Spotlight Features

As a company grows, so do its accounts receivable. Growing pains often involve a shortage of cash, creating inadequate cash flows. So, wouldn't it be nice if you didn't have to wait for your customers to pay you? Actually, that is what factoring does for you; it turns your invoices and your receiva...

In a market where most registrars have positioned themselves as full-service hosting firms, BulkRegister kept focusing on its original business model. The competitive advantage that it enjoyed by undercutting prices during its growth spurt in 2000 has been neutralized by the evolving business pract...

For technology dependent companies, risk comes in many forms. While the traditional information security risks are often the first that spring to mind, businesses with extensive collections of software face additional risks, especially when those applications become numerous. Guy Hoffman, chief exec...

There's no doubt about it, starting a business is no easy task. One of the first hurdles that you have to overcome is obtaining the necessary capital to get your company to the cash-flowing stage. Why are many lenders and investors so difficult to convince when it comes to obtaining loans or capita...

Say the name "Intel," and the first thing that comes to most people's minds is chips and computer components. Yet the company is increasing its focus on another side of its business, the storage systems space, and the industry is beginning to watch its progress in that area more intensely. In July, ...

Small businesses have their share of difficulties, but do they have any chance of succeeding in a world dominated by eBay, Amazon and the like? The short answer is yes -- if they combine the right mix of technology, marketing and customer service. "The goliaths of the online world are everywhere. Th...

BulkRegister, the original low-price commodifier of the domain name industry, announced that its business and assets are being acquired by eNom of Bellevue, Wash. In an e-mail sent to customers on July 26, BulkRegister said that its user interface would be integrated into eNom's main platform and t...

In a recent article for the E-Commerce Times entitled "Monetary Unions: Are We on Our Way?, I talked about what I feel are the present dangers to the dollar and whether or not currency consolidation would reduce the risk of a dollar crisis. For that article, I interviewed Morrison Bonpasse, the pres...

eBay's recent decision to ban Google Checkout as an acceptable payment method raised the eyebrows of some in the online community who cried that the restriction is unfair to consumers. Yet the move opens up a debate as to how online merchants should balance the risks and benefits of accepting altern...

In January 2005, I wrote an article for the E-Commerce Times entitled "VoIP Here to Stay." In that article, I stated, "The future of VoIP is, to a significant extent, now!" It's hard to imagine that the column was written only about a year and a half ago. At that time, Vonage had about 350,000 custo...

Although the Department of Veterans Affairs may be able to relax slightly now that the laptop containing sensitive information on millions of veterans and military personnel has been recovered, the incident highlights the role government plays in ensuring data security. "It is a hot political issue ...

In the competitive world of the Internet circa 2006, text is getting plenty of company. In addition to other forms of content that are crowding the printed word, the Internet is rapidly becoming populated with video. It's rare to see more than a few days pass without a video-related announcement fro...

Police in Bangalore, India, reported the arrest Tuesday night of the chief suspect in the theft of funds from a score of customers of HSBC bank in the UK. Nadeem Kashmiri is being charged in India with stealing customer data that was sent to Nadeem's accomplices in the UK. Nadeem's accomplices ass...

Sarbanes-Oxley has certainly made quite an impact on corporate governance since its enactment in 2002. Most of us remember the corporate debacles that brought about SOX. In fact, one of them, the Enron failure, is still very much in the news today. Consider some of the ways that SOX has affected cor...

Driven by technology, access to content is TiVo's primary need. To a large degree, however, access to content is precisely what traditional TV and cable broadcasters, as well as film studios, still control. This crucial point has long been recognized, as well as debated, by TiVo management. The co...