Insight

From buzzword to the norm, Encore Tickets CIO Chily Fachler writes about his journey into multichannel retail

Multichannel is no longer the buzzword having been around since 2005. The emergence of the multichannel buzzword used synonymously with internet or digital selling served to focus CIO minds on the new channels available, but multiple channel is not a new thing. Savvy consumer organisations have been reaching their customers in stores, at home, via the post and telephone long before the internet was even invented.

Reducing cost and increasing efficiency key considerations over the coming year, according to IT executives responding to a CIO UK survey

With a focus over the next year on cutting costs and increasing efficiency, CIOs expect the cloud to overtake mobile developments as the second largest driver of transformation at their organisations behind data analytics, according to CIO UK’s CIO Priorities survey. But with clear mobile strategies which are in the deployment and pilot stages, the UK’s business technology leaders are anything but ignoring the current mobility explosion.

Bain Capital and Golden Gate Capital are leading the acquisition

BMC's announcement that it will be acquired by a private investment consortium could prove to be a wise decision, since it will allow the vendor to evolve its IT systems management business without the same financial pressures faced by public companies.

Intel could move in the direction of becoming a full-fledged foundry, but will not make products for competitors

Intel hasn't signalled a change in strategy with the appointment of Brian Krzanich to CEO, but it is likely that the company will take steps to outrun its foundry competition by opening its industry-leading manufacturing facilities to more third parties.

Industry CIO on change management, innovation, compliance, data management, budgeting, the cloud and risk

What are the pressures currently experienced by insurance industry CIOs and CTOs who are required to support business change, differentiation and innovation while maintaining a stable system of records - and all in these times of austerity?

10gen is developing new features that will make MongoDB a viable competitor, according to Eliot Horowitz

Oracle has long dominated the database market with an appliance-led business model that locks the customer in. But enterprises are waking up to the fact that relational databases cannot address all of today’s business requirements, and have started to look at alternative offerings from smaller, more focused companies.

It's time for CIOs to find out which communication technologies customers prefer

At many companies, customer service is no longer viewed as a cost centre; it's now considered good for the bottom line. Forrester data shows that a 10% improvement in a company's customer-experience score can translate into millions of dollars in increased revenue.

The challenges of selling hosted applications, consolidating the Quest portfolio and the state of innovation in enterprise software

John Swainson has one of the more challenging jobs in the tech industry right now. As president of Dell's software division, he's charged with sorting through all the software Dell has acquired and organising it into coherent offerings that can further its effort to become a more profitable, software- and services-driven company.