Opinion: Edgewise
Banking on Blogs
By Dan Gillmor
At investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, CIO J.P. Rangaswami has put a variety of edge-in software, including blogs, wikis and instant messaging, to work as information-sharing tools. The result, says columnist Dan Gillmor, has been a new culture of communication at the firm, with measurable benefits such as a big reduction in internal e-mail traffic and better tracking of information for compliance purposes, as well as softer payoffs in terms of shared knowledge. But the effort requires guidance, especially in a highly regulated industry such as financial services.
Trend: Web Strategy
The Internet Reloaded
By Edward Cone
The coming wave of software services is billed as a revolution in simplicity. Indeed, the blogs, podcasts, and other tools sometimes referred to as "Web 2.0" applications are easy enough for millions of home users to embrace. But Senior Writer Edward Cone urges CIOs to beware: Integrating the next generation of Web-based software into the enterprise won't be quite as easy as the hype would have it, especially when it comes to implementation, business processes and the cultural shifts involved. Users may think the applications are plug-and-play, but the action behind the scenes is quite a bit more complicated.
Case Study: United Pipe & Supply
The Profit Pipeline
By Michael Fitzgerald
It's not unusual for companies to take on new clients at less-than-profitable rates, then slowly build the relationship over time. But when United Pipe & Supply Co. installed new business intelligence software, they learned that their oldest and biggest customer had begun the long, slow slide into unprofitable waters. And it wasn't the only one. The discovery spurred the company to reevaluate all its customers and recast those relationships to make them more structured, predictable—and profitable. Business writer Michael Fitzgerald chronicles the events leading up to United Pipe's epiphany, and how it increased margins from 1.5 percent to 4.8 percent in just two years.
Expert Voices: Robert I. Sutton
The Attitude of Wisdom
With Ellen Pearlman
Why do so many managers refuse to consider the evidence when making business decisions? Why do they seem so reluctant to learn from their mistakes, or test their theories? In the view of Robert I. Sutton, management professor at Stanford University, and coauthor with Jeffrey Pfeffer of the forthcoming Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense, the problem lies in a business culture that favors gurus over common sense, the latest management craze over the tried and true, and received opinion over experimentation. In this interview with Editor-in-Chief Ellen Pearlman, Sutton talks about what makes a wise manager, and how to foster those skills within your own organization.
Research: IT Spending
Is Your IT Budget Stretched Too Thin?
By Allan Alter
This year's spending survey finds IT budgets in 2006 are up by 5.4 percent over 2005, yet 58 percent of IT executives still worry that their IT budgets are not large enough to meet their company's strategic goals. Despite those fears, many more companies are jumping on the RFID and digital-identity/rights-management bandwagons, while spending more on Voice over IP, service-oriented architecture and customer self-service. This year's survey also found that IT spending is gradually shifting away from hardware and software and toward services and staff.
Strategic Technology: E-Mail Response Management
First Responders
By Debra D'Agostino
Although e-mail is the fastest growing channel for customer service, many companies don't even bother to open the messages they get, much less respond to them. They may be missing a big opportunity, says Senior Reporter Debra D'Agostino. E-mail response management systems not only track customer queries, they also can generate instant responses, lowering the overall costs of customer service. But as with most technology deployments, there's a catch: If not designed properly, ERM systems could do more harm than good. Poorly answered questions drive customers to the telephone (the very thing these systems are meant to avoid) or worse—to the competition.
