Quiz: Are You Taking Risks With Your Privacy Policy?

  Yes No N/A 1. Does your company have a formal privacy policy approved by your legal counsel? 2. Has your company sent its customers all required privacy notices containing opt-out information? 3. Can your systems–and the business processes they support–handle customer requests to prevent sharing their nonpublic information with

P&G Eyes New Outsourcing Era

An anticipated multibillion-dollar deal between Procter & Gamble and Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) would be the largest business process outsourcing (BPO) contract to date, and one of the largest outsourcing contracts of any kind, ever. Whether or not the deal is done, the magnitude of P&G’s plan sends a clear

Detroit Finance System Sputters after Overhaul

In 1997, the City of Detroit announced a plan to revamp its financial software with a three-year, $47.9 million project called the Detroit Resource Management System, or DRMS, commonly referred to as Dreams. It should have been called “nightmares.” ZIFFDOWNLOAD id=”1457″ title=”p62-65″>The initial plan called for the integration of 43

After WorldCom, Who’ll Be Your ISP?

You’ve already heard the news. WorldCom has filed for bankruptcy protection amid questionable accounting practices. Verizon spin-off Genuity teeters precipitously after Verizon announced it wouldn’t rescue Genuity from its debtors by reassuming control. Qwest and Global Crossing join the ranks, having either filed for bankruptcy or announced massive layoffs and

What Price, Identity Management?

Given today’s budgets, asking for cash to clean up employee profiles and consolidate customer lists may seem a bit impudent. But the administrative savings alone make identity management a serious candidate for funding, according to a recent study: If a 10,000-employee company automated password-resetting alone, help-desk calls can drop by

Update: New CIO for Tyson

Jeri Dunn, formerly the vice president and CIO of Nestle USA, has left the world’s largest food manufacturer to become the first senior vice president and CIO of Tyson Foods, the world’s largest processor of beef, poultry and pork. Dunn, who spent 11 years at Nestle, takes on the top

MS Licenses Lapse—What’s Next?

If you’ve grown used to the regular, discounted, bulk software upgrades that were available as part of your Microsoft contract, pay attention: The party’s over. As of July 31, Microsoft has changed the rules, and now tech managers everywhere are scrambling to come up with ways either to use the

Network Virtualization: Reference Reading

Although overarching network virtualization efforts are still on the drawing board, three virtualization technologies are already available. Below is a breakdown of these bleeding-edge network services and their components. What’s being shared Related technology Primary protocol How clients connect Intermediate layer Storage space Storage area networking iSCSI Storage “host adapter”

Quiz: Can Network Virtualization Help You?

  TRUE FALSE Most of our servers are utilized 10% or less. The data we need to store grows by at least 30% each year. We develop more than one-third of our own software. We use a storage area network. Our development approach is services-based (e.g., Web services or messaging).

Cut Help Desk Costs Without Sacrificing Service

Ever consider what a call to tech support costs? Combine charges of $12 to $40 with the help desk’s poor reputation, and employees might be tempted to call a psychic hotline instead. Experts say any effort to make help-desk operations more efficient and accountable starts with keeping metrics. First, establish