CIO Insight Staff

Overview Strategy Trends   1. IT spending is on the rise   2. The big money is on the customer   3. IT will eke out yet more productivity gains   4. Speed, transparency and personalization matter   5. CIOs fall into the new alignment trap   6. Retailing has become the industry to watch   7. No relief for penny-pinched CIOs […]

What does the survey measure? CIO Insight’s 2004 Vendor Value Survey measures how U.S.- and Canada-based IT executives generally perceive the value of their vendors’ product and service offerings, and those executives’ overall satisfaction with the support these vendors provide. How were the vendors selected? Unless otherwise noted, the published results include only vendors which […]

On any given day in Louisiana, there are hundreds of impoverished people desperately scheming to sell their food stamps for 50 cents on the dollar. All it takes is a dishonest retailer who is willing to pay cash for the food stamps and then pocket the difference. Known as “discounting,” food stamp fraud in Louisiana […]

Staples Inc. is considered one of the more advanced retailers when it comes to marketing to multichannel shoppers. Customers go online or use in-store kiosks for configuring everything from furniture to PCs. And if they prefer to pay for the item at the store, Staples will ship it to their homes. Customer sales reps also […]

If you want to understand your younger employees, then start playing more Mortal Kombat and Final Fantasy. That’s the message from John C. Beck and Mitchell Wade, authors of the book Got Game: How the Gamer Generation Is Reshaping Business Forever (Harvard Business School Press, October 2004). The authors suggest that employees of the “gamer […]

When Colin Crook took over the top tech spot at Citicorp Inc., in late 1989, he thought he had it made. Working under legendary CEO John S. Reed, Crook had landed the CTO job at the country’s largest bank. Fat with profits, Citicorp had an unbridled ambition to become the world’s first global consumer-banking brand. […]

OPPORTUNITY Sensor networks can give you greater insight into business operations, but the technology is still in its infancy. Last year, BP plc, the $233 billion global oil and gas giant, had a big problem on its hands: It was literally losing track of 900 railcars—5 percent of its U.S. oil and gas inventory—every year […]

The New Normal: Great Opportunities in a Time of Great Risk By Roger McNamee Portfolio, November 2004 256 pages, $24.95 We are never going back to a time of tranquility, argues Silicon Valley venture capitalist McNamee. The uncertainty caused by terrorism, global upheavals and numerous other factors aren’t going away. But as the cliché goes, […]

World Out of Balance: Navigating Global Risks to Seize Competitive Advantage By Paul A. Laudicina McGraw-Hill, November 2004 256 pages, $27.95 The future may be unknowable, but you certainly can take some educated guesses about what’s going to happen, argues Laudicina, managing director of A.T. Kearney’s Global Business Policy Council. To be specific, you should […]

In February, we profiled Blue Rhino Corp.’s efforts to get ready for the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (“Better Safe than Sorry,” CIO Insight, February 2004). At the time, the company was concerned that its aggressive SOX compliance initiative would artificially constrain business and slow its growth. In April, the company merged with Ferrellgas Partners LP, whose annual […]

You give your staff a year-end review, so why not your vendors? Once more, we’ve given you a head start by asking 1,050 IT executives whether their top vendors are delivering the value and reliability they expect. And this year we’re adding six vendors in a new category, telecom, as well as four other new […]