Technology Sidebar: The Midrange Accounting Software Shakeout

Microsoft’ announcement that it’s buying Great Plains Software is roiling a midrange accounting software industry that has already been increasingly troubled for years by several major trends:Rapidly changing computer technology: new versions of Windows and Internet-based computing models.Demand ...

By John Xenakis • Jan. 10, 2001

You’ve Got Lawsuit

Should Internet companies be allowed free reign in the borderless realm of cyberspace?Or should they be forced to play by the rules of governments and national laws like Old Economy businesses?Europe seems to be choosing the second alternative.In November, European Union Justice Ministers approve...

By Jennifer Caplan • Jan. 10, 2001

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

When the Books Go Outside

The market research firm Dataquest recently issued a report that said the market for outsourcing of finance and accounting software should more than triple from $12 billion in 1999 to $37.7 billion by 2004.By itself a bullish forecast about yet another corner of the high-tech market from a market...

By Joseph Radigan • Jan. 9, 2001

The Greatest Thing that Apple Has Ever Done

(Editor’s note: “Today in Technology,” will cover the corporate technology market on a daily basis. Comments are welcome. Send E- Mails to [email protected].)The week at hand brings two highlights of the annual technology calendar — the MacWorld Expo in San Francisco and the Consumer Electronics...

By Joseph Radigan • Jan. 8, 2001

iVillage CFO Focuses on Ad Revenue

Scott Levine’s employer already survived the first half of the dot-com shakeout. Now it’s his job to steer his company through the shakeout’s second half. On Wednesday, iVillage named Levine as its CFO. He joined the firm two years ago and had already been the interim CFO as well as its senior vi...

By Joseph Radigan • Jan. 5, 2001

Nowhere Man?

(Editor’s note: “Today in Technology,” will cover the corporate technology market on a daily basis. Comments are welcome. Send E- Mails to [email protected].)Clearly, Wednesday’s rate cut by the Federal Reserve and tremendous surge in the stock markets was not enough to put an end to the ugly mo...

By Joseph Radigan • Jan. 5, 2001

EarthWeb.com Bids Farewell to Content Strategy

How many of you can remember the slogan “Content is King”? The phrase was one of the sparks that ignited the Internet revolution in the mid-1990s, but soon fell out of favor as Web hysteria moved on to other fads. As 2000 wore on, it became clear that not only wasn’t content king, it was barely a...

By Joseph Radigan • Jan. 5, 2001

Did Alan Greenspan Save the Tech Sector?

(Editor’s note: This is the first appearance of “Today in Technology,” a daily column covering the corporate technology market. Comments are welcomed. Send E-Mails to [email protected].)In the new year’s first 72 hours, it appeared that we were heading for an encore of the 2000 train wreck. Then...

By Joseph Radigan • Jan. 4, 2001

Xenakis on Technology: If Only Bill Gates Would Just Apologize

Should Microsoft be split in two? That’s what the Department of Justice will urge the U.S. Court of Appeals next week, when it files a brief supporting last June’s district court ruling to that effect.The prospect of this kind of decision is a nightmare scenario for the company and for the comput...

By John Xenakis • Jan. 3, 2001

Life in the FAS Lane

Six months into the existence of FAS 133, the Financial Accounting Standards Board accounting rule that determines how companies must account for derivatives and hedging, one thing is clear: Sorting through new software products may be as time-consuming as complying with the rules.Deloitte & ...

By Scott Leibs • Jan. 1, 2001

What’s the Big Idea?

Daniel Hay, CEO of ArchivalCD Inc., has been plagued by cash flow problems ever since a flood wiped out the vital equipment that scans historic documents onto CDs and DVDs in his Crockett, Tex.-based business two years ago. A self-underwritten initial public offering for about $5.6 million seemed...

By Alix Stuart • Jan. 1, 2001

Perhaps It Really Is What You Know

Pop culture likes to portray computers as magical boxes that spew out answers to any questions posed. Think of HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey or Mother in Alien. If only it were that simple. In the real world, computers have proven far more adept at capturing and storing information than in putting...

By Scott Leibs • Jan. 1, 2001

”Business Intelligence” Is Not an Oxymoron

PERHAPS IT REALLY IS WHAT YOU KNOWBusiness intelligence software is booming as companies get serious about analyzing the data they collect.By Scott LeibsPop culture likes to portray computers as magical boxes that spew out answers to any questions posed. Think of HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey or M...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Jan. 1, 2001

Oracle Goes for Microsoft’s Jugular

Ever wish you could pass some of your company’s tech headaches on to someone else? Oracle’s recent announcement that it is broadening its Internet services may provide an impetus for your business to do exactly that. The Dynamic Services Framework, which the software company unveiled this month, ...

By Jennifer Caplan • Dec. 28, 2000

Xenakis on Technology:Squandered Opportunities

Go to the Microsoft gaming zone (www.zone.com) on the Internet, and play the game “RadioShack RC Riot,” and you’ll be able to play a car-race game in which all the cars are graphic duplicates of remote- controlled cars that are available in Radio Shack retail stores.But why bother to head out to ...

By John Xenakis • Dec. 27, 2000

Xenakis on Technology: Productivity Improvement

They used to say, “Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.” But before that happens, you’ll have to convince the world that your mousetrap is not just better, but so much better that they’ll be willing to pay a premium for it. That’s the problem facing Maxager Techn...

By John Xenakis • Dec. 20, 2000

Virtual Advertising: Pixelated

On November 6, 2000, some 60,000 fans squeezed into Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin, to watch a National Football League contest between the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers. The crowd saw a thrilling, nip-and-tuck game that ended with a Brett Favre touchdown pass in overtime. What t...

By Gary M. Stern • Dec. 15, 2000

Fulfillment: Rage Against the Machine

The idea of selling groceries over the Internet has always been a bit of a puzzler. Why would anyone with any degree of sanity take a business with paper-thin margins and wed it to a costly fulfillment system? Prospects for profitability would seem, at best, dim. And in fact, online grocers-once ...

By Lauren Gibbons Paul • Dec. 15, 2000

HR Software: Requiem for a Paperweight

You don’t have to sell Nancy Crawford on the benefits of Web-enabled human resources software. Last spring, Crawford’s employer, semiconductor equipment manufacturer KLA-Tencor Corp., began deploying a set of browser-based tools from Workscape Inc. (www.workscape.com). The software from the Resto...

By Esther Shein • Dec. 15, 2000

Sittin’ on the Dock of eBay

Few things are as plain as this: Gary Bengier was meant to work at eBay. The San Jose, California-based eBay Inc. is the world’s largest personal online trading community. Bengier, the company’s CFO since fall 1997, happens to be an avid collector himself, with an impressive assortment of rare co...

By Russ Banham • Dec. 15, 2000

Fear of the Black Hats

Call it a sign of the times. In September 2000 the Secure Digital Music Initiative, or SDMI (www.sdmi.org), an industry association based in San Diego, California, posted this notice on its Web site: “Here’s an invitation to show off your skills, make some money, and help shape the future of the ...

By Karen Bannan • Dec. 15, 2000

How to Slash Inventory Costs

The CFO of any manufacturing firm is always going to be in conflict with the product managers: The managers want the warehouses to be chock full of products, ready to ship when customers need them something, while the CFO will want nearly empty warehouses to keep inventory costs down. A similar c...

By John Xenakis • Dec. 13, 2000

The New Economy is Dead; Long Live the New Economy

IBM Corp. chairman and chief executive Louis Gerstner revisited the scene of the crime and offered a mea culpa of sorts. Tuesday morning, Gerstner gave the opening keynote address at the E-business Conference at New York’s Jacob Javits Convention Center, the same stage where four years earlier, i...

By Joseph Radigan • Dec. 13, 2000

Software Eases Use of Digital Signatures

Could you boost your business if Internet transactions with customers or suppliers were easier and safer to make? Odds are that the answer is yes. Online security, or the lack thereof, has thwarted the widespread use of the Internet as a tool for doing business. Consumers are still reluctant to p...

By Jennifer Caplan • Dec. 12, 2000

Critical Path Gets Another CFO from PricewaterhouseCoopers

At a time when tech stocks across the board are 50% or more off their highs, a company that is on its third CFO in a year might be considered a candidate for the endangered species list. But in the case of Critical Path, Wall Street analysts are giving the company a passing grade. The three-year-...

By Joseph Radigan • Dec. 11, 2000