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

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

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

Xenakis on Technology: Say ‘Please’ Before You Market Via E-Mail

E-mail is becoming more and more a prominent part of marketing campaigns for small and large businesses alike. But as with any other marketing technique, you must use it carefully. Otherwise, you risk alienating potential customers instead of embracing them.The key to successful E-mail marketing ...

By John Xenakis • Dec. 6, 2000

Big Trouble in Little Etown

Calling it bad timing would be an understatement. Etown.com cut 22% of its staff on Friday just days after employees filed a petition to hold an election on union representation. And that has labor organizers crying foul.However, Etown.com organizers will still go through a formal hearing with th...

By Craig Schneider • Dec. 4, 2000

ASPs: A Host of Angels

Pennies from heaven. Saving graces. A gift from the gods. The celestial metaphors spring forth like streaming video when applied to the emerging technology push known as application service providers (ASPs). Why, an ASP might even be described as the answer to a CFO’s prayers.What finance manager...

By Adam Lincoln • Dec. 1, 2000

Bending Over Backward

Keeping the customer satisfied is never easy. Now, CFOs can tap into Web-based systems that promise to manage every aspect of customer relations while making their employees more productive. Armand Arief knows very well that the customer is king. He started out in hospitality, having learned abou...

By Adam Lincoln • Dec. 1, 2000

Reporting for Duty

Web-based reservations systems and E-mail flight alerts have brought business travel into the 21st century. And now slowly, but surely, companies are also starting to embrace online expense reporting.One reason is the capabilities of products such as Concur Technologies’s Concur Expense, which is...

By Karen Bannan • Dec. 1, 2000

Technology in NEVRLand

With a wealth of whiz-bang information systems and a dearth of profits, New Economy firms are measured by traditional financial yardsticks about as well as Jell-O is nailed to a wall. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, however, hopes to change that with its nascent New Economy Value Resea...

By Alix Stuart • Dec. 1, 2000

It Don’t Come Easy

Attendees at The Conference Board’s Second Annual Conference on Advanced Tax Strategy for E-Commerce might have thought they’d found a haven from the tumult over the Presidential recount in Florida, and the drama of the dimpled ballots, when they arrived in New York this week to attend the confer...

By Joseph Radigan • Dec. 1, 2000

SAP’s Web Venture Clicks

The news that third-quarter revenue had fallen slightly below Wall Street expectations didn’t much dampen the spirits of SAP AG executives; they were busy celebrating the fact that more than half of the $1.91 billion they raked in came from mySAP.com, the E-business software venture that is essen...

By Scott Leibs • Dec. 1, 2000

E-tailer’s New CFO Spells Out Survival Strategy

The dot-com shakeout is far from over. Hardly a day goes by without another E-tailer turning its server off for good. But if you talk to Paul Williams at Cyberian Outpost, he says his company has a blueprint for outlasting its weaker rivals. Good thing. Williams was promoted to the CFO spot on Mo...

By Joseph Radigan • Nov. 29, 2000

Xenakis on Technology: Time and Billing Software for Small Firms

(Also this week: Computer Associates announces software leasing, and tells us why dealing with CA in the past was so acrimonious.)Keeping precise track of time is an important part of the job of many types of professionals, including accountants and lawyers. Complicating the time tracking job is ...

By John Xenakis • Nov. 29, 2000

Is Amazon.com Unionizing Contagious?

Some companies in the New Economy may be more vulnerable to organized labor than they realize. If Amazon.com’s union woes have you thinking that you may be one of the vulnerable ones, thank your leftover turkey that there is still time to do something about it. It may be tempting to think that th...

By Craig Schneider • Nov. 27, 2000

IT: Hold on to Your Wallet!

The benefits of teamwork should be obvious, but a recent study suggests that some CFOs and CIOs may need a refresher course. Consider these findings from IT Cap Solutions, a division of technology leasing firm Comdisco Inc.Information technology spending is not under adequate control, say some 86...

By Craig Schneider • Nov. 22, 2000

Xenakis on Technology: Beyond Voice Mail

If you miss the good old days when a secretary answered your phone calls and tracked you down when one of them was urgent, then you may be interested in two services that provide these capabilities in an automated fashion. Orchestrate 2000 from Voicecom Communications Inc. and Wildfire from Wildf...

By John Xenakis • Nov. 22, 2000

Software: And the Winner Is . . .

Rarely are a huge corporation’s fortunes tied to the results of a general election, but even as Florida’s crucial 25 electoral votes teeter between the Gore and Bush column, perhaps the one figure who can most justifiably declare victory is none other than the world’s richest man, William H. Gate...

By Joseph Radigan • Nov. 16, 2000

IT:Goodbye, Dilbert

Dilbert go home. Over 62 percent of Fortune 1000 companies encourage the deployment of telecommuting, or teleworking, programs, according to a survey conducted by Kinetic Workplace, a company that helps businesses establish new workplace strategies. Teleworking is often touted as a super perk for...

By Michelle Gabrielle • Nov. 15, 2000

Xenakis on Technology: Are Accounting ASPs your Friend or Foe?

If you need new accounting or financial software, an ASP (application service provider) can be an easy and inexpensive option. Instead of purchasing accounting software and computer equipment and bringing them in house, you outsource the entire project to an ASP via the Internet.For this report, ...

By John Xenakis • Nov. 15, 2000

Continental’s a B2B Believer

Continental Airlines launched its E-tickets program five years ago, and the Houston airline now sells 54 percent of its tickets this way. Once the company has fully ramped up its sales of electronic tickets, it hopes to save upwards of $500 million a year. But while the savings from E-tickets are...

By Joseph Radigan • Nov. 14, 2000

Information Management: Defending Against Immortal E-mail

Tomorrow Never Dies is not just the title of the penultimate installment of the 007 film franchise; it also captures what many companies have learned the hard way about the life span of E-mail. True, some companies understand the dangers of mounting E- mail messages, and have developed corporate ...

By Lisa Yoon • Nov. 14, 2000

Xenakis on Technology: Don’t Let Your Data Die!

If you’re on the Internet, chances are you need a lot more disk space to hold all those graphics, movies, sound clips, documents and databases your Web site uses. All of those have to be stored on a disk drive, and hopefully the drive won’t crash 45 seconds after you run that big TV ad that draws...

By John Xenakis • Nov. 8, 2000

Exchanges: Heinz Ads a New Variety

Was Heinz Inc.’s recent purchase of advertising on a B2B exchange using a reverse auction a seminal event for Madison Avenue? Hardly. So was it yet another example of Internet hype? Not exactly, either.While it’s true that B2B exchanges have yet to fulfill all their promise, the fact of the matte...

By Joseph Radigan • Nov. 7, 2000

Internet: Name Your Own Severance Package

So what’s next for Heidi Miller? The high- profile chief financial officer for Priceline.com abruptly resigned her post last Thursday when the company announced its results for the third quarter. An assistant who answered Miller’s phone on Friday morning said she was not in the office, and a comp...

By Joseph Radigan • Nov. 7, 2000