From Factoids to Facts

What is the next stage in the evolution of internet search engines? AltaVista demonstrated that indexing the entire world wide web was feasible. Google’s success stems from its uncanny ability to sort useful web pages from dross. But the real prize will surely go to whoever can use the web to del...

By Economist Staff • Aug. 31, 2004

Gas Price Drop Lowers CPI

Moderate news on the inflation front and a Labor Department report showing that consumer prices actually fell in July gave comfort to investors who are worried about potential price hikes.The U.S. Labor Department reported a 0.1 percent drop in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for July, said the As...

By Ed Zwirn • Aug. 18, 2004

Explore the Trendline➔

The CFO Strategy for Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence’s impact on the office of the CFO continues to evolve, and finance chiefs must be aware of the opportunities it will create for growth. 

By CFO.com staff

Technologies That Save You Some ‘Green’

It’s a win-win proposition: save money, save the planet. Companies today are discovering many ways to better balance energy consumption, waste disposal, employee productivity and morale, and their budgetary concerns. Here’s our sampling of green technologies that can save you some “green,” too; s...

By John Edwards • Aug. 18, 2004

Making a Market in Knowledge

Just like people, companies in today’s economy find that their primary source of competitive advantage increasingly lies in the unique proprietary knowledge they possess. Companies and individuals may have equal talent and access to public knowledge, but the special value that comes with unique u...

By The McKinsey Quarterly • Aug. 17, 2004

Offshore Savings Fall Short, Says Study

Savings from offshoring — especially payroll savings — are not nearly what’s they’re cracked up to be — according to a survey of 100 of the largest employers in New York City.“Companies may not be looking at the whole picture when they go offshore,” said Howard Rubin, a consultant and professor e...

By Stephen Taub • July 21, 2004

Big Rise in IT Outsourcing, Says Survey

A survey by an India-based outsourcing provider found that nearly three-quarters of companies expect to increase their outsourcing budget by at least 20 percent over the next year and a half.Patni Computer Systems Ltd. — which conducted the survey at a recent seminar in Hilton Head, South Carolin...

By Stephen Taub • July 20, 2004

Search Is On

On the Internet, the shortest distance between two points is a well-conceived search query. In fact, these days most “surfing” entails a hurried perusal of the first few sites returned by a search engine as you quickly try to find exactly what you’re looking for. Search is the glue that holds the...

By Peter Krass • July 20, 2004

Sarbanes-Oxley and Information Management

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has led many companies to change how they manage information, according to a study conducted by AIIM — an industry association for enterprise content management — and Kahn Consulting.“The Current State of Information Management Compliance” addresses Section 404 of Sarbanes-...

By Stephen Taub • July 15, 2004

Exploding the Myths of Offshoring

With the digital revolution and the dramatic fall in international telecommunications costs comes the prospect that white-collar jobs — once insulated from global competition — can be performed offshore, in low-wage nations such as India, where labor can be hired for as little as one-tenth its co...

By The McKinsey Quarterly • July 14, 2004

Director’s Cut

Board membership may have its privileges, but in this era of increased regulatory scrutiny, it also has its risks. This is not to say that sitting on a board of directors is a bad gig. Serving on a board remains one of the most effective ways for executives to network. It can offer rewarding work...

By John P. Mello Jr. • July 13, 2004

Leasing Hardware Becomes More Common

A recent report from Forrester Research shows that, after a long dry spell, businesses are finally beginning to invest in IT equipment. With the economy on the uptick, and with many companies eager to replace aging hardware, the increased investment in technology is hardly surprising.What is some...

By Karen Bannan • July 7, 2004

It’s a Rental

Ah, America — land of the free and home of the 36-month lease. Truth is, leasing has become something of an obsession with American consumers, many of whom lease Cayennes and Beemers and Lexus SUVs they couldn’t otherwise get close to affording. Given the sometimes onerous terms of the contracts,...

By Karen Bannan • July 7, 2004

Head Games

Casinos may be glittering, neon-bathed temples to the cruel goddess of fortune, but when it comes to wringing money from wallets, casino operators leave precious little to chance.Consider Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., a Las Vegas-based gaming specialist with 26 hotel casinos in the United States. ...

By John Goff • July 6, 2004

Offshoring Financial Services

The number of global financial-services companies that moved specific functions offshore increased by 38 percent from a year ago, according to a survey by Deloitte Research.By 2010, according to the survey, more than one-fifth of the industry’s global cost base will have shifted offshore, resulti...

By Stephen Taub • June 29, 2004

Penguin Suits

When a young Linus Torvalds was working on his now-famous Linux operating system back in the early 1990s, the Finnish programmer no doubt envisioned the dawning of a new tech era — one in which ideas would be shared freely and everybody got along. A Linux world would be a softer, gentler one, muc...

By Karen Bannan • June 29, 2004

Words Fail Them

Even though computer security remains a rare growth area within IT budgets, the purse strings are tightening. And, according to Yankee Group, security budgets are becoming more influenced by lines of business, rather than being solely determined by IT departments.Consulting firm Meta Group goes a...

By CFO Editorial Staff • June 23, 2004

Priority: Mail

As E-mail becomes the lifeblood of Corporate America, what happens when the blood stops flowing? A 2003 study of 850 IT managers by research firm Dynamic Markets for Veritas Software found that one-third of respondents thought a week without E-mail was more stressful and traumatic than either a m...

By John McPartlin • June 22, 2004

Offshoring and the Massachusetts Budget

The politically charged issue of offshore outsourcing is poised to play out in the home state of Democratic presidential challenger John Kerry. Tucked into the state budget is an amendment that would prohibit Massachusetts from hiring companies that outsource the state’s work to other countries, ...

By Stephen Taub • June 21, 2004

Will Tablets Take Off?

Americans may be a sedentary lot, but not, it seems, at work. How else to explain the many efforts computer companies are making to satisfy the needs of the “mobile workforce”? Laptops and PDAs continue to shrink and get more powerful, cell phones are turning into multifunction devices, and table...

By CFO Editorial Staff • June 21, 2004

Time to Sign Up for Utility Computing?

The computer industry has a certain genius for turning its own excesses and errors into new business opportunities. Computer code written with no regard for a new millennium? What an opportunity for Y2K remedial work. The Internet as a playground for hackers and identity thieves? Let us show you ...

By Norm Alster • June 16, 2004

Are You Trapped in Spreadsheet Hell?

In a recent survey of 168 finance executives, CFO IT asked about the state of IT as used by corporate finance departments. Out of a list of 14 finance-specific technologies, we found that only 2 are widely used: spreadsheets and basic budgeting and planning systems. The others — from portals and ...

By Don Durfee • June 15, 2004

Seven Days in May

The hack stops here. So says a group of influential chief executives who want to elevate computer security to a board-level concern. The 150 members of the Business Roundtable released a report last month in which they said that computer security is a “shared responsibility” involving everyone fr...

By Scott Leibs • June 15, 2004

Spreadsheet Hell

Call it the “innovation gap,” a yawning space between two parallel universes. In one, companies operate more effectively than ever before, powered by a rash of new technologies that tackle every aspect of financial management, from the mundane (if complex) processing of invoices and payments righ...

By Don Durfee • June 15, 2004

Will Tablets Take Off?

Americans may be a sedentary lot, but not, it seems, at work. How else to explain the many efforts computer companies are making to satisfy the needs of the “mobile workforce”? Laptops and PDAs continue to shrink and get more powerful, cell phones are turning into multifunction devices, and table...

By CFO Editorial Staff • June 15, 2004

Could India’s IT Glow Be Fading?

It wasn’t until 1991 — when India began to liberalize its protected economy — that the IT industry really started to gather steam. Foreign businesses saw the potential of India’s highly educated, English-speaking workforce and sent coding assignments there, where they could be handled for a fract...

By Justin Wood • June 14, 2004