By the Numbers: February 2004

Automatic for (some of) the people
It turns out, unsurprisingly, that the larger the company, the more likely it is to use a freestanding application integration server to host software to automate its business. But the number that actually do so is small, and they’re not parochial about which standard they use.

Redundant Projects are Redundant; Insecure Online
After three years of tight budgets, layoffs and scrutiny from both the boardroom and Wall Street, corporate America should be running a pretty tight ship.

But the majority of project managers polled said at least a quarter of their projects are redundant…

…and only a few said they follow a process to ensure projects serve strategic goals.

Source: Robbins-Gioia, Inc., Survey of 100 respondents from companies with revenues over $250 million, conducted at Project World conference

Customer Service 101
Considering the fact that business-to-business customers typically buy a lot more than a typical consumer would, the B2B buying experience ought to be Business Class. Not so. B2C sites keep service up by making dedicated e-commerce teams responsible for it, while B2B groups spread the responsibility around. Either way, no matter how cool your site, phones still rule.

Source: Forrester Research, Inc., survey of 100 companies with more than $500 million in revenue

Insecure online
Consumers are not buying into programs by Visa and MasterCard to assign passwords to credit cards used for online purchases. Only 8% of cardholders have signed up for the initiative intended to curb identity theft, though 49% are aware of the program, According to Jupiter Research/ipsos-Insight. Another 14% refuse to participate, and 27% might get around to it, but haven’t.