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The article reports that companies are using creative ideas and harnessing the power of innovation for competitive advantage in the competitive world. Hyatt Regency O'Hare in Chicago is using mobile hosts which are now placed at the airport shuttle center to greet guests and help them in check in. Banks are developing new services and payment applications. INSETS: SHAKING THINGS UP;SHOW ME THE MONEY.

The article offers information that IT consultancy Open Credo launched three new application in seven months.It states that by using the Cloud Foundry open-source framework with other open-source software, Open-Credo eliminated heavy lifting such as configuring virtual machines and adjusting the size of storage volumes.It mentions that the framework allowed developers to write code locally, share it with the client, and automate the integration, testing, and deployment of application components. INSETS: Choosing a Framework;Two HOMEGROWN Frameworks;MIXED Marriages.

The article discusses the strategy for interacting with mobile customers. Alex Betancur, general manager, Publishers Clearing House Online Network, says that the strategy is to support users who patronize the mobile Web and the younger users of smartphone on entertainment based applications. The author suggests works to do, which includes study the statistics of customers and mobile behaviors, explore the specific mobile function and make sure that the channels of customer feature's consistency.

The article provides information on the pros and cons with software as a service (SaaS) in the U.S. The author stated that SaaS has helped Nobel Learning Communities Inc. to quickly ramp up without trying to develop their own software or picking up a product and modifying it. Meanwhile, SaaS has offered a huge advantage over both custom development and in-house implementation of commercial packages in Informa PLC. On the other hand, Dreambuilder Investments LLC has emphasized that SaaS enables nontechnical users to customize the application. INSET: The Scoop on Saas.

The article discusses the open-source framework Struts. Struts is used to build Web applications utilizing the model-view-controller design approach whereby business logic, executed by a Java starlet, is separated from presentation, which JavaServer Pages manages. The primary components of Struts are the Model, View,and Controller. There are three separate Struts frameworks, namely Struts Action 1, Struts Action 2, and Struts Shale. Struts was created by Craig McClanahan who was formerly connected with Sun Microsystems Inc.

Deals with helping employees conduct their own online transaction through the use of Web-based, customer self-service human resources application software. Attitude of employees toward self-service human resources applications; Advantages of giving employees online access to human resources processes; Overview of high-end self-service tools used by companies.

Reports on the electronic business-to-business software package called Solution for Supplier Enablement offered by Microsoft Corp. for suppliers. Products included in the package; Functions of the software suite; Cost of the software package.

Presents information on several products included in the second annual Information Technology (IT) Leaders' Choice Awards of `Computerworld.' Open systems database management system; Office suites; Corporate servers; Browsers; Desktop applications.

The article discusses the reassessment of corporation's commitment to a decentralized information technology (IT). Fundamental business pressures; Strengthening central control of applications development; Globalization of the IT function; Objectives of the recentralization of IT.

The article indicates that application (app) developers can now revise software faster by tapping existing frameworks in the cloud, which will allow faster response to business needs. Topcs discussed include the November 2013 North American Development Survey by Evans Data Corp. showing that 28 percent of programmers are developing in the cloud. Also mentioned are the benefits associated with cloud computing and the concerns to be addressed before moving app development to a cloud environment. INSET: Assemble to ORDER.

The article reports on improving productivity while protecting corporate application software. INSET: EASE OF USE VS. SECURITY: The DRM Dilemma.

The article focuses on the importance and potential benefits of setting up an in-house application (app) store for business enterprises. It states that an in-house app store allows companies to control the use of enterprise applications on mobile devices such as tablet computers and smartphones. It adds that proper management and control of mobile devices can lead to efficient business communication.

The article reports on the opportunities offered on the use of service-oriented architecture (SOA) to create components that can be combined and reused as services across multiple applications. It notes that the use of such application updates easier and faster, reduces the development time, and improves service to customers and partners. Hamesh Yadav, lead systems architect, states that use of SOA makes things more interoperable.

The article discusses the relevance of using open source software in data center management in the U.S. According to the article, Sabre Holdings Corp. chief information technology officer Robert Wiseman all their servers are run by open source software which has already reached its majority state provides an optimize performance in low cost and high quality performance. Consequently, Forrester Research inc. advised its clients who are planning to integrate open source tools to examine efficiently its ecosystem to assert the type of support needed. In addition, Optaros Inc. enterprise tools and frameworks director Dave Gynn noted that open-source software excel in heterogeneous environment since it allows users to attain control flexibility and smart deployment process.

The article reports on the various challenges encountered by business enterprises in the use of global enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. It states that several companies are having a difficulty in achieving consistency around their business processes because of variations in regional business requirements. Organizations also considered the change in management as the toughest challenge in moving to ERP system. However, companies assert that it is worth the struggle because it allows the speedy decision making of executives.

The article focuses on the technical and cultural challenges faced by many corporations and government agencies that are shifting from client/server technologies to service-oriented architectures (SOA) in the U.S. It offers information on the action taken by officials of large corporate and government IT shops to tackle the myriad challenges that come with using SOA technology, including changing roles for developers and architects and a blurring of the lines between IT development and operations groups. The author also presents the new multiyear SOA project to create business processes from Web services. INSETS: New Job Functions Emerge With SOAs;Disparate IT Groups Joining Forces in SOA Projects.

The article presents views of Robb Chapman, an IT specialist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, about the complications associated with the use of a collaboration tool by business enterprises. He has shared his experience which he encountered when he became involved in the CDC's efforts to purchase a software that would let its researchers work more effectively with universities and state health agencies. An outside consultant was hired to suggest the appropriate collaborative software for the CDC. Chapman was so confused in choosing among various tools, including discussion boards, Web conferencing, and document sharing. This kind of confusion is also shared by many IT managers. This, suggestively, is because there are about 1,000 vendors in the collaboration market. The CDC chose SiteScape Inc.'s Enterprise Forum, which allows it to collaborate with outside health agencies and research groups. This collaborative application system quickly creates a virtual "war room" to deal with a health crisis. INSET: Obstacles to Adoption..

Talks about cutting costs among companies by moving away from call centers and installing Web-based customer services application software and other self-service platforms. Results of implementing self-service application and an interactive voice response system at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Carolina; Discussion on the return on investment on self-service application; Implementation of self-service application software at Consolidated Freightways.

An interview with Emmile Brack, leader of the information technology (IT) department at Aspire Public Schools, a nonprofit organization in California, is presented. When asked about the cause behind the deployment of analytics in the organization, she states that the analytic software was deployed to save time of principals, teammates and teachers. When enquired about her non IT professional background, she states that she had to learn about the IT from the beginning.

The article offers information on the storage applications by vendors. It states that some storage appliance eliminates the entire input/output (I/O) storage network that resides between servers and storage. It mentions that server virtualization has also pushed traditional storage systems to the tipping point, with sometimes 20 to 30 servers virtualized onto one server. INSET: MIX AND MATCH.

The article reports that the U.S. companies are planning to increase their information technology (IT) hiring to bolster business growth in 2012. This journal's survey reveals that 29 percent of the 353 IT executives plan to increase IT staffing in 2012. It informs that IT staffers will focus on programming and application development, project management, and networking sectors.

The article focuses on the importance of business intelligence (BI) applications for companies in the U.S. It notes that creating analytic tools and data available on smartphones can improve the company's service and boost productivity as it gives them the ability to interact with their customers and business partners. It claims that the mobile trend will improve with the smartphone's ability to display graphical data and graphical interfaces for BI visualizations.

The article reports on the effort of the chief information officers to keep the information technology (IT) projects remain on track despite the recession in the U.S. Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. is one of the companies that avoid IT layoffs but continue to move forward on major projects on replacing its voice-mail systems into SAP AG's financial and human resources applications. Deloitte Services LP deployed videoconferencing technology to help operating units reduce travel costs.

The article discusses the benefits of incorporating software as a service (SaaS) backup provider into the computer systems in the U.S. The author stated that SaaS backup provider supports and maintains a variety of applications over the Internet without requiring clients to invest in any servers. Carl Howe, analyst at Yankee Group Research Inc., has stated that one of the reasons for having a SaaS system is its low cost, which starts at $4.95 per month. The author emphasized that one must not assume that SaaS is less expensive than long-term software license for it depends on application type, number of users and IT efficiencies.

The article discusses how software vendors upgrade their applications in relation to multicore chips in the U.S. The author stated that with the incorporation of the multicore technology in virtualization projects, IT managers have managed to cut costs and hardware needs. He added that software vendors are slow in taking on the heady challenge of upgrading their applications. Moreover, software has yet to take advantage of multicore chips such as AMD's Phenom quad-core processors. He emphasized that the task of IT executives is to determine how helpful doubling may be until the software problem is solved.

An interview with Matthew Glotzbach, director of product management for Google Inc.'s Google Enterprise is presented. Glotzbach explains that Google's new cloud-based applications are different from its other applications since they are built differently and provide a constant stream of updates. The company already has about 500,000 organizations using Google's software applications and has received positive feedback from businesses on its software application "software as a service" (SaaS).

The article reports that Visa U.S.A. Inc. has intensified its campaign to ensure that vendors of payment processing software comply with a set of security guidelines. According to the author, the firm sent out a missive which lists applications from six vendors that it wants retailers and other merchants to cease applying because the products capture and store sensitive card data. These sensitive data include personal identification numbers printed on the back of credit and debit cards. The author states that the letter urges financial institutions or the acquirers to make sure that companies using the listed software upgrade to new versions in accordance with the security guidelines provided.

The article reports on the findings of the study on the use of XML-based Open Document Format (ODF) for office applications in the U.S. It shows that some government institutions are in favor of using ODF, while private corporations has little interest in it. ODF is an alternative to the office applications of Microsoft Corp. Information technology (IT) managers claims that Microsoft's office applications market is not in danger, while a separate poll shows that IT manages have not yet considered alternatives to the application. Another survey shows that corporate IT managers have no plans to use ODF but are planning to use Microsoft's Open XML in the new Office 2007 applications.

The article focuses on the sentiments of the information technology managers on delaying the migrations of Windows Vista, operating system and Office 2007, application software from Microsoft Corp. in the companies' systems in the U.S. IT managers emphasize high-profile featured in Vista and the dramatically different user interface in Office 2007 as the factors that caused hard time to decide about the company's upgrade strategies. Enterprise architect at Duke Energy Corp. Charlie Ward stresses that the user interface of Vista has presented a significant change-management issue where the company think they could not absorb this year. Chief information officer at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. Jim Prevo suggests training among users to avoid operating problems.

The article reports on the advantages gained by Alliant Energy Corp. in Madison, Wisconsin, in managing the company's earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) by employing the business intelligence (BI) tools from Cognos Inc. With the aid of BI technology, the company was able to bring down the number of man-hours it took in the preparation of EBIT reports and identified and corrected problems earlier, making a significant financial impact on the company. According to Shirley M. Szudy, the company's senior consultant and financial planning generation group and head of the central finance section, as much as the timeliness of EBIT report is important, the level of detail and the depth of the data produced with the help of BI also matters a lot to the company.

The article focuses on the business intelligence application Crescendo used by Virgin Entertainment Group Inc. in the operation of its stores in the U.S. Through BI, Virgin local store managers and employees can make immediate decisions as the BI system provides a near-real-time analysis of trending information, which also include current sales and historical figures. The system also offers sales data, allowing the company's store managers to schedule associates and to offer lunch schedule. According to Charlie Brasby, regional director for Virgin, as the system can track sales by an hour, the company was able to identify trends more quickly, thus allowing it to take advantage of weekend business

The article focuses on the business intelligence (BI) tool called Medical Metrics used by health insurance company Humana Inc. in the U.S. in managing the healthcare services of its client. With Medical Metrics, the company was able to help its workers improve the lives of its customers, particularly those who are in need of serious medical care as the system allows them to identify people who have not been identified in the company's disease management program and those who are high-cost and high-need members. According to Gary Thompson, vice president of Humana's clinical programs, one of their aims in using the technology is to understand incoming claims to stem the rising medical cost.

The article introduces the Altiris Software Virtualization Solution (SVS) by Altiris Inc. SVS offers reduction in support costs and makes the software operations to be more efficient through application provisioning. It can switch applications on and off which makes the application virtually invisible. The computer application does instant repair of damaged applications possible and it significantly minimizes testing time for application rollouts.

The article reports on application mapping tools. Large organizations need application mapping for them to be able to track down of the IT activities. Application mapping tools can be of help to IT architects and they can also provide assistance to application monitoring and configuration management tasks. They make a way to make different views of the infrastructure and systems. They help developers and operations staff to find the problem in changes to application. They can also work in two ways: as an agent-based software and as an agentless software. Although the tools have similar purposes, they differ in the detection of applications. INSET: The Agent Debate.

The article reports that SOA Software Inc., Thomson Learning and other Web services vendors have agreed to support Version 3 of the Universal Description, Discovery and Integration standard. According to Christopher Crowhurst, vice president at Thomson Learning, he spends 15 percent of his time each week to create an enterprise approach to service-oriented architecture governance. Thomson Learning develops and implements policies to manage Web services by manipulating the interfaces of its Extensible Markup Language gateways, application servers and other services. Ian Goldsmith, vice president of product marketing at SOA Software, said that the standards effort led by the company was instigated by users who demanded that management and policy products work with multiple registries. INSET: Data about Metadata.

The article reports on the comment of the users of product life-cycle management (PLM) applications that it lack security in the U.S. According to Michael Boldt, engineering applications manager at Moog Inc., maintaining the security of intellectual property is important to manufacturers to be able to comply with government regulations and to ensure confidentiality of information. Moog is looking for a system with advanced security rules that can produce computer-aided design models of products that can be shared with partners. Joed Dougherty, PLM manager at Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, his company has secured its intellectual property by limiting access to PLM data. INSET: Guarding Jewels.

This article describes five U.S. corporations' information technology (IT) strategies for compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act's requirement for the identification, monitoring, and verification of effective internal controls. Constellation Energy utilizes BindView Control network monitoring systems software to identify financial information residing in applications and servers that employees access. Chicago Mercantile Exchange's Movaris Certainty 8.0 software allows the documentation, reporting, and review of internal controls. Certus Governance Suite identifies risks and assertions tied to various accounts at FirstEnergy Corp. SOX Express lets employees enter passwords to access SunTrust Banks Inc.'s network. UGS Corp. utilizes BizRights to view segregation of duties across the enterprise resource planning environment.

This article reports on an information technology (IT) trend in which U.S. banks do not run mission-critical business application software and data centers on the Linux open-source operating system. Cleveland, Ohio-based KeyBank is an exception in upgrading its servers to Linux. This trend is attributed to the following factors: mainframe systems that make it difficult to move to new technology, a flurry of mergers in which banks ensure integration of existing IT systems rather than migrating to a new platform, and bank aversion to risk because of the necessity of maintaining customer trust.

This article discusses the reactions of Salesforce.com's corporate customers to the system failure of the application service provider's hosted customer relationship management (CRM) system for the second time in over a month. The half-dozen customers expressed interest in continuing with San Francisco, California-based Salesforce.com despite the outages but two of them suggested ways in which Salesforce.com can compensate them for the downtime. They see constant data availability as a key advantage of hosted systems versus software implemented on-site.

The article describes the development and use of an Internet-based software by the nonprofit organization, Aidmatrix Foundation Inc. with chief operating officer, Keith R. Thode, designed to help humanitarian organizations better manage supplies. These systems were used to manage relief-related information technology systems when Hurricane Katrina struck and were integrated into the satellite connections of the United States Army during its military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and other remote or hostile areas. INSET: So, You Want to Test Your Skills?.

Comments on the trends in the computer industry. Significance of infrastructure platform on business continuity; Advantage of the latter over system upgrade; Utilization of existing applications; Discrepancies in the design of some software hindering its capabilities for optimum utilization.

This article reports on the adoption of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library Standard (ITIL) in order to restore GuideStone Financial Resources' help desk operations. One of the driving goals of ITIL is to reshape information technology (IT) operations into a services model by spelling out service levels and detailed processes for delivering, managing, and supporting technology. Proponents say that the standard can help cut IT costs and improve alignment with business units. As part of the ITIL process, technology-support workers assigned to the company's help desk were retrained or replaced with systems analysts and employees who could probe application problems.

The article features Rich Internet applications, that are designed to provide enhancements to usability without the deployment and maintenance headaches of client and server applications. The new tools eliminate the need to refresh a Web page every time a user enters or receives new data. They allow businesses to more easily move existing client and server applications to the Web or build new Web applications. Companies are using the tools for electronic commerce and call center applications that require complex interactions with users. INSET: ATLAS TO SUPPORT AJAX.

This article examines the factors that caused problems in large-scale software installations in the public sector in the U.S. When it comes to troubled information technology projects, it seems that the public sector is over-represented. But some observers say that it is just that users have a more public forum in which to air their dissatisfaction than users in the private sector. In addition, governments are subject to transparency laws that affect corporations only when chief executive officers deliver quarterly earnings reports. INSET: Cheer Up.

This article reports that Microsoft Corp. displayed upcoming Office 12 features that it hopes will entice more developers to build applications that use the software as a front end or hook into its back-end pieces. Three key pieces that should help attract developers to Office 12 are a new open extensible markup language (XML) file format, the InfoPath tool for collecting data through dynamic, XML-based forms, and the Windows SharePoint Services infrastructure for building collaborative applications.

This article reports on the reaction of users regarding Oracle Corp.'s (OC) move to buy customer relationship management software rival, Siebel Systems Inc. This move accelerates the company's transition from a build-it-here vendor to one that is relying on acquisitions to expand its applications business. But the deal left some users wondering whether the company is taking on more companies than it can handle. OC is already integrating four other application vendors that it bought earlier in 2005.

The article reports on the shortage of appropriate application software needed for high-performance computing (HPC). HPC is emerging as a critical IT need at many large companies that use simulation and virtualization to design and test their products. But there is a growing gap between the hardware and software capabilities in HPC systems. Although hardware vendors can build systems with hundreds or even thousands of processors, many of the HPC applications developed by software vendors typically utilize only 12 or 16 processors in parallel. Testing of a product in fully computer-generated environments will enable manufacturers to reduce development time and bring goods to market more quickly. But the need for speed is huge. Simulating even an action so seemingly simple as removing a bottle cap can involve millions of calculations. Because of the current HPC application limits, physical testing of products may still be necessary. The main reason of unavailability of HPC applications is that most software vendors focus on the technical systems market, which revolves around PCs, workstations and small servers, because that is where most of the demand and revenue is. Besides, the number of users that want to scale systems across hundreds or thousands of processors is not large enough to justify the cost of rewriting and testing applications.

This article presents information on Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX), an approach to developing Web applications in which client Web pages are modified asynchronously and incrementally rather than being replaced entirely every time an update is needed. The acronym AJAX is significant because it captures a paradigm shift in the delivery of Web page content. The AJAX approach to Web content delivery speeds up the user interface. The long wait for an entire page to refresh from a Web server is not necessary in an AJAX-based application. Only the part of a Web page that needs to be updated is altered, and the update is done locally, if possible, and asynchronously.

The article focuses on the development of new simulation technology to bridge the gap between application development plans and the requirements submitted by business users. CNA Financial Corp. in April 2005 began an initiative that calls for all new development projects to use simulation tools from El Segundo, California-based iRise Inc. instead of paper-based requirements. The iRise tools allow business analysts to test-drive applications through simulation of the log-in process, data and business logic, and page layout, without writing code. This week, iRise plans to unveil iRise 5, the fifth generation of its collaborative application-definition platform. The new version will package simulation capabilities along with text descriptions and user scenarios in a self-contained file that can be shared by multiple users. Wachovia Corp. uses iRise simulation tools in its user design laboratory to simulate Web applications before deploying them to internal users or consumers. The new iRise version should reduce the labor required to build simulated applications and increase Wachovia's ability to manage the look and feel of a simulation.

The article focuses on New York-based telecommunications company, Verizon Communications Inc.'s service-oriented architecture (SOA), dubbed the IT Workbench. The SOA supports the design, deployment and management of Web services and has helped the company slash its information technology budget by 50 percent by eliminating redundant systems inherited from the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE, which spawned Verizon. The IT Workbench is focused on internal integration using Web services. It has a dashboard application that allows the company to track Web services transaction volumes by line of business on a daily basis. Verizon is moving deeper into the transactions used by each line of business and plans to support 33 million Web services transactions per year.