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At eWEEK, we have a New Years resolution: to deliver more of the kind of information that helps you and your company deploy technology efficiently and for business advantage.
You already receive our weekly blend of news, views and reviews, and were not about to change that. But in 2005, were expanding efforts to reach specific communities of eWEEK readers with our Solutions Series. Last year, some groups of readers started receiving special sections (known as demographic supplements in publishing lingo) bound inside eWEEK. Each supplement is a package of feature stories and case studies organized around technology topics, professions and vertical industries. These are stories about users for other users who may find themselves with similar problems they need solved by technology.
The supplements—11 different types—have been created with the help of reader profile information gathered by our circulation and research departments. These will appear inside eWEEK on a rotating basis, with at least one section and sometimes two sections published each week. The goal is for readers to receive the sections that appeal to their specific needs.
Last year, we rolled out our first demographic sections—stuck our toe in the water, if you will. The first were called Channel Solutions, which covered a new breed of comprehensive solutions providers, and Network Solutions, which was for wired or wireless networking specialists. We later added Developer Solutions, a collaborative effort from eWEEK News and Labs for developers.
Each supplement includes a special kind of feature story—a case study—written from the perspective of the customer or user of a technology, rather than from the product vendors point of view. We detail a problem the customer faced; what best practices or strategies were followed to solve it; what technology was chosen and why; and what, if any, measurable return on investment the company attained through the deployment.
Because of the success of the supplements and favorable feedback from readers, eWEEK will roll out eight new demographic supplements in 2005: Government, Security, VOIP, Finance, Wireless, Open Source, Storage and CXO. All but Developer Solutions, Open Source and Storage will be produced entirely by eWEEK News. Open Source and Storage will be written entirely by eWEEK Labs analysts and will be characterized by an intense technical focus. The frequency of the new sections will vary; some will appear monthly, others quarterly.
Whereas most of the sections will tell stories of how technology cuts across many industries, the Government and Finance sections are vertical in scope. They will describe, respectively, how local, state and national governments and financial services companies, such as banks and insurance and investment companies, deploy technology in a strategic manner. The first Finance section, coming out next month, will explain how one bank deployed a secure messaging solution and how one insurer rolled out technology to help it manage Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act reporting requirements.
How will eWEEK be putting all this together, you might ask? First, our reporters and editors will be on constant lookout for interesting deployment stories that have fallen through the cracks. Vendors also will let us know about success stories from some of their key customers. But in addition, wed like to hear from you, our readers, who work every day to solve IT problems, about what has been successful for you. Now that the technology industry is heading in the right direction, with enterprises large and small approaching technology as a way to save money and not just to spend it, its time to tell those stories, and eWEEK is where we want to tell them.
We hope you enjoy these additions and find them useful. There is a lot at stake for all of us this year; we want eWEEK to be a source of vital information for you—in whatever industry you may be, or with whatever technology interests you have. If you have a good deployment story, please let us know about it, and good luck this year in your projects.
eWEEK Editor Scot Petersen can be reached at scot_petersen@ziffdavis.com.