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Software as a Service solutions have been around for years. However, until recently organizations only reluctantly engaged them, choosing instead expensive and complex custom software builds implemented solely within their enterprise systems. Surely, SaaS developers have changed. However, their pros...

A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services contract awarded in November 2005 charged Accenture Health & Life Sciences and three other tech developers with the creation of a fully integrated health information system to connect healthcare communities. They had to respect the provisions of the...

When data loss or unintended exposure occurs, organizations face myriad challenges in communication and crisis management. "Most companies will try and bury any security breach as rapidly as possible, trying to gauge what the impact on them will be and firefighting," Clive Longbottom, service direct...

The Health Insurance Portability and Privacy Act -- more commonly known by its acronym "HIPAA" -- targets specific electronic data and communication processes in medical organizations. Adopted in 1996, HIPAA sets standards for the use and disclosure of patient information. At first blush, HIPAA seem...

Consumer loyalty has become such a ubiquitous goal for marketers that its definition is murky, at best. Ten years ago, a loyal customer participated with a chosen brand more frequently than the average shopper. For marketers, the term has evolved to encompass frequency, recency of interaction and mo...

There's an oft-heard slight in professional realms: "Those who can't do, teach." If taken seriously, this notion would leave marketers lost in their attempts to build consumer loyalty. Loyalty-building efforts are far-reaching and far-roaming, having scaled a precipice of marketing interest in the l...

Since the events of Sept. 11, 2001 -- and more recently, Aug. 29, 2005 -- disaster recovery has moved to the forefront of executive minds in corporate America. Terrorist attacks and natural catastrophes have prompted reviews of data storage practices, customer care locations and tech support. "Busin...

CRM captures transactional data collected through proprietary payment tools and point-of-sale software. Now retailers are marrying the "what" of behavioral data to the "why" of attitudinal data. "They know what's happening and the emotional triggers behind the activity," says marketing consultant M...

The Health Insurance Portability and Privacy Act -- more commonly known by its acronym "HIPAA" -- targets specific electronic data and communication processes in medical organizations. Adopted in 1996, HIPAA sets standards for the use and disclosure of patient information. At first blush, HIPAA seem...

As if the airlines haven't had enough challenges since Sept. 11, 2001, British authorities were compelled to introduce a new one at the beginning of August. In addition to weathering economic downturns, volatile bankruptcies and merger flirtations, airlines now must comply with new carry-on restrict...

In an era of prevalent outsourcing -- some of it hurriedly agreed to without due diligence -- Artifact aims through its Scorecard service to help small and mid-sized businesses determine the right outsourcing vendor for their needs. Its on-demand software product, Lighthouse, is designed to help sma...

Three technology companies have joined together to propel radio frequency identification applications forward. OATSystems, ADT Security Systems and Intel are paying for technology implementation to win grocery retailers over to RFID investment. Grocers suffer from slim profit margins. That means the...

Recent data out of McKinsey & Co. reveals that offshore outsourcing providers have only captured 10 percent of a potential US$300 billion business. One opportunity for new growth is IT services. Business processes outsourcing will continue along the curve it has established, but McKinsey predict...

The impetus for CRM development was business-to-business's need to capture customer and prospect information, note sales, marketing and service contacts, and nurture relationships through better communication internally and externally. These solutions, however, don't lend themselves easily or often ...

New data shows that job cut announcements in the tech sector are waning. Employers, though, hardly needed a research study to tell them that hiring has new challenges. Q1 2006 represented the fourth consecutive quarter in which tech-sector job cuts were below their year-prior levels, according to a ...

Personal banking is called retail banking in the biz because traditionally consumer banking occurred in a building on Main Street, Anytown, U.S.A. The bank sat among department and hardware stores, coffee and flower shops. In the eyes of consumers, it was another downtown retailer. But in the mid-1...

According to a February JupiterResearch survey, 59 percent of small businesses that generate between US$100,000 and $5 million in annual revenue and 74 percent of those making in excess of $5 million are heavy users of mobile phones. Whether they work on their own or have 100 employees, more than ha...

For years, marketers have shuddered at the realization that consumers are on to them. They've worried about saturation, about people ingesting so many advertisements and marketing messages on an average day that no one has a chance at standing out. Marketers have created a whole lexicon around the p...

According to a McKinsey & Co. survey conducted in June 2005, leading B-to-B companies that conduct collaborative projects with supply chain partners and end customers increase their revenues and profits by more than 20 percent on average. But joint projects are rare in B-to-B because process cha...

Since the end of the U.S. presidential campaign, the issue of outsourcing has ceased to be daily fodder for television news outlets. But it remains an issue that many American corporations struggle with on a daily basis. Aside from controversy surrounding the loss of American jobs, companies must d...