Archive for October, 2007

Another Big Price Tag For Big Tech Buyout

Sunday, October 7th, 2007

Following on from our last blog “Hot Technology For 2007” mobile handset manufacturer, Nokia has just paid out a whopping $1.8 billion for Navteq, a digital-mapping company. Navteq’s software is used on GPS capable devices and websites. And in line with our own reckoning, Nokia is betting that location-based services will become increasingly popular among mobile-phone users.

So are these major price tags justified….it seems not always. Also in the news this week was EBays admission that it had paid too much for Skype, an internet phone service that Ebay acquired for $2.6 billion in 2005. EBay announced it would “take an impairment charge of $900m in the light of Skype’s disappointing performance”.

And you guys are always complaining your wife spends too much!!!

Posted in Industry Action, Mobile Services | 1 Comment »

Hot Technology For 2007

Saturday, October 6th, 2007

As we enter the last quarter of 2007, we take a look back over the year at what technologies are hot with business right now. The three that stand out are:

  1. Virtualization – large enterprises and SMB’s
  2. Mobile – Location based services for consumers
  3. Business Intelligence – enterprise initiatives

Virtualization

Small and medium size business users are adopting server virtualization technology more frequently than in years past. SMB users are discovering the cost and operational efficiencies that virtualization brings to their smaller IT operation. To learn more about the business benefits virtualization delivers to SMB’s http://www.accelacomm.com/jlp/temv.1/7/80144402/ .

Mobile LBS

A survey conducted earlier in the year by PocketPC Wire found consumers were finally ‘getting’ location-based services (LBS). With LBS, users can receive directions or find out where nearest gas station, bus stop or Starbucks is etc. They can personalize their information requests during set up to for instance, receive only traffic information that relates to their routes.

39 percent of respondents said their next mobile device would ‘most definitely’ include global positing system (GPS) technology. An additional 21 percent answered ‘probably,’ depending on the cost. Of the remaining respondents, 14 percent weren’t sure yet, 12 percent said probably not and 14 percent answered no.

A key driver for LBS is the growing number of cellphones and smartphones and cell phones that include integrated global positioning system (GPS) capability. As more of the market becomes GPS / LBS available, more products can be expected.

Business Intelligence

Business intelligence is the capture and use of enterprise data in a way that makes it readily available to business users using analytic tools at the desktop, to support good decision making.

The key to successful BI programs is in understanding that BI is NOT like most other IT programs. It is largely business driven and requires a completely different set of IT skills than other application development. This is a key stumbling block for businesses to overcome. Once they do, and get the right skills on board, the difference in adoption and success of the program is amazing.

Analytic tools have also got a lot smarter over the past year – and more affordable. With the recent rollout of Microsoft PerformancePoint, business intelligence is able to be integrated into standard Microsoft Office 2007 programs.

Key resources for Business Intelligence

The IQX.com – understanding business intelligence

TheBusinessIntelligenceGuide.com – implementing BI programs

Posted in Business Intelligence, Mobile Services, Virtualization | 1 Comment »