Eric Lundquist

• Consistency. In 1996, IBMs then chairman and CEO, Lou Gerstner, set about codifying the rules and the borders between direct sales and sales through the partner channel. Today, except for some relatively minor modifications, those rules still exist, according to Donn Atkins, general manager of IBMs Global Business Partners. Ten years is an eternity […]

NEW YORK—None dare call it a just a videoconference. In the companys first major product announcement since Mark Hurd was named CEO, Hewlett-Packard Co. on Monday pulled in some major corporate executives here to help announce Halo Collaboration Studio, its new “communication tool” for the enterprise. Halo is a high-end conferencing system that costs approximately […]

The friday after Thanksgiving has been nicknamed Black Friday to connote the official start of the holiday shopping season and is often cited as the busiest shopping day of the year. Although the “busiest day” moniker appears to fall into the urban myth category (www.snopes.com/holidays/thanksgiving/shopping.asp), it starts a retail shopping countdown that can make or […]

Self-deploying technologies—those products or programs that users bring into the corporate network from the outside—are the bane of the IT managers existence. Wi-Fi hot spots are an example of self-deploying technology. In an earlier era, PCs and laptops were hauled into the office by well-meaning employees. Wi-Fi is a great idea, but unless controlled, those […]

Right now, it plays a unique role and has a unique insight into the business.” Those arent my words. They come from Stephen David, former CIO (now retired) of Procter & Gamble, during a panel discussion at Forresters Executive Strategy Forum held last week in Boston. The focus of the forum was innovation (a topic […]

As I was getting ready to write about the 20th anniversary of Windows, there were a few people I knew I wanted to talk to: the person who created Windows, as well as a member of the team who gave Windows a reason for being. I like to refer to this story as “how a […]

If youre wondering where the next IT growth spurt will come from, I suggest you take a look around at the number of corporate systems that remain untouched by the computing infrastructure. The basic engines of a company—including heat, cooling, physical access, water and electricity—generally remain unconnected islands apart from the IT infrastructure. When systems […]

Technology will become more important to your companys future. Thats the good news. The bad news? Your company will cut 20 percent of its IT staff by 2011. In fact, your IT staff might no longer be referred to as an IT staff by then. That was the word from the Gartner honchos last week […]

Once, when mainframes ruled the Earth, IBM could make or break its competitors by merely mentioning the name of the next generation of big iron. The early announcement of a new mainframe could freeze the entire market as customers held off purchasing or leasing any new boxes until the next IBM system appeared. A simple […]

I was staying in Palo Alto and caught the early-morning commuter rail train to San Francisco, envisioning a time when I could start my business day at Union Square using Googles free wireless Internet service. Alas, the free Google Wi-Fi was not yet available, but a great deal of business buzz has been generated by […]

The IT department, once seen as having too narrow a focus on making good tech product choices, is thinking big—maybe bigger than the vendors creating new products. If you want to see what I mean by thinking big, take a look at the recent discussion eWEEK Technology Editor Peter Coffee had with our Corporate Partner […]

Maybe someday all contact will be via e-mail, videoconferencing or seminars, but not yet. There remains a level of information that can be achieved only through face-to-face meetings and in-person discussions. Road trips are really bad for things such as diets and decisions about exercise and working more instead of hitting the hotel bar, but […]