Articles by

Part 1 of this series on getting started with CRM addresses factors to consider when deciding whether the time is right to take the plunge Once a small business decides to invest in a CRM solution to replace the patchwork assortment of tools it has been using to manage its information, the selection process can be daunting.

After nearly four years of legal battle, a case involving the unauthorized use of open source software last week came to a final conclusion that affirms the legal right of open source developers to collect damages when their code is used improperly. The case of Jacobsen v. Katzer dates back to 2006, when Robert Jacobsen, a developer at Java Model...

Virtual private networks, or VPNs, have been around for about a decade. They provide secure data exchange between two locations using an encrypted connection VPN technology has changed little over the years. A newer version of VPN software, known as SSL-VPN, taps into the common IP circuitry of Web browsers to make secure connections with less reli...

Credit card issuers must follow new rules of the road as of Monday, but consumers should not view the new protections as a cure-all for their frustrations with plastic Instead, they should be ever more vigilant as credit issuers roll out new card agreements. They could result in new financial pain if card users aren't careful.

A freelance security consultant working on behalf of the Chinese government was likely involved in the hack attacks that prompted Google to take a stand against China last month, the Financial Times reported on Sunday The man, who is in his 30s, did not launch the attack; rather, he wrote the code that tapped a security flaw in Microsoft's Internet...

Bloom Energy, a clean energy startup based in Sunnyvale, Calif., officially launches its core product this week. However, the company really had its coming-out party on Sunday's "60 Minutes," with executives giving CBS' Lesley Stahl a first look at a US$700,000 wireless power-plant-in-a-box called, appropriately enough, a "Bloom Box." Those executives claim Bloom Boxes will bring cheaper, cleaner and greener energy to American homes and businesses...

Developing nations will be buried under mountains of e-waste unless they quickly implement programs to collect and manage it, according to a report released Monday by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) By 2020, e-waste from old computers and other electronic devices will surge by 500 percent in India and by between 200 and 400 percent ...

Within about a year, the United States may be better prepared to defend itself against a cyberattack, if the Senate passes Bill H.R. 4061, also known as the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2009. This bill is a combination of the Cybersecurity Research and Development Amendments Act of 2009 and the Cybersecurity Coordination and Awareness Act of 2...

Search marketing will undergo many changes in 2010, according to marketing agency Greenlight Among other things, Facebook will have to offer better ad tracking, mobile search will take off, and Google will rethink incorporating Twitter search data into its real-time search results as well as include video content in page relevancy scores....

CRM solutions have a long history of helping B2B marketers achieve greater ROI from their leads. Yet for companies that sell their products and services direct to consumers, CRM solutions frequently miss the mark. A quick Google search for CRM helps prove this: The search returns plenty of B2B products, but sifting through the results to find solutions designed specifically for the B2C sale is like finding a needle in a haystack...

This past week, two rather interesting events got me thinking about how Apple, Google and Microsoft seem to be changing places. Microsoft announced Windows Phone Series 7, and Google announced Buzz (also known as "Buzz Kill") into the market. Microsoft kind of pulled an Apple with this, in that it stepped away from the field and created someth...

OK, so you finally have your logos, images, message documents and case studies all organized in your new digital asset management (DAM) system and all is right with the world. Then it happens You suddenly start getting emails from your sales team that old logos are being used on spec sheets -- but that's just the beginning. Someone has photoshopped...

If competition for Google is still "just a click away" -- as its executives kept saying last summer to anybody who would listen -- then the U.S. Justice Department and the European Commission made that click easier with their decisions this week to bless the Microsoft-Yahoo search technology merger Here's the new search query for this latest develo...

News that students in two Chinese schools could be behind recent well-publicized online attacks on Google and other major U.S. corporations doing business in China has security experts running for cover. McAfee, which has dubbed the hacks "Operation Aurora," described the series of attacks as highly sophisticated and a watershed event in cybercrim...

A Pennsylvania couple has filed a lawsuit against their local school district for allegedly using the webcam in a school-issued laptop to spy on their son at home. The suit -- which was filed last week in U.S. District Court by Michael Robbins and Holly Robbins on behalf of their son, Blake Robbins -- alleges that the Lower Merion School District ...

Microsoft and Yahoo have received clearance for their search agreement from both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission, the companies jointly announced Thursday, and they will soon begin implementing their plans The process will involve porting Yahoo's algorithmic and paid search platforms to Microsoft and making Yahoo the excl...

Salesforce.com has rolled out a private beta program for Salesforce Chatter, a real-time enterprise collaboration application and platform. Positioned by Salesforce.com as an alternative to such collaborative software applications as SharePoint and Lotus Notes, Chatter is an internal social networking application for businesses. It enables employees to stay connected to designated people, documents and applications.

Cloud computing describes an Internet-based computing infrastructure that has abstracted users and user applications from the underlying computing resources that support them. In concept, cloud computing is functionally different from previous IT architectures in that users no longer need to own, have expertise in, or have control over the underlying technology -- they are only aware of borrowing and consuming IT services, much as they would with telephony, electrical or plumbing infrastructures.

I had planned on using Hayden Hamilton, founder of the Portland, Oregon-based ProgressiveRx.com, as my source for updates on how things were going in Washington with healthcare reform -- especially regarding any technology-driven solutions to spiraling healthcare costs. After all, Progressive is an online pharmacy resource that helps consumers buy discounted drugs from overseas outlets, one of many that have sprouted on the Internet and seen their traffic soar along with the cost of buying medications. Hamilton was keeping close watch on the goings-on in D.C., since he has a business stake in the outcome...

Good things come in small packages, as the saying goes, and nowhere is that more true than in nanotechnology Research in the field has recently led to several new strategies for employing nanotechnology in the fight against cancer, and -- so far, at least -- the results are promising....