Next Generation Technologies

Wireless Mobile Future Determined by LTE

2009-07-26T10:51:00.000-07:00

As wireless mobile networks continue to grow and become more robust, the path to LTE remains certain with operators deploying the technology the first half of this next decade, a new Visant Strategies report finds.

"LTE for many operators, if not almost all operators, is the 4G end goal for upgrading wireless networks," said report author Andy Fuertes of Visant Strategies. "In the most established markets carriers are systematically deploying upgrades to HSPA or CDMA2000 and awaiting the commercial arrival of LTE, which will begin to be strongly deployed within three to five years.

"Despite announced deployment roll backs of LTE due to recent economy woes there really is no fragmentation when it comes to 4G," Fuertes added. "All operators, except for the comparatively few that will migrate to mobile WiMAX, will use LTE to create an OFDM-based 4G wireless network, creating unprecedented economies of scale for LTE handsets and infrastructure."

According to the findings in "Long Term Evolution 2009: The World Role of LTE in Mobile Wireless Networks through 2015," LTE macro base stations will account for roughly 10% of total deployed macro base stations by year-end 2015, with the bulk of the LTE shipments occurring between 2012 and 2015. Also, over 60 million LTE femtocells will be shipped in 2015, with the Asia-Pacific market accounting for a good percentage of these shipments

"LTE really is the Hollywood ending to real 4G," said Larry Swasey of Visant Strategies. "While there will be a continued use of GSM and EDGE Evolution in lower-tier mobile markets and WCDMA and CDMA EV-DO throughout the world, when it comes to real 4G, LTE will eventually account for over 90% of global subscribers."

Source: www.cellular-news.com

Femtocells support mobile phones in developing nations

2009-04-29T21:17:00.000-07:00

Subscriptions to “old generation” 2G GSM-based mobile phone networks are growing significantly in emerging mobile markets such as India and Africa.

As a result, a couple of UK-based companies have seen an opportunity for a wireless basestation platform supporting the latest cost-effective femtocell architecture which retains compatibility with existing GSM basestations

The issue is that many new generation basestations do not offer 2G GSM capabilities, focusing as they do on the broadband-enabled mobile technologies like 3G and Wimax.

“This is widening the so called digital divide, and creates a barrier to adoption by the vast majority of the existing GSM user base,” said Cambridge Consultants Limited (CCL).

The company has produced a GSM/GPRS/EDGE/E-EDGE physical layer (PHY) reference design called Centaur implemented on a chipset designed by Bath-based picoChip.

“Femtocell development to date has focused on 3G and 4G technologies, but this product dramatically extends that, enabling low-cost basestations and femtocells for the high-volume GSM market,” said Nigel Toon, president and CEO at picoChip.

CCL demonstrated the Centaur reference design at the CTIA Wireless 2009 event in Las Vegas earlier this month.

The aim is to offer designers next-generation basestations and femtocells that incorporate 2G and 2.75G capability. This will allow them to develop low-cost basestations for developing markets such as Africa and India.

According to the Global Mobile Suppliers Association, much of the recent growth in GSM subscriptions is in the developing world.

By the end of 2008, there were 365 million GSM subscriptions in Africa, 100 million of whom had joined that year.

In 2008, India saw a 47.5% growth in GSM subscriptions, rising by an average of 6.83 million subscriptions each month, from 170 million to more than 250 million.

“GSM will still be in operation for many years, if not decades, to come, delivering the services required by billions of subscribers,” said Tim Fowler, commercial director at Cambridge Consultants’ wireless division.

“It is critical that the deployment of mobile infrastructure includes GSM capability. One of the challenges for the developing world in particular is the cost of infrastructure.”

The reference design addresses the cost issue by including a complete framework model and code implemented on the picoArray from picoChip.

"The technology can be used for GSM-only femtocells, for example for low-power GSM licensees,” said Toon. “It can also be used for dual-mode WCDMA/GSM femtocells, or even as a low-cost macrocell for economical wide area coverage in rural areas or developing countries.”

PicoChip has a range of femtocell chips developed with a series of partners. At one end is the PC8219 baseband chipset for eight-user HSPA femtocells designed to run on its PC202-10 processor chip. At the other end is the PC302 aimed at more cost-sensitive residential applications.

“Small cells are a crucial part of networks in the future, and we have shown that our approach can be extended to both 2G and 4G,” said Toon.

Source: electronicsweekly.com

magicJack getting femtocell version, other upgrades

2009-04-23T21:12:00.000-07:00

The magicJack, a VoIP telephony device first introduced in 2007, is about to get a number of upgrades, according to a Tuesday Laptopmag report. The timeliest of these, number porting, is expected to arrive within the next 60 days, according to magicJack inventor Dan Borislow. The most requested feature from customers, it will allow users to transfer existing numbers to current and future devices.

Next up, the new and existing devices will get Linux compatibility sometime in the third quarter of 2009, and sometime between then and the first quarter of 2010, a new magicJack model will use femtocell technology that will allow users to port GSM cellphone calls through the device. This will not only improve call quality or give them a signal indoors, but also save minutes on their plans. The technology will use a portion of the cellular phone spectrum. Borislow says the device will be slightly bigger than the current magicJack and only slightly more expensive. To alleviate worries during emergency calls, it will have a revamped 911 system that uses triangulation to plot a current location.

Finally, a downloadable application for mobile phones and usable with the magicJack service is rumored, though no specifics about it is known.

The low-cost device is compatible with Windows PCs and Macs, and is bundled with one year of service and is priced at $40.

Source: www.electronista.com

Migrating Heavy Data Users to Femtocells

2009-04-16T21:26:00.000-07:00

Signals Research Group has completed a whitepaper on the business case for femtocells as part of its ongoing femtocell business modeling initiative with the trade group, the Femto Forum. The study found, across a wide variety of scenarios considering different regions of the world, the business case for femtocells is strong---often doubling the customer lifetime value---and does not depend on any one critical factor or assumption in order to generate a favorable outcome. Further to this, the research demonstrated that femtocells can dramatically reduce the growing financial costs made by heavy mobile broadband data users on the mobile network.

Signals Research Group found that changing the perceived key assumptions associated with femtocells does not threaten the viability of the business case. For example, increasing the wholesale cost of the femtocell by 50% (from $200 to $300) only reduces the basic value proposition for femtocells by a modest 16.3%. The study also found that the business case is not contingent upon a reduction in churn even though it is a likely outcome of a femtocell deployment and has already been proven in other similar FMC product deployments.

At a time when there is a great deal of interest surrounding managing the costs associated with the growing uptake of unlimited mobile broadband data packages, the research found there to be considerable savings associated with offloading traffic via the femtocell - in particular for heavy data users. The study found that the cost savings associated with offloading as low as 1.4 GB of HSPA data or 1.3 GB of EV-DO Rev A data per month via the femtocell from a coverage-constrained macro cellular network would justify an operator offering a subscriber a free femtocell. For a small but rapidly growing segment of heavy wireless data users an operator can easily halve the cost of delivering wireless data at home or in the office by offloading traffic from the macro cellular network onto a femtocell.

These latest findings follow those presented by Signals Research Group at Mobile World Congress where it was announced that even with conservative assumptions, the customer lifetime value of a femtocell user increases by as much as 125%, and even more in certain user scenarios. Additionally it was found that a European operator wanting to provide a reliable 2.5 Mbps in-building service for the most coverage challenged households, could do so for 320 per household if it used a femtocell strategy, whereas providing similar in-home service with the means of the macro cellular network alone would cost 900.

What shines through when you undertake a serious assessment of the femtocell business case is that there is no single factor required for healthy financial returns. Cost savings, incremental revenue, and retention benefits enable femtocells to be deployed successfully with a wide variety of assumptions, said J. Randolph Luening, Vice President of Wireless Economics at SRG. Instead, the business case is highly dependent on the attributes of the targeted customer segment and the specific customer proposition put forth by the operator."

To date we've seen femtocell deployments mostly focus on providing improved indoor coverage. However, the rapid take-up in mobile broadband services means we're going to see this start to change rapidly. If the mobile industry is serious about decisively moving beyond simple voice and text to providing a mobile broadband service to all its subscribers then femtocells must be a key consideration for managing the associated costs, said Simon Saunders, Chairman of the Femto Forum. Signals Research Group's findings illustrate the flexibility of the femtocell business case. The picture that emerges is one of a low risk investment, requiring a modest financial outlay to get started and costs which can be easily paid back based on conservative assumptions about the services offered.

Although the research found there are certain regional and country-specific influences on the femtocell business case, they are outweighed by other assumptions (e.g., ARPU, usage, etc), which transcend all regions of the world. However, operators in different regions of the world are likely to vary their go-to-market strategies based on local conditions. Operators in large geographic regions, such as North America, may leverage femtocells to provide improved coverage. Conversely, operators in regions such as Western Europe where calling plans are more expensive may place a greater emphasis on free calls. The research indicated there is nothing that precludes any of the strategies from being successful in any of the regions although some will prove to be more popular than others.

The whitepaper builds upon preliminary results detailed at this year's Mobile World Congress by presenting results for fourteen different scenarios across three 3 regions of the world Western Europe, the United States, and Developed Asia. The scenarios studied took into consideration regional specific attributes, such as the radio access technology (UMTS/HSPA or 1X/EV-DO Rev A), typical key performance indicators such as voice + data usage and average revenue per user, and realistic femtocell strategies that would be appropriate for the region being analysed.

The whitepaper is available on the Femto Forum website and the full business case modeling tool is available to full members of Femto Forum.

Source: cellular-news

Femtocells to Dominate Market for Indoor Cell Coverage

2009-04-15T19:18:00.000-07:00

While femtocells were virtually nonexistent in 2006, and deployed by one operator in 2007, they will make up 61% of small cellular base station revenue by 2013, reports In-Stat.

As mobile operators migrate from larger base stations to smaller access points, the number of units deployed will explode dramatically, says Allen Nogee, In-Stat analyst. In-Stat expects the smaller and cheaper cells to be more immune to the recession, compared with more expensive macro and micro base station shipments.

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

Femtocells, picocells, and microcells are expected to surpass 15 million units by 2013.
Worldwide annual femtocell semiconductor revenue will approach $400 million by 2013.
Sprint was the first to market with a femtocell-based service in 2007, while others entered the market in 2008.
In mid-2009, Airwalk introduced a new enterprise femtocell. These products have the capacity of a traditional picocell and the ease-of-use of a femtocell.

Source: cellular-news

Are you ready for your own cell?

2009-02-01T13:30:00.000-08:00

Ubiquisys, the 3G femtocell company, and picoChip, the industry's leading supplier of femtocell silicon, today announced that they are working together to integrate the picoChip PC302 processor into the Ubiquisys ZoneGate femtocell. picoChip will continue to be one of Ubiquisys' strategic suppliers, extending a five-year working relationship.

The picoChip PC302 is a highly integrated baseband processor that offers a combination of high performance and low cost. It is designed to support the advanced features of the ZoneGate femtocell, such as cognitive radio techniques, grid technology and application services.

Current ZoneGate femtocells use picoChip's PC202 processor, and this experience has informed the development of the PC302.

"We have worked closely with picoChip on both requirements and timelines," said Will Franks, founder and CTO, Ubiquisys. "picoChip's roadmap is aligned with our rapid development of next generation ZoneGate femtocells."

"Ubiquisys and picoChip are in the vanguard of the femtocell market; we are delighted to continue as a strategic supplier for the next generation of Ubiquisys femtocells," said Pete Claydon, co-founder and COO, picoChip. "We have a close relationship, spanning nearly five years of co-operation and joint development. This will be the third generation of femtocells we have worked on together, with ever-increasing performance and reduced cost."

SOURCE: picoChip

Conference

2008-11-02T18:32:00.000-08:00

Yes, I am writing this week about the conference I joined last week. I will not say the name of the conference but it is about 4G wireless technologies which is known as next generation wireless technologies.

I drove 3 hours from my house to the exhibition center, I left my home around 5:30am !!! and I was there around 8:30am. Traffic was awesome!!! I had fun on the road!!! The conference started around 9:00am. The first talk was about the definition
of 4G. The speaker is from Yankee group, and he was presenting some of the key issues about the 4G and some statistics about the wireless communications. Lots of predictions, assumptions, comments, questions .....

I was able to join the conference for one day, because the participation was very expensive. For the day I joined, I tried to get most out of it, I was filtering each information I received from presenters, and at the end of each session I was able to get couple of key words from the presentations. One of them is that in order to migrate from 3G to 4G, we need more time than expected. There are lots of issues that should be agreed upon, for instance standardization issues. Lots of wireless operators want to invest money on 4G technologies, but they can not even define what 4G is. Every company and every people has different definition, approach and totally different mindset about enabling 4G. Everyone talks about convergence of the systems, but converge to what???? Converge to divergence???

Unless the definitions, and technologies are not stated clearly, we really can not get benefit of 4G in the most efficient way. It is a great set of technologies if we agree on the purpose of it! We can not see how deep the water is unless we reach the bottom! The thing that makes me very happy about 4G, it seems it is a very deep water! Have you ever thought about 5G,6G,..., 100 G, 1000 G, 10^6 G?:) We should jump into the space. World is so small for 1000Gs!

Volkan Sevindik

Collaboration

2008-10-26T14:32:00.000-07:00

I dont know if you read Harvard Business Review, but I am subscriper of it.

In November 2008 issue of Harvard Business Review, there is an interview with John Chambers who is CEO of Cisco. I read all the interview. First of all, I like his approach to problems he encountered in Cisco, in general telecommunication business.

The whole interview is about business strategy. And he was stressing the importance of team work and colloboration. I have a couple of comments on this. Team work is essential in today's business world, but it is not enough. First of all, team members should not think that the degree of their contribution to the work decreases as time passes.

Human beings is more prone to finding excuses than finding answers. Therefore, working as a team makes it harder for individuals to motivate themselves. They will tend to outsource their self motivation capability to someone else in the team, manager or team-mate. So, although the team is working perfectly in technical sense, the team will be less productive in long term if it consists of people who have
communication problems with each other, or some problems other than communication issues.

Collaborative work environment is more than essential for success in today business world. On the other hand, bringing employees together does not mean collaboration for tomorrow's business world.

Success will come with multidimensional collaboration in future and today. Employees should collaborate emotionally, technically, professionally with each other. They should be competitive against competitors but not their team-mates. Of course, this brings us a very important and fundamental concept: MISSION and OBJECTIVE. Everyone should understand and state clearly the objective of business. Every employee should answer this question: What does their company stand for?

As long as team members keep their business objective in their mind, true collaboration will be achieved with little cost and with high return!

Volkan Sevindik

INNOVATION!

2008-10-19T15:23:00.001-07:00

Innovation! Today's magic word for making investment in technology, to get new customers, to persuade managers, etc.

I have been reading lots of articles from Harvard Business Review, Business Week, E-week, Forbes, CIO Magazine, CFO Magazine, Marketing News Week, International Journal of Marketing, Marketing Journal, lots of blogs, etc.

I read most of them weekly. Nearly all of the articles I read defines Innovation as a business process. Every time I read them, I forced myself to accept this definition but I could not persuade myself.

For me, Innovation is a product by itself. It is the definition of a product!. It is a product approach to everything in the company. If you create a marketing report, you should write it in a better way each time you write it. If you are a business analylist, you define business processes much better, everytime you redefine it, present it, report it, use it, analyze it.

Whatever you are doing now is a product, and next realese of this product has to be much better, much more understanable, much more readible, much more demandable and much more innovable!!

Innovability is to create an innovation potential in a product (This is my own definition). Evertime you innovate (you create your product), you should be make the product much more innovable next time. Otherwise, innovation (your product) will be at the end of the S-curve very soon!(product life cycle curve).

When you listen music, you feel the harmony of different frequencies of sound in the music. If there was only one frequency in the music, you would not listen it (because there is nothing to listen). Music would become so boring, without interaction of different frequencies with each other.

Now, think of each different sound frequency in the sound as innovation. If one of the frequencies is distorted, whole music would sound very bad!You immediately realize that this is not the music, not the harmony of the notes, not the perceft marriage of frequencies that you have been familiar before!

This is exaclty what I am trying to say about innovation. Innovation is a final product of a company which contains lots of innovations in itself.

Innovation is the harmony of the psychologies of making things better each time you do it, product it, sound it, imagine it!

Volkan Sevindik

Corporations need technology in order to survive, right??

2008-10-12T15:29:00.001-07:00

Corporations need technology in order to survive, right?? NO!!! It is not right at all.

Corporations need CASH to survive in marketplace, and they need strong business objectives and mission for producing this cash. Technology can partly help companies to reach its business objectives.

Technology is not the key factor that makes firms more effective . Technology is only valuable if it meets the needs of the current business objectives.

As the world revolves, the business objectives will change, the ways that businesses produce cash will change, the way businesses use technology will change.

Before investing in the technology, companies should not think their short-term plans, they should think their long-term plans instead. That does not mean that they should invest large amount of money in buying the fastest computer systems, or buying the most expensive ERP software. That means the opposite. They should buy the decent technology which is good enough for meeting their business goals and which is highly scalable for future enhancements (long-term business objectives).

By this way, companies will have an opportunity to test the technology without investing large amount of money in it (they can use this money for investing other strategic areas of business). They will have a chance to see if the technology they invested is helping them to reach their business goals which will help them to reach their long-term business goals.

They can test if current employees are having any trouble of learning it, or investing large amount their time in order to learn it. Based on these information, they should continue investing in the same technology or they can select other options to continue.

Never forget, technology is like leaves of a tree (company). Sometimes, the tree (company) will have it and sometimes the tree (company) will not have it! depending on the climate (marketplace)!

Volkan Sevindik

Brand Identity: The Importance of Color

2008-10-12T12:03:00.001-07:00

Color is an important consideration in your brand identity system. Colors have a significant impact on people’s emotional state. They also have been shown to impact people’s ability to concentrate and learn. They have a wide variety of specific mental associations. In fact, the effects are physiological, psychological, and sociological.

For instance:

•Non-primary colors are more calming than primary colors.
•Blue is the most calming of the primary colors, followed closely by a lighter red.
•Test takers score higher and weight lifters lift more in blue rooms.
•Blue text increases reading retention.
•Yellow evokes cheerfulness. Houses with yellow trim or flower gardens sell faster.
•Reds and oranges encourage diners to eat quickly and leave. Red also makes food more appealing and influences people to eat more. (It is no coincidence that fast food restaurants almost always use these colors.)
•Pink enhances appetites and has been shown to calm prison inmates.
•Blue and black suppress appetites.
•Children prefer primary colors. (Notice that children’s toys and books often use these colors.)
•Forest green and burgundy appeals to the wealthiest 3 percent of Americans and often raises the perceived price of an item.
•Orange is often used to make an expensive item seem less expensive.
•Red clothing can convey power.
•Red trim is used in bars and casinos because it can cause people to lose track of time.
•White is typically associated with cool, clean and fresh.
•Red is often associated with Christmas and orange with Halloween and Thanksgiving.
•Red and black are often associated with sexy and seductive and are favored by porn sites.
•Black clothes make people look thinner.
•Black is also associated with elegance and sophistication. It also seems mysterious.
•Black is the favorite color of Goths.

Colors also have a functional impact on readability, eye-strain, ability to attract attention, ability to be seen at night, etc. This is important in choosing colors for signing, website pages, prints ads, and other marketing media.

•The most visible color is yellow.
•The most legible of all color combinations are black on yellow and green on white followed by red on white.
•It is no surprise that most traffic signs use these color combinations.
•Black on white is the easiest to read, on paper, and on computer screens.
•Hard colors (red, orange and yellow) are more visible and tend to make objects look larger and closer. They are easier to focus upon. They create excitement and cause people to over-estimate time.
•Soft colors (violet, blue and green) are less visible and tend to make objects look smaller and further away. They aren’t as easy to focus upon. They have a calming effect, increase concentration, and cause people to under-estimate time.

Usually, it is advantageous for a brand to consistently “own” certain colors, which provide an additional recognition cue. The George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester, New York has taken a different, but equally effective approach. They intended to communicate that they are a fun and vibrant organization that features much more than artistic black and white photography. So, the “e” icon in their logo appears in a rainbow of colors. Each business card features the logo with a different color. The name itself always only appears in black and white.

Obviously, colors are an important part of any brand identity system. Testing the affect of a new brand identity system’s colors is well advised. It is important to consider that color associations will vary by individual, and especially culture, due to the cultural context and previous experiences with the colors. All of the impacts of colors are equally true of music, scents and sounds. For instance, studies have identified that music has an impact on supermarket sales, mental concentration, achievement on standardized tests, factory productivity, clerical performance and staff turnover, among other things.

Primary source: “Color Psychology: Meanings and Effects of Colors”

Information-Technology Product Roundup

2008-10-12T11:49:00.000-07:00

The Wireless Laser Desktop 7000 includes an ergonomic keyboard and rechargeable, high-definition laser mouse with a charging station. The keyboard features hot keys for one-touch access to most-used Web sites, files and folders. The mouse features four-way scrolling and five customizable buttons.

Wireless Keyboard/Mouse

Designed to complement Windows Vista OS, the Wireless Laser Desktop 7000 includes an ergonomic keyboard and rechargeable, high-definition laser mouse with a charging station. The keyboard features hot keys for one-touch access to most-used Web sites, files and folders. The mouse features four-way scrolling and five customizable buttons. Users can work up to 30 feet away from the transceiver, even if it is out of sight.-Microsoft

E-Discovery Archive Service

With the managed service ActiveVault 4.0, enterprises can consolidate, archive and manage inactive data from virtually any media source into an accessible format in order to apply and enforce retention policies and legal holds to ensure data is properly retained and managed. Self-service early case-assessment tools are available through a Web browser interface.-RenewData

Peripheral Device Control

Delivering access control at plug-and-play ports and drives, DeviceLock 6.3 prevents employees from using corporate or personal mobile computing resources to extract information beyond the scope of security policy guidelines.

Featuring centralized management integrated with Microsoft Active Directory, DeviceLock enables administrators to control, monitor, shadow-copy, log and analyze end-user access to USB and FireWire devices, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth adapters, CD and DVD drives, serial and parallel ports, local and network printers, PDAs, smart phones and other plug-and-play devices. Local sync filtering allows IT administrators to set permissions for different objects transferring to or from PDAs running Palm OS.-DeviceLock

BlackBerry Monitoring

Zenprise 3.3 monitors the overall health of the entire BlackBerry infrastructure and automatically troubleshoots BlackBerry end-user challenges with detailed detection of user-specific issues such as low battery life, weak signal strength or low available device memory. Enterprises can proactively identify issues outside their infrastructure that impact users, such as wireless carrier outages or users traveling in and out of network coverage areas.

The software collects and analyzes data across the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, Exchange and Active Directory infrastructure, and provides a holistic view of the entire BlackBerry environment. Zenprise also checks wireless carrier availability, Active Directory health, RIM SRP availability, WAN/LAN network performance and overall Exchange server health.-Zenprise

Global telecom revenue to hit $2 trillion in '08

2008-10-12T11:39:00.000-07:00

Global telecom revenue will reach $2 trillion by the end of 2008, an increase of 7.6% over telecom revenue in 2007, research firm Gartner projects.

One of the biggest drivers for telecom growth in 2008 has been the expansion of the Asian telecom market, which Gartner says will surpass the North American market in total revenues for the first time in 2008. In total, the Asian telecom revenues will grow by 8% to $513 billion this year, just barely surpassing North American telecom revenues, which are projected to grow by 4.5% and to total $511.6 billion. Looking forward, Gartner expects the Middle East and Africa to be the fastest-growing regions for telecom revenues over the next four years, with a compound annual growth rate of 8.6% projected between 2007 and 2012.

As far as trends within the telecom industry, Gartner projects that mobile services will continue to eclipse fixed-line services and that a strong increase in mobile data services and fixed-mobileconvergence services will increase customers’ need to invest in new telecom equipment. Specifically, Gartner says that the ratio of mobile connections to fixed connections will exceed 4-to-1 by 2012 and that revenue from mobile telecom services will top $1 trillion by 2010. And because mobile data use is expected to expand rapidly over the next five years, Gartner projects that the telecom equipment segment will see a compound annual growth rate of 8.7% between now and 2012, as customers invest in new technology that will support their mobile bandwidth and fixed-mobile convergence requirements.

“Our breakdown of services clearly shows that fixed voice is in decline, but mobile voice, though currently growing, will also stagnate as a proportion of the market by 2012,” says Gartner analyst Will Hahn. “The baton has clearly been passed to data services in the legacy sector.”

While telecom revenue is projected to see solid growth this year, Gartner also projected last month that spending on both telecom services and IT in general would slow worldwide in 2009. Telecom spending, which accounts for more than half of all IT spending worldwide, will grow by a projected 6% and will total nearly $2.1trillion in 2009. Spending on software (8% projected growth in 2009) and IT services (7% projected growth in 2009) will be the fastest-growing services next year, while computing hardware spending is projected to slow to just 4% growth next year, down from 10% spending growth on hardware worldwide in 2007.

Solving problems that matter

2008-10-12T11:31:00.001-07:00

Chris Brogan’s post (Solve Some Real World Problems) this morning really caught my attention. It’s a call to action for startups and individuals alike to rethink how they might use their businesses or positions to help solve real problems in the world. As Solvers at InnoCentive I know you are motivated by the chance to really impact the world, not just the chance to earn money. InnoCentive’s philanthropic endeavors, and the amazing potential this business has to enable individuals to contribute to solving the world’s most important Challenges was a large part of my motivation when I took this job as the marketing manager and social media evangelist. This year you have helped bringing solar powered light to Africa through SunightSolar, helped innovate ways to clean up remaining oil in Alaska for OSRI, and are currently sending in your research results on how to help detect a biomarker for ALS/Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

I had an interesting conversation with Michael Anuzis yesterday about ways to continue to improve the depth of opportunity that InnoCentive offers to contributers who want to make a difference in the world. He is one of many individuals who have blogged, called, emailed or dm’d me recently with ideas for growing our business. It’s pretty inspiring to see how strongly people believe in the concept of InnoCentive. He suggested that we find a way to allow individuals to contribute small amounts of money towards innovation projects they see on InnoCentive.com. Much like the contribution model of our friends at Global Giving. I suggested that perhaps we could even allow individuals to post an idea for a Challenge that they feel strongly about, and then use the website as a way to gather financial support around it. Once the support has hit a certain level, they would be allowed to post the Challenge and ask for solutions. These are just initial ideas, and I know you have more - please share them with us! As we grow the business, especially the philanthropic side of the business, we want to hear your thoughts.

Qualcomm looks to the skies for future chipset technologies

2008-10-12T11:27:00.001-07:00

Qualcomm is delving back into the satellite business, announcing today that it will produce a new line of hybrid cellular-satellite chipsets designed to work over the orbital networks of two newly rejuvenated satellite operators ICO and Mobile Satellite Ventures.

The vendor has agreed to develop a satellite protocol and include it in firmware of future multi-mode baseband chips. Those chips in turn can be embedded in satellite phones as well as consumer appliances and vehicle dash boards, enabling two-way communications to both terrestrial and satellite networks. Qualcomm is targeting the L-band and S-band frequencies initially, over which both MSV and ICO operate as well as other newly revived satellite ventures such as UMTS/satellite hybrid operator TerreStar.

MSV, a subsidiary of SkyTerra, is launching a more traditional voice and broadband network and is planning to wholesale data and voice connectivity to other operators, whether cellular carriers looking to off universal coverage or wireline operators wanting to extend their services wirelessly.

ICO, the most recent brainchild of telecom visionary Craig McCaw, is taking a more media-centric approach to its S-band service. Using a variation of Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld (DVB-H) called DVB-Satellite Handheld (or DVB-SH), ICO is launching a broadcast digital TV network with a particular focus on the automotive industry. While the service could potentially compete directly with Qualcomm’s Forward Link Only (FLO) multicast TV technology and its MediaFLO service, Qualcomm will supply ICO with the crucial dual-mode chipsets that will allow ICO customers to connect back to the network. ICO plans to supplement the TV programming with OnStar-like emergency calling services as well as vehicle navigation and other location-based services, necessitating a two-way communications link.

Qualcomm will not be including DVB-SH received chips into its silicon; ICO will have to source those chips from another vendor. But ICO vice president of public relations Christopher Doherty said a deal with a supplier the size of Qualcomm is critical to its business. Qualcomm produces the majority of the world’s CDMA chips and a good deal of its UMTS chips, making it the prime source of silicon for cellular communications. By embedding the satellite capabilities into some of its chipset lines, ICO device makers can cut down on the number of components in their hybrid devices. Nor will they have to seek alternate vendors for satellite components if they already do business will Qualcomm. “They give us the scale we would otherwise be unable to achieve,” Doherty said.

This certainly isn’t Qualcomm’s first venture into the satellite communications business. It produced dual-mode satellite-CDMA phones for Globalstar in 1999, when the satellite communications business was on the rise and Qualcomm still had a handset division. But bankruptcy after bankruptcy killed off those mobile satellite services businesses in the late 90s, leading the industry to writing off mobile satellite services (MSS) as deal except in a few vertical markets. In the last two years though, MSS has enjoyed a resurgence, fueled by new investment and healthier post-bankruptcy balance sheets. The biggest catalyst for satellite’s revival has been the FCC’s recent grants ofAncillary Terrestrial Component (ATC) allowances to newly renamed satellite operators like MSV, ICO and TerreStar. ATC allows those operators to use part of their satellite spectrum for terrestrial networks as a way to augment their services in high-density areas where line-of-site and capacity become problems—an approach taken by satellite media companies like XM.

TerreStar, for instance, is using Nokia Siemens Networks high-speed packet access (HSPA) as the terrestrial component to its satellite broadband service. While those ATC allowances have been limited to the S-band and L-band operators so far, more companies may jump on the bandwagon if the business model proves viable. Satellite TV giant EchoStar has been testing DVB-SH technology with Alcatel-Lucent, which it could eventually pair with a terrestrial network using the 700 MHz spectrum it won at auction.

Shoring up Supply Chain Security

2008-10-12T11:24:00.001-07:00

Supply chain security breaches can damage brands, break down partnerships and, ultimately, hurt the bottom line. When creating a security framework, consider the following key areas to minimize supply chain risk.

When it comes to securing the supply chain, businesses should not only protect themselves but also their suppliers, customers and the general public. Failure to do so could result in potentially ruinous consequences, Logistics Managementsays, such as:

Widespread disruption to delivery capabilities, which can lead to loss of revenue and service failure in the eyes of customers;
Reduced brand equity — especially if customers see the security breakdown as a result of neglect;
Investor discontent due to revenue loss;
Increase in regulatory scrutiny;
Legal liability; and
Loss of supply chain partners.

Suffice it to say that no business would want to suffer the above — especially given the currently volatile economy. A recent study by Aberdeen Group shows that few companies can afford to ignore supply chain risks. Almost 99 percent of the 138 companies surveyed suffered a supply chain disruption and 58 percent suffered a financial loss, Modern Materials Handling reports.

To help companies tackle the challenges for securing the supply chain, Logistics Management identified several competencies from which to create a security framework. They are:

Process Strategy
To implement a security strategy, everyone must be on board and employees must know their managers are committed to the same goal. According to Aberdeen, more than a third of the companies interviewed had an enterprise risk department, but only 3 percent said that department was actually implementing and managing supply chain risk management initiatives.

It's no help to have a chief security officer if that person doesn't actually do anything. "Top management must be visible in their commitment and dedication to implementing security initiatives," Logistics Management says.

Process Management and Process Technology
Process management is making sure that all the raw materials coming in and all the finished goods coming out of your plant are secure. It also involves ensuring that the manufacturing process is safe.

For example, a U.S. Chemical Safety Board study in November 2006 found that 281 industrial dust-related fires and explosions killed 119 people and caused more than 718 injuries in the U.S. between 1980 to 2005, the Wall Street Journalreports. "In many accidents, employers and employees were unaware that a hazard even existed," the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) notes.

Something as seemingly unimportant as dust could cause a business to lose thousands of dollars because no one made sure the dust levels were safe for the processes in the plant.

Process technology, which is directly tied to process management, involves the means by which companies track the products coming in and out. With counterfeiting now 5 percent to 7 percent of the world trade, according to IndustryWeek, manufacturers need to keep a close eye on the raw materials coming in and make sure it is their products — not counterfeited ones — that reach the store shelves.

The U.S. economy loses as much as $250 billion annually to counterfeiting, IndustryWeek reports. It suggests partnering with governmental and non-governmental agencies to protect supplies and goods.

Individual product protection can be done by using holographic labels and other authentication devices throughout the distribution supply chain. U.S. congress is currently considering making the use of security markings on some pharmaceutical products mandatory after Malaysia's success with a similar program, Packaging Digest reports.

Since the program was introduced, there was a significant increase in the identification and confiscation of illegal items entering the distribution chain.

Infrastructure Management and Communication Management
Infrastructure management is basically protecting the physical facility. Ready Business provides a guideline on how to keep your building safe, recommending manufacturers:

Make building site maps available and mark emergency routes;
Consider installing closed circuit TV, access control, security guards or other security systems;
Secure all the ways people enter and leave the building and what they have access to;
Identify essential equipment to keep the business open; and
Comply with all local, state and federal codes and other safety regulations.

The second part of this is making sure your employees know where to turn when they have security issues or if they witnessed a security breach. "Not collaborating within the company can also put companies at extra risk," Aberdeen says. "When decision makers are not alerted on time to possible risks, a more damaging disruption is likely."

Management Technology
Management technology is using technology to detect and share potential threats and security information internally and externally. "These information systems are also critical in obtaining and sharing information with suppliers, customers, vendors and government agencies," Logistics Management says.

Information technology/systems are usually the first to detect breaches or product contamination. Businesses can choose to have multiple systems for inspecting and checking the manufacturing process or have a single network defense that combines hardware, software and networking technologies, CIO.com says.

U.S. companies spent $3.85 billion on network security appliances in 2006 with expenditure expected to double by 2011, market researcher IDC says (via CIO.com).

Metrics
To ensure the security strategy is working, every business must measure its success constantly. The Center for Internet Security (CIS) has developed benchmarks to identify and define key information security metrics, as noted by Information Security.

CIS expects to expand the benchmarks list to 20 items in the next year, but for now considers these key areas a high priority:

Average time between security incidents;
Mean recovery time;
Percent of systems configured to standard;
Percent of systems with antivirus; and
Percent of applications that had risk and vulnerability assessment.

Relationship Management
Most businesses cannot function without their supply chain partners, which is why it is critical that all partners involved are on the same page when it comes to security. "Collaboration with external entities (customers/suppliers and service providers) is necessary to ensure that security procedures are communicated and followed," Logistics Management stresses.

Those with global partners need to be even better at managing these relationships as they are "often unable to monitor these partners and protect against theft, contamination or insertion of counterfeit cargo," Logistics Management adds.

Public Interface Management
Public interface management is forging relationships with the government and the public about security. "Working together, government and industry can better understand and address the nation's most pressing security needs and create meaningful initiatives to address those needs," Homeland Security Today says.

Logistics Management suggests actively participating in the development of government standards or security initiatives as one way of fostering these relationships.

Resources

Supply Chain Security: A Framework for Protecting Your Supply Chain
by David Closs, Cheri Speier, Judith Whipple and M. Douglass Voss
Logistics Management, Sept. 1, 2008

Supply Chain Disruptions Plague Most Companies
by Allison Manning
Modern Materials Handling, Aug. 27, 2008

Stop Counterfeiters from Jeopardizing Your Brand and Bottom Line
by Brian W. Lewis, Parter, Nicole Nocera, Partner and E. Tim Walker
IndustryWeek, Sept. 19, 2008

Dust Cloud Settles Over Industries
by Paulo Prada, Betsy McKay and Stephanie Chen
The Wall Street Journal, May 2, 2008

How Holograms Can Stop Counterfeiting
Packaging Digest, Aug. 1, 2008

Secure Facilities, Buildings & Plants
Ready Business

Unified Threat Management, Demystified
by Bill Snyder
CIO.com, March 24, 2008

CIS Takes the Measure of Information Security
by Neil Roiter
Information Security, Sept. 9, 2008

A Culture of Security: Making It Automatic
by Steve King
Homeland Security Today, Sept. 1, 2008

E-Tickets Only Starting June 1

2008-02-28T11:36:00.002-08:00

By Kendra Marr

Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 23, 2008; Page D01

Mark your calendars: In 100 days, airlines around the world plan to stop issuing paper tickets.

The International Air Transport Association, a trade group representing 240 airlines, announced yesterday that starting June 1, its members will use only electronic tickets. The airlines, which include the big U.S. carriers, account for 94 percent of international air traffic.

Exceptions will be made for small airlines that can't afford new computer systems, but they'll have to pay for the privilege.

"It's about simplifying the business," said Steve Lott, the association's spokesman. The change will make it easier and cheaper for airlines to issue tickets, he said.

Once, travelers purchased airline tickets through travel agents, and paper tickets were mailed to their homes. If you lost your paper ticket or if it was stolen, you could lose your flight.

Today, more people use the Internet to book flights, and the reservations are stored in the airlines' computers. Travelers can print e-tickets at home or at airports. If you lose an e-ticket, you can print another.

"It's the convenience -- to be able to book a ticket and get my boarding pass without waiting in line or talking to a person," said Josko Silobrcic of Boston, who was using the US Airways check-in kiosk at Reagan National Airport yesterday afternoon.

The IATA is the clearinghouse for paper tickets, distributing ticket stock that airlines and travel agents order from specialized printers. On June 1, it will stop that service.

"It is a hard-and-fast deadline," Lott said.

E-tickets aren't as prevalent in other countries as they are in the United States, where they are used in 97 percent of air travel. In Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union, that figure is only 54 percent because of legislation that banned e-tickets until last year. Some airlines, which are typically small and fly to remote regions, will now have to choose whether to invest in new computer systems or begin buying and processing paper tickets themselves. Some of the smallest airlines may do so because it will be cheaper, Lott said.

For most major airlines, e-tickets will cut costs. While a paper ticket costs $10 to create and process, an e-ticket costs $1. The switch will save the industry $3 billion a year, according to the IATA.

If passengers do not have access to the Internet or printers, they can continue to purchase tickets by phone or through travel agents. Instead of receiving paper tickets in advance, customers will be asked to pick them up at airline counters or kiosks in airports.

Airlines still need to work out some kinks. Computer reservation systems need to be reprogrammed for infants who don't take seats but need boarding passes.

Airlines also will adjust their systems to allow passengers on two-leg trips to transfer from one airline to another and check their bags through. In the past, paper tickets were required because different reservation systems didn't work together.

The switch to all-electronic ticketing is part of a program started in June 2004, when high oil prices and financial losses prompted airlines to reconsider their business models. Plans include ticketing kiosks where passengers can check in for flights on five different airlines.

Laila Mikhail, an agent with Up and Away Travel in Fairfax, said she rarely issues paper tickets. "We already moved to the e-ticket a long time ago," she said. "That's nothing new."

Airlines added fees for paper tickets as an incentive to go electronic. In 2002, Northwest Airlines increased its paper-ticket surcharge from $10 to $25.

As for the people who prefer paper tickets: Too bad, Mikhail said.

"They like to have something in their hand, but welcome to the 21st century," she said. "They'll get used to it and they'll like it."

Cynthia Stranis of St. Louis said she has used e-tickets since American Airlines installed check-in kiosks at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.

"It's quick; you get to see the aircraft layout," Stranis said yesterday at Reagan National. "It's one less thing to think about when you're packing."

Goldman Sachs Predicts Downturn in U.S. IT Spending

2008-02-28T11:36:00.001-08:00

While Goldman Sachs presents a gloomy outlook, IT vendors say a business downturn in the United States won’t necessarily impact their businesses.

LAS VEGAS — Goldman Sachs is putting a decidedly bleak spin on its U.S. IT spending outlook for the remainder of 2008.

At the company’s Technology Investment Symposium here in Las Vegas, analysts said tech spending in the U.S. market will likely decrease by two percentage points, from 7 percent in 2007 to 5 percent this year.

Software company executives who presented at the meeting, on the other hand, said the downtrodden U.S. economy won’t harm their business.

Executives from as far afield as Microsoft and HP to Tata and Accenture—as well as smaller companies—said that while they’ve seen some small impacts from the U.S. economy with respect to IT spending, there is little to fear in the bigger picture.

“The positive side of the recession is it kind of shakes out the weaker companies. It’s all good for the company if you have a good balance sheet,” said Global Payments Chairman and CEO Paul Garcia. “There’s nothing better for good companies than a good downturn.”

Goldman Sachs analysts said the reason a deceleration in IT spending seems inevitable boils down to a number of factors: slower gross domestic product growth; constrained end-market spending; and cautious CIO sentiments.

“We’re definitely a little gloomy on IT spending,” said Sarah Friar, deputy business unit leader of the Technology Research Group at Goldman Sachs and the lead analyst for the software sector.

“Really a lot of that is due to a drop in GDP that is so closely associated with IT. On the flip side, what makes us not completely throw ourselves out the window in IT is two things: global spending and on top of that, we’re also seeing quite strong mergers and acquisitions tailwinds …, which you can’t ignore in software.”

GDP is generally defined as the total market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time—usually a calendar year.

In its Technology State of the Union report released at the Tech Symposium, Goldman said that while a decline in tech spending looks inevitable, it’s unlikely to swing to the negative. The report said that of the two downturns that provide a recent historical perspective for forecasting current impacts—the dot-com meltdown in 2000-2001 and the recession in 1990-1991—only the latter example can potentially serve as a proxy for what 2008 might hold.

“Because IT spending has been outpacing GDP only very modestly over the past few years, and we have experienced minimal overbuilding in that same time period—indeed, post-bubble IT spenders have been generally quite cost-conscious—it would be surprising for spending to swing to growth significantly lower than that of GDP, which our economists forecast will grow nominally at about 3.5 percent for 2008,” reads the Goldman report. “Goldman Sachs Research expects real GDP to shrink from 2.2 percent in 2007 to 0.9 in 2008.

HP CEO Mark Hurd gave a nod to Goldman’s gloomy forecast but said the impacts of downward spending in the U.S. economy will not be felt too hard at HP. Mainly, according to Hurd, that’s because HP is already on its own cost-cutting path—and it’s a global company.

“We will cut every penny of not valuable costs regardless of the macro environment,” said Hurd in his keynote address Feb. 26. “I don’t care about the macro environment as it relates to getting our company as efficient as it can be. It’s not the way we think. We’re going after everything [to cut costs] regardless.

Hurd said he has seen some reticence among U.S. consumers in its most recent fiscal quarter, but not enough to impact the company’s global business. “It wasn’t like we saw a huge change,” said Hurd. “It was enough, though, that we noticed it.”

Sander Van’t Noordende, senior executive at Accenture, likewise said his company is prospering in a down economy. Van’t Noordende’s segment focuses on clients in the energy, gas, utilities, chemicals, natural resources and paper and pulp industries. He said a number of factors are driving IT spending in those industries—the No. 1 driver being globalization. “Companies like Shell and BP, they’re organizing by vertical,” he said. “They’re implementing an operating model that is the same wherever they are operating.”

Secondly, according to Van’t Noordende, globalization is not just occurring in U.S. and European companies, it’s happening in Latin America, Australia, Russia and the Middle East as well. At the same time, Accenture’s clients are undergoing changes based on their vertical industry. “Our clients either produce energy or are large consumers in energy,” he said. “That’s the bigger scheme of things in resources these days.”

Van’t Noordende said that many of his clients are looking for ways to optimize the billions of dollars they are spending on new investments, including (but in no way limited to) building out their SAP investments. “They’re looking for help managing those investments,” he said.

“We program manage and provide IT infrastructure to manage those projects. It’s not like building out a new plant; it’s almost like building a new organization. If you have a joint business with an oil company in Uzbekistan, it’s a new organization. Then once the place is there you want to optimize. They’re looking for help there.”

Tata Consulting Services is also profiting in a down economy—and perhaps because of it, according to S. Sambamurthy, client partner in Banking Financial Services at Tata. One of the key drivers for business for Tata is a consolidation wave in the financial services industry where Tata’s clients want to reduce the number of vendors in their IT environment.

For example there were some large financial institution customers last year whose IT spending decreased, but their business with Tata increased. “They had fragmented suppliers and were looking to consolidate [spending],” said Sambamurthy. “Second, their option was previously offshore. With that customer we expanded their development footprint in South America significantly. When you’re certifying new locations … it’s a much longer cycle.”

IT services fall short of greatness, CIOs say

2008-02-28T11:35:00.000-08:00

Technology leaders want to improve how IT supports the business, but without being involved in strategic decisions at the highest level, many say IT can't realize its goal of adding value to the bottom line.

Nearly 80% of 125 CIOs and senior IT directors polled said a lack of senior representation at the board level had a direct impact on their ability to deliver great -- rather than just good -- IT services. Good IT services for the purposes of this survey were defined as "merely day-to-day maintenance and firefighting." Great IT services were defined as "a series of strategic business/operational processes that add value to the bottom line."

Download the latest Network World Executive Guide - Special Report: Consolidated Recovery

The "Great vs. Good IT" research was conducted in January 2008 by Omniboss, a division of Vanson Bourne, and commissioned by Touchpaper, an international provider of IT services and other management products. The survey found that more than 40% of CIOs and senior IT directors did not believe that their department delivered great IT services. Another 42% of those polled reported that they are not involved in the decision-making processes around major organizational changes until the implementation stage or later. In addition, 44% of technology leaders confirmed they don’t have an IT representative at the board level.

Others cited technology among the issues holding them back from maturing service delivery from good to great. For instance, 55% attributed their lack of great service delivery within IT to not having systems and processes in place to make IT changes effectively. Nearly half (49%) reported they lacked solutions to automate the handling of day-to-day IT service and support issues.

"Without a doubt, the time has come when 'good' simply isn't good enough in terms of IT service delivery. 'Good' may keep users happy, but it leaves the CIO reduced to somebody who spends their whole day just putting out fires," said Graham Ridgway, CEO of Touchpaper, in a company statement.

Nokia unveils concept phone Morph

2008-02-26T11:13:00.001-08:00

NEW YORK and ESPOO, Finland, February 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
Morph, a joint nanotechnology concept, developed by Nokia Research Center
(NRC) (NYSE: NOK) and the University of Cambridge (UK) - was launched today
alongside the "Design and the Elastic Mind" exhibition, on view from
February 24 to May 12, 2008, at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New
York. Morph features in both the exhibition catalog and on MoMA's official
website.

Morph is a concept that demonstrates how future mobile devices might be
stretchable and flexible, allowing the user to transform their mobile
device into radically different shapes. It demonstrates the ultimate
functionality that nanotechnology might be capable of delivering: flexible
materials, transparent electronics and self-cleaning surfaces. Dr. Bob
Iannucci, Chief Technology Officer, Nokia, commented: "Nokia Research
Center is looking at ways to reinvent the form and function of mobile
devices; the Morph concept shows what might be possible."

Dr. Tapani Ryhanen, Head of the NRC Cambridge UK laboratory, Nokia,
commented: "We hope that this combination of art and science will showcase
the potential of nanoscience to a wider audience. The research we are
carrying out is fundamental to this as we seek a safe and controlled way to
develop and use new materials."

Professor Mark Welland, Head of the Department of Engineering's
Nanoscience Group at the University of Cambridge and University Director of
Nokia-Cambridge collaboration added: "Developing the Morph concept with
Nokia has provided us with a focus that is both artistically inspirational
but, more importantly, sets the technology agenda for our joint nanoscience
research that will stimulate our future work together."

The partnership between Nokia and the University of Cambridge was
announced in March, 2007 - an agreement to work together on an extensive
and long term programme of joint research projects. NRC has established a
research facility at the University's West Cambridge site and collaborates
with several departments - initially the Nanoscience Center and Electrical
Division of the Engineering Department - on projects that, to begin with,
are centered on nanotechnology.

Elements of Morph might be available to integrate into handheld devices
within 7 years, though initially only at the high-end. However,
nanotechnology may one day lead to low cost manufacturing solutions, and
offers the possibility of integrating complex functionality at a low price.

For further information, please visit the websites
http://www.moma.org/elasticmind and http://www.nokia.com/A4126514

Photos are available on http://www.nokia.com/press -> Photos ->
Corporate - Research and Development.

About Nokia Research Center

Nokia Research Center (NRC) looks beyond Nokia's existing business and
product development to challenge current strategies and to stimulate
renewal in the company's direction. Working closely with all Nokia business
units, NRC's research explores new frontiers in digital services,
physical-digital connections, human interaction, data and content
technologies, device architecture, and access and connectivity. NRC
promotes open innovation by working on research projects in collaboration
with universities and research institutes around the world. For more
information, see our website: http://research.nokia.com

About Nokia

Nokia is the world leader in mobility, driving the transformation and
growth of the converging Internet and communications industries. Nokia
makes a wide range of mobile devices and provides people with experiences
in music, navigation, video, television, imaging, games and business. Nokia
also provides equipment, solutions and services for communications
networks.

About the University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge will celebrate its 800th anniversary in
2009. It is one of the finest universities in the world, a superb British
university with global reach. It is renowned for its 31 colleges and world
class teaching departments, ground breaking research and breathtaking
architecture. It attracts the very best and brightest students, regardless
of background, and offers one of the UK's most generous bursary schemes.

Cambridge was recently ranked number two in the world and the number
one University outside the US, in two separate surveys, the Shanghai Jiao
Tong University 2006 survey, and in the Times Higher Education magazine's
world rankings.

Cambridge people have been awarded more Nobel Prizes than those from
any other UK university with more than 80 laureates.

The Nanoscience Centre is an 1800msquared research facility completed
in January 2003 and located at the north east corner of the University's
West Cambridge Site. The Centre provides open access to over 300
researchers from a variety of University Departments to the nanofabrication
and characterisation facilities housed in a combination of Clean Rooms and
low noise laboratories. Office space is primarily home to the Department of
Engineering's Nanoscience Group, technical and administrative staff and
members of other research groups who require long term access to
facilities. http://www.nanoscience.cam.ac.uk

Motorola Names Paul J. Liska Chief Financial Officer

2008-02-26T11:12:00.002-08:00

SCHAUMBURG, Ill., Feb. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT - News) today announced Paul J. Liska has been named executive vice president and chief financial officer (CFO) of Motorola, effective March 1, 2008. Mr. Liska will report directly to Greg Brown, president and chief executive officer. Tom Meredith, the company's acting CFO will continue as a non-management board member and will work closely with Mr. Liska to ensure a smooth transition.

Brown stated, "Since appointing Tom Meredith as acting CFO, we have undertaken a thorough search process to identify candidates with financial, operational and strategic experience. We are fortunate that Paul has such a broad set of general management and CFO experiences. Paul will be a very valuable addition to our team and he is well-suited to drive forward the important work already underway to enhance our financial performance."

Brown added, "On behalf of the board and the management team, I want to thank Tom for his significant contributions over the last year. He has played an important role in improving Motorola's cash conversion cycle and cost structure. The changes implemented under Tom's leadership have helped position Motorola for renewed success. I am pleased that Tom will help through this key transition period."

Prior to joining Motorola, Mr. Liska served as an industrial partner for various private equity firms including MidOcean Partners, CVC Capital Holdings and Ripplewood Holdings LLC. From 2004 to 2006, Mr. Liska served as executive chairman of US Freightways until its purchase by Yellow Roadway Corporation and served in various capacities with Weekly Reader Companies, including executive chairman. From 2001 to 2004, Mr. Liska held several positions with Sears, Roebuck and Co., including president of credit and financial products and executive vice president and chief financial officer. Prior to joining Sears, Mr. Liska was executive vice president and chief financial officer of The St. Paul Companies from 1997 to 2001.

About Motorola

Motorola is known around the world for innovation in communications. The company develops technologies, products and services that make mobile experiences possible. Our portfolio includes communications infrastructure, enterprise mobility solutions, digital set-tops, cable modems, mobile devices and Bluetooth accessories. Motorola is committed to delivering next generation communication solutions to people, businesses and governments. A Fortune 100 company with global presence and impact, Motorola had sales of US $36.6 billion in 2007. For more information about our company, our people and our innovations, please visit http://www.motorola.com.

Source: Motorola, Inc.

Microsoft looking for ways to converge Windows Mobile, Zune

2008-02-26T11:12:00.001-08:00

Microsoft appears to be looking for new ways to tie Windows Mobile phones and Zune media players together, although a Zune phone remains unlikely.

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Over the weekend, Microsoft developer "Mel" asked an open question on the Windows Mobile blog: "What are some ways the Zune player and a Windows Mobile device can work better together?"

Since then, more than 50 commenters have suggested ways that Microsoft might converge the two devices. The most common idea is to essentially replace the Windows Media Player on Windows Mobile devices with Zune software.

"I proposed that WMP should be fazed out in favor of a combined WMP/Zune player which will synch with both Windows Media AND Zune, instead of having to have two separate apps with two different libraries for each device," wrote one commenter using the name Colin Walker.

Peter Henning, another commenter, also suggested making just one media player that works on both devices. "Currently you are just making our lives much more difficult with this parallel development and incompatibilities," he wrote.

A single media player would solve some of the problems that other users complained about in syncing music between a Windows Mobile phone and a Zune. Another commenter going by the name Charlie Quidnunc noted that he has to create new playlists once he transfers music from Zune to his phone because Windows Media Player can't read Zune playlists.

Another complained that he can't transfer music that he downloaded under his Zune subscription plan to his Windows Mobile device because of DRM restrictions.

Offering Zune software on Windows Mobile phones could be one simple way for Microsoft to converge the two, said Michael Gartenberg, a research director with Jupiter Research. "There are any number of ways that Microsoft could go about Zune integration. We might see a Zune application for Windows Mobile devices."

But what we most likely won't see is a Zune phone, despite many Zune phone rumors. "On one hand, the Zune is a closed proprietary system not built around a partner ecosystem," Gartenberg noted. "On the other hand, the phone business is built on a partner ecosystem." Microsoft develops the Windows Mobile software, but hardware makers build the phones. By contrast, Microsoft develops the hardware and software for the Zune.

If Microsoft started making a Zune phone, it would compete with its phone hardware partners. "It's the same reason we don't see a Microsoft-branded PC," he said.

On the Windows Mobile blog, "Mel" emphasized that wasn't looking for more suggestions of a Zune phone. "I'm not referring to an imaginary 'Zune phone,' and I'm certainly not hinting or speculating about a converged device," he wrote.

Building a better music playing experience into Windows Mobile will be important for Microsoft, which is increasingly trying to make Windows Mobile phones appeal to consumers and not just business users. "For the most part, Windows Mobile has ignored consumers," Gartenberg said.

Microsoft recently announced plans to buy Danger, the developer of mobile phone software that runs the youth-oriented Sidekick device from T-Mobile. Microsoft has also made some executive changes in the Windows Mobile group designed to better focus on consumers.

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Mobile Music Adoption Revenues Set to Reach $17.5bn by 2012

2008-02-26T11:10:00.001-08:00

HAMPSHIRE, UK--(MARKET WIRE)--Feb 26, 2008 -- The total value of the global mobile music market is expected to rise to more than $17.5bn by 2012, driven by rental music services and full-track downloads, according to a new report by Juniper Research.

According to report author Dr Windsor Holden, "I think it's fair to say that 2007 marked the tipping point as far as mobile music adoption was concerned. Far more subscribers began downloading and subscribing to music content in developed markets, and it must be said that that the publicity surrounding the iPhone launch undoubtedly contributed to consumer awareness of mobile music services per se."

However, the Juniper report also argues that current prices for ringtones are unsustainable and that the market for such services may already have peaked in a number of developed markets, arguing that competitive pricing allied to a steady migration to ad-funded and/or self-generated ringtones will lead to a gradual decline in global ringtone revenues.

"With some operators now offering full-track downloads at a comparable price to iTunes, there is little justification for a ringtone retail price point that is in many cases two or even three times this level," said Holden. "Furthermore, those aggregators whose portfolios are largely dependent upon the polyphonic ringtone will be unable to survive in the medium term unless they both rethink their pricing strategies and substantially diversify their product portfolios."

Other findings from the Juniper report include:

-- The China/Far East region will remain the largest regional marketplace for mobile music services, accounting for around 43% of sales per annum over the next five years-- Ringtones, which accounted for 62% of the mobile music market in 2007, will account for just 38% by 2012-- The report argues that more operators should emulate the Vodafone model and introduce similar subscription-based music rental services

Juniper Research assesses the current and future status of mobile adult services based on interviews, case studies and analysis from representatives of some of the leading organisations in the growing mobile adult services industry.

White papers and further details of the study 'Mobile Music Services: Ringtones, Ringback Tones and Original Recordings (4th edition)' can be freely downloaded from http://www.juniperresearch.com. Alternatively please contact John Levett at john.levett@juniperresearch.com, telephone +44(0)1256 830002.

Juniper Research provides research and analytical services to the global hi-tech communications sector, providing consultancy, analyst reports and industry commentary.

Contact:

Contact: John Levett john.levett@juniperresearch.com +44(0)1256 830002

Source: Juniper Research Limited

Unicast Partners with AdMob to Power Rich Media Mobile Web Sites

2008-02-26T11:09:00.000-08:00

NEW YORK, Feb. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Unicast, a division of Enliven Marketing Technologies Corporation (Nasdaq: ENLV), today announced that AdMob, the world's largest mobile advertising marketplace, has partnered with Unicast to power mobile web pages through the Unicast Rich Media Mobile platform for its advertising customers.

Unicast and AdMob have collaborated on more than 10 rich media mobile ad campaigns to date, creating successful executions for major brands including Land Rover, SCJohnson, Adidas and more. These mobile marketing campaigns include rich multi-page mobile web sites featuring data capture, video streaming, interactive store locators and wallpaper and ring tone download capabilities. Unicast's business intelligence reporting tracks user interactions on the mobile sites, in order to provide marketers with deeper insight into user behavior and brand engagement.

An example of one of the Adidas mobile web sites can be viewed here: http://mobile.unicast.com/adidas/index2.php

Unicast's Rich Media Mobile technology is a hosted delivery and tracking solution for optimized rich mobile web page content. This solution helps advertisers to provide a richer experience for audiences that are both media and mobile savvy. The Unicast platform provides the tools for advertisers and agencies to quickly and efficiently create, deliver, and measure the effectiveness of rich media mobile ad campaigns. These campaigns can be tracked with real-time reporting, and the metrics can be tied to the reporting interface for rich media online and in-game ad performance metrics. This provides a true cross-platform solution for the efficient management of mobile marketing campaigns.

One of the key features of Unicast's Rich Media Mobile technology is the ability to dynamically detect the type of media a user's mobile phone can play, and then offer the advertiser's content in the appropriate format. This provides seamless integration for marketers and an enhanced experience for end users. Currently, Unicast Rich Media Mobile is compatible with many devices across the major US wireless carriers, including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

"We have extended our technology into the mobile marketing arena at a key inflection point, just as mobile marketing is emerging as a vital element of a fully integrated digital media strategy," said Jason McKay, President of Unicast. "We continue to invest in the development of our digital marketing technologies to deliver best in class rich media products to address the critical growth areas of the marketplace. We are excited to partner with AdMob, as they are truly an industry leader and a pioneer in the emerging market for the delivery of mobile solutions for advertisers and agencies."

"AdMob's clients leverage mobile marketing to reach their customers in a highly personal and interactive way," said Tony Nethercutt, AdMob Vice President of sales. "We have partnered with Unicast in response to the significant demand for rich mobile websites to support mobile advertising campaigns, and believe that Unicast's robust platform will make it easier for advertisers to deliver this rich experience."

ABOUT ENLIVEN MARKETING TECHNOLOGIES

Enliven Marketing Technologies Corporation (formerly Viewpoint Corporation) is a leading Internet Marketing Technology Company, offering Internet marketing and online advertising solutions through a powerful combination of proprietary visualization technology, and a Premium Rich Media advertising platform for the creation, delivery and reporting of PRM. Enliven's family of brands include Unicast, the Internet Marketing and Advertising Technology Group, and Springbox, the Creative Digital Marketing Solutions Group. The company's technology and online advertising solutions are leveraged by some of the world's most esteemed brands, including AOL, GE, Sony, and Toyota. More information can be found at www.enliven.com. The company has approximately 140 employees with offices in New York, NY, Los Angeles, CA, Austin, TX and London, England.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains "forward-looking" statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and similar expressions that reflect Enliven's current expectations about its future performance. These statements and expressions are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause Enliven's actual performance to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these statements and expressions. Such risks, uncertainties and factors include those described in Enliven's filings and reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Copyright (C) 2008 Enliven Marketing Technologies Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Enliven, Viewpoint, Unicast, and Springbox are trademarks or registered trademarks of Enliven Marketing Technologies Corporation.

Contact Press: Ann Charles Enliven Marketing Technologies Corporation 212-201-0821 acharles@enliven.com Jay Kolbe Weber Shandwick 212-445-8215 jkolbe@webershandwick.com SOURCE Enliven Marketing Technologies Corporation

Silicon Valley Losing Middle-Wage Jobs

2008-02-21T11:39:00.000-08:00

The California region is losing its middle-class work force at a significant rate, according to an annual report that tracks the economic, social and environmental health of the region that is the nation’s technology heartland.

The 2008 Index of Silicon Valley — which this year was sponsored by Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, a public-private partnership, and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, a nonprofit — found that from 2002 to 2006, middle-wage jobs fell to 46 percent of the work force, from 52 percent.

At the same time, while the percentage of higher-end jobs rose slightly — to 27 percent from 26 — lower-wage jobs expanded to 27 percent, from 22 percent of the work force. In all, more than 50,000 middle-income jobs have disappeared over the four years measured by the study.

The vanishing jobs — defined as those paying $30,000 to $80,000 — represent workers who had been in the lower part of the white-collar pyramid, including secretaries, clerks and customer support representatives. The picture was blurred, however, by growth in some blue-collar, middle-income professions like electricians and plumbers, and several white-collar areas like computer support technicians.

The consequence of the shift may undercut some of the basic mechanisms of the Valley economy, according to the authors of the report, by making upward mobility more difficult.

“If you lose the middle, it’s harder to support the top,” said Doug Henton, an economist at Collaborative Economics, a research and consulting firm in Mountain View, Calif., that helps prepare the annual report.

The short-range outlook for the region appears to be more positive, with the overall pace of job gains outpacing the nation’s.

For example, for the first time since 2001, when the dot-com sector was imploding, median household income rose. Silicon Valley added 28,000 jobs, for an increase of 1.7 percent in 2007. Over all, the region is far more wealthy than the rest of the country, with per capita income 57 percent higher than the national average.

Despite fears of losses in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, the region continues to see a healthy in-flow of talent from outside the United States. More than 17,000 foreign citizens moved to the region last year, reversing a decline since the number peaked in 2001 at above 30,000.

Forty-eight percent of the households of the region speak a language other than English in the home.

Reflecting the changing boundaries of what is defined as Silicon Valley, this year the authors of the report added all of San Mateo County’s work force. It was the first change to the definition of the region by the study, which was first published in 1995. By moving the northern border of the Valley past the San Francisco airport, the area now reflects more of the biotechnology orientation of companies like Genentech. The region does not include San Francisco.

Venture capital investment continued to climb at a healthy clip during 2007, rising by 11 percent. Sixty-two percent of the so-called clean tech venture investment for California was invested in Silicon Valley during the year.

The Valley continues to stand apart because it is a center of technical innovation, said Russell Hancock, president of Joint Venture. But he also said it was unlikely that the region would be unaffected by a recession or the subprime mortgage crisis.

Still, the researchers behind the study said the Valley was distinguished by the flexibility of its economy and its ability to adapt to changing conditions.

“What we’re talking about is a Valley that continues to reinvent itself, and it’s not in any one sector,” Mr. Henton said.

One notable category in which the region lags behind its international competitors is home broadband networks. Only 51 percent of the region has access to broadband Internet — defined as more than 200 kilobits per second. In contrast, 65 percent of the households in Japan and 94 percent in South Korea are wired to at least that speed.

Industry hoping for action on data security bill this year

2008-02-21T11:22:00.000-08:00

By Andrew Noyes CongressDaily February 19, 2008

The window for advancing a comprehensive federal data security bill is closing, but stakeholders are holding out hope that narrowly crafted proposals to improve government information security compliance and fight cybercrime might still get traction this spring.

A joint hearing of two House Oversight and Government Reform Committee panels Thursday examined one such bill, introduced last year by Information Policy Subcommittee Chairman William Lacy Clay, D-Mo., and co-sponsored by Government Management Subcommittee Chairman Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y. The legislation, which Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has also supported, would update the six-year-old Federal Information Security Management Act to establish requirements for securing personal or sensitive data.

The bill proposes a broader definition of "personally identifiable information"; strengthened reporting and auditing requirements, and calls for privacy impact assessments for agency purchases of lists containing potentially sensitive information from commercial data brokers.

Karen Evans, OMB's e-government administrator, told lawmakers in written testimony the FISMA bill could "seriously impact established agency security and privacy practices while not necessarily achieving the outcomes of improved privacy or security."

But Cyber Security Industry Alliance President Tim Bennett said Tuesday that while OMB has been "proactive in addressing shortcomings and trying to improve federal agency information security practices," its guidance has been "uneven" and too focused on compliance with memoranda and circulars. Bennett, who also testified at the hearing, said congressionally mandated enhancements could make existing OMB rules more meaningful.

Waxman is "committed to helping [the FISMA bill] move forward," an aide said. A spokesman for Oversight and Government Reform ranking member Tom Davis, R-Va., said: "It's going to be tough getting it on the schedule but we can hope for the best. We want the legislation to come before the next breach, not after."

A Senate-passed bill by Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and ranking member Arlen Specter, R-Pa., that would give federal prosecutors tools to fight identity theft and cybercrime could be introduced in the House. Staffers for House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., recently discussed the legislation with CSIA Chairman John Thompson, who is CEO of computer security firm Symantec, Bennett said. Other representatives from CSIA have been making the rounds on Capitol Hill.

"The bad guys are moving quicker and getting more sophisticated every day and we don't have time to lose," Bennett said. "These are issues that we think would be foolish to postpone until the next Congress. Let's at least have some incremental improvements."

Update: BlackBerry network goes down again

2008-02-21T11:15:00.000-08:00

When RIM's network goes down, so does service to end users

February 20, 2008 (IDG News Service) BlackBerry users in North America were complaining of service problems again this morning.

Users of the BlackBerry outage newsgroup began reporting problems at around 6 a.m. on the U.S. East Coast related to scheduled maintenance on Research In Motion Ltd.'s (RIM) network. The issue appeared to get progressively worse, initially affecting about half of users in the Americas but eventually affecting all users, according to users of the newsgroup.

RIM said it was not a system-wide outage. "RIM did perform regularly scheduled maintenance on BlackBerry Internet Service that took longer than originally expected and some BlackBerry Internet Service customers may have experienced slower delivery of e-mail earlier today," the company said in a statement.

The problem affected only users of BlackBerry Internet Service and not BlackBerry Enterprise Server customers, RIM said. BIS customers sign up for the service through their mobile operators. Enterprises often use a different setup, installing a BES to deliver corporate e-mail to BlackBerry devices.

While messages to and from both BIS and BES users pass through RIM's network operations centers, in this case, only the network components that handle BIS customers were affected.

One user posted a note that he said came from his AT&T Inc. representative. The note called it a national BlackBerry outage that could affect e-mail delivery for up to half of new BlackBerry users.

At noon on the East Coast, one user reported that AT&T said the problem was fixed but that e-mail messages might still be delayed until the backup of messages was sent out.

Some users of the newsgroup said that they were able to receive messages all morning, although they were often delayed.

RIM did not immediately comment on the issue.

Messages sent to and from BlackBerry devices pass through network operations centers that are operated by RIM. When RIM's network goes down, so does service to end users.

The company had an outage just last week that lasted for about three hours and left users unable to send or receive messages or access the Internet. That outage followed one that occurred in January, but that one was due to a problem with AT&T's network, so it affected BlackBerry users as well as iPhone and other AT&T mobile data customers.

RIM's most notorious network problem happened last year, with an outage that lasted overnight for many users in North America.

Helping the CIO conquer eDiscovery

2008-02-14T09:37:00.001-08:00

The already overburdened CIO has another big job on his plate. It's called eDiscovery, and it has been mandated by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure requiring companies to turn over all electronic data in a court case. Just how does a CIO tackle these issues? SearchCIO has just put together an Executive Guide to help CIOs navigate these waters.

For more on this timely topic:
- See this SearchCIO article

More tech stories from the FierceCIO network:
> Blackberry goes down again. Article
> Dell remains committed to AMD. Article
> Blast-proof WiFi gear from Aruba. Article

Are you ready for change?

2008-02-14T09:35:00.000-08:00

As a CIO, you have to keep up with change, so keep looking ahead and patch problems as they arise. There are always new projects and multiple demands for integration but there is a way to deal with it all, according to Dario Scagliotti, the CIO of worldwide auto manufacturer Pirelli. Automobile makers from around the world use Pirelli tires which are manufactured in 12 countries and sold in 120.

Pirelli has experienced phenomenal expansion and growth into new markets. And the job of keeping all its tires on the ground is a tough one that is aided by technology. "At the end of the day, a tire is a tire. It doesn't vary from country to country. So it's extremely crucial, as a commodity, for production to have extremely cost-effective manufacturing and logistics. Especially when you have an operational group spread out all over the world, but with a need to manage it centrally," Scagliotti told CIO.co.uk.

Scagliotti has some suggestions for IT shops with a global reach to follow. Here are just a few:

Linking inventory and production to demand reduces inventory costs by 20 percent.
Managed inventory levels increases sales by five percent.
Improved dealer and customer service heightens brand loyalty.
Real-time information improves corporate decision-making and agility.

For more:
- See this CIO.CO.uk article

IT jobs needed in recession

2008-02-14T09:34:00.000-08:00

IT professionals that get themselves on the right projects before a recession are likely to be in a better position should one occur.

IT professionals are bound to feel the effects of the credit crisis sooner or later, whether or not the U.S. economy experiences a recession.

CIOs may well be reluctant to cut jobs, but they are still going to have to work with their chief financial officers to find places that expenses can be cut. However, cutbacks don't need to be a nuisance; they can also be an opportunity for an employee to get themselves aligned with the projects that are currently their organization's top priorities.

In fact, IT professionals who get themselves on the right projects before a recession—defined as two consecutive quarters of falling gross domestic product—hits are likely to find themselves in a better position should one occur.

"The best thing you can do is find a way to get on cost-cutting projects, and be as central to helping your business survive as possible," Forrester analyst Alex Cullen told eWEEK.

For example, even in a recession, companies are still going to need to grow and keep their customers happy, Jim Lanzalotto, vice president of strategy and marketing for talent and outsourcing company Yoh Services, told eWEEK.

"Project roles related to customers and company growth are less susceptible to recession angst," he said. "We're projecting even higher IT requirements in meeting business priorities. We're seeing much more effort around IT/business projects and less around operations."

Being on top of IT metrics becomes increasingly important in quarters of slow growth.

Is your IT job safe? Click here to find out.

"[Companies] want to know where the efficiencies are and who are the most profitable customers, and where they can cut back without affecting them," said Cullen.

Meanwhile, during an economic slowdown, leveraging existing IT assets is everything to a company, as the CFO and CIO will be looking to get more from what they already have.

"If a company is looking across its IT department and asking where they're going to make good returns, the people involved in Web 2.0 projects have an opportunity to show how it can be used to do something cheaper than the company has been," said Cullen.

And for all of the talk about companies moving away from legacy systems, this is not something that will be on the mind of CIOs who are trying to reduce expenses. Instead, they'll be looking for IT professionals who can help build new functionalities into the existing systems.

"There's probably going to be an investment in terms of looking for legacy system people whose value is that they know how the systems work, but they'll be asking them so they can help transfer the knowledge for new uses," said Cullen.

Yahoo in negotiations with News Corp.?

2008-02-14T09:33:00.001-08:00

Yahoo is reportedly in negotiations with Rupert Murdoch-owned media goliath News Corp. as the beleaguered web giant seeks to avoid the threat of a takeover by Microsoft. Both The Wall Street Journal and TechCrunch report Yahoo secretly is negotiating a deal with News Corp. to combine social networking site MySpace and related Murdoch-owned digital properties in exchange for at least a 20 percent Yahoo stake that would enable the company ward off Microsoft's advances and remain independent.

In a letter outlining Yahoo's decision to reject Microsoft's unsolicited $44.6 billion bid, CEO Jerry Yang urged shareholders to remain confident in the firm and its leadership, writing "Yahoo is a faster-moving, better-organized, more nimble company than it was just a few months ago … We have redeployed our resources to drive Yahoo's key strategic priorities, taking important steps to streamline our organization and close down or scale back businesses that don't support these critical growth initiatives." On Tuesday, Yahoo began layoffs of about 1,000 employees, a move announced last month in an effort to streamline and focus its business.

For the latest on the Yahoo/Microsoft saga:
- read this AFP article

AT&T: 95% of iPhone owners surf the mobile web

2008-02-14T09:32:00.000-08:00

During his keynote appearance Thursday at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, AT&T Mobility president and CEO Ralph de la Vega championed consumer choice, beneficial partnerships and technology integration as the essential components for digital content success, stating "Customers must be able to get content when they want it and how they want it." De la Vega also called Apple's iPhone "a game-changer," noting that since AT&T exclusively launched the device in mid-2007, mobile data consumption has grown dramatically. According to de la Vega, 95 percent of iPhone owners regularly surf the web, even though 30 percent had never done so prior to iPhone ownership. In addition, 51 percent have viewed videos via YouTube, and nine out of 10 rated the device better than their previous handset.

"There isn't a device that's easier to use," de la Vega said. "[The iPhone] proves that price resistance is only as strong as the user experience is weak."

Enhanced devices and improved user experiences are driving AT&T mobile data across the board. De la Vega said that 13 percent of all AT&T customers now own a 3G device, with another 12 percent owning integrated devices--subscribers on 3G devices yield ARPU 20 percent higher than 2G users, with owners of integrated devices generating ARPU that's 120 percent higher. At the same time, AT&T's decision to tie together its various music services under a single, one-touch access point increased mobile music revenues 400 percent in 12 months.

De la Vega repeatedly stressed the importance of AT&T's partnerships with manufacturers and content providers, listing off five principles vital to all of its deals: Companies and customers must benefit, both firms' interests must align, the agreement must play to each party's strengths, the deal must reflect market realities and the value proposition must resonate with consumers. "We need to structure deals in creative ways so everyone benefits," de la Vega said.

Euro operators team to define mobile ad metrics

2008-02-13T10:18:00.002-08:00

Five of Europe's largest mobile operators announced an agreement to develop common mobile advertising metrics and measurements in conjunction with the GSM Association trade alliance's GSMA Mobile Advertising Programme. The carriers--Vodafone Group, Telefonica O2 Europe, T-Mobile International, FT-Orange Group and 3--will conduct a feasibility study to develop a consistent and audited data aggregation model in order to deliver cross-operator metrics to media and advertising partners. Priority one: Defining a range of metrics to describe the mobile audience and measure the effectiveness of mobile advertising. The study will focus initially on the U.K. market, with all five British operators working with the GSMA to develop proof of concept for cross-operator mobile media planning. "The power of the mobile as a marketing tool can only be realized if advertisers can clearly see and understand the benefits compared to traditional media," said T-Mobile UK director of marketing Phil Chapman in a prepared statement.

For more on the mobile advertising study:
-read this release

Nokia Search adds Google results

2008-02-13T10:18:00.001-08:00

Nokia announced an agreement with Google to integrate the web services giant's search engine with its Nokia Search application. Launching in select markets via the Nokia N96, Nokia N78, Nokia 6210 Navigator and Nokia 6220 classic devices, Google search will eventually be extended to all Nokia handset models, spanning over 100 global markets and more than 40 languages. The Nokia Search service promises direct access to content and local information from the handset's active screen, engaging maps, messaging and browser applications in one click.

Google search services were previously available on Nokia Internet tablets--last year, Nokia's N95 8GB became the first mobile device to fully support Google-owned user-generated video site YouTube. "Adding Google to Nokia Search provides mobile users with a fast, relevant and comprehensive search experience that will be familiar to the people who use Google to search the web from their desktop," said Google VP of engineering and products for mobile Vic Gundotra in a prepared statement. "Google search combined with the high quality applications on Nokia devices help make information available to Nokia device users wherever they are and provide an excellent overall experience."

For more on the Nokia/Google search deal:
-read this release

Will the lights go out for IT?

2008-02-11T11:10:00.003-08:00

It's probably too warm in your back office where the server and all of its components reside. That should come as no surprise. IT energy consumption in the United States is growing dramatically, according to a new report by the Technology CEO Council. And every kilowatt hour of energy used by IT replaces 10 kilowatt hours of energy that would have been used elsewhere. This doesn't mean the lights will go out tomorrow. It does mean, however, that IT, like every big energy user, must figure out a way to lower the thermostat, so to speak. That's doubly hard because most IT systems need to operate 24/7. That has become a way of life.

IT currently uses about six percent of all U.S. electricity, up from two to three percent in 2000, according to the report by John Laitner, director of economic policy analysis at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). Dell CEO Michael Dell joined others at a press conference recently on the growing importance of green technologies. He said computer users should expect to see more energy-saving devices entering the market in the near future.

"As an industry, we have begun to take up the [environmental] issue in a serious way," Dell said. "It's an issue that customers care about." In addition to the ACEEE report, the Technology CEO Council released its own report called "A Smarter Shade of Green." It lays out the group's environmental policy principles, including:

The U.S. government should invest more money in green research.
Governments across the world should reduce tariffs on green technologies.
Companies shouldn't wait for government mandates or incentives but should adopt energy-efficient strategies on their own.

For more on technology and energy conservation:
- See this Techworld article

Economic stimulus deal spurs tech

2008-02-11T11:10:00.001-08:00

President Bush is expected to sign the $168 billion economic stimulus bill this week that could save businesses tens of millions of dollars this year on the purchase of IT equipment. The legislation, intended to give a boost to the ailing economy, includes a provision that accelerates the first-year depreciation of capital equipment bought during 2008 to 50 percent of the purchase price. And that includes technology products. Another provision, aimed at small and midsize businesses, increases the amount of capital equipment purchases that can be deducted on 2008 corporate tax returns from about $125,000 to $250,000.

"It's a tremendous incentive for people to buy now-it's as if someone put a for-sale sign on every asset," said Tom Ochsenschlager, vice president of taxation at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants in New York. Ochsenschlager told ComputerWorld that tax payments are like saying,"'You've got to do it now. You've got to stimulate the economy now.'"

There are plenty of ways the stimulus package will help businesses. Bartlett Cleland, vice president at the Information Technology Association of America in Arlington, Va., said the tax breaks may prompt many smaller companies to replace aging IT equipment. "Small businesses rely on IT a lot heavier than some big companies do," he said. "Arguably, the encouragement to purchase would be greater in the small business situation."

For more on the economic stimulus plan:
- See this ComputerWorld article

CIO strategy: Use eBay

2008-02-11T11:09:00.004-08:00

Just what does a CIO do with aging equipment that is still usable but not the best available on the market? Palm Beach Community College in Florida came up with an idea about what to do with an IBM zSeries server that cost $500,000 in 2005. Last month, the school sold it on eBay for $40,000. Tony Parziale, CIO at the Florida college, had decided to move some of the school's business applications from the z890 machine to an Intel-based server that he felt could deliver the same level of processing services at a much lower cost. And that meant he no longer had any use for the $500,000 machine.

Yet he had a problem because resale brokers offered him just $15,000 for the nearly-new IBM. At the end of January, he made a deal on eBay that served his needs and was good for the buyer who wanted a slightly used IBM at a very good price. Corey Donovan, vice president of computer equipment reseller Vibrant Technologies, said it's "pretty rare" for zSeries systems to turn up on eBay, partly because of the resale restrictions IBM puts on the systems.

For more on ways to recycle your old equipment:
- See this ComputerWorld article

Protect desktop data, too

2008-02-11T11:09:00.003-08:00

You've got your systems secured, or so you think. You have the best anti-hacking software available to keep the bad guys out, that much is for sure. And yet, like many CIOs, you haven't taken the steps to protect data on desktops, laptops and other portable storage devices.

The number of incidents involving these kinds of devices is growing. Two recent examples include Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and Georgetown University. Both faced data compromises that could have been avoided. If you are thinking about saving a few dollars by shaving down the security budget, think again. If you think it's unlikely this could happen on your watch, study these recent thefts.

Horizon notified about 300,000 members of the potential compromise of their personal information following the theft of a laptop containing the data on Jan 5th. Although a security feature on the stolen laptop deleted all of the confidential information on Jan. 23rd, it's unclear whether the thief accessed the data before then. The data on the laptop was not encrypted, but it was password-protected. That sounds like a job half done.

Meanwhile, the CIO at Georgetown University faced a different headache when a computer disk was stolen from a locked room. The disk contained Social Security numbers and other identifiable data for 38,000 current and former students. Ignorance is not bliss for the CIO and other IT executives. A theft is a theft by any terms. And letting your guard down may just be showing criminals the door to get in.

For more on securing it all:
- See this ComputerWorld article

How to get a new CIO job

2008-02-11T11:09:00.001-08:00

Okay, you have been in your current job for five years, and there's no place to grow at your current company. Every time you apply for a new CIO job with bigger responsibilities and a bigger paycheck, you come in second, slightly behind the guy who gets the job.

It's frustrating, all right. But you are not alone. There are plenty of people who have experienced the same scenario. You have to make a few changes in your approach to the job hunt in order to land in your next position, hopefully one with a bigger salary and more responsibility. Here are a few ideas for ways to help you get what you are looking for:

Write a different kind of resume. You don't have to include everything you have ever done in IT. A resume is a marketing device to get you an interview with a potential employer, not an oral history of your life.
Make sure your resume is customized for the specific industry you are looking into, not a one-size-fits-all kind of biography. Drop the dates of your experience and education before 2000. The potential employer does not need to know exactly how old you are and it is illegal to ask.
Make sure the resume is only one page. No one will spend time reading more than that.
Use a professional resume writer or a recruiter who specializes in resume redesign. It's worth a few bucks to look more professional.
Make sure you network. A job may come out of the blue from someone you knew well 20 years ago or played softball with when you had the time and no kids.

And remember, getting the next CIO job may not be as hard as getting your first CIO gig--it may be even harder.

For more on selling yourself for a new CIO job:
- Check out this CIO Magazine article

The 4G buzz is growing

2008-02-08T11:46:00.000-08:00

Although the 4G standards are still undetermined, I expect to hear a lot of rumblings about 4G next week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Operators may still be in the midst of upgrading their networks to 3G, but vendors are already touting the benefits of LTE (long-term evolution), WiMAX and other 4G-type technologies.

LTE has certainly been in the headlines this week. On Wednesday, AT&T confirmed what everyone had suspected--it will use LTE as its 4G technology option. AT&T is the second major U.S. operator to back the technology. Verizon Wireless announced that it was adding LTE to its technology roadmap last fall.

The LTE/SAE Trial initiative, which is made up of vendors such as Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Nokia, Orange, Nortel, T-Mobile and others, announced that it had completed its second round of LTE tests. Findings include field tests on prototype LTE systems showing that devices can achieve download speeds exceeding 100 Mbps and high performance systems using 4x4 MIMO antennas can push this to beyond 300 Mbps.

At FierceWireless, we are taking an in-depth look at 4G and what it means to operators. On March 5 at 2 p.m. EST, I'll be hosting a Webinar, "Mobile Broadband and the 4G Roadmap." My guests, which include Peter Jarich of Current Analysis and Arun Bhikshesvaran, Ericsson's CTO and head of Strategy and Business Development for North America, will talk about the various competing 4G technologies including WiMAX, LTE and Ultra Mobile Broadband. Click here to register.

But the Webinar is just the start. FierceWireless is also hosting a one-day conference at CTIA Wireless 2008 in Las Vegas. The conference, "The Path to 4G" will take place on April 2 and will examine all angles of the mobile broadband equation and educate both carriers and others in the wireless industry on the current and proposed next-generation mobile broadband options. Our panel sessions will delve into WiMAX, HSPA, LTE and UMB. I've put together what I feel is a compelling agenda and we are in the midst of signing up some very high-level panelists for the event. Check out the agenda here. -Sue

P.S. Several members of the Fierce team are heading to Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress. I'll be there along with Jason Ankeny and Brian Dolan. We will be bringing you all the news from the event. You can see our coverage here. In preparation, we've also put together a MWC preview issue which tells you what we think will be hot at the Congress and provides you with some helpful tips for Barcelona. Check it out here.

Verizon Wireless sells $4B in bonds

2008-02-08T11:45:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Verizon offered $4 billion in bonds. The company offered the bonds in three separate tranches: $750 million for five years, $1.5 billion for 10 years and $1.75 billion for 30 years. The dollar amount is conspicuously close to the current provisionally winning bid for the C Block of spectrum in the 700 MHz auction. The current pricetag is just more than $4.74 billion.

A report from BusinessWeek also noted that Verizon Wireless paid one lobbyist firm $320,000 in 2007 to lobby the federal government on wireless airwaves use, employment issues and Net Neutrality.

For more on Verizon's bond issues:
- read this blog post from Across the Curve
- also read the lobbying report from BusinessWeek

Fujitsu to develop WiMAX chips in Taiwan

2008-02-07T11:35:00.000-08:00

By Kathrin Hille in Taipei and Mariko Sanchanta in Tokyo

Published: December 3 2007 02:00 | Last updated: December 3 2007 02:00

Fujitsu, the Japanese electronics group, and the Taiwanese government will tomorrow announce that they will jointly develop WiMax broadband chips in Taiwan in a significant Asian alliance intended to commercialise the nextgeneration mobile technology across the region.

WiMax is a long-range, high-speed wireless internet access that allows operators to provide signal coverage over areas of up to 50km but has so far gained little traction.

Intel, which supplies the microprocessors in four out of five PCs, has been a leading force behind the spread of WiMax and hopes the spread of the technology will lead to a surge in devices, using the technology.

Intel will begin bundling its own WiMax chips in PCs from next year, suggesting it will dominate the laptop market with the technology.

Fujitsu could supply Intel's rival Advanced Micro Devices and may find a bigger market in mobile phones or infrastructure equipment as WiMax networks are rolled out.

The partnership between Fujitsu and Taiwan is a significant step in spreading the WiMax standard because most PCs and mobile phones are made by Taiwanese companies. Fujitsu is keen to conduct research and development in Taiwan because it would probably generate large orders from the island's hardware makers, which manufacture most of the world's networking gear, according to Taiwanese officials.

The joint venture will take the form of a joint research facility in Taiwan funded by Fujitsu and the Institute for Information Industry, Shen Jung-chin, a senior official at Taiwan's Ministry for Economic Affairs, told the FT. The institute is a technology research body jointly funded by government and industry in Taiwan.

Taiwan has become one of the world's earliest adopters of WiMax in an attempt to transform itself from a contract manufacturer and designer of IT and communications equipment into a technology pioneer.

The island's government has awarded six WiMax licences, under which operators are due to start services by the end of 2008, and has invested heavily in infrastructure, testing and research.

"The idea behind teaming up with Fujitsu is the same as the one behind the entire WiMax initiative," said a senior government official.

"Currently, we make most of the world's IT equipment, but others set the standards. By jumping in really early in WiMax, we hope to have a role in setting standards and be able to receive, rather than pay, royalties in the future."

Students tout WiFi co-ops as alternative to municipal WiFi

2008-02-07T11:34:00.001-08:00

The initial excitement and advantages of municipal WiFi projects have been met with increasingly complex and insurmountable obstacles. At first it was just a few telecom and broadband providers objecting to their turf getting trampled, but soon issues like economics, politics, and the bigger picture began stopping many projects dead in their tracks. If you're the "hail Mary" type, though, a new proposal from students at MIT and the University of Cambridge could turn things around eventually. Dubbed "wireless cooperative," the proposal is based on the fact that many urban areas are already peppered with plenty of personal and business hotspots—they just need some finessing to go municipal.

Mobile banking reality check

2008-02-07T11:31:00.003-08:00

If last year was the year of overblown expectations for mobile financial services, then 2008 will be a year of the inked deal but still little progress on consumer uptake, according to senior analyst Emmet Higdon of Forrester Research. Mobile banking and mobile payments are still technologies in search of a problem, which could be just what the industry players are looking to figure out at next week's Mobile World Congress. "People expected mobile banking to take off much more quickly than it has," Higdon said. "People are trying mobile banking services and discovering that it's kind of neat, but it's hard to read transactions on that little, tiny screen."

Carriers and financial institutions are still trying to figure out what consumers are interested in doing financially on their mobile phones. Forrester's polling suggests that customers, themselves, aren't really sure what they want to do with mobile banking. The problem could be a lack of imagination. Right now, U.S. banks are encouraging users to use the exact same services on their mobiles that they can already use online. "That's fine," Higdon cautions. "But it doesn't make it compelling enough to make a large percentage of their customers to try or adopt these mobile solutions. We are still waiting to see how that experience on the mobile could be different. We are still waiting on that killer app for mobile banking."

Of course, European carriers may have a head start when it comes to rolling out mobile financial services. The fragmented carrier market in the U.S. has so far made it near impossible for the financial institutions and carriers to agree on standards for mobile payments and near field communications technology, according to Higdon. Some carriers want to use SMS as the backbone of financial apps while others are pushing downloadable applications and still others WAP.

Technicalities aside: What is that yet undiscovered financial application that will be so compelling that it drives users to the mobile handset? Mitek CEO James DeBello thinks his company's remote deposit application could be just the ticket. Three years ago the U.S. government passed legislation that allows banks to accept an image of a check instead of the paper check itself to transact the payment or deposit. Mitek took that concept and ran with it: Mitek's software allows users to take pictures of checks with their camera phones (if they are 2 megapixels or higher) and send those images to the banks for deposit.

Look for Mitek's representatives and other financial application developers seeking to crack the mobile banking code at Mobile World Congress next week. -Brian

Entertainment takes center stage at Mobile Backstage

2008-02-07T11:31:00.001-08:00

The face of mobile content turns ruggedly handsome at Mobile World Congress--Academy Award winner and independent film pioneer Robert Redford will keynote Mobile Backstage, the one-day mobile entertainment conference produced by the GSM Association in collaboration with Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter. The event takes place Wednesday, Feb. 13.

Redford is no stranger to mobile--in late 2006, his non-profit Sundance Institute launched the Sundance Film Festival: Global Short Film Project, an initiative spotlighting three-to-five minute short films made exclusively for screening on mobile handsets. The project was showcased at last year's event in Barcelona. Also, in January, Verizon Wireless added short-form programming from cable's Sundance Channel to its V Cast Video service.

Redford's Mobile Backstage keynote promises to focus on the potential of the mobile platform as a channel for independent filmmakers to reach a worldwide audience. Mobile Backstage will also spotlight acclaimed actress and director Isabella Rossellini, who will discuss her role in a new series of mobile shorts titled Green Porno--a name no doubt guaranteed to land untold copies of this preview issue in subscribers' spam folders--as well as Black Eyed Peas rapper will.i.am, who will explore the future of mobile music.

Mobile Backstage spins out of Billboard's Mobile Entertainment Live! conference, a staple at recent CTIA-sponsored industry events. It remains to be seen whether Mobile Backstage will generate the same level of attention as its predecessors given the enormous scale of the Barcelona show. "Is the buzz surrounding the event bigger than the actual event?" asks John Puterbaugh, founder and chief strategist with mobile media and service delivery platform provider Nellymoser. "[Mobile World Congress] is covering a lot of key mobile entertainment topics as part of its regular track. The speakers are a very eclectic group right now. I don't know if the headliners are enough to set [Mobile Backstage] apart."

Speaking of eclectic, don't expect any one dimension of the overall mobile data experience to dominate the discussion and headlines coming out of Barcelona--Puterbaugh forecasts social networking, advertising, discovery and mobile TV and video among the hot topics at Mobile World Congress, but he doesn't anticipate anything revolutionary on the immediate horizon. "We're in limbo right now--moving from 2.5G to 3G was not a game-changer, and there were no new services that really blew people away," Puterbaugh says. "Until 4G comes around, we're not going to have those kinds of innovative new applications and services." -Jason

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Competing with the iPhone

2008-02-07T11:30:00.001-08:00

Unlike last year's show, which took place a few short weeks after Apple unveiled the iPhone, all is quiet on the handset front leading into the Mobile World Congress. While Motorola mulls whether it should spin off its beleaguered handset business, other phone makers wonder how they can begin to top last year's showstopper.

"One of the lessons of last year learned from iPhone is that there is a new bar for how loud you have to be to cut through the clutter," Compete's wireless research director Miro Kazakoff said. "If there were any likely hit phones coming out at the show this year, the industry would have heard something by now."

The only high-profile launch slated for the show is Nokia's S60 Touch UI, which the company will be demonstrating at its booth. Rumor has it that Nokia will be making use of accelerometers for the user interface--those are the same type of sensors that Apple uses in the iPhone to automatically adjust the screen display from normal to landscape mode. The S60 Touch UI is a testament to the growing number of touch sensitive phones on the market. The feature is close to becoming a requirement on high- end feature phones that look to compete with the iPhone.

Rumors of a Google-powered handset made by Dell have circulated recently, but many industry pundits have thrown cold water on the prospect of such a deal. Others, however, claim that Google will launch its Android operating system at the Mobile World Congress on a phone made by Dell.

Few phone launches have turned heads lately, but one exception was Garmin's GPS-based smart phone, the nuvifone, which the company unveiled last week. While the handset boasts an MP3 player, video functionality and other multimedia features, its core is GPS and location based services. Perhaps its most compelling feature is an application that lets users geo-tag photos to easily pass along directions to other nuvifone owners.

"As phones get more powerful and given the inherent nature of how hard it is to pack more functionality into one phone elegantly, we are going to see a lot more targeted devices and segmentation," Kazakoff noted. "It's not completely clear what form factors and functionality will go into each of these categories, but we are going to see a market where phones are built for and marketed to specific groups and various types of users." --Brian

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Ubiquitous networks and the path to 4G

2008-02-07T11:23:00.000-08:00

Operators are still in the midst of upgrading their networks to 3G but vendors are already touting the benefits of LTE, WiMAX and other 4G-type technologies. In fact, a keynote session on Tuesday, Feb. 12 at 2 p.m. will be devoted to "Ubiquitous Networks" and feature speakers such as Carl-Henric Svanberg, CEO of Ericsson and Paul Jacobs, CEO of Qualcomm.

Last year we heard a lot about WiMAX, which was surprising since this conference was once a GSM-dominated event. This year we expect to hear more on the business case for WiMAX and how the technology is fitting for underserved areas of the world. "There are plenty of parts of the world without broadband," says Scott Wickware, vice president of carrier networks, marketing and strategy at Nortel. "This is a cheaper way to offer broadband."

Of course, LTE will be making headlines. The LTE/SAE Trial initiative (which is made up of key vendors and operators such as Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Nokia, Orange, Nortel, T-Mobile and Vodafone and others) announced Feb. 5 that it had completed its second round of LTE tests. Findings include field tests on prototype LTE systems show that devices can achieve download speeds exceeding 100 Mbps and high performance systems using 4x4 MIMO antennas can push this to beyond 300 Mbps. Look for vendors and operators to be expanding on the LTE/SAE findings.

Of course, as mobile broadband networks become more widely deployed, we can expect more focus on backhaul. In fact, Wickware says that one of the biggest concerns operators have when it comes to deploying 4G is how to backhaul the traffic. "Backhaul technologies haven't always kept up with the innovation on the radio side. Now many operators are looking at using fiber to their base stations," Wickware says.

Newcomer Exalt Communications announced this week the release of a native TDM and IP licensed backhaul product that company executives believe will be beneficial to operators because it allows them to provision according to what their traffic needs are. Exalt will be talking about their new line of backhaul products at the show.

There is even a session devoted to backhaul technologies. "Beating the Backhaul Challenge" will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 13 at 11:40 a.m. and features speakers from Nortel, Alcatel-Lucent, BelAir Networks, Harris Stratex Networks and more.--Sue

Would-be CIOs need far more than technical skills - Gartner

2008-02-07T11:19:00.000-08:00

Experienced IT practitioners, including current CIOs, must target this year to begin acquiring at least one or two years of non-IT business unit management experience if they wish to viably pursue new CIO opportunities opening in 2009 or 2010, according to Gartner.

"For the past few years we have detected some intriguing CIO hiring trends: CIO candidates are not required to have formal technology-oriented backgrounds but they must be able to show that they have managed a non-IT business unit," says Ken McGee, distinguished analyst and Gartner Fellow. "Professional qualifications and competence are still necessary for those wanting to become CIOs, but these qualities will not be sufficient in coming years."

McGee says that there are two significant trends affecting CIOs:

* New CIOs need non-IT, business unit executive experience if they wish to get a new CIO job;

* New, non-IT duties are being given to more and more ’new’ CIOs.

To confirm these trends, Gartner spoke with the heads of IT recruitment at four of the largest professional search firms in the world. On a combined basis, these firms place approximately half of all Global 1000 CIOs in any given year.

Gartner asked these executives whether CEOs were looking for particular educational backgrounds and technical know-how. The answers from these top recruitment executives were that CEOs had no preferred educational backgrounds: One said: "When push comes to shove, it doesn’t matter."

Educational discipline may not be central, but technical experience is still an essential part of a CIO’s background. CEOs are also now looking for CIO candidates who have business unit management experience. They want CIOs who have run a department other than IT. One consultant says: "The best overall background today is to have come up through the ranks in technology and spent some time outside in one of the businesses."

Gartner does not infer that formal technical education and training is no longer important. However, McGee says: "For some time, we have believed that CIOs needed business experience as well. Now we have discovered that leading recruitment executives report business unit management experience to be an actual requirement of chief executives looking for CIOs."

"The ability to leverage technology for competitive advantage to innovate that is really where the sweet spot is," says one recruiter.

The IT recruiters noted that experience in rolling out ERP systems meant that many CIOs had particularly good knowledge across the whole range of activity within their businesses. Many have reached the position where they are equipped to take on broader, business responsibilities. Gartner believes that many will want to take on non-IT responsibilities, or to leave IT and assume responsibility for businesses in which they have recently become experts.

H-1B visa notices go digital

2008-02-07T10:47:00.001-08:00

The U.S. Department of Citizenship and Immigration Services, which processes H-1B visas, is moving to the digital age. And you might say that it's about time. This year, for the first time, it plans to notify applicants by email whether or not they have been approved for a visa. And that means a CIO will have a faster route to getting an overseas worker hired and put into an essential job without waiting months and months for approval.

"We're getting away from snail mail and taking advantage of technology," said Chris Bentley, a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration spokesman. The agency is part of the Department of Homeland Security, which handles the visa approval process. Bentley said the notification system should be online by April, when H-1B visa petitions will start being accepted for fiscal 2009.

It's still a tough road for anyone trying to get an H-1B work visa. More than 100,000 applications arrived last April seeking the 65,000 openings. There was so much traffic that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services closed the application process within days of its opening.

For more on speeding up H-1B visas:
- See this InformationWeek article

Intel announces WiMax and WiFi chip

2008-02-05T11:16:00.001-08:00

Microprocessor and communications equipment giant Intel has designed a silicon chip to send and receive multiple wireless signals, including both Wi-Fi and WiMax. According to Information Week Intel researchers outlined the findings in four research papers presented at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco. As the findings were done under lab conditions they are far from being incorporated into mobile devices.

The integrated silicon die supports WiMax and Wi-Fi's a/g/n standards. By integrating a transceiver capable of handling multiple frequencies on a single chip, Intel eliminated a "front-end module" technology that today performs the same function on a separate die, said the Director of Communications Circuits at Intel labs Hossein Alavi. That cuts power consumption in half. Additionally, the researchers integrated an all digital power amplifier, increasing the quality and strength of the signal transmitted and received.

For more:
- Intel Integrates Wireless Support On A Single Chip Article

Related article:
- Intel Makes Faster WiFi Chip Article

Bush to spend more than $1 B on Telecoms

2008-02-05T11:15:00.000-08:00

The Fiscal Year 2009 Budget released by Bush Administration Monday included technology spending of $242 million to expand the Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) and $1.1 billion in "fundamental" information technology research.

According to the budget documents the money for fundamental research included $100 million, a 110-percent increase, for a National Science Foundation wide effort to develop radically new computational concepts and tools; $30 million for a new targeted cyber-security research effort in privacy, fundamental theory, and usability; and $186 million, a 17-percent increase, for a widely accessible suite of supercomputers, data warehouses, advanced networks, and experimental facilities. The Bush administration is also asking for $20 million for the Federal Communications Commission to educate the American public about the transition to digital television.

The FCC said it will use the money for "producing and distributing consumer-oriented educational materials; using news media to spread information through media tours and public-service announcements; attending and presenting at events and conferences representing a wide array of consumers; leveraging the Internet to disseminate information; coordinating with state, local, and tribal entities; and distribution of direct mailings to targeted groups." The FCC's Inspector General's Office also asked for $1.9 million, part of which will be used to "expand its audits of the commission's activities and functions."

For more:
- US IT research spending busts a billion dollars Article
- Bush Administration Budget Includes $20M to FCC for DTV Education Article

Related article:
- Bush budget expects $21B from spectrum Article

Leadership and innovation

2008-02-05T10:39:00.001-08:00

Innovation has become a primary force driving the growth, performance, and valuation of companies. Our research reveals a wide gap between the aspirations of executives to innovate and their ability to execute.
Many companies make the mistake of trying to spur innovation by turning to unreliable best practices and to organizational structures and processes. Our research shows that executives who focus on stimulating and supporting innovation by their employees can promote and sustain it with the current talent and resources—and more effectively than they could by using other incentives.
Three approaches can help executives mount innovation efforts. First, senior management should actively support behavior that promotes innovation. Second, network analysis can identify where the capacity for innovation already exists within an organization and help it build more innovative networks. Finally, executives should seed innovative thinking by focusing on selected managers and projects.

This article contains the following exhibits:

Exhibit 1: Decentralizing a network can improve collaboration and performance.
Exhibit 2: There are four critical steps to designing, implementing, and managing innovation networks.
Exhibit 3: Senior executives and their employees have different ideas about what their organizations need for innovation projects.
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Gartner looks into its IT crystal ball

2008-02-04T13:22:00.000-08:00

Gartner has made 10 predictions it says will affect IT and business this year and beyond, although some other analysts are pointing out that the predicted trends and events aren't necessarily new.

Trends "indicate a strong focus on individuals, the environment and alternative ways of buying and selling IT services and technologies," said Daryl Plummer, managing vice president and Gartner Fellow.

Apple Doubles Up

The research company predicted Apple will double its U.S. and Western Europe market share in computers by 2011. Apple's gains reflect as much on failures in the rest of the industry as on Apple's success, the firm said.

Apple is challenging its competitors with software integration that provides ease of use and flexibility, more frequent innovation in hardware and software, and an ecosystem that focuses on interoperability across multiple devices, including iPod and iMac cross-selling, Gartner said.

"We've got a reinvigorated Apple Computer that's poised to be a strong, relevant player in the marketplace. It's not about whether it's double market share or triple market share," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at JupiterResearch. "It's about consumers having a strong, viable alternative to Windows. Apple has exceeded its reach beyond its traditional core audience to a whole new set of players."

Laptops Get Left Behind

By 2012, Gartner continued, 50 percent of traveling workers will leave their notebook computers at home in favor of other devices. Even though notebooks continue to shrink in size and weight, travelers will lament the weight and inconvenience, the firm predicts.

Vendors are developing new classes of Internet-centric pocketable devices at the sub-$400 level, as well as server - and Web-based applications that can be accessed from anywhere. There is also a new class of applications that allow users to re-create the Web environment across multiple locations or systems.

"We already have more people leaving their laptops behind because they can get communication and collaboration on portable devices, whether it's a Blackberry or Windows Mobile device or iPhone," Gartenberg said. "It's a trend again that's already happened. It's something that's likely to continue going forward. We are going to see more folks come to this realization, but it's old news."

2011: A Big Year for IT

The predictions don't end there. The next two years will see more changes, Gartner said.

By 2009, it expects more than one-third of IT organizations to have one or more environmental criteria in their top six buying rules. By 2010, it said, 75 percent of organizations will mandate a full life-cycle energy and carbon-dioxide footprint for PC hardware. Also by 2010, Gartner predicted, end-user preferences will decide as much as half of all software, hardware and services acquisitions.

Gartner makes several key predictions for 2011. It said early technology adopters will forgo capital expenditures and instead purchase 40 percent of the IT infrastructure as a service. What's more, Gartner said, suppliers to large global enterprises will need to prove their green credentials to retain preferred-supplier status. Finally, it said, the number of 3-D printers in homes and businesses will grow 100-fold over 2006 levels.

By 2012, Gartner predicts, 80 percent of all commercial software will include elements of open-source technology. Embedded open-source strategies, the firm said, will become the minimal level that most large software vendors will find necessary to maintain competitive advantages during the next five years.

Also by 2012, it said, at least one-third of business-application software spending will be as service subscriptions instead of product licenses. The SaaS (software as a service) model will enjoy steady growth during the next five years, the firm predicted.

Federal CIOs have problems, too

2008-02-04T13:20:00.000-08:00

The private sector isn't the only place where CIOs have one headache after another. The federal section has its problems too. Michael Carleton, the new CIO at the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, said that the changing business complexion of federal IT suppliers, ever-tighter federal budgets, and new contractor personnel identification hurdles are making it harder to successfully complete federal IT projects. The proposed HHS budget for 2009, set to be released on Feb. 4th, is flat. And the workload is still high, he told a group of contractors on Jan. 30 at the Industry Advisory Council.

Another big issue, he said, is that fewer vendors with success in commercial markets are now competing for federal projects. That leaves the terrain in the hands of a small number of players who have plenty of experience in federal projects, but may not be as capable as others in bringing best IT practices to federal agencies. "We're getting more and more prescriptive," with the government's technology requirements and that's leading to higher costs and greater risks for federal IT suppliers, Carlton said.

Not only that, the feds are getting tougher with their requirements as well. Contractor personnel with even minor credit or legal problems could face protracted delays in obtaining basic clearance to work on federal sites, Carleton said. So while the grass might seem greener on the other side of the fence, it really isn't. Let us know what you think in the comments. Is it better working in the federal sector or the private one?

For more on the harried life of the federal CIO:
- See this GCN article

Google and Dell tipped to reveal iPhone rival plans

2008-01-31T11:26:00.001-08:00

Speculation is mounting that Google is plotting the launch of a mobile phone in partnership with computer giant Dell.

Senior industry sources claim the two companies will reveal their plans at next month’s 3GSM telecoms conference in Barcelona, al-though Google insiders deny an announcement is due in the near future.

But the rumours will once again throw the spotlight on Google’s mobile strategy, which has been the subject of much conjecture over the last year.

There had been widespread talk of Google launching its own handset, known as the “Gphone”, to go up against Apple’s iPhone, which launched in November last year.

But the world’s largest search engine surprised the industry by announcing an operating system for mobile phones called Android. The software makes it easier for developers to create mobile applications that run on many different handsets.

Android, which will be available this year, will bring all of Google’s online services to mobile users.

At present, mobile phones use a variety of operating systems to access the internet, including systems from Microsoft and London-based Symbian.

Marketing Week revealed last year that Dell was also planning a move into mobile phones after poaching Motorola executive Ron Garriques to run its new global consumer group (MW March 1, 2007).

Dell already produces personal digital assistants (PDAs) and strategy analytics director Neil Mawston says: “It makes sense for Dell to have a high-profile entry back into the market because its last effort with PDAs pretty much flopped.”

Author:: By Robert Lester
Publisher:: Marketing Week
Date:: 30-Jan-08
Categories:
Sections:: Home , News

CIOs Uncensored: The Cause Effect: Motivated Workers

2008-01-28T10:58:00.000-08:00

Younger IT workers are looking for socially responsible employers.

By Jacquelyn Barretta
InformationWeek
January 26, 2008 12:00 AM (From the January 28, 2008 issue)

An IT organization's success is predicated on being able to attract and motivate the brightest minds. Unfortunately, in most organizations, policies and practices to attract and motivate the workforce were established with older generations, the Traditionalists and Baby Boomers, in mind. The mind-sets of the younger generations, Generation Xers and Millennials, are markedly different. The problem is exacerbated for IT organizations because projections are that there will continue to be a dearth of technically competent employees.

One evolving organizational attribute that's being used to motivate employees is a company's dedication to providing a valuable service for society in a socially responsible manner. Millennials are far more socially minded than any previous generation because they've been the most exposed to social issues. They understand global issues because they've witnessed terrorist attacks on American soil, and they understand environmental issues because they see the impact of global warming. Because they're socially minded, they want to work for companies that are socially responsible.

At the same time, older generations are becoming financially secure and have begun to search for deeper meaning in their work. Studies show that employees increasingly want to fulfill a personal need for meaning and they will work more passionately when they know their energies are making positive contributions to society.

Employees have the highest intrinsic motivation for their jobs when their company's purpose and practices reflect their own values and desires. Extrinsic motivators, such as money, can satisfy employees' external needs but don't make them passionate about their jobs and can never generate as much motivation. Intrinsic enthusiasm results in employees willingly devoting time and energy beyond what they're being paid for.

Like most companies, we at Con-way provide a valuable service for society. For Con-way, it's transporting heavy freight around the world, and this is motivating to employees when they see it from the perspective of benefiting society. In addition, we're actively pursuing many socially responsible initiatives, including helping a local community center pay off its mortgage, making our data center more green, and finding ways to decrease our utilization of materials such as fuel.

We aren't pursuing these initiatives for the purpose of motivating employees, but that has certainly been one of the most significant impacts. The majority of candidates I've interviewed recently have asked what Con-way's doing to benefit society, and I can see these people light up when I describe these initiatives. I've had numerous employees tell me that they feel more connected because of these initiatives, and I know that translates into higher intrinsic motivation.

Most companies provide a valuable service to society; leaders should emphasize this and explore other methods to strengthen the value they provide to society. It will pay off in many ways, including a higher-performing workforce.

Jacquelyn Barretta is the CIO of Con-way, the No. 1 company on the 2007 InformationWeek 500 list of technology innovators. Share your thoughts at our blog, CIOs Uncensored.

Zodiac Interactive Announces Zodigo

2008-01-28T10:21:00.001-08:00

First Mobile Content Search and Discovery Engine for TVs and Browsers Zodigo Debuts at the Famous DEMO 08 Conference for Emerging Technology, January 28-30 in Palm Desert, Calif.

Palm Desert, CA - DEMO 08 (January 28, 2008) - Zodiac Interactive, a multiple Emmy-nominated and Emmy award-winning developer of software for interactive television, today launched a new mobile content search engine, Zodigo. Much like a Movies-On-Demand service from cable operators, Zodigo is navigated either by remote control or by keyboard and mouse and includes revolutionary features that make it easy for consumers to discover and download mobile content instantly to their mobile phones. Zodigo is also the first and only software platform built for release on digital TV systems (cable, satellite, & telco), Blu-ray & HD-DVD players, all next-gen gaming consoles (Wii™, Xbox 360™, and the Playstation® 3), as well as at Zodigo.com and many other Web distribution partners. Perhaps most importantly, Zodigo is an intelligent system that quickly and automatically learns about users’ preferences, as well as their exact mobile phone type, and recommends only content that works for that phone.

Parks Associates’ Director of Broadband & Gaming Michael Cai, comments “The breadth and depth of mobile content will increase significantly over the next few years, and the ability to easily discover and download this content from the TV and Web gives consumers a much better mobile phone shopping experience. Today, consumers typically turn to their mobile phone/operator for new content, but the phone deck features a poor merchandising environment for content discovery and purchase. We are pleased to see Zodiac leveraging its years of experience in developing interactive TV applications for some of the largest U.S. cable and satellite operators to make mobile content shopping an easy, on-demand service for consumers.”

Matt Johnston, Zodiac’s SVP of strategy and the CEO of the new Zodigo operating company, comments, “Consumers are beginning to experience an explosion in the breadth and diversity of content and applications available for the mobile phone, and, until today, have not had an adequate content discovery solution. Part of the problem is that content directories, for the most part, have only been available either on the mobile phone through existing mobile operators, through cluttered teen-targeted Web sites or directly from individual, fragmented publishers. Zodigo was developed with a better shopping experience in mind and the result is an easy-to-use search experience that helps create a truly long-tail of mobile content discovery.”

Zodigo allows consumers to channel and Web surf to discover great content for their mobile phones. Whether it’s games, applications, ringtones, movies, podcasts, coupons, mobile manga, tickets, alerts, or full songs, Zodigo helps consumers easily find and download interesting stuff recommended by like-minded people.

Johnston continued, “To be selected by Chris Shipley and the DEMO 08 conference team is a wonderful validation of our team’s vision and hard work. DEMO remains the industry’s premier launch pad for emerging technology and consumer-facing products and we couldn’t be more pleased with the opportunity to launch and showcase the power of Zodigo at DEMO 08.”

About DEMO
Produced by Network World Events and Executive Forums, the semi-annual DEMO conferences focus on emerging technologies and new products, which are hand-selected from across the spectrum of the technology marketplace. The DEMO conferences have earned their reputation for consistently identifying tomorrow's cutting-edge technologies, and have served as launch pad events for companies such as Palm, E*Trade, Handspring, and U.S. Robotics, helping them to secure venture funding, establish critical business relationships, and influence early adopters. Each DEMO conference features approximately 70 new companies, products and technologies. For more information, visit www.demo.com.

About Zodiac Interactive
Zodiac Interactive, the Interactive TV 2.0 Company™, is a multiple Emmy-nominated and Emmy award-winning developer of software for interactive television. The company also runs one of the world’s premier studios for interactive television games. For more information, visit www.zodiac.tv.

ZODIAC INTERACTIVE
Editorial Contact:
Terry May
321-632-1690
terrymay@hightechpr.net

Nokia to acquire Trolltech to accelerate software strategy

2008-01-28T10:20:00.001-08:00

ESPOO, Finland and OSLO, Norway, January 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Nokia and Trolltech ASA today announced that they have entered into an agreement that Nokia will make a public voluntary tender offer to acquire Trolltech (http://www.trolltech.com), a company headquartered in Oslo, Norway and publicly listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. Trolltech is a recognized software provider with world-class software development platforms and frameworks. In addition to the key software assets, its talented team will play an important role in accelerating the implementation of Nokia's softwarestrategy.

Nokia will offer NOK 16 per share in cash. The board of directors of Trolltech has unanimously recommended that its shareholders accept Nokia's Offer. Holders of 35,024,830 shares, representing approximately 66,43 % of Trolltech's issued shares and votes have as of January 27, 2008 irrevocably undertaken to accept the Offer. Haavard Nord, Vuonislahti Invest AS (controlled by Eirik Chambe-Eng), Teknoinvest and certain funds managed by Index Ventures are among the shareholders who have agreed to tender their shares to Nokia.

The acquisition of Trolltech will enable Nokia to accelerate its cross-platform software strategy for mobile devices and desktop applications, and develop its Internet services business. With Trolltech, Nokia and third party developers will be able to develop applications that work in the Internet, across Nokia's device portfolio and on PCs. Nokia's software strategy for devices is based on cross-platform development environments, layers of software that run across operating systems, enabling the development of applications across the Nokia device range. Examples of current cross-platform layers are Web runtime, Flash, Java and Open C.

"The technology landscape evolves and, for Nokia, software plays a major role in our growth strategy for devices, PCs and the integration with the Internet. We continue to focus on areas where we can differentiate and add more value. Common cross-platform layers on top of our software platforms attract innovation and enable Web 2.0 technologies in the mobile space," said Kai Oistamo, Executive Vice President, Devices, Nokia. "Trolltech's deep understanding of open source software and its strong technology assets will enable both Nokia and others to innovate on our device platforms while reducing time-to-market. This acquisition will also further increase the competitiveness of S60 and Series 40."

Nokia aims to continue the development of Trolltech's products and support of new and existing customers. Nokia strives for an open approach to technology that will encourage and support innovation in the industry, enable fast adoption of new technologies and advance healthy competition. Nokia embraces open source technology and will take further the open source development culture found in Trolltech.

"Trolltech and Nokia share the goal of accelerating the adoption of Trolltech's Qt based technology in the commercial market and in the open source community," said Haavard Nord, CEO and founder of Trolltech. Eirik Chambe-Eng, Chief Troll and co-founder of Trolltech continues "We are thrilled to join forces with Nokia. The company's innovative culture and resources will give our employees new and exciting possibilities and fulfill our vision of "Qt everywhere"."

Nokia intends to continue to enhance Trolltech products through active and ongoing development, for both desktop and mobile. To further stimulate industry innovation based on Trolltech's products, Nokia plans to continue to license Trolltech technology under both commercial and open source licenses.

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including acceptance by shareholders representing more than 90 % of the fully diluted share capital, and the necessary regulatory approvals. The complete details of the offer, including all terms and conditions, will be set forth in an offer document expected to be sent to Trolltech shareholders within two weeks. The offer is expected to be open for acceptance for a period of four weeks and to be completed in the second quarter of 2008. If the conditions to the offer are satisfied or waived, Nokia will have a legal duty to make a mandatory cash offer for or compulsory acquisition of the remaining shares.

About Nokia

Nokia is the world leader in mobility, driving the transformation and growth of the converging Internet and communications industries. Nokia makes a wide range of mobile devices and provides people with experiences in music, navigation, video, television, imaging, games and business mobility through these devices. Nokia also provides equipment, solutions and services for communications networks. http://www.nokia.com

About Trolltech

Trolltech provides cross-platform software development frameworks and application platforms. Trolltech's Qt is used in popular software such as Skype, Google Earth, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Lucasfilm and by more than 5000 customers worldwide. Trolltech's Qtopia has enabled a new generation of exciting consumer devices such as mobile handsets, video-phones, set-top boxes and media players. Trolltech's software has shipped in more than 10 million devices.

Trolltech's products enable companies to easily build and deploy software across a wide range of operating systems and electronic devices. The company serves desktop and embedded application providers, as well as consumer electronics and mobile vendors, who face challenges in delivering user-friendly and differentiated software. Trolltech enables customers to accelerate innovation, shorten time to market and increase revenues. Trolltech's software improves the user experience by increasing the appeal and quality of customer's applications on desktop and devices. The future proof Qt software allows developers to code less, create more and deploy anywhere.

Trolltech supports open source and commercial customers. The company has offices in California, U.S.A.; Brisbane, Australia; Beijing, China; Berlin and Munich, Germany; Oslo, Norway. It is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol TROLL. For more information about Trolltech, please visit http://www.trolltech.com.

This communication is no offer to acquire shares or options in Trolltech. Such offer will be made only in accordance with an offer document approved under the Norwegian securities trading act and to such persons who may lawfully receive the offer.

It should be noted that certain statements herein which are not historical facts, including, without limitation, those regarding: A) the timing of product, service and solution deliveries; B) our ability to develop, implement and commercialize new products, services, solutions and technologies; C) expectations regarding market growth, developments and structural changes; D) expectations regarding our mobile device volume growth, market share, prices and margins; E) expectations and targets for our results of operations; F) the outcome of pending and threatened litigation; G) expectations regarding the successful completion of contemplated acquisitions on a timely basis and our ability to achieve set targets upon the completion of such acquisitions; and H) statements preceded by "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "foresee," "target," "estimate," "designed," "plans," "will" or similar expressions are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's best assumptions and beliefs in light of the information currently available to it. Because they involve risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from the results that we currently expect. Factors that could cause these differences include, but are not limited to: 1) competitiveness of our product portfolio; 2) our ability to identify key market trends and to respond timely and successfully to the needs of our customers; 3) the extent of the growth of the mobile communications industry, as well as the growth and profitability of the new market segments within that industry which we target; 4) the availability of new products and services by network operators and other market participants; 5) our ability to successfully manage costs; 6) the intensity of competition in the mobile communications industry and our ability to maintain or improve our market position and respond successfully to changes in the competitive landscape; 7) the impact of changes in technology and our ability to develop or otherwise acquire complex technologies as required by the market, with full rights needed to use; 8) timely and successful commercialization of complex technologies as new advanced products, services and solutions; 9) our ability to protect the complex technologies, which we or others develop or that we license, from claims that we have infringed third parties' intellectual property rights, as well as our unrestricted use on commercially acceptable terms of certain technologies in our products, services and solution offerings; 10) our ability to protect numerous Nokia patented, standardized, or proprietary technologies from third party infringement or actions to invalidate the intellectual property rights of these technologies; 11) our ability to manage efficiently our manufacturing and logistics, as well as to ensure the quality, safety, security and timely delivery of our products, services and solutions; 12) inventory management risks resulting from shifts in market demand; 13) our ability to source quality components and sub-assemblies without interruption and at acceptable prices; 14) Nokia's and Siemens' ability to successfully integrate the operations, personnel and supporting activities of their respective businesses as a result of the merger of Nokia's networks business and Siemens' carrier-related operations for fixed and mobile networks forming Nokia Siemens Networks; 15) whether, as a result of investigations into alleged violations of law by some current or former employees of Siemens, government authorities or others take actions against Siemens and/or its employees that may involve and affect the carrier-related assets and employees transferred by Siemens to Nokia Siemens Networks, or there may be undetected additional violations that may have occurred prior to the transfer, or ongoing violations that may occur after the transfer, of such assets and employees that could result in additional actions by government authorities; 16) the expense, time, attention and resources of Nokia Siemens Networks and our management to detect, investigate and resolve any situations related to alleged violations of law involving the assets and employees of Siemens carrier-related operations transferred to Nokia Siemens Networks; 17) any impairment of Nokia Siemens Networks customer relationships resulting from the ongoing government investigations involving the Siemens carrier-related operations transferred to Nokia Siemens Networks; 18) developments under large, multi-year contracts or in relation to major customers; 19) general economic conditions globally and, in particular, economic or political turmoil in emerging market countries where we do business; 20) our success in collaboration arrangements relating to development of technologies or new products, services and solutions; 21) the success, financial condition and performance of our collaboration partners, suppliers and customers; 22) any disruption to information technology systems and networks that our operations rely on; 23) exchange rate fluctuations, including, in particular, fluctuations between the euro, which is our reporting currency, and the US dollar, the Chinese yuan, the UK pound sterling and the Japanese yen, as well as certain other currencies; 24) the management of our customer financing exposure; 25) allegations of possible health risks from electromagnetic fields generated by base stations and mobile devices and lawsuits related to them, regardless of merit; 26) unfavorable outcome of litigations; 27) our ability to recruit, retain and develop appropriately skilled employees; and 28) the impact of changes in government policies, laws or regulations; as well as the risk factors specified on pages 12-24 of Nokia's annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2006 under "Item 3.D Risk Factors." Other unknown or unpredictable factors or underlying assumptions subsequently proving to be incorrect could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Nokia does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or revise forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent legally required.

http://www.nokia.com

http://www.trolltech.com

Verizon Caps Successful Year With Strong 4Q Results

2008-01-28T10:18:00.000-08:00

NEW YORK - Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) today reported continued strong quarterly financial and operational results, as the company again produced significant gains in strategic growth areas such as wireless, broadband, data, video and global IP.

Verizon reported fourth-quarter 2007 earnings of 37 cents in fully diluted earnings per share (EPS). This compares with fourth-quarter 2006 earnings of 48 cents per share before income from discontinued operations that have since been divested.

On an adjusted basis (non-GAAP), fourth-quarter 2007 earnings were 62 cents per share from continuing operations. This is a 19.2 percent increase, compared with 52 cents per share from continuing operations in the fourth quarter 2006.

On an annual basis, Verizon reported 2007 EPS of $1.90, compared with $1.88 per share from continuing operations. On an adjusted annual basis, 2007 EPS was $2.36, a 14.6 percent increase, compared with 2006 EPS of $2.06 from continuing operations.

Special items reflected in fourth-quarter 2007 EPS are: 16 cents per share for severance and other related expenses recognized as a result of workforce reductions that began in the fourth quarter and will continue throughout 2008; 5 cents per share for taxes and expenses associated with an increase in the distributable earnings from the company's Vodafone Omnitel N.V. investment, including cash distributions received in December 2007; 2 cents per share for merger integration costs; and 1 cent per share for costs related to the spinoff of wireline access lines in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Further detail on earnings adjustments is provided later in this release.

Delivering Value to Shareowners

"In the fourth quarter, the momentum of revenue growth and margin expansion continued to drive double-digit earnings growth, and we once again reported strong growth in sales of all our strategic products," said Verizon Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg.

"Throughout 2007 Verizon's results consistently showed success in what we set out to do: grow revenue, capture market share, improve margins, increase productivity and provide the best customer experience," he said. "In 2008 we are focused on these same strategic imperatives, and we are confident that our performance will continue to deliver value to shareowners. We see significant opportunities to grow revenues and expand our leadership in wireless and broadband markets, while reducing operating expenses."

Revenue Growth, Cash Flows Highlight Consolidated Results

Verizon's consolidated operating revenues grew 5.5 percent in the fourth quarter 2007 and 6.0 percent in the full year, compared with fourth-quarter and full-year 2006. Total 2007 revenue was $93.5 billion, an increase of $5.3 billion over 2006. On an adjusted basis (non-GAAP), 2007 revenue increased 6.1 percent over 2006, and on a pro-forma basis (non-GAAP, calculated as if Verizon and MCI had merged on Jan. 1, 2006), this increase was 5.8 percent, or $5.2 billion.

Verizon's operating income declined 0.6 percent to $3.4 billion, compared with the fourth quarter 2006. On an adjusted basis (non-GAAP), operating income grew 18.5 percent to $4.3 billion, compared with the fourth quarter 2006.

Operating income margin was 14.4 percent for the fourth quarter 2007 and 16.7 percent for the full year, compared with 15.2 percent in both the same periods in 2006. On an adjusted basis (non-GAAP), Verizon's operating income margin rose to 18.2 percent in the fourth quarter 2007 and 17.9 percent for the full year, compared with 16.2 percent and 16.1 percent, respectively, for the same periods in 2006.

Cash flows from continuing operations totaled $26.3 billion in 2007. This is an increase of 14.2 percent, compared with $23.0 billion in 2006. Capital expenditures in 2007 totaled $17.5 billion, compared with $17.1 billion in 2006.

Verizon's Board of Directors increased the quarterly dividend 6.2 percent beginning with the November 2007 payment, reflecting confidence in the company's ability to sustain strong cash flows. Verizon also repurchased more than $1.1 billion of its shares in the fourth quarter 2007, for a total of more than $2.8 billion for the year and $4.5 billion over the past two years.

Year-end total debt was less than $31.2 billion. The company paid down more than $5 billion in debt during 2007.

Wireless Strength Continues for Quarter, Full Year

Verizon Wireless continues to be the most profitable domestic wireless company and the largest in terms of retail customers. In the fourth quarter:

Total customers increased to 65.7 million, up 11.3 percent year-over-year.
1.6 million of a total 2.0 million (retail and wholesale) net customer additions were retail post-paid customers.
Verizon Wireless continued its industry-leading customer loyalty, with 1.20 percent total churn. Churn among retail post-paid customers, 93 percent of all its customers, was under 1.0 percent for the quarter and the full year.
Total revenues in the quarter were $11.4 billion, up 13.3 percent; service revenues were $9.9 billion, up 13.7 percent, driven by customer growth and demand for data services. Full-year revenues were $43.9 billion, up 15.3 percent.
ARPU (average monthly revenue per customer) levels increased year-over-year for the seventh consecutive quarter: retail ARPU of $51.49 was up 1.4 percent; retail data ARPU of $11.06 was up 36.0 percent.
Wireless operating income margin was 26.2 percent. EBITDA margin on service revenues (non-GAAP) was 43.6 percent. (EBITDA is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.)

Continued Strong Growth in FiOS, Strategic Services

Verizon's Wireline business, which consists of Verizon Telecom and Verizon Business, reported continued strong growth in customers of FiOS fiber-optic services and sales of strategic services to enterprise customers. In the fourth quarter:

Verizon added a net of 226,000 new FiOS TV customers. The company had 943,000 FiOS TV customers by year-end and announced today that it had added its 1 millionth FiOS TV customer earlier this month. Including satellite TV customers served in partnership with DIRECTV (a net of 63,000 added this quarter), Verizon has more than 1.8 million video customers.
Verizon added a net of 264,000 new broadband connections (DSL and FiOS Internet connections combined). Broadband connections totaled 8.2 million, an increase of 17.9 percent compared with year-end 2006. The company added a net of 245,000 FiOS Internet connections this quarter, for a total of more than 1.5 million as of year-end.
Due to continued strong demand for broadband and TV services, ARPU in legacy Verizon wireline markets (which excludes former MCI consumer markets) increased 11.0 percent to $59.48, compared with the fourth quarter 2006.
Verizon Business generated revenues of $5.4 billion, or growth of 0.5 percent compared with the fourth quarter 2006 on an adjusted basis (non-GAAP). This is Verizon Business' fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year, pro-forma revenue growth.
Strong sales of key strategic services -- such as IP (Internet protocol), managed services, Ethernet and optical ring services -- continued to drive Verizon Business' growth. These services generated more than $1.4 billion in revenue, up 25.1 percent from the fourth quarter 2006.

Details of Prior EPS Adjustments

Special items for full-year 2007 totaled 49 cents per share. This includes the fourth-quarter charges detailed earlier, along with charges for taxes on foreign distributions, charges related to the access line spinoff and merger integration costs, as well as credits and charges associated with the disposition of Compañia Anónima Nacional Teléfonos de Venezuela and the net gain on the sale of Telecomunicaciones de Puerto Rico. As previously announced, Verizon received gross proceeds of approximately $980 million from this sale -- $100 million of which was contributed to the Verizon Foundation.

Special items reflected in fourth-quarter 2006 EPS included 27 cents per share related to the sale of Verizon Dominicana; pension settlement charges; and costs related to the spin-off of Verizon's directories business, merger integration and relocation of employees to the Verizon Center. In the first three quarters of 2006, there were additional settlement charges and costs for integration and relocation, as well as charges for the extinguishment of debt and the cumulative effect of an accounting change. Special items for full-year 2006 totaled 42 cents per share.

Additional Business Group Results

Wireless

At the end of 2007, 97 percent of the company's customer base was retail (post-paid and pre-paid).
Verizon Wireless continued to lead the industry in cost efficiency. Cash expense per customer (non-GAAP) increased slightly in the fourth quarter and for the full year to $28.75 and $28.24 in 2007 from $28.46 and $27.76 in 2006, respectively.
Total data revenues of $7.4 billion for the full year were up 65 percent over 2006. In the fourth quarter, data revenues were 21.3 percent of all service revenues, up from 15.8 percent in the fourth quarter 2006. The company had 47.2 million retail data customers in December -- 74 percent of the retail customer base and a 37 percent increase over the prior year.
The company made two major strategic announcements, setting the stage for the next level of innovation and growth in wireless: Verizon Wireless announced that it will provide customers the option to use, on its nationwide wireless network, wireless devices, software and applications not offered by the company. The company plans to have the new option available to customers throughout the country by year-end and will host an Open Development Conference for device developers in March. Verizon Wireless also announced plans to develop its fourth-generation mobile broadband network using Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology, with trials beginning this year.
Verizon Wireless continued to extend the reach of its nationwide high-speed wireless broadband network, powered by EV-DO Revision A (Rev. A) technology, making it available to more than 240 million Americans by year-end. More than half of the company's retail customers -- 35 million -- had broadband-capable devices by year-end.
The company continued to introduce additional broadband-capable devices, designed for business and personal productivity, including the first EV-DO BlackBerry Pearl, the 8130; a new roster of PDAs and smartphones, such as the Samsung SCH-i760 and the Palm Treo 755p, as well as the Kyocera KPC680 ExpressCard and the UM 150 USB wireless modem. New music-capable phones launched in the quarter include the Venus and Voyager by LG. Verizon Wireless offers some 25 multimedia phones -- at various price points -- that can download music over the air and surf the Web wirelessly at broadband speeds.
During the quarter, Verizon Wireless customers sent or received nearly 45 billion text messages and 927 million picture/video messages. Customers also completed nearly 30 million music and video downloads.

Wireline

Wireline total operating revenues were $12.5 billion, a 1.4 percent decrease on an adjusted basis (non-GAAP), compared with fourth-quarter 2006. This includes the continuation of expected declines in former MCI operations serving mass market customers. Wireline total operating expenses were $11.3 billion, a 2.3 percent decrease on an adjusted basis, compared with fourth-quarter 2006.
Data revenues increased 12.8 percent to $4.8 billion. For the full year, data revenues were $18.1 billion, an increase of 12.4 percent over 2006. This reflects increasing revenues from consumer broadband, such as FiOS services and Verizon High Speed Internet (DSL), as well as from wholesale data transport and sales of Verizon Business data services.
Revenues for mass markets decreased by 0.6 percent, compared with fourth-quarter 2006. In the legacy Verizon consumer market, year-over-year revenues grew 2.7 percent -- the fourth consecutive quarter of growth in this market.
Verizon's broadband fiber-to-the-premises network, which delivers FiOS Internet and FiOS TV services to customers, passed more than 9.3 million premises by year-end. Estimated earnings dilution from FiOS was 9 cents per share in the fourth quarter.
FiOS Internet was available for sale to 7.5 million premises in parts of 17 states by year-end. Penetration for the service averaged 20.6 percent across all markets. FiOS TV was available for sale to 5.9 million premises in parts of 13 states by year-end. Penetration for the service averaged 16.0 percent across all markets.
Verizon Business, a global IP leader and network-based solutions partner, added significant enhancements to its fast-growing strategic services in the quarter. These included: new IP services and capabilities to help customers leverage and optimize VoIP (voice over IP); Ethernet access to Verizon Private IP service in Canada, Latin America and additional European countries; a new Managed WAN Optimization Service that speeds delivery of software applications; and a new portable satellite service for enterprise customers.
In addition, Verizon Business expanded its industry-leading security capabilities by offering retailers and financial service providers even stronger safeguards for protecting credit card holders' confidential data. The company also enhanced its Verizon Business Customer Center portal and announced two eBonding enhancements that enable customers to more easily link their systems directly to those of Verizon Business.
Verizon Business continued to expand and enhance its global IP network. It announced additional Private IP nodes in the Philippines and Malaysia; an aggressive rollout of its next-generation ultra long-haul optical transport network in Europe; and success in the industry's first field test of 100 gigabits-per-second optical transmission. Verizon Business also completed the landing work for the Trans-Pacific Express submarine cable in Oregon.
Multinational corporations and major regional players -- including CEDES, First Data Corporation, infoUSA, Invacare, Investec Limited, Labinal (SAFRON Group), The Menarini Group, Tellabs, and Travel and Transport -- completed agreements during the quarter for a wide range of advanced communications, IT and professional services. In addition, the company signed new agreements with several U.S. government agencies, including the U.S. Postal Service and U.S. Coast Guard, and with JANET, which operates and develops the U.K.'s JANET education and research network. Companies extending their master service agreements during the quarter included Arivia.kom and Xtrion/Melexis.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), headquartered in New York, is a leader in delivering broadband and other wireline and wireless communication innovations to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, serving nearly 66 million customers nationwide. Verizon's Wireline operations include Verizon Business, which delivers innovative and seamless business solutions to customers around the world, and Verizon Telecom, which brings customers the benefits of converged communications, information and entertainment services over the nation's most advanced fiber-optic network. A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of nearly 235,000 and last year generated consolidated operating revenues of $93.5 billion. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

####

NOTE: This news release contains statements about expected future events and financial results that are forward-looking and subject to risks and uncertainties. For those statements, we claim the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The following important factors could affect future results and could cause those results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements: materially adverse changes in economic and industry conditions and labor matters, including workforce levels and labor negotiations, and any resulting financial and/or operational impact, in the markets served by us or by companies in which we have substantial investments; material changes in available technology, including disruption of our suppliers' provisioning of critical products or services; the impact on our operations of natural or man-made disasters and any resulting financial impact not covered by insurance; technology substitution; an adverse change in the ratings afforded our debt securities by nationally accredited ratings organizations; the final results of federal and state regulatory proceedings concerning our provision of retail and wholesale services and judicial review of those results; the effects of competition in our markets; the timing, scope and financial impacts of our deployment of fiber-to-the-premises broadband technology; the ability of Verizon Wireless to continue to obtain sufficient spectrum resources; changes in our accounting assumptions that regulatory agencies, including the SEC, may require or that result from changes in the accounting rules or their application, which could result in an impact on earnings; the ability to complete acquisitions and dispositions; and the extent and timing of our ability to obtain revenue enhancements and cost savings following our business combination with MCI, Inc.

How to Implement Mobile Marketing

2008-01-23T10:36:00.000-08:00

Ad Infuse's director of marketing suggests six questions to ask your agency when planning a mobile marketing campaign.

There has been a lot of buzz in the ad industry about what's next in mobile marketing. While everyone seems to agree that mobile is the "next big thing" in advertising, most agencies are unable to take the conversation much further. With mobile media consumption on the rise and nearly 35 percent of the U.S. subscriber base viewing rich content beyond email and SMS, brands need to make sure that their agency partners understand both the medium and the opportunities it presents.

Put your agency to the test. Below are six questions you can ask to determine their level of savvy.

1. What are the different ways in which we can implement a mobile component to our media strategy?

Beware if the only thing your agency suggests is a text-based SMS campaign. Don't get me wrong, SMS is a great way to go, but be aware that you can do almost anything on mobile that you can do on any other medium. You can do video, banners, in-game, search, localized advertising, viral campaigns, and so much more. So SMS isn't a bad thing, just know that it's one dimension of many and if your agency is relying on this alone, you're in trouble. Also, if your agency says to you, "any kind of mobile campaign takes a minimum of six to eight weeks to put together, and is really difficult to implement," be aware that in truth your existing creative assets (be that a 15-second spot from TV or a flash interactive ad unit) can be repurposed, and if done right, can be done in a matter of days-- not weeks.

2. What do you think our "off deck" or "off portal" strategy should be?

In case these terms are new to you, here's the "off deck/portal" vs. "on deck/portal" story in a nutshell. Remember when AOL users thought they were browsing the internet when in fact they were just browsing inside the AOL "walled garden" of pre-selected content? Well this is, in essence, the difference between "on deck" and "off deck." In the case of mobile internet, the big mobile carriers will not only make it very difficult to physically navigate, but they will also charge a variety of surcharges for breeching their walls of control, so to speak. Carriers have traditionally wanted to completely own and control the end-to-end mobile browsing experience. Of course, it's a lot more complicated than that, but for our purposes, that's the off-deck issue at 50,000 feet. Consumers are angry at the surcharges and are demanding a free flow of content, which is, in turn, spawning new content relationships and distribution strategies left and right.

Now, when your agency answers this question by telling you that you can create a WAP site, (which is the mobile world version of a website and stands for Wireless Application Protocol) and that you can have many of the same components of your current website, you're off to a good start. WAP is a pretty good answer, but an incomplete one if standing alone. Similar to your website, a WAP site is paramount to maintaining consistent presence with your customers as their media consumption habits shift. The reality is that much like the internet, the mobile web is nothing without driving traffic or interaction with your site. Traffic can and should come from a host of advertising solutions: video, SMS, TV ads, radio, print, viral components-- really anywhere. The point is that if your target audience is consuming mobile (and believe me, they are or will be very soon), shouldn't you be creating a consistent experience with your brand across all media touch points?

At worst, when you ask your agency this question, you might get nervous fidgeting or the claim that mobile is just a passing trend. If so, you're in big trouble.

3. Who is consuming mobile content and what are they consuming? Is our target audience there?

The standard response you'll likely get is that the only people consuming mobile content are either the teenaged crowd or those tech-crazed early adopters-- single digit adoption at best. While of course it is true that these two groups ARE consuming mobile media, there is more to it than that. If we parse down the details of a 2006 Jupiter U.S. Wireless Consumer Survey into two groups, "Just Talkers" and "Data Users," I'll bet that most people don't realize that even in an older demo of 35- to 44-year-olds, 61 percent of the users actually fall into the "Data Users" category! Maybe not the heavy texting, pop culture and gaming consumption of those youngsters, but rather news feeds, email access and podcast consumption. For the 45 to 54 demo the percentage is not nearly that high, but is still a respectable 47 percent.

Remember, people said the same skeptical things about the adoption of the internet. The reality is that mobile is penetrating all audiences as mobile phones continue to improve, and the consumer phone replacement cycle in the United States continues to be every 12 to18 months. With this short of a life span for any singular-function phones left out there, we can safely assume that 18 months from now the streets will be filled with completely rich media enabled, mobile consumers. It is up to you as the marketers and to those out there providing media content (TV studios, editorial content providers and so on) to educate and lead your consumers into this new realm by creating that cross-media experience.

The new role of oil wealth in the world economy

2008-01-22T10:04:00.000-08:00

As oil prices continue to set new records, investors outside Europe and the United States are increasingly shaping trends in financial markets. The influence of these investors is likely to continue to grow over at least the next five years.
Without a doubt, this flood of oil money is creating new dynamics in world markets and fueling growing concern about government connections and influence on markets.
Since facts about these powerful new investors have been scarce, McKinsey’s research aims to ground the debate by providing data and analysis, including where this new wealth is held, how it affects markets, and what the players might do to address growing concerns over their influence.

This article contains the following exhibits:

Exhibit 1: Oil-exporting countries have become the world’s largest source of global capital flows, surpassing Asia.
Exhibit 2: Even if oil prices declined to $30 a barrel, foreign assets purchased with petrodollars would grow at a robust average annual rate.
Exhibit 3: The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) is the largest sovereign wealth fund among oil exporters.

Read Article

How companies are marketing online: A McKinsey Global Survey

2008-01-18T09:47:00.000-08:00

A McKinsey global survey of marketers shows that companies are using digital tools—from Web sites to wikis—most extensively for customer service, least in pricing. Two-thirds are using digital tools for product development, almost as many as are advertising online.
Respondents consider online ads to be as useful for brand building as for direct response. Spending is expected to increase on all types of online advertising vehicles over the next three years.
In 2010 just over half of all respondents expect their companies to be getting 10 percent or more of their sales from online channels—twice as many companies as have hit that mark today. And 11 percent expect to be spending a majority of their advertising budgets online by then.
Most companies today don’t integrate their online and offline marketing efforts; companies that use online tools across the full spectrum of marketing activities are much more likely to do so.

This article’s exhibits display the respondents’ views on digital-marketing tools and techniques.

Read Article

Delivering software as a service

2008-01-18T09:34:00.000-08:00

Traditionally, companies buy software and then install and maintain these applications on their own machines. That model is giving way to one where companies will buy subscriptions and access services over the Internet from software developers that host their own applications.
Some applications will migrate to the new delivery model faster than others, but all software makers should begin to explore the economics and necessary capabilities for online delivery.
Revenue models for these developers will change, since software as a service delivers fees over time rather than large up-front license purchases.
Customer service and R&D capabilities will also need to adjust to the reality of ongoing relationships with customers rather than periodic upgrades.

This article contains the following exhibits:

Exhibit 1: The economics of companies that deliver software as a service differ from those of large software companies, though they are similar to those of smaller ones.
Exhibit 2: Applications are likely to migrate from traditional delivery to software as a service at different times for enterprise customers vs. small and midsize businesses.
Sidebar exhibit: Software as a service offers a reduction in total cost of ownership.

Read Article

The McKinsey Quarterly - What’s in store for global banking

2008-01-17T09:59:00.000-08:00

Global banking may be passing through a major cyclical correction at the end of 2007, but new McKinsey research suggests that in the longer term the industry’s revenues and profits—poised to continue growing faster than the rate of GDP growth—will double by 2016.
The historical part of the analysis, which examines global data from 2000 to 2006, reveals a rich mosaic of regional, national, and product diversity. There is little global convergence: different factors seem to drive different markets, which have surprisingly varied structures and uneven growth patterns.
In 2016, the market capitalization of banks will likely be $12 trillion higher than it is today. As consolidation in the sector accelerates, winners will be able to outmaneuver their competitors by developing a deep, bottom-up understanding of the idiosyncrasies of markets and by understanding the vital importance of being in the right place at the right time.

This article contains the following exhibits:

Exhibit 1: Banking has become the industry with the highest absolute profits.
Exhibit 2: Banking profits are likely to remain at a historical high over the next ten years.
Exhibit 3: Developed countries still account for the bulk of banking activity.
Exhibit 4: The mix of banking business in different countries or regions varied significantly.
Exhibit 5: Key drivers of growth in retail-banking revenues differ dramatically across countries.
Exhibit 6: The annual growth of a bank’s investment value is a combination of its after-tax growth in profits adjusted for changes in market multiples.

Read Article

Recession fears hit IT

2008-01-17T09:52:00.000-08:00

A survey by Baseline in the fourth quarter of 2007 found that 46 percent of respondents believe their companies would cut IT spending and staff if a recession hit. And the survey also found that one-third believe their job would be in jeopardy in the event of an economic downturn. This does not bode well for the IT community. "Companies will do what they have to do to maintain cash flow and profitability," says John von Stein, the chief information officer of The Options Clearing Corp. in Chicago. "IT typically is an area where a delay in projects and initiatives allows the company to spend money later-or not at all-if the business value is no longer there to justify the project."

The survey found other bad signs popping up, too. The respondents believe that more work will be outsourced to Asia and Latin America. But the news isn't all bad. More than 70 percent of respondents believe that more work will shift to the Internet if energy prices keep rising. Stay tuned. This issue is definitely growing and will compel IT executives to use technology to help save unnecessary costs.

For more about the IT world and recession:
- See this Baseline article

Oracle grabs BEA for $8.5 billion

2008-01-17T09:51:00.000-08:00

The end is finally in sight in Oracle's dogged quest for BEA Systems. The pending deal calls for Oracle to pay $8.5 billion, a 14 percent increase over its first offer, which put the companies in a tussle over how much BEA is worth. Oracle will pay $19.375 per share for BEA, higher than the $17 per share it offered in October but lower than the $21 per share BEA had previously demanded. "It's a fair price. It's a good deal for Oracle. It's a good deal for BEA," Trip Chowdhry, analyst at Global Equities Research, told Reuters. The stock market may be softening these days, but here's a case of a tech win in tough times.

For more on the BEA deal:
- See this eWeek article

Study: Consumers satisfied by mobile options

2008-01-16T10:14:00.000-08:00

A majority of mass-market consumers are satisfied with the devices, services and applications offered by their mobile operator according to a new study issued by web analytics firm Compete, which recommends that carriers now focus their efforts on more effectively marketing their existing products and services. According to Compete, which analyzed the browsing and shopping behavior of millions of consumers, 59 percent of respondents feel their carrier offers a sufficient selection of handsets and services--among subscribers seeking an expanded menu of options, most requested applications like GPS and web connectivity, apparently unaware those services already exist. Asked to name the most important mobile phone features, 75 percent of respondents cited device price, while 69 percent named customer service. In addition, 32 percent of respondents reported growing difficulty finding the right mobile device.

"With the iPhone launch in 2007, we saw the wireless industry make an initial move away from its legacy of carrier controlled devices and services," said Compete's general manager of telecommunications and media Adam Guy in a prepared statement. "With carriers beginning to embrace open access, they will be able to focus on marketing their products and services to the masses while outsourcing niche device and content development to third parties."

For more on the Compete report:
- read this release

The McKinsey Quarterly

2008-01-15T08:59:00.000-08:00

Market fundamentals: 2000 versus 2007

Whither the S&P 500? Comparing the market’s recent turmoil with its decline at the end of the dot-com boom can help investors assess what might come next.

The top 12 mobile and wireless issues for 2008

2008-01-14T09:50:00.000-08:00

Well, it's that time of year again. Reflection and forecasts come with the season, and this year is no exception. I started assembling a "top 10" list of the key issues in mobile and wireless that will shape the industry next year, but I quickly discovered that the top 10 could easily be the top 50 or so. There's never been more going on in the mobile and wireless industry than there is now. I managed to condense this unwieldy number down to 12, although prioritizing them is still a work in progress. Nonetheless, I present the first six this week, and the remainder in my next column. I hope you find this list to be good food for thought, and while less caloric than the rest of what we'll consume over the next few weeks, no less important.

1. Picking the right tool for the job

As the saying goes, if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Such is the case with wireless technologies and the products that result from them. Vendors like to pitch their products as all you'll ever need. But wireless is a collection of technologies, and there is no one-size-fits-all. It's all about four key elements: availability, throughput (for data), capacity and price.

The carriers will be working hard in 2008 to improve their networks, even in the face of massive new expenses related to spectrum acquisition (the 700 MHz auctions start in late January) and continual technological evolution and the upgrades this entails. Look for lots of talk about 4G continuing in 2008, but don't expect critical mass here until 2011 or 2012. And don't expect to find WiMax in digital cameras -- Wi-Fi works just fine there, and will for a very long time. OK, maybe ultrawideband.

2. Think network, not wireless, security

The focus on wireless security alone is over. It's time to think end-to-end. Mobility and wireless provide the motivation, but securing the air alone is inadequate. Good wired security solutions apply to wireless as well and involve encrypting sensitive data wherever it resides, strong authentication (ideally, two-factor) with both devices and data, and end-to-end VPNs.

Do we need a "mobile" or "wireless" VPN? This subject will be debated quite a bit in 2008, and the answer is -- it depends. Some IT shops will insist on such a solution for local management and control. But I expect big interest in SSL VPNs in 2008, and they could become the preferred wireless option as well.

3. Wi-Fi forever

Let me be clear: Nothing replaces Wi-Fi anytime soon, and maybe never. Not WiMax. Not femtocells. Nothing. The continuing technological evolution of Wi-Fi is at once remarkable (hundreds of megabits per second in a WLAN? Really?) and eminently predictable as part of the faster/better/cheaper that defines high tech.

Expect huge interest in 802.11n in 2008, ahead of final ratification of the formal standard in mid-2009. It's here. It works. Moreover, Wi-Fi is as close as we get to a universal, global wireless standard. It works in pretty much the same way everywhere, across the enterprise, the home and public spaces. Metroscale deployments will chug along in 2008, and hot spots aren't going away either. And the folks at 802.11 have even more innovations in the works. Gigabit Wi-Fi? Yes, but not until 2010 or so.

4. Think "rate vs. range," not rate alone

I find that many make the mistake of believing wireless performance numbers that are really no more than what vendor marketing departments guarantee their products will never exceed. I generally suggest de-rating theoretical numbers by 50% to 66% just to make sure a given application will work.

But it's also important to remember that there's an inverse relationship between distance and throughput in most wireless technologies: The farther you go, the slower you go. Not considering this element is often the cause of failed wireless projects, or, at the very least, disappointed and frustrated users. But let's see if we can't get the industry to be a little more realistic in its specs in 2008. The best way to make satisfied customers is to properly set their expectations. Ever seen an ink-jet printer that can move, let alone print on, 20 pages per minute? Neither have I.

5. Convergence and unification

Picking the best tool for the job may involve picking multiple tools. With the convergence of Wi-Fi and wide-area wireless services (mobile/mobile convergence, or MMC), we'll have combined cordless/cellular phones that work everywhere and provide the best mix of service, price, performance and manageability.

Just as is the case with VoIP, VoFi will be big in 2008. In fact, another related key theme will be unification, thinking not about the wired LAN and the wireless LAN, but rather just about designing, building and operating the LAN. We'll even begin to see commonality in wired and wireless network management systems, the last frontier of unified networks.

6. The single-device paradox continues

Finally, I see more convergence in networks but continuing divergence in devices. As Motorola learned with the once-hot Razr falling out of fashion, the tastes and preferences of consumers with respect to their mobile phones, PDAs or whatever change faster than the weather here in New England.

And even with Google's Android announcement, there's no such thing as a universal device or universal platform, and there may never be. We want it all, we want it in one device, but such is not possible or even feasible for now.

Look for an even more amazing range of devices next year, with the big question involving local applications or Web services. That's such a big topic that I'll write about it further in my next column. For now, look for increasing desktoplike qualities in mobile browsers. The iPhone kicked off this trend but is by no means the last word on it.

7. The last frontier: Battery and power management

No matter what your handheld can do, it can't do it with a dead battery. And as we demand that these devices do more, and faster, they suck down battery power faster than Uncle Ned downs eggnog while opening gifts. Progress in battery technology is much slower than in chips and such; chemistry is more difficult than physics. But there is progress to report. A combination of incremental improvements in lithium batteries, power-saving wireless protocols, chips that can be partially or completely turned off when not in use, and assorted engineering cleverness will enable us to make at least a little progress here. Don't expect wireless battery recharging in 2008, although this might be possible in five years or so. My advice: Always carry a fully charged spare battery with you when you travel.

8. Think ROI, not cost

I can't tell you how many projects I've seen derailed at the starting gate by a financial type who utters those three fateful words: It's too expensive. This is usually looking at the problem from the wrong perspective. It's not about cost, or at least cost alone, but rather return on investment. If you're improving the productivity of your field force far in excess of the costs involved in providing them with a mobile offering, that's a good investment. The right way to look at this problem then is to ask a few questions: Is the cash flow manageable? Are the funds available, or what's the cost of obtaining them? Next, look at opportunity cost, the cost of the next best alternative or, more likely, do nothing. And finally, estimate ROI. If all of these look good, it's tough for a chief financial officer to refuse.

9. Web services are the answer

The iPhone brought the debate over local applications versus Web services to the forefront during 2007. The iPhone originally wasn't going to have an API for programmers, but it soon will. And yet, with a great browser, one might argue that local apps are so 2007. Both are needed, as it turns out, because there are some local tasks such as editing documents, working with a spreadsheet and preparing a presentation, that can be done offline, and wireless coverage isn't perfect. Wireless on airplanes, by the way, will make progress in 2008. But there's no way that all of the information required for local applications, be it clip art or your personal files, can be carried with you at all times; there's just too much of it. And that holds for most other personal productivity and IT functions; most of these also can't be done without access to the Web. So, strategically, the Web-services approach makes more sense. More capable devices and more wireless coverage (again, via multiple technologies and networks) are also part of the solution. Again, expect good progress on both during 2008. But ultimately, it's all about content -- Web content.

10. Sociology, not technology

Wireless can bring out the best, and the worst, in us. We can be more responsive, more productive and more involved. On the other hand, incessantly ringing cell phones, loud talkers, conversations that should be taken elsewhere and the use of cell phones while driving are among the downsides we've seen so far. Part of the solution here is, of course, common sense and common courtesy, but lacking these, expect more on the legal front during 2008. Anyone driver involved in a motor vehicle collision (note I don't use the word "accident" here) while talking on a cell phone will find stiffer penalties in many states. Safety (and peace and quiet) must trump convenience.

11. Product quality must improve

This is more of a request than a forecast, but far too many wireless and mobile (and many other) technology products make it to market before they're ready. Bugs are common, and the attitude of leaving it up to the user to download a fix (if that's even possible) after a purchase is far too pervasive. We shouldn't be expected to debug products for companies that we've paid our hard-earned dollars, and it's time for product designers and builders to get it right before they put that fancy new gadget in the box. Sadly, I don't expect much progress here in the coming year, but I hope the vendors are listening regardless. Losing productivity while dealing with poor quality products affects ROI, as any CFO will tell you.

12. Open access and Net neutrality

I've saved the best, and biggest, for last. The most important stories of 2007 were the FCC requirement for open access in some of the 700-MHz spectrum range. Spectrum blocks to be auctioned shortly, and Verizon Wireless' stunning endorsement of open access (allowing any compatible device on their network, whether they sell it or not) and Net neutrality (agreeing to support any application, again, theirs or otherwise). Openness is the very foundation of modern networks, and now it will be the guiding principle for wireless going forward. This train is unstoppable, and all successful players are going to get on board -- or find another game.

So forward we go to a bright and promising 2008. There's never a dull moment in our little corner of IT. Please accept my best wishes for a happy holiday season and all the best for 2008. I'll be back in January with more, much more on the world of wireless and mobile. See you then.

ABC: An Introduction to CRM

2008-01-14T09:30:00.000-08:00

What is CRM?

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It is a strategy used to learn more about customers' needs and behaviors in order to develop stronger relationships with them. Good customer relationships are at the heart of business success. There are many technological components to CRM, but thinking about CRM in primarily technological terms is a mistake. The more useful way to think about CRM is as a strategic process that will help you better understand your customers’ needs and how you can meet those needs and enhance your bottom line at the same time. This strategy depends on bringing together lots of pieces of information about customers and market trends so you can sell and market your products and services more effectively.

What is the goal of CRM?

The idea of CRM is that it helps businesses use technology and human resources to gain insight into the behavior of customers and the value of those customers. With an effective CRM strategy, a business can increase revenues by:

providing services and products that are exactly what your customers want
offering better customer service
cross selling products more effectively
helping sales staff close deals faster
retaining existing customers and discovering new ones

That sounds rosy. How does it happen?

It doesn't happen by simply buying software and installing it. For CRM to be truly effective, an organization must first understand who its customers are and what their value is over a lifetime. The company must then determine what the needs of its customers are and how best to meet those needs. For example, many financial institutions keep track of customers' life stages in order to market appropriate banking products like mortgages or IRAs to them at the right time to fit their needs.

Next, the organization must look into all of the different ways information about customers comes into a business, where and how this data is stored and how it is currently used. One company, for instance, may interact with customers in a myriad of different ways including mail campaigns, Web sites, brick-and-mortar stores, call centers, mobile sales force staff and marketing and advertising efforts. CRM systems link up each of these points. This collected data flows between operational systems (like sales and inventory systems) and analytical systems that can help sort through these records for patterns. Company analysts can then comb through the data to obtain a holistic view of each customer and pinpoint areas where better services are needed. For example, if someone has a mortgage, a business loan, an IRA and a large commercial checking account with one bank, it behooves the bank to treat this person well each time it has any contact with him or her.

Are there any indications of the need for a CRM project?

You need CRM when it is clear you don’t have an accurate view of who your customers are and what their needs or desires are or will be at any given stage in their lives. If you are losing customers to a competitor, that’s a clear indication that you should improve your understanding of your customers.

How long will it take to get CRM in place?

It depends. If you decide to go with a hosted CRM solution from an application service provider and you are planning to use the software for a specific department like sales, the deployment should be relatively quick – perhaps 30-90 days. However, if you are deploying either a hosted application or an on-premise package (involving the purchase of software licenses upfront) on an enterprise-wide basis (that involves different departments like sales, marketing and operations), you should expect the implementation and training to take months, if not years. The time it takes to put together a well-conceived CRM project depends on the complexity of the project and its components and how well you manage the project.

How much does CRM cost?

Again it depends. A hosted sales automation application can cost between $65 and $150 a month for a basic sales automation package. If you want more sophisticated functionality and a greater level of support, you pay a lot more. An enterprise on-premise CRM package can cost anywhere between several thousand to several millions of dollars, depending again on how many functions you purchase and how many computers or “seats” have access to the software. For instance, one company or department might purchase an email marketing management application or a salesforce automation application, while a larger firm might want to purchase an integrated package that includes a database as well as applications for marketing, sales and customer service and support (via call centers and online). Obviously, the integrated software package is much more expensive.

What are advantages of hosted or on-demand CRM vs. on-premise and vice versa?

In the last few years, the market for on-demand CRM has soared particularly among small and mid-sized companies, largely because of fears about the expense and complexity of large-scale on-premise CRM implementations. And indeed, on-demand CRM is often a good choice for companies that want to implement standard CRM processes, are able to use out-of-the-box data structures, with little or no internal IT support, and don’t require complex or real-time integration with back office systems.

However, on-demand CRM software is not always as simple as the vendors would have you believe. For instance, customization can be problematic and hosted CRM vendors’ API tools cannot provide the degree of integration that is possible with on-site applications. Getting a hosted CRM system working shouldn’t take as long as a traditional software package, but larger and more complex rollouts can still take a year or more. And while the hosted option reduces the need for in-house technical support, upgrades can still sometimes be technically tricky. In addition, some companies with particularly sensitive customer data, such as those in financial services and health care, may not want to relinquish control of their data to a hosted third party for security reasons. As a result, AMR Research predicts that even by 2009, hosted CRM applications will account for only 12 percent of the total U.S. CRM market. [For more on on-demand vs on-premise, read "The Truth about On-Demand CRM."]

What are the keys to successful CRM implentation?

Develop your customer-focused strategy first before considering what kind of technology you need.
Break your CRM project down into manageable pieces by setting up pilot programs and short-term milestones. Start with a pilot project that incorporates all the necessary departments but is small enough and flexible enough to allow tinkering along the way.
Make sure your CRM plans include a scalable architecture framework. Think carefully about what is best for your enterprise: a solution that ties together “best of breed” software from several vendors via Web Services or an integrated package of software from one vendor.
Don't underestimate how much data you might collect (there will be LOTS) and make sure that if you need to expand systems you'll be able to.
Be thoughtful about what data is collected and stored. The impulse will be to grab and then store EVERY piece of data you can, but there is often no reason to store data. Storing useless data wastes time and money.

Which division should run the CRM project?

The biggest returns come from aligning business, CRM and IT strategies across all departments and not just leaving it for one group to run. In fact, it’s best for the business departments who actually use the software to take ownership of the project, with IT and the CIO playing an important advisory role.

What causes CRM projects to fail?

Many things. From the beginning, lack of a communication between everyone in the customer relationship chain can lead to an incomplete picture of the customer. Poor communication can lead to technology being implemented without proper support or buy-in from users. For example, if the sales force isn't completely sold on the system's benefits, they may not input the kind of demographic data that is essential to the program's success. One Fortune 500 company is on its fourth try at a CRM implementation, because it did not do a good job at getting buy-in from its sale force beforehand and then training sales staff once the software was available.

What industries are leading the way in CRM implementations?

As in most leading-edge technology implementations, the financial services and telecommunications industries set the pace in CRM. Other industries are on the CRM bandwagon include consumer goods makers and retailers and high tech firms.

Which industry is behind the curve?

Heavy manufacturing. As a rule, the further an industry is away from the end customer, the less important CRM is.

Four Tips for Better Business Intelligence in 2008

2008-01-14T09:27:00.000-08:00

January 08, 2008 — CIO — Companies want more actionable data, and they want more users to have it. But extending the use of business intelligence throughout the organization remains a challenge. One reason: Lack of BI and IT skill sets continue to plague companies interested in taking BI to the next level, according to David Hatch, research director at Aberdeen Group.

Part of the answer lies in providing more user-friendly BI tools. Hatch offers four tips for achieving that goal.

1. Explore new user-friendly business intelligence tools. New ways of delivering BI can help in your quest to extend business intelligence throughout the enterprise. One new method to consider is BI accessed through a third party—for example, software as a service BI or on-demand BI. In addition, look into the availability of BI as an embedded capability within enterprise applications such as ERP and CRM. Since users are already familiar with your enterprise applications, they may find BI products offered through these providers easier to learn.

2. Find ways to integrate Web 2.0 information into BI. Web 2.0 data sources and other unstructured data do not obviate the need for traditional structured data, says Hatch, but they can be used to boost BI efforts. Amassing large sets of historical data reveals trends, performance metrics and specific business calculations: These are the foundation of most BI efforts. But the ability to enhance that historical data with relevant and timely information found in blogs, comments and competitors' websites is becoming more important for delivering actionable information throughout the enterprise.

3. Give users BI tools that they can be trained to use autonomously. Employees are more likely to use and embrace business intelligence tools that they can use independently. To create an environment of business intelligence self-sufficiency, establish a group composed of both business users and IT representatives to collaborate on prioritizing user needs and choosing or developing BI tools. Hatch also advises being attuned to inflated vendor claims and involving vendors in proof-of-concept and pilot projects.

4. Consider operational business intelligence. New BI offerings that automate data collection, assembly and delivery processes are one of the most promising areas of business intelligence. To figure out if they're right for you, look for data generated by business processes that lend themselves to automated analysis and even actions taken on the basis of that analysis. For example, some financial service organizations use applications that automatically analyze fluctuations in currency rates, and that automatically initiate trades based on those decisions. In many manufacturing organizations, data analysis is done automatically on the progress of chemical interactions—temperature, viscosity and color of a mixture, for example—and changes to the mixture are automatically made at the back end before it ever reaches people on the production line.

XOHM WiMAX goes live in April

2008-01-14T09:21:00.000-08:00

XOHMG! Sprint has just announced the launch details of their hotly-anticipated XOHM WiMAX network and it's going live a lot sooner than most of us expected. Sprint CTO Barry West told a CES panel that the service will be available to consumers at the end of April, with around ten devices lined up for launch, including a laptop data card and desktop modem. Of the ten devices, only one was confirmed by Sprint: an Internet device from Nokia (N820, anyone?), though we do know that a WiMAX-equipped Eee PC and OQO UPC are forthcoming at some point. And what of the price for XOHM service? "People will be excited about our rates," West said. "They won't be ecstatic about them because we're not going to give it away." I think we all know what that means--start saving up those pennies now.

For more on the XOHM announcement:
- see this Gizmodo article

Welcome

2008-01-13T14:55:00.001-08:00

Well, I am personally interested in using technology for transforming companies from their existing situation into more technology oriented situation. But, why am I interested in that?

I have only one reason to motivate myself to make research on this area: UNDERSTAND CUSTOMER.

If companies understand their customers, they can deliver more value to them. If they deliver more value (satisfy their needs), they will have dedicated customer which increases profits in return. Cash is the only way to survive for companies.

From the books that I read, I concluded that if a company does not produce enough cash, none of the business units in that company can be productive.

Sales department can not hire new sales people to SELL!
Marketing department can not make promotions or install new software for customer research!
Finance department can not have enough cash to make new, valuable investments!
... and list goes on!

So what I am trying to do is to use new technologies (especially wireless technologies) to understand customer!!!

Next Generation Technologies

Wireless Mobile Future Determined by LTE

Femtocells support mobile phones in developing nations

magicJack getting femtocell version, other upgrades

Migrating Heavy Data Users to Femtocells

Femtocells to Dominate Market for Indoor Cell Coverage

Are you ready for your own cell?

Conference

Collaboration

INNOVATION!

Corporations need technology in order to survive, right??

Brand Identity: The Importance of Color

Information-Technology Product Roundup

Global telecom revenue to hit $2 trillion in '08

Solving problems that matter

Qualcomm looks to the skies for future chipset technologies

Recommended Reading

Shoring up Supply Chain Security

E-Tickets Only Starting June 1

Goldman Sachs Predicts Downturn in U.S. IT Spending

IT services fall short of greatness, CIOs say

Nokia unveils concept phone Morph

Motorola Names Paul J. Liska Chief Financial Officer

Microsoft looking for ways to converge Windows Mobile, Zune

Mobile Music Adoption Revenues Set to Reach $17.5bn by 2012

Unicast Partners with AdMob to Power Rich Media Mobile Web Sites

Silicon Valley Losing Middle-Wage Jobs

Industry hoping for action on data security bill this year

Update: BlackBerry network goes down again

When RIM's network goes down, so does service to end users

Helping the CIO conquer eDiscovery

Are you ready for change?

IT jobs needed in recession

Yahoo in negotiations with News Corp.?

AT&T: 95% of iPhone owners surf the mobile web

Euro operators team to define mobile ad metrics

Nokia Search adds Google results

Will the lights go out for IT?

Economic stimulus deal spurs tech

CIO strategy: Use eBay

Protect desktop data, too

How to get a new CIO job

The 4G buzz is growing

Verizon Wireless sells $4B in bonds

Fujitsu to develop WiMAX chips in Taiwan

Students tout WiFi co-ops as alternative to municipal WiFi

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Entertainment takes center stage at Mobile Backstage

Competing with the iPhone

Ubiquitous networks and the path to 4G

Would-be CIOs need far more than technical skills - Gartner

H-1B visa notices go digital

Intel announces WiMax and WiFi chip

Bush to spend more than $1 B on Telecoms

Leadership and innovation

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Gartner looks into its IT crystal ball

Federal CIOs have problems, too

Google and Dell tipped to reveal iPhone rival plans

CIOs Uncensored: The Cause Effect: Motivated Workers

Zodiac Interactive Announces Zodigo

Nokia to acquire Trolltech to accelerate software strategy

Verizon Caps Successful Year With Strong 4Q Results

How to Implement Mobile Marketing

The new role of oil wealth in the world economy

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How companies are marketing online: A McKinsey Global Survey

This article’s exhibits display the respondents’ views on digital-marketing tools and techniques.

Delivering software as a service

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The McKinsey Quarterly - What’s in store for global banking

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Recession fears hit IT

Oracle grabs BEA for $8.5 billion

Study: Consumers satisfied by mobile options

The McKinsey Quarterly

Market fundamentals: 2000 versus 2007

The top 12 mobile and wireless issues for 2008

ABC: An Introduction to CRM