Debra Donston

Building a better mousetrap isnt the goal for manufacturing companies; its building a better mousetrap faster, for less cost, and including the knowledge and experience built into design, engineering, manufacturing, customer service, accounting and supplier databases. Product lifecycle management—or PLM, in the inevitable acronym form—is helping manufacturers achieve this complex goal and get the right […]

“Mom, did you like computer class when you were in first grade?” asked my 6-year-old daughter. “Well, er, I, ah, we didnt have computer class when I was in first grade,” I said. “When I was in first grade [insert flashback sound effect here], I dont think I had even heard the word computer, let […]

Staying abreast of IT opportunity while deftly allocating limited resources is the No. 1 challenge for IT professionals and the pragmatic focus of this special report on the coming years outlook for core technologies. Market analysts say were in a period of correction, with the no-no early 00s balancing out the go-go late 90s—averaging out, […]

A.T. Kearney Inc.s business is management, but it needed help when it came to managing the day-to-day business of time and expense accounting. The Chicago-based management consulting company has 71 offices in 37 countries, with close to 5,000 employees, according to Jim Haddow, A.T. Kearneys director of global procurement, in Alexandria, Va. A.T. Kearney works […]

Maximizing performance and ensuring accountability are two key goals in an era of economic downturn and executive downfalls. But when budgets are tight and scrutiny is sharp, the ability to optimize the work force becomes increasingly important—and increasingly difficult. This, no doubt, will also make things more challenging for IT departments called upon to implement […]

An increase in growth is a problem wed all like to have these days, but its one that presented a significant challenge for Timberline Software Corp.s support staff and one that was, ironically, costing the company money. “We had some challenges in previous years when our company was experiencing dramatic growth,” said Mark Brannan, operations […]

A Web service is helping the Colorado Department of Agriculture more efficiently track and report on its captive deer and elk population. The CDA has authority over the states “alternative” livestock, classified as deer and elk. The department must compile information from a variety of sources, including a proprietary database running on a Macintosh, laboratory […]

Upstart airline JetBlue Airways Corp. is leveraging the upstart Web services platform—slowly but surely. JetBlue is considering Web services deployments ranging from a security application to making its extranet a collection of Web services that partners can use and brand themselves. Right now, though, a Web service is driving transactions on JetBlues company store. The […]

eWeek Labs recent special report on spam examined a number of ways to at least slow the flood of spam, including blacklists and filtering software. A new service from Habeas offers another way: haiku. What? Youre wondering how a 17-syllable poem can stop spam? It all has to do with copyrights and trademarks. The Habeas […]

Hunting, fishing and outdoor gear retailer Cabelas got a relatively late start to the dynamic B2C game, but ATGs Consumer Commerce Suite has helped it make up for lost time. I spoke recently with Sam Sidner, Cabelas Internet marketing manager. In addition to site development and maintenance, Sidner works with the marketing teams to implement […]

When eWeek Labs was getting ready to publish its 1999 review of the Linux 2.2 kernel, we struggled with the headline. Would “Linux: Enterprise-ready” be too strong? We decided then that Linux was enterprise-ready, and open sources reach has grown in the years since. In fact, its not a question of whether open source should […]

What if you held a meeting and nobody came? Its a scenario not without the realm of possibility in an economy where money and time are in increasingly short supply, and its one that makes Web-based meetings and collaboration all the more compelling. This stressful climate makes Web-based meetings attractive for two important reasons: The […]