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Inside this Issue:
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Business
News via the Value Framework™ Lenses
Management Perspective
by
Mitchell Levy, Author of the book E-Volve-or-Die.com, Creator of the
Value Framework™
Executive
Producer, VMS3.info
VMS3.info News
Search
Engine Visibility
Schleuniger learns how to get seen first in browser-based
searches, the source of significant business. There are a lucky few enterprises
whose names are household words. The rest of the corporate world -- the vast majority
-- struggles for visibility. IM in Financial Services
Forex Capital Markets broadly
adopts LivePerson for real-time customer interactions; sales and customer service
benefit. Forex Capital Markets (FXCM), a firm specializing on online currency
trading said today it is using LivePerson interaction chat technology across U.S.
and Asian operations and in a joint venture. No Dude, More Sales For Dell
The demise of the dude hasn't
hurt Dell. Despite the retirement of its hip pitchman, Dell recaptured the top
spot from Hewlett-Packard as the world's largest computer maker, according to
numbers released by two research firms. Dell accounted for 17.3% of global PC
shipments during the first quarter of 2003, market research firm IDC said, compared
with HP's 15.8%. The next three in the top five--IBM, Fujitsu, and Toshiba-- were
far behind, with just 5.4%, 4.8%, and 3.7% market share, respectively. Many websites break anti-discrimination laws
The Disability
Rights Commission (DRC) is to begin the UK's first formal investigation into the
design and technical barriers that make many websites inaccessible to people with
disabilities.
Webcasters, Music Industry Reach Royalty Deal
In an effort to avoid
the costly arbitration proceedings of last year, the recording industry and webcasters
on Thursday agreed to royalty rates and terms to apply to commercial subscription
and non-subscription-based webcasters and Internet radio. The parties submitted
the proposal to the Copyright Office for industry-wide adoption.
The Comcast shakedown
Flush with
its purchase of AT&T Broadband, the biggest cable company on the block intends
to make size matter.
AT&T to sell prepaid cards for buying products online
They'll
soon be hanging from hooks at checkout counters across the country, most likely
near the bubble gum and breath mints...And though AT&T is gearing them toward
parents who don't want to fork over credit card numbers to their kids, Internet
watchers believe an equal or greater profit may lie in tailoring this type of
card toward the last things most parents want their kids going anywhere near:
Internet pornography and gambling sites. MODEL: PARTICIPANTS
EBay For Small Business - Small Business Computing
When Brent and
Priscilla Crouch of Greenbrier, Tenn. heard about a neighbor's teenaged son earning
$15 to $20 a week re-selling products on eBay, it started them thinking. Could
they do the same thing on a slightly bigger scale and turn it into a viable small
business for Priscilla to run from their home? Three years later, with their company,
Jillian Distributors, on track to hit $200,000 in annual revenues, the answer
is a resounding yes — as it has been for scores, possibly hundreds, of other
eBay entrepreneurs.
Google
Inks Amazon to Comprehensive Search Deal
Google sewed up an agreement
to provide paid links and Web search on Amazon.com's (NASDAQ:AMZN) popular e-commerce
site, claiming yet another big traffic source in the hotly competitive paid search
space. Kimberly-Clark
Unlocks Value
For enterprises in particular, crafting a complex e-business
strategy is a stiff challenge. A plethora of legacy systems, ingrained cultural
reluctance to change, and the difficulties of effective governance in a diffuse
environment come together to daunt most enterprises ready to embrace e-business. MODEL:
INFLUENCES Sybase Closes
Chinese Offices Amid SARS Fears
Amid growing panic over a possible epidemic
of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, Dublin-based Sybase said on Friday
that it has temporarily closed its offices in China, Reuters reported. The infrastructure
software company, which employs about 300 workers in the country, said the major
concern was that fear of the illness will hurt
its business. "I am very
worried, the uncertainty kills markets," John Chen, the chairman and CEO
of Sybase, told Reuters. "It's all a matter of confidence and if every day
there are more cases and more people die, the impact will be quite dramatic by
the end of the June quarter." SARS has killed more than 250 people in China
over the past several months.
Whatever Happened to the Recover
For months, it has seemed as if
an economic rebound might be just around the corner, or at least around the next
fiscal quarter, thanks to cautious optimism on the part of some analysts and market
observers. According to these pundits, we should have been basking in the dawn
of recovery by now, aglow with relief that the downturn was over at last.
The Importance of Being Strategic
The state of the CIO in 2003 is
strategic...Our second-annual survey of more than 500 CIOs reveals that (no surprise)
your budgets are still tight and that (not coincidentally) you have to prove the
value of each and every IT system and project deployed or planned. Yet despite
the pressure to cut and the charge to do more with less, you are looking ahead
rather than hunkering down... More than three-fourths of you say that strategic
thinking and planning is pivotal to your success in this business climate. Utility
Computing: The Next New IT Model
IBM says it's investing $10 billion in
it, some $800 million of that in this slow-tech year alone. And that's largely
for "education" (okay, hype) to convince managers in every corner of
the IT universe (one would assume) that this is the Real McCoy. And they're just
one of the proponents.
Saying ‘no thanks’ to the Internet
Online growth in U.S.
flattens as some simply opt out. Some 42 percent of Americans don’t use the
Internet. About one-fifth of those unwired folks say that’s the way they
like it, according to new research.
Record labels sue Napster investor
Two major record labels filed
suit Monday against venture capital firm Hummer Winblad Venture Partners for its
investment in Napster, alleging that it contributed to rampant music theft through
the former file-swapping network. Universal Music Group and EMI Recorded Music
filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles against San Francisco-based
Hummer Winblad, its cofounder John Hummer and general partner Hank Barry, who
was formerly the CEO at Napster. McNealy: Sun Software Strategy 'Unfairly
Maligned'
Sun Microsystems' forthcoming Project Orion will prove that
the vendor can make money on its long-criticized software business, said Sun Chairman
and CEO Scott McNealy Thursday. On a conference call reporting the vendor's earnings
for the third-quarter of fiscal year 2003, McNealy defended Sun's software strategy,
which he said has been "unfairly maligned" for its lack of profitability.
IBM deploys Rational to target legacy apps
After acquiring
Rational Software for $2.1 billion in December, IBM has offered some insight into
its plans to wrap Rational’s development tools into the On Demand initiative.
Coming down the pike is deeper integration of Rational’s application development
life-cycle management tools into each of IBM Software’s key product units:
WebSphere, Tivoli , IBM Lotus, and DB2. Oracle Goes For BEA’s Jugular With New App Server
Offers competitive pricing, free migration for WebLogic customers...Oracle Monday
unveiled a new edition of its 9iAS Java application server and a new program aimed
at stealing market share from competitor BEA Systems by offering a free switch
from BEA to Oracle, executives said in a press conference. Microsoft
reportedly seeking to buy Sega
Microsoft tends to look outside Redmond
to beef up its Xbox game titles, and has snapped up some rising game developers
over the past several years. Now, Japanese game maker Sega is entertaining offers
from corporate suitors, and Microsoft is thought to be one of the interested parties.
Japan's Yomiuri newspaper this week reported that Microsoft has approached Sega
about buying a stake in the company. STRATEGY: MANAGED
Manage the Ecommerce Business - How to Choose a Web
Analytics Solution
Clarifying the issues involved in managing and measuring
Web analytics is critical to e-business success. My goal isn't to recommend one
product or another. I want to arm you with the right questions so you can make
up your own minds. Can eBay Keep
Setting the Pace?
Any company that transforms itself from small-time mover
to big-time shaker reaches a point at which its scrappy startup energy and freedom
of movement are hindered by newfound size and operational complexity. What Makes Southwest Airlines Fly
How does Southwest
Airlines keep making money? After all, the airline industry overall is in a shambles.
US Airways and United Air Lines are reorganizing in bankruptcy while American
Airlines flirts with the same fate. As a group, the nation’s biggest air
carriers have lost tens of millions of dollars over the past several years, with
no immediate recovery in sight. Yet the secret to its success, said Southwest
chairman Herb Kelleher during a talk at Wharton April 22, is available for anyone,
including its competitors, to see.
Roxio Sheds GoBack Assets
As part of a deliberate
strategy to stick to its digital media roots, Roxio has sold off the assets of
the GoBack system recovery utility to Symantec Corp. in a deal valued at $13 million.
The Wal-Mart Empire: A Simple
Formula and Unstoppable Growth
For the second year in a row Wal-Mart topped
Fortune magazine’s list of largest companies and is also the magazine’s
most-admired firm, the first time one company has shared both honors since the
annual survey began in 1955. The giant retailer continues to expand worldwide,
planting giant supercenters as well as new neighborhood-scale markets in its attempt
to offer more and more goods to a wider array of shoppers. But Wharton faculty
and outside analysts note that Wal-Mart still faces a few challenges, ranging
from its own centralized operations to union opposition to problems with local
zoning boards. EBay
maps big expansion
Fast-growing eBay on Wednesday unveiled a major real
estate expansion plan that includes creating a North San Jose campus and possible
redesign of its West San Jose headquarters. The plan calls for the online auction
firm to purchase the land and five buildings on a North San Jose site owned by
software company Novell for an undisclosed price. The complex now has 511,000
square feet of office space and comes with rights to build an additional 330,000
square feet. Futurist
Fears End of Innovation
Author Howard Rheingold believes the freedom of
technologists to innovate is under attack as never before. Delivering the keynote
speech at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, Rheingold warned that vested
interests, flexing their political and economic muscle, are stifling technological
innovation. Online
Grocers: Finally Delivering the Lettuce
Brick-and-mortar chains are finding
profits in cyberspace... Eager to avoid the fate of the dot-com pioneers, today's
online grocers are playing it safe. Instead of headlong expansion, they're introducing
the service one city at a time. While Webvan ran through $1 billion before shutting
down two years ago, the new players are making do without expensive, high-tech
warehouses. PublixDirect, for instance, run by privately held Publix Super Markets
Inc., has just a single facility to serve South Florida. Safeway Inc. (SWY ) and
Albertson's Inc. (ABS ) fill orders right out of their stores.
About the Author:
Mitchell
Levy, is President and CEO of ECnow.com (http://ecnow.com),
an e-commerce management consulting company helping corporations transition from
the industrial age to the Internet age through strategy, marketing, and off-the-shelf
and customized on-line and on-ground training. He is the author of the book E-Volve-or-Die.com
(http://e-volve-or-die.com), creator of
the Value Framework™
(http://ecnow.com/value/),
Executive Producer of VMS3.info (http://VMS3.info),
the Founder and Program Consultant of the premier San Jose State E-Commerce Management
Certificate Program (http://ecmtraining.com/sjsu),
former Chair of comdex.biz at Comdex Fall, and Chairman of the Pay-per-Performance
PR Agency Media Attention Now TM (http://ecnow.com/mediaattention),
and the CEO Networking organization CEOnetworking (http://ceonetworking.com).
Mitchell was at Sun Microsystems for 9 years, the last 4 of which he managed the
e-commerce component of Sun's $3.5 billion supply chain. Mitchell is a popular
speaker, lecturing on ECM issues throughout the U.S. and around the world.
Read more about Mr. Levy: http://ecnow.com/ml_bio.htm
Public speaking appearances I've given: http://ecnow.com/speaking.htm
Read about ECnow.com's media coverage: http://ecnow.com/media
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