VOLUME 19: Table of Contents

COVER STORY

Enterprise 2.0 Makeover

Technologies and applications from the Web 2.0 sphere are also used within an enterprise, under the head “Enterprise 2.0” or “Offi ce 2.0”. The concept of Enterprise 2.0 brings with it several questions. Which elements are already suited for the application behind the fi rewall? How are enterprises reacting to this new hype? What are the opportunities and risks of such technologies for commercialorganisations? Find answers here!

INTERVIEW

Controlled Data Growth, Compliance & Fast Disaster Recovery Must for SMBs: Q&A with Jim Wagstaff, VP & GM of HP’s StorageWorks Division

Today’s data infrastructure situation can be encapsulated in one word— burgeoning. The advent of new technology, coupled with the growing concern for data protection, adhering to regulatory compliance and the pressure to recover from a disaster promptly has compelled organisations to take a quantum leap towards securing a suitable storage solution. IT spending in the Small and Medium Business (SMB) storage market today is a .1 billion dollar industry and is set to swell to .6 billion by 2010. Asia Pacifi c and Japan (APJ) have the highest number of SMBs at 41 per cent. However, although the SMBs in APJ have increased their IT spending twice as much as enterprises, they are still stunted when attempting to architect the ideal storage solution whilst combating financial and complex corporate ills. Jim Wagstaff, Vice President and General Manager of Hewlett Packard’s StorageWorks Division, knows all too well about SMBs and their storage woes. SDA caught up with Wagstaff to learn more about the storage situation in the APJ SMB market,and how HP is addressing these concerns with its latest range of tiered storage solutions. Wagstaff also spoke about the uncertain future of Tape and what being environmentally responsible means to HP.

CIO WATCH

Is Risk Computed in a Way an Actuary Would Recognise?

The methods for analysing the value of IT investments have not nearly kept up with the advances in IT itself. Making “economically rational” decisions about information technology (IT) investments is becoming both more important and more diffi cult. While there is no shortage of options for IT investments, numerous “intangibles” and increasing uncertainty about benefi ts and costs complicate efforts to evaluation them. Applied Information Economics (AIE) is the first truly scientific and theoretically sound method developed for addressing the investment dilemmas of IT.

ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE

A Practical Approach to Ensuring SOA Success

If not properly implemented, SOA can disrupt the business. The article summarizes the business benefi ts of adopting SOA, describes the obstacles that must be overcome and outlines some of the processes that must be deployed if you are to optimize the business outcome of SOA.

ENTERPRISE SECURITY

Role Based Identity Provisioning to the Rescue

The dynamic nature of today’s enterprises demand that organizations securely provision and deactivate systems access to reflect rapidly changing user responsibilities. Identity provisioning systems help to automate the management of user access control and provide a strong auditing and reporting platform. This article explores the key role of provisioning as part of an enterprise’s security architecture.

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT: IT IN RETAIL

The Opportunities and the Obstacles to a Successful Business

The software used in production planning makes a big difference. An integrated planning solution supports decision making in the production planning process and reduces the challenges many apparel, footwear, home textiles and accessories manufacturing companies face on a daily basis.

Evolution of Direct-to-Consumer Retail: Outsourcing’s Place in Multichannel Retail Operations

The retail space has evolved more drastically over the last decade than in any other point in history. The melding of multiple channels like brick-and-mortar stores, the Web-store/catalog, traditional catalogs, television, and contact center operations, integrated with pick-up or delivery considerations, gives buyers more options than ever. Simultaneously, consumer expectations continue to rise. Making it all work seamlessly, end-to-end, considering the consumer desires and internal confl icts, however, remains the challenge. The more retail competitive strategies focus on unique, differentiated merchandising, personalization and innovative brand propositions, the greater the need for a flexible, scalable, multicontact, direct-to-consumer operation. With direct response channels – like online and contact centers – consumers increasingly engage in commerce and brand experience directly with the retailer or branded manufacturer. That makes the direct channel a necessity for a competitive customer experience, rather than a nice-to-have option. It also infl uences the mechanism for establishing an integrated multichannel strategy, converging different combinations of accessing, supplying or servicing customers. This article looks at the changing face of retail, sensible outsourcing where the business remains in control of its brand, and the ultimate goal of full end-to-end, multichannel retail solutions.

Key Trends in Retail Supply Chain Transformation

While the purpose of the supply chain has changed very little over the past decades, how retailers and wholesalers should confi gure their supply chains to enjoy increasing customer effi ciency, effectiveness and relevancy is constantly changing. Business leaders now face the challenge of “re-inventing” their business operations to achieve performance levels essential to meeting and exceeding the raising expectations of their customers. The biggest change seen by Dematic on a global level is a focus on lowering the total delivered cost of a product. More retailers are now investing in technology to streamline their supply chains and fi nding new areas to optimise the supply chain that their competitors may have overlooked.

Connecting a 334 Year Old Retailer with the Future—The Mitsukoshi Story

The timeless question - how does a retailer increase productivity and profi tability while facing an increasingly competitive market? Over the past two decades, most large retail chains have mastered the supply chain and in the event become the epitome of effi ciency, implementing various stock controls and goods handling procedures starting with their merchandise suppliers all the way through the chain until the products hit the shop fl oor. In fact, the use of RFID technology, a relative newcomer to the industry, is already an accepted and integral part of many supply chain operations. Retail powerhouses such as Wal-Mart in the US and Metro in Europe are good examples of what the industry can achieve in value and cost savings through RFID.

A Year of Reckoning for Data Security

If 2006 was the year of ‘demonstrating progress’ in meeting Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) compliance, 2007 is the year of reckoning for retail merchants and the banks that support them.

Out of Fashion, Out of Business: The 21st Century Supply Chain

In the age of outsourcing and global trade, where production is taking place far away from the retail front, the market is getting more demanding. With additional complexities being introduced into the supply chain, getting the right goods in the store at the right time can seem like an ever elusive aim.To remain competitive you must be able to react quickly and effectively to changes in demand patterns or risk going out of business.Companies that stick to the old mantra of deciding what will sell, buying once and pushing the goods to the store are out of fashion. The market today recognizes the need to move away from large orders and batch sizes to a more demand driven model, but many companies simply do not have the information to achieve this. Companies with software that supports demand-driven supply chains are proving that it’s possible to give customers what they want when they want it, and to do so profitably.

NEWS & TRENDS

To Catch a Thief, First Capture High-quality Data

Do Not Implement SOA/BPM in Mission-critical Processes Until 2009

IBM versus Microsoft: The Unified Communications Battle Heats Up

Google’s SaaS Solution Not Ready for the Enterprise

SAP’s Hasso Plattner’s Views on Enterprise Search

Companies Neglecting Off-Network Security

Nokia Top Mobile Phone Vendor, Samsung and Motorola Fight for No.2 Spot

Oracle Boosts Identity Management Portfolio with Bharosa Buy

Amazon Invests in DRM-Free Digital Music Site

Metastorm Acquires Proforma Corporation

France Telecom Expands India Presence with GTL’s IT Services Unit Buy

Datacenter Vendor Consolidation on the Rise: HP Buys Marc Andreessen’s Opsware

Indian Outsourcer Mastek Acquires Vector Insurance

Yahoo Escalates Online Ad War, Invests in Indian Ad Company Tyroo