Quiz: Do You Need Route-Control?

Currently, route control works only when you have multiple links to the Internet–so if you have only one service provider, the point is moot.   TRUE FALSE My company gets charged according to the throughput we use. We maintain expensive dedicated lines for branch offices. We offer e-commerce applications for

Route Control

What is it? A method of identifying the best path between two points on a network—in this case, the Internet. How does it work? Route-control software lets the user (i.e., the network administrator) set the rules and policies that define what the “best path” is—it might be the fastest route,

Making Sense of Web Site Traffic

Your Web server’s traffic logs can tell you if your site’s page hits are going up or down, but how do you know what visitors are really doing at your site? Enter Web analytics, which aims to extend site traffic measurements by tracking and reporting visitors’ behavior when they click

By the Numbers: October 2002

Rating Software: What Networks NeedHoney, I Shrunk the BacklogCustomer Carefree?Saving BytesBudgets Return to Basics For a detailed view of this month’s statistics, download the PDF file.

How to Make Activities Measure Up

How much did the marketing department spend on technology products and services last year? If you can’t answer this question, you can be sure of two things: You are not alone, and your budget is wrong. Most technology departments have set up systems of charging other business units for the

The Bottom Line Per… Louis T. Chmielewski

As director of information systems at the global sandwich franchise, Louis Chmielewski supervises a staff of 40 that supports 650 corporate employees in Milford, Conn. With more than 16,000 sandwich shops, Subway has been pushing to expand internationally (it already has 1,200 shops outside North America) and uses its information

Tool: Determining Activity-Based Costs

Activity-based costing is often counterintuitive for traditional finance managers because neither God nor the devil reside in the details. Being approximately correct is better than precisely inaccurate, as the saying goes. Calculating the cost of an activity is the easy part. The real trick is knowing what activities matter and

Tool: The Big Three of Web Site Measurement

These top metrics are suggested by the Drilling Down Project, which offers a broader, 22-metric analysis tool via an Excel spreadsheet. REJECT RATE This measures the percent of visitors that came to a particular page on your site but failed to browse any further. Usually tracked for entry pages, such

How To Estimate Productivity

Time is money. Whether it’s a sales-automation application or a document-sharing system, most internal software projects get pitched as a way to trim labor costs and give employees extra time to generate more business for the company. But in some cases, managers point to productivity without asking if the benefits

ISS: From Gate-Watcher to Gatekeeper

As a pioneer of a new form of security network intrusion detection in the mid-1990s, Internet Security Systems (ISS) made a name for itself. The company’s early start in the field plus its technological edge helped it claim slightly more than 50% of the market. Now ISS is pushing into