E-Commerce Times: E-Business Means Business

BEST OF ECT NEWS
Breaking the Cellphone Contract Stranglehold

Friday - July 3, 2009

Job insecurity combined with financial fear-mongering has consumers slashing their budgets. Cellphone and premium TV services look like easy items to eliminate. Typically, however, those services tie users to contracts as well as three ugly words: early termination fees. Can customers break those contracts and avoid significant financial hits? Many customers can indeed ditch their contracts -- if they're willing to educate themselves and then speak up. [More...]

BEST OF ECT NEWS
The Cloud's Growing SLA Ecosystem

Friday - July 3, 2009

It's been four months since Google announced it would guarantee 99.9 percent system accessibility for users of its Google Apps Premier Edition -- a cloud-based productivity suite of business-oriented messaging and collaboration apps, including integration capabilities and support. [More...]

BEST OF ECT NEWS
The Mighty Power Bestowed on ISPs

Friday - July 3, 2009

"With great power comes great responsibility" is an oft-quoted line from the first "Spider-Man" film. Without torturing the "web" metaphor beyond its breaking point, it also applies to your friendly neighborhood Internet service provider. A maze of legislation, regulations and business practices dating back to the 1930s have given ISPs the power to monitor your use of their networks. [More...]

BEST OF ECT NEWS
How to Build a Small-Business Web Site: Nuts and Bolts

Friday - July 3, 2009

When it comes to setting up your Web presence, entrepreneurs are surprisingly lax. Depending on who you talk to, about half of small businesses do not have a Web site. Most of those will tell you that it's just too complicated, time-consuming and expensive a job to take on. [More...]

BEST OF ECT NEWS
Business Intelligence: Tools of the Trade for Decision Makers

Friday - July 3, 2009

In this age of hype and hysteria, nearly every IT product peddled comes with the dire warning "if you do not buy, you die." On a few occasions, however, that claim proves true in the biggest, most unmistakable ways. "It can easily be argued that our current world economic crisis can be partially blamed on poor business intelligence," Boris Evelson, an analyst at Forrester, told CRM Buyer. [More...]

Dish Network DVR Features Get Stay of Execution

Thursday - July 2, 2009

The final day of reckoning in the four-year battle between TiVo and EchoStar has been pushed out a little further. Late Wednesday evening, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted EchoStar's request to stay a contempt order imposed by the U.S. District Court the day before, until its appeal can be heard. [More...]

OPINION
Large Tech Firms: Beware of Obama Administration's Antitrust Plans

Thursday - July 2, 2009

In a dramatic repudiation of Bush administration policies, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Justice department withdrew its recent report setting standards for the prosecution of monopolization offenses. The report was controversial from the start. The FTC declined to join it after three of the commissioners called it a "blueprint for radically weakened enforcement" against anticompetitive practices. [More...]

ANALYSIS
8 Steps to Getting Sales and Marketing to Play Nice

Thursday - July 2, 2009

There are dozens of webinars, seminars, research reports, whitepapers, and blog postings on the topic of sales and marketing alignment. Despite the endless flow of resources and suggestions, sales and marketing alignment continues to elude many organizations. Misalignment is often a byproduct of a lack of process and a natural result of traditional marketing and sales roles. [More...]

Marketers Aim to Self-Regulate Consumer Tracking Online

Thursday - July 2, 2009

Companies that track consumer behavior online for advertising purposes are vowing to make their practices more transparent and to give people a way to decline being shadowed. It's unclear how much of an effect the new policies will have. One consumer group said the changes don't go far enough, and that extensive profiles of people still will be collected without their complete consent. [More...]

Amazon Turns Gears of Internet Tax Wars

Wednesday - July 1, 2009

More companies are joining in the fight over Internet taxation begun by Amazon.com. Blue Nile and Overstock.com have joined the Web's largest retailer in dropping affiliate programs in North Carolina and Rhode Island, according to numerous press reports. Amazon also reportedly dropped its affiliate program in Hawaii. [More...]

New Site Lets Citizens Follow the Government's IT Money Trail

Wednesday - July 1, 2009

It may not seem like most people's idea of summer reading. Then again, it is the chance to engage in some detective work with billions of dollars and terabytes of sensitive government data at stake. Better yet, you don't have to spend any money to read this latest techno-thriller. [More...]

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