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Social CRM is quickly transforming from a concept to a reality. However, because of the diverse nature of customers and the broad range of options they have among social media channels, the best practices for capitalizing on Social CRM vary from segment to segment. That means some industries may have a more difficult path to Social CRM success. Bu...

Over the past several years, as enterprises have been deploying voice over IP (VoIP) with more frequency, many have learned that the first step in the VoIP lifecycle process should be a complete assessment of network readiness. This is just one of the common stumbling blocks that organizations will want to avoid in setting up a VoIP system.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has weighed in publicly in the dispute between the Fox broadcasting empire and cable provider Cablevision over payments for broadcasting Fox programming. The scuffle could wind up giving the agency greater power to regulate such standoffs Genachowski's agency released a letter to Fox and Cablevision executives on Tue...

Starbucks and Yahoo announced Wednesday the launch of Starbucks Digital Network. The network goes live immediately in Starbucks' 6,800 U.S. company-operated stores, presenting a collection of hand-picked news, entertainment, lifestyle and local content developed for laptops, tablets and smartphones. The connection is via Starbucks' free WiFi T...

Verizon, the very same company that recently announced it will sell the iPad beginning next week, announced Wednesday that it will become the first U.S. carrier to stock Samsung's Galaxy Tab ...

One almost has to pity Facebook. Less than a month after it rolled out user enhancements that were lauded even by privacy advocates, it is back in the doghouse, facing a class action lawsuit and testy inquiries from two members of Congress The problem once again is privacy. Many of the most popular applications on Facebook have been transmitting id...

Windows 7 is now officially a year old. Since it was released October 22, 2009, Microsoft has sold more than 200 million copies of the operating system -- approximately seven copies per second. That makes it the fastest-selling operating system in Microsoft's -- or any vendor's -- history. Windows 7 sales could top 300 million within the next six to eight months.

I get a lot of email. It's not all because of my job or because I publish my work frequently. Some of it is like that, but it seems like my email address is on a lot of lists, and I am one of the people who get spammed whenever there's a webinar to fill. Perhaps you know this feeling. Last week I was invited to a webinar for a sales product, and it made me think about why we aren't more successful and what might be done about it. ...

Capturing a screen image is a basic computing task -- so basic, in fact, that almost every computer keyboard has a dedicated key to grab a picture of what the monitor is displaying in the instant the key is pressed ...

Biometric security -- which employs systems that read people's fingerprints or compare their voiceprint or retina scans to information in data banks in order to authenticate them -- is being heavily used in some of the United States' most critical installations For example, the United States Department of Defense is focusing strongly on biometric s...

Global corporate spending on IT is entering a new cycle, characterized by lackluster or modest growth and, at the same time, new opportunities with new technologies. So said research firm Gartner at its annual Symposium/ITxpo, held this week in Orlando, Fla. From a 30,000-foot view, the growth story is a modest one. Global businesses will spend ab...

Microsoft announced Tuesday that it will combine its Officeproductivity Web apps suite and integrated Shareport, Exchange andLync services into a monthly package service beginning next year The service, called "Office 365," is a significant step-up from theWeb-based productivity apps Microsoft previously offered under theWindows Live banner....

Ray Ozzie is out as chief software architect at Microsoft, opening abig void through which analysts are tossing innumerable opinions regardingwhat the departure means for the company Ozzie's role was frequently seen as being Bill Gates' successor as thecompany's visionary technologist, a foil to CEO Steve Ballmer's purelybusiness-minded approach....

HP on Tuesday announced the Palm Pre 2 and webOS 2.0, the next version of the mobile operating system that debuted with the original Palm Pre in 2009 ...

The IT industry purely loves "innovation," especially when it is steeped in a bit of controversy, and last November's announcement of Cisco, EMC and VMware's VCE coalition set enough tongues wagging to cause a minor blip in Silicon Valley's Richter scale readings. Why so? First, because the effort offered proof that Cisco's highly publicized unified computing system (UCS) was no empty threat.

Aplicor has unveiled Cloud Suite 7.0, a beta version of an integrated CRM and ERP offering Development of the new product, which uses Microsoft Silverlight technology to power its interactive features, was based in part on feedback from the Aplicor EAC collaborative community. The end result is a wholesale rip-and-replace of all the business applic...

Belgian open source application vendor OpenERP has set up its first overseas business office in San Jose, Calif. Traditionally, the company has worked with reseller partners in the United States and 54 other countries worldwide After four years, though, OpenERP has begun an aggressive expansion....

As we should probably realize by now, not all tasks are created equal -- especially when it comes to making mistakes. For most of the things we do -- from brushing our teeth to typing an email -- making a mistake is usually relatively innocuous. Sure, we might have to clean a bit of the toothpaste off the sink or retype a word or two, but the world doesn't blow up. It's just a bit of extra hassle to recover. ...

Google has added new cloud capabilities to its rack-mounted Google Search Appliance As of Monday, a new feature, Cloud Connect, lets users of Google Search Appliance (GSA) 6.8 search content both within an enterprise's firewalls as well as content from Twitter, blogs and industry websites through Google Site Search....

Many of the most popular applications on Facebook have been transmitting identifying information -- names of users and, in some cases, the names of their friends -- to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies, according an article published on Sunday in The Wall Street Journal. No one can access private user information without e...