Saturday, March 5, 2005

National Manufacturing Week I'll be running around McCormick Place next week, at least Monday through Wednesday. If you are there, stop me and say Hi. I'm always looking for ideas for making Automation World a better magazine. Don't be shy. The show just won't be the same this year. My friends from National Instruments and Wago are just about the only automation companies there. What software companies that will be there are mostly maintaining kiosks in the Microsoft pavillion. No Cutler-Hammer dancers this year (like 1998 and 1999). All the shows (Design, Plant, Automation, IT, plus a couple more) are housed in one hall rather than the two to three of years past. In fact the show moves to Rosemont (suburb of Chicago near O'Hare) next year. The bulk of my appointments are software related this year--and with companies not usually gracing the pages of AW. Hopefully that situation will be rectified in the coming months. There will be some news from Siemens, who is not exhibiting but using the opportunity of having all the relevant trade show press in one city to whisk us off for a product introduction. More on that as I report from the show. I can get WiFi now at McCormick Place, but it costs at least $10 per day. Anything interesting comes up, I should be able to dash off a post. 10:56:54 AM    comment []

Gartner: Customer service outsourcing often fails. Companies that outsource customer service functions to reduce costs may risk reducing their client list as well, Gartner warned Friday. [InfoWorld: Top News] This common sense study by Gartner points out the necessity of good management of outsource suppliers, especially in areas that interact with customers. I have personal experience, and I bet you do too, with poor customer service leading to choosing different suppliers in future transactions. Later this year, Automation World will be undertaking a survey of how automation suppliers are viewed by their customers for various service and support factors. This could be interesting. Wonder how they are all doing? 5:59:41 AM    comment []

Mitnick: Security depends on workers' habits. Forget about fancy tools, Kevin Mitnick says. Teach your employees not to give information to strangers. [CNET News.com] Here is excellent advice from an ex-hacker turned security expert. It's kind of like "security begins at home." All the firewalls and passwords in the world won't work if someone opens a bad exe file or leaves a password out and about. 5:22:47 AM    comment []