ReadWriteWeb: ReadWriteEnterprise Weekly

ReadWriteEnterprise is a blog for IT managers and business executives with resources and analysis about the dynamic nature of the enterprise. We hope the discussion provides insights into the tools, technologies and trends that matter when making strategic decisions about the fast changing nature of the workplace and the market at large.
5 Idea Management Apps for Facebook Companies such as Dell and Starbucks have created public facing websites for gathering ideas from customers. These two examples are powered by Salesforce.com's idea management module, but there are many other options. Facebook is an increasingly popular place for people to interact with companies, so it's a great place collaborate with your customers on their ideas. Spigit just launched its idea management app for Facebook today, but there are others. Continue reading... Most Organizations Now Use Open Source Software According to Gartner More than half of the 517 organizations surveyed by Gartner use open source software (OSS). When the firm first started tracking open source in the enterprise five years ago, only 10% of organizations were using OSS. Gartner published the results in a report titled Survey Analysis: Overview of Preferences and Practices in the Adoption and Usage of Open-Source Software. This announcement summarizes the findings. Decision makers aren't just looking to OSS because it's cheaper - they're also trying to gain competitive advantages through open source. "Nearly one-third of respondents cited benefits of flexibility, increased innovation, shorter development times and faster procurement processes as reasons for adopting OSS solutions," reads the announcement. Continue reading... Forrester: Business Intelligence Careers Offer Hope for IT Workers As we've said, time's are still tough for IT workers despite the relatively large demand for employees with technical skills. At the core of the problem seems to be a mismatch between the skill that unemployed workers have and the skills companies desire. Earlier today we explored some ideas about how IT workers can re-invent the resume to stand-out from other applicants. But what jobs should they be applying for? Data center jobs are an option. But, as reported by Integration Developer News, Forrester believes some IT workers' future may be in business intelligence. Continue reading... Brands, Social Media and Analytics: It's All About Customers' Relationships With Each Other Last year Douglas Rushkoff took on the conventional wisdom of brand marketers at the Pivot conference. Earlier this year we posted his talk and it caused a good bit of debate about the nature of so-called "brand conversations" in social media, and the future of branding itself. This is an important topic as social CRM solutions begin to proliferate. According to Gartner, 4/10 of the businesses it polled are planning to roll-out social CRM initiatives within the next five years. A presentation by branding agency Face takes a different view and advocates a synthesis of data-driven social media analytics and qualitative methods such as ethnography to make branding relevant in the social media age. The presentation quotes Mark Earls saying "Consumers' most valuable relationships are not with brands but with other consumers." Continue reading... What's Next for IT Worker Résumés? Despite the high demand for IT workers, it's still an employer's market. That's due in part to the laundry lists of skill requirements for IT positions. Convergence and cloud computing are increasing the base of skills that workers need to have. We've occasionally touched upon what needs to be done to solve this problem, but what can workers do in the meantime? Developers are increasingly turning to Github to highlight their skills, and we've covered this trend a couple times. Meanwhile, the IT recruitment company CWjobs.co.uk is trying to find more creative ways to present job candidates. Continue reading... Big Data Consoladation Watch: Teradata Acquires AsterData Today Teradata acquired fellow columnar database vendor AsterData for $263 million. This fits into the current trend of consolidation of next-generation data-warehousing vendors. Last summer, Teradata acquired another columnar database vendor called Kickfire. Also in the past year, EMC acquired Greenplum; IBM acquired Netezza; SAP acquired Sybase and HP acquired Vertica. For Briefings Direct, Tony Baer of Ovum writes that of the major platform companies, only Dell has yet to purchase a columnar database vendor. Continue reading... Four New Types of CIO for the Future The global recession, the consumerization of IT, the great cloud migration and other factors are changing the role of the CIO. Past failures of enterprise technology to live up to its promises and IT's lack of agility caused by legacy technology have decreased the influence of the CIO, explained R "Ray" Wang in a piece for Forbes last year. Now in a new paper he has written for his own firm, Wang is exploring the future of the role that the CIO plays. He comes to the table with considerable insights. Wang is a global traveler who meets with CIOs on a constant basis in his role as principal analyst and CEO of Constellation Research, an independent firm with a key focus on the transitions the enterprise is experiencing. Continue reading... A Chain of Fools: Updating Windows from DOS to Windows 7 [Video] I saw this "Chain of Fools" video yesterday that is brilliant in what it does. The producer uses VMware to show every update to Windows since the very first DOS release more than 20 years ago. It's fantastic in that it shows some of the more historic developments of the technology such as the original grey bar that first appeared in DOS and remains a core feature today. Continue reading... Salesforce.com Bringing Apple's FaceTime to the Contact Center Last night Salesforce.com announced version 3.0 of its ServiceCloud product. Today at the Cloudforce event in New York City CEO Marc Benioff revealed more about the new version. Most importantly, ServiceCloud is transforming into a unified communications system for customer support by integrating VOIP and video conferencing technologies - including Apple's FaceTime. Benioff didn't specify, but it's possible some of the new features were built using technology from Salesforce.com 's acquisition of DimDim earlier this year. Continue reading... IT Poll: How Do You Use Video in the Workplace? We recently covered Forrester's research on how few customers want to use video in the workplace. However, as new consumer tools like FaceTime and Flip Phones proliferate and companies like Cisco and Salesforce.com push new video technologies into the enterprise, the expansion of video seems inevitable. How is your company using video? Continue reading... Can UserVoice Do What FISH! Can't and Make Customer Service Fun? Plenty of people have tried to make customer service "fun." If you've ever worked a customer service job, you may have seen a FISH! Training Video. But chances are a video about a bunch of happy-go-lucky fish throwers somewhere in Seattle didn't make working the swing shift at a call center for minimum wage any better. (Apparently, those videos don't make the people who actually work at that fish stand very happy either.) This week UserVoice, the idea management/customer feedback software-as-service we've raved about, announced that it's getting into the hosted help desk business. And UserVoice hopes to make customer service fun by adding game mechanics to the help desk. The target audience is different - UserVoice is targeting application support teams, not contact centers - but the idea is the same: to make customer service fun. Continue reading... Google Beefs Up Its Security Chops By Buying Zynamics Today Zynamics, a company that makes security analysis tools, announced that it has been acquired by Google. Zynamics specializes in tools for reverse engineering binary executables - in other words, analyzing software for which no source code is available. Zynamics is probably best known for BinDiff, a tool for sniffing out the differences between different executable files. It's used by third-party security researchers figure out what vulnerabilities were fixed after a piece of software receives a security patch. However, Thomas Ptacek of Matasano Security speculates on Hacker News that Google acquired the company either for its VxClass product or purely as a talent acquisition. Judging by the statement a Google spokesperson gave TechCrunch, it's likely both. Continue reading...	Sponsored by
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