SMB IT
Gartner, 9/28/04: User Survey: SMB IT Services: Buying Behavior, Worldwide, 2004
By Mika Krammer
In 2004, small and midsize businesses (SMBs) will contribute approximately $147 billion to the U.S. IT services market, almost 50 percent of the market total.
With IT budgets expected to increase by at least 6 percent this year, opportunities abound for vendors that can develop, position and support technology offerings that appeal to SMBs. With relatively leaner IT staffs, this community of companies relies on IT services to realize the value of their technology investments.
Gartner Dataquest addresses the consumption preferences among SMBs for IT services with the goal of assisting IT vendors in creating go-to-market approaches that will provide the greatest value to SMBs and, therefore, maximize the revenue generated in this market. Key input into this document was provided by SMBs engaged with IT services vendors.
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Microsoft
Forrestor, 8/16/04: Microsoft Operations Manager 2005
With the release of Microsoft Operations Manager 2005, Microsoft has made important improvements to the product and will be able to gain significant traction in the Windows server platform management space. Microsoft has successfully managed to address key shortcomings of the earlier version of MOM; within the larger framework of the Dynamic Systems Initiative, it is set to become the No. 1 or No. 2 player in the Windows server platform management market within the next three years.
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eWeek, 10/1/04: New MSN Instant-Messaging Client to Go Beta Next Week
By Mary Jo Foley
Release 7 will showcase some of Microsoft's three degrees messaging features, which the company has been honing for years.
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Otherwise
The San Francisco Chronicle, 10/1/04: Mouthy little fish yearns to be big fish in an ocean awash with movie in-jokes and mobsters
Shark Tale: Animation comedy. Starring voices of Will Smith, Robert De Niro, Jack Black and Renee Zellweger.
"Shark Tale" is an animated Mafia spoof set under the sea, with a cast of fish -- in other words, a really bad idea. Or so it would seem. But somehow, by avoiding the usual animation cliches, by keeping the story moving, the pictures pretty and the characters consistently amusing, director and co- writer Rob Letterman cobbles together an entertaining 90 minutes.
Like the first "Shrek," "Shark Tale" is animation for cynics. It's a movie bereft of the main filmmaking virtues (such as passion, the need to tell a story, the need to say something), but with enough secondary virtues to pick up the slack: Cleverness, a strong cast and a director with an eye on the clock. A lot of the jokes are in-jokes, but they're funny, and there's a decent story as well, about a small fish who wants to become a big fish and tells a whopper of a lie.
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