Larry Dignan

For Paul Zazzera, chief information officer at Time Inc., 2004s technology budget is going to look a lot like 2003s: Flat. Zazzeras budget, which serves the flagship magazine division at sprawling media giant Time Warner, will feature a few high-priority projects such as updating Times classified-advertising system. Whether he undertakes a lot of other projects […]

The Microsoft Office 2003 launch on Oct. 21 included plenty of proclamations from chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates and other honchos about how the new suite of word-processing, mail and presentation software can enhance productivity. But the most interesting item may be a white paper by Microsoft that tries to measure (and market) […]

Thaddeus Arroyo, Chief Information Officer for wireless carrier Cingular, is preparing for what could be a six-week sprint to meet a regulatory mandate. Wireless local number portability, known as WLNP, will allow customers of the 100 largest carriers to take their phone numbers with them if they choose to switch their allegiance. The deadline: Nov. […]

There are two kinds of executives: The business-savvy manager who uses technology and the technologist. Before long, the latter will become extinct. “The day of the technology bureaucrat is over,” says Ken Bohlen, executive vice president and chief innovation officer at Textron, a conglomerate that includes Bell Helicopter and Cessna Aircraft. “Any CIO who hasnt […]

For Bob Travatello, the benefit of complying with Sarbanes-Oxley is calculated in prison time: “The ROI is keeping my CEO and CFO out of jail.” Travatello is chief information officer for Blue Rhino, a Winston-Salem, N.C., provider of propane gas cylinders for backyard grills. Like counterparts at every public and many private companies, he plans […]

/zimages/7/17485.gif In effect, Pat Gambaro began planning for this day in 1993. This month he is coming home, to new offices with a state-of-the-art trading floor for the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT), where Gambaro serves as chief operating officer. The exchange was scheduled to move back to downtown New York over Labor Day […]

Typically, worries about the United States future in technology are brushed aside by uttering four words: “The next big thing.”The next big thing will give displaced workers a new career and give them an opportunity to become wealthy if their jobs go abroad. Itll also keep the United States the most productive economy in the […]

The loss of high-paying jobs to other countries isnt viewed as a national security issue yet, but that may change. If information technology is increasingly moved offshore, the Department of Defense may take a closer look, say analysts. Why? The U.S. military is increasingly relying on information systems and if that technology cant be procured […]

Will the movement of high-paying technology jobs gut the U.S. tax base?In all likelihood, the impact will be muted. Economy.com estimates 800,000 back-office jobs will disappear forever over the next five years. Assuming an average salary of $60,000, thats lost wages of about $50 billion. Multiply by 1.2 to account for the trickle-down effect, and […]

Chris Heim knows hell have to eventually send some of his product development work to India, China or some other country.The chief executive of HighJump Software, a supplier of supply-chain software based in Eden Prairie, Minn., has a rival that already has 200 developers in India, getting paid about $10,000 a year each. He has […]

NEWS ANALYSIS: Oracles bid for PeopleSoft could have turned out differently if CEO Larry Ellison didnt lose style points in the companys opening volley. Consider how PeopleSoft customers might have reacted differently to Oracles hostile takeover bid if not for this paragraph in the database giants initial press release. “Although we will not be actively […]

Arlyn Richards doesnt want a spate of proposed enterprise software mergers to become an implementation headache for him. Richards, manager of information systems at Gallatin Steel based in Ghent, Ky., is a two-year J.D. Edwards customer and hopes PeopleSoft doesnt absorb his OneWorld suite, leaving him with what effectively will be another integration job. Gallatin, […]