NEW! CIO DESK REFERENCE
Only a handful of innovative IT executives have successfully elevated IT
from cost center status to valued business partner. As a CIO, only you
can unlock the potential of your IT organization and create business
value from technology investments - but we can help. The 2004/05 edition
of META Group's CIO Desk Reference offers the methods and guidance that
IT executives need to become more effective IT leaders - including new
best-practice chapters covering regulatory compliance, outsourcing,
business intelligence, portal development, and advanced IT practices.
The CIO Desk Reference will help you to:
- Understand the value of IT in the context of achieving business
objectives
- Maximize the value of investments in people, process, and technology
- Improve organizational effectiveness and business alignment
- Communicate IT performance and value to top business executives
Click here to download the complimentary Executive Summary and learn
more about META Group's CIO Desk Reference.
http://www.metagroup.com/info/isciodr14
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FEATURED RESEARCH
THE SOFTWARE BARRIER (REEF) TO AN ADAPTIVE ORGANIZATION
Utility computing has been positioned as the concept of the future.
Before customers can accept it as a viable alternative, the harsh
realities of software must be addressed. The siren song of turning fixed
IT cost into variable costs has been fashionable lately. On-demand and
utility computing concepts revolve around providing flexibility and
turning fixed costs into variable costs (a subcomponent of an adaptive
organization). Unfortunately, utility computing is not synonymous with
lower costs. In many cases, a poor understanding of expenses will result
in increased costs.
Click here to read the full text of this META Group article (free member
login required).
http://www.metagroup.com/memberinfo/43911
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FEATURED WEBCAST
META Group and PricewaterhouseCoopers Present:
"Sarbanes-Oxley: How Can I Ensure True Success?"
January 13 - 11:30 AM-1:00 PM (ET)
Please join us for this complimentary Webcast and gain valuable tips
from two of the best go-to sources for expert SOX guidance. Stan Lepeak,
META Group analyst, and Randy O'Hare, partner and chair of
PricewaterhouseCoopers' (PwC) Sarbanes-Oxley Task Force, will highlight
best-practice compliance practices and success stories. Longer-term
strategic requirements/opportunities will also be covered, along with
how SOX impacts IT and business process outsourcing.
Click here for more details or to register, or call (800) 945-META
[6382] or (802) 872-7350
http://www.metagroup.com/htwc011304
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AUDIO BRIEFING
BUILDING BUSINESS QUALITY THROUGH ANALYSIS: DRIVING DYNAMIC CHANGE
Poor requirements gathering, analysis, and management are directly
responsible for 70%-80% of project failures, and the cost of change
increases exponentially the later that change occurs in a project.
Consequently, more Global 2000 organizations are investing in improving
the processes and capabilities of business analysts. To learn more about
this topic, listen to this audio briefing by META Group analysts
Melinda-Carol Ballou and Val Sribar and view the accompanying slides.
Click here to listen to this briefing (free member login required).
http://www.metagroup.com/memberinfo/45708
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2004 CIO BOOT CAMP
April 27-29 - Reston, Virginia
META Group's CIO Boot Camps have become consistent sellouts since their
inception in 1999 with more than 900 "graduates." The 2004 agenda will
be loaded with valuable and timely information, providing you with the
latest tools and insights you need to excel as a CIO. Join us - again or
for the first time - to take advantage of the most informative,
incisive, and interactive opportunity available for CIO development and
ongoing education. Register online or call (802) 872-7350.
http://www.metagroup.com/eventagenda/cio0404
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ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS
ANALYST INSIGHTS FROM META GROUP
OPT-IN E-MAIL NO LOOPHOLE FOR NATIONAL DO NOT CALL EXEMPTION
The National Do Not Call (DNC) Registry telemarketing rules enacted in
the US contain an exemption that allows businesses to continue
telemarketing to consumers if the consumer and the business have had an
established business relationship in the past 18 months. However, this
relationship is defined as a purchase, rental, or lease of the entity's
goods or services, or any financial transaction. Free, opt-in e-mail,
such as free newsletters, do not qualify as an established business
relationship. However, the rules do define a three-month allowable
contact window after a consumer inquires about a supplier's goods or
services, during which time outbound telemarketing can occur concerning
the inquiry. Although opt-in e-mail does not qualify for an established
business relationship under DNC, companies should seek opportunities to
increase the use of opt-in e-mail and other non-telephony engagement
channels to produce consumer inquiries that can lead to a temporary DNC
exemption. (Timothy Hickernell)
"DO NOT CALL" AND THE MARKETING IMPACT OF PORTING WIRELINE PHONE NUMBERS
TO WIRELESS
The US National Do Not Call (DNC) Registry continues to be troublesome
in its implementation as marketers try to understand the spirit versus
the letter of the law. Recently, nascent concerns have grown about a
significant hole in the DNC legislation related to the ruling that
telecom providers must allow phone numbers to be ported across wire type
(e.g., wireline to wireless). It remains illegal for automated dialers
to call wireless numbers because the call recipient must pay to receive
inbound calls (in addition to outbound calls), either with minutes or
with actual cash outlay. The issue is this: When a non-DNC-registered
wireline number gets ported to a wireless phone, it will be illegal to
call but will not show up in the DNC Registry. Because the DNC Registry
does not specify the lineage of a particular phone number, or even
differentiate the types of phone numbers (assuming that wireless phone
numbers will not show up), there is no way for a DNC-compliant
organization to avoid calling a wireless number until the next DNC
database is available for update. The Direct Marketing Association is
asking the FCC to rule that, until a completely reliable list can be
made available, it hold harmless any organization that calls a phone
number that has been ported from a wired to a wireless. While there is
not currently a high volume of wireline/wireless ports, some telecom
providers estimate that more than 16% of wired users will port their
number to wireless. Consequently, marketers must be wary of the
reliability of the DNC Registry; there continues to be a substantial
outbound marketing liability, despite best efforts to comply. (Elizabeth
Roche)
RFID ROLLING ALONG IN THE AUTO INDUSTRY
Although Wal-Mart has stolen the show with its mandate for all suppliers
to use RFID tags on cases and pallets by 2006, the automotive industry
is where the action is. An early adopter, its vehicles contain upward of
10-15 RFID-enabled devices, ranging from tire identification and tire
pressure monitoring systems to passive entry and antitheft systems.
Different from the tags prescribed for Wal-Mart's supply chain, these
RFID devices are primarily active (battery-powered) and serve specific
purposes other than tracking. And that is a key point - a vehicle's RFID
technology is solving defined problems and yielding tangible value to
customers, whether it is in the form of lower insurance costs because of
an antitheft system, or in the convenience of a passive entry system.
Companies evaluating RFID need to move beyond viewing RFID as a bar-code
substitute, and should begin their process by identifying problems and
opportunities that can be solved and then linking that to definable,
visible benefits. (Bruce Hudson)
THE PLM APPS BONE IS CONNECTED TO THE BACKBONE
Many organizations have some aspect of product life-cycle management
(PLM) already in place - whether it addresses creation (e.g.,
computer-aided design [CAD] tools) or control of product data (product
data management [PDM]) vaults. META Group research indicates that many
organizations have begun their PLM build-out from these starting points,
assembling a portfolio of point solutions to cover specific business
processes (e.g., collaborative design) or life-cycle phases (e.g.,
source). Although the early stages of this approach may solve specific
problems, organizations often run into new problems (e.g., scalability,
fragile integrations, soaring maintenance costs) as they proceed with
this ad hoc approach. The root cause of these problems is the lack of an
enterprise PLM backbone. Although many PLM solutions are built on PDM
applications - and PDM indeed rests in the center of a PLM solution -
PDM solutions alone do not make a PLM backbone. The technology platform
for the enterprise PLM solution must orchestrate the business processes
that span organizational and information silos via flexible and
configurable business process modeling features, as well as deliver the
basic services (e.g., common-user interface, single sign-on, workflow,
integration, LDAP, federated database management, and analytics) that
underlie all applications in the PLM portfolio. (Bruce Hudson)
Click here to read the latest analyst insights from META Group.
http://www.metagroup.com/metabits
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