Edward Cone

TrueLink CTO Scott Metzger created a calculator similar to the downloadable interactive tool on this page to assess whether it would be more valuable to use proprietary software to develop new applications rather than an open-source development language such as Java. The key concern: The lines of new code his staff would have to create […]

The most powerful piece of software inside Microsoft may be a $40 application from a tiny vendor called Userland that Robert Scoble uses to write his weblog. Scoble, part of the Windows marketing team, publishes his personal observations at the “Scobleizer Weblog” http://radio. weblogs.com/0001011. His unedited daily ramblings give the world a window into Microsoft, […]

The most powerful piece of software inside Microsoft may be the $40 application from a tiny vendor called Userland that Robert Scoble uses to write his weblog. Scoble, part of the Windows marketing team, publishes his personal observations at the Scobleizer Weblog . His daily ramblings, unedited by corporate brass or media handlers, give the […]

Mike Freemans job was to fix something that wasnt broken. WD-40 Co., where Freeman is president of North American operations, makes WD-40 lubricant spray. For decades, that was all it made, and the San Diego company was expert at getting those iconic blue-and-yellow cans onto its retail customers shelves. But when WD-40 embarked on an […]

Ken Bonzon keeps a serenity prayer by St. Teresa of Avila taped to his computer monitor. “Let nothing frighten you,” it counsels, which is good advice when your boss is Mark Cuban. As chief information officer of the NBAs Dallas Mavericks, Bonzon works for a technology visionary who is outspoken—and notoriously demanding. “You learn his […]

The voting machines that almost derailed the Oct. 7 California recall election are all being replaced. But controversy over voting technology is far from finished in the Golden State—or the rest of the country. For local officials in charge of election systems, the headaches are just beginning. The absence of a clear, unshakable policy on […]

Siemens Power Transmission & Distribution was getting nowhere in its search for customer relationship management software. “The investment dollars required for Siebel [Systems] or another large system were a problem,” says Mike Bauer, vice president of sales and marketing of Siemens PT&D, a recently formed unit of the $73 billion German company. “We were stagnant.” […]

It was the week before Valentines Day — always a crucial time in the flower business — when Web florist Proflowers.com saw that it would need more roses and tulips to meet the orders it expected to get in the hours ahead. “We had to reroute a freight airplane based on what we saw coming,” […]

You may be ready for software as a service, but is your software vendor? An education and testing program that IBM runs for would-be service providers should make it easier for businesses to gauge the preparedness of their partners. Graduates of the course have the IBM seal of approval on their claims of functionality, security […]

Software may be on its way to becoming a service, but its going to take more than todays rickety application service providers to get everyone to the promised land. Genuity, the big hosting and access company, thinks the right vehicle for some enterprises is its Black Rocket e-services platform. “Software as a service is our […]

Blame it on the application service provider market. FutureLink has a nice, profitable business as a reseller and integrator of Citrix Systems software for server-based computing. It attracted enough customers in 2000 that revenue multiplied more than nine times. Unfortunately, FutureLink also has $900,000 per month in costs related to data center space it built […]

Early customers of application service providers tend to pull services from their ASPs, using outsourced software to run their own businesses. Now Fuji Photo Film U.S.A., a unit of the $13.2 billion Japanese conglomerate, is using an ASP to push a new line of ser- vices out to its customers. Its a model that could […]