"What's right with the US economy," based on MGI's report, argues that the secret behind the new economy is old-fashioned competition and managerial innovation. That offers ample reason for optimism:

Click here for the abstract of the report, What's right with the US economy. Registration, while free, is required.
4:37:41 PM    comment   

Great analysis from our friends at McKinsey. Important reading for our health care practice.

The take-away
Hospital CEOs must adapt the ideas used by manufacturing industries for decades. Stocks and flows, queuing theory, just-in-time processes--all the notions associated with the factory floor--are exactly what modern hospitals most sorely need.
4:34:09 PM    comment   

Surprisingly, dismal productivity growth trends in the banking industry stand in contrast to the success stories in other parts of the US economy. It wasn't for lack of trying--the industry's IT investments accelerated substantially. Why did its labor productivity growth rates actually fall? [from The McKinsey Quarterly]
4:32:42 PM    comment   

Retail may be the last place you would expect a productivity miracle. Yet retail productivity growth explains nearly one-quarter of the economy-wide acceleration in productivity that occurred in the United States during the late 1990s. The reason can be stated in two syllables: Wal-Mart. [from The McKinsey Quarterly
4:30:55 PM    comment   

Approximately two-thirds of the employees worked at the company's New York headquarters or other offices in North America, according to company spokeswoman Judith Hitchen.

In an effort to reduce costs further, Morgan Stanley said it has postponed or canceled some of its IT projects.
3:02:05 PM    comment   

Retailers that are doing the best job at weathering the economic storm are expected to make the most substantial investments in efficiency-oriented IT systems during the coming year, industry analysts said last week.
2:57:58 PM    comment   

Mergers and competition have forced banks to allocate more money to IT this year than last, according to a new report.
2:56:24 PM    comment   

It all sounds reasonable enough, but recent experience is on the side of the skeptics. It's somewhat deflating to realize how much time and energy have been wasted talking about interoperable software objects.

So what if it doesn't match the hype? It will still be super successful, especially MS .NET.
2:55:02 PM    comment   

ComputerWorld publicizes security problems in airport/airlines use of Wi-Fi: a superb report details some of the recent exposures of holes in the airports and airlines use of Wi-Fi. The challenged institutions claim that even if hackers (in some cases, people who obviously just select an SSID) get on the network, data is still secure. Maybe. Getting on the network is a good first step in getting to applications: it allows iterative probing and buffer overflow attempts.

2:52:36 PM    comment   

BerstAlert radio program covers free wireless networks tonight: 8 Pacific/11 Eastern. Guests include my colleague, the very wise Alan Reiter.

2:44:29 PM    comment   

Wired News reports that HomeRF's usage keeps slipping relative to 802.11b: the first brief in the article discusses a Cahner's/InStat report which shows Wi-Fi gaining market share. Of course, because the market grew so much in 2001, HomeRF's absolute unit must have increased as well. HomeRF wasn't shipping its 2.0 (10 Mbps) equipment until past summer, so much of what was shipped was likely the older flavor.

11:48:17 AM    comment   

Competing in the enterprise space is an absolute top priority for us. The $4.8 billion in enterprise software and services revenue last fiscal year represented nearly 20% of Microsoft's total revenues, and a 20% increase over the preceding year. Those are pretty respectable numbers, especially considering the economic environment. Server application revenue alone increased 31% last year. SQL Server recently hit the $1 billion mark in sales, outselling Oracle on the Windows platform and underscoring its scalability and reliability in real-world environments. If we're being judged based on benchmark results, I'd say we're at the top of those as well. So any way you look at it, we're making great headway in the enterprise by delivering quality products at affordable prices.
11:27:18 AM    comment   

Part I of a three part interview.

None of us has a crystal ball, but what I can honestly say is that I am as excited and optimistic as I've ever been about the promise of technology to fundamentally make a difference in people's lives and to support businesses in being more efficient and productive, more agile and more competitive. From my perspective, the theme over the next year is Web services, XML and .Net. Web services will not only transform the technology industry, but they'll also give businesses of all sizes an incredible array of new tools to connect with customers and partners. In terms of Microsoft specifically, we'll be following up the launch last year of Windows XP, Office XP and Xbox with a number of key product offerings, including Windows.Net Server, Visual Studio.Net and the Tablet PC, as well as updates to a number of our .Net Servers.
11:24:25 AM    comment