Evan Schuman

A U.S. Court of Appeals panel this week issued a ruling in a long-running patent infringement lawsuit that threatened retailers using bar-code readers. The panel affirmed a lower court ruling that the patent infringement case should not go forward. The case involves several bar-code system manufacturers—including Symbol Technologies, Accu-Sort Systems, Intermec Technologies, Metrologic Instruments, PSC, […]

The most altruistic gift is an anonymous contribution, in which a giver wants to help but does not want to benefit from the donation. Sometimes, though, anonymity is not possible, and thats where things can get dicey. Last week, for example, a Fort Lauderdale authentication firm announced that it was offering its service free to […]

When Emcor Group CIO Joe Puglisi recently decided to upgrade his companys version of Lotus Notes, he quietly “pre-deployed” it with a cross-section of his companys business managers. He plans, he said, on using the favorable comments from that group to act as a sort of viral marketing to make the upgrade come as more […]

When credit card processing firm CardSystems announced Thursday that an independent auditor had declared its systems sound, one CardSystems executive said he now wants Visa and American Express to take it back. CardSystems Inc. was at the center of the nations largest known data security breach back in May, when it reported that someone had […]

Generous people wanting to help victims of Hurricane Katrina should direct their financial contributions carefully, so that the money isnt diverted by e-commerce thieves. Scammers taking advantage of the disaster dont need much capital or personnel: The Web provides them all they need in the way of cover, illusion and false identities. Firstly, there was […]

It has been said that CIOs at large companies today have limited direct power and—more than almost any other C-level executive—need to push the IT/business agenda by persuasion and by maintaining good relations with other stakeholders. Taking that to heart, the CIO of Overstock.com recently sent off a note to key business partners taking the […]

Are consumers seeing self-checkout as the anti-customer-service initiative they feared? Not according to the latest industry study, which predicts self-checkout revenue will double this year (compared with 2004) to $161 billion, and could hit $454 billion by 2008. The study, conducted by retail consulting firm IHL Consulting Group, is far more interesting than those numbers […]

With almost 3,000 stores in all 50 states, the Rent-A-Center retail chain needs to be able to expand quickly and easily. But its business model allows for customers to rent and return merchandise with little notice, forcing store layouts to be flexible. What if 30 customers return mattresses to the same store tomorrow? Tony Fuller, […]

A major regional fast-food chain—with 433 restaurants in the Southeastern United States—is going to offer free wireless connections to anyone who wants to surf while sitting in a burger joint. The Krystal Co. (the nations second-oldest fast-food restaurant chain, founded in 1932) is clearly hoping that a lot of customers will be intrigued and will […]

At a time when IT executives are finding users less and less tolerant of network delays, CIO William Morgan has perhaps the least tolerant set of users in the world. Morgan runs technology operations for the 215-year-old Philadelphia Stock Exchange, the nations first stock exchange. But its age doesnt make its daily load any easier, […]

Typically, a CIO arguing for a $30 to $40 million IT investment for new payment systems has to answer a lot of questions from a skeptical CEO, chief financial officer and board members. But that wasnt the recent experience of Canadian Tire Corp. CIO Andrew Wnek. Wnek reports to the CEO and runs IT for […]

In the Information Age that were in, quality of information trumps quantity every time. And for CIOs, thats good news. But theres a big piece of bad news, too. The flood of information at the command of customers is both good and bad, and many customers—especially consumers—rarely can tell the difference. Consider a consumer who […]