It's an often overused term that can apply to literally any decision-making process: parenting quandaries, personal finance questions, buying a house, getting a job, or selecting a puppy breed.

Written by Thomas Wailgum23 Oct. 10 02:39

7 essential CIO leadership skills that get results

In the new book The CIO Edge: Seven Leadership Skills You Need to Drive Results, the trio of authors argue that CIOs' leadership and people skills are the biggest determinate of their success -- or failure.

Written by Thomas Wailgum20 Oct. 10 05:59

In-flight Wi-Fi turbulence: Travellers reluctant to pay

In 2008, the number of commercial aircraft that offered in-flight Wi-Fi service totaled just 25, according to market researcher In-Stat. By the end of 2010, however, In-Stat predicts that number should reach 2,000 planes.

Written by Thomas Wailgum19 Oct. 10 04:55

ERP rollouts: Why SMBs say no

At what point in a fledgling company's existence does purchasing an ERP system make financial, operational and technological sense?

Written by Thomas Wailgum13 Oct. 10 06:15

CMOs and CIOs: Can this relationship be saved?

A new report from the CMO Council and Accenture on the strategic relations between CIOs and CMOs offers a grim outlook: "Marketing and IT executives do not believe they are highly effective partners, as they struggle to achieve common goals in the race to adopt and keep pace with rapidly evolving digital marketing capabilities," notes the report.

Written by Thomas Wailgum05 Oct. 10 03:21

ERP Sticker Shock: Maintenance, Upgrades, Customizations

"ERP financials" usually refers to the software package that businesses use to manage their general ledger, invoices, purchase orders and the like: Nothing that's terribly exciting, yet those applications are crucial to running any going concern.

Written by Thomas Wailgum24 Sept. 10 04:57

HP's botched OpenWorld keynotes: What went wrong

Twitter can be as socially brutal as a middle school playground: Half-baked opinions are delivered by some people with questionable authority; reputations may be altered forever with a single sentence; and gossip serves as a valuable form of currency.

Written by Thomas Wailgum22 Sept. 10 03:35

Why IT Costs Must Come Out of the Black Box--Now

For decades, the inner workings of IT departments everywhere have been referred to as a Black Box, since non-tech executives typically had little insight into or appreciation for IT's dark arts.

Written by Thomas Wailgum01 Sept. 10 05:01

The New New CIO Role: Big Changes Ahead

CIOs know all about change management--from jettisoning legacy apps, to prodding line of business VPs to share virtualized resources.

Written by Thomas Wailgum21 Aug. 10 01:42

7 Sensible Steps to Improve Software Quality

Software bugs are called "bugs" for a reason: These pests have been around for a long time, they always turn up in code at the most inopportune times, and there's no proven way to eradicate their existence.

Written by Thomas Wailgum18 Aug. 10 05:03

RFID tags arrive on store floor as retailers go after ROI

For the retailing industry, the adoption of radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology this decade has been one long, strange journey: Periods of irrational exuberance followed by times of great frustration and confusion; expensive pilot projects riddled with technical, standards-based and cost complexities; and a widespread belief among those retailers or CPG manufacturers that were forced into the RFID universe that it is a technology solution in search of a problem.

Written by Thomas Wailgum29 July 10 05:11
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