Best of ECT News

Since the end of the U.S. presidential campaign, the issue of outsourcing has ceased to be daily fodder for television news outlets. But it remains an issue that many American corporations struggle with on a daily basis. Aside from controversy surrounding the loss of American jobs, companies must d...

Recently, while replying to e-mails from readers of my book, The Design of Sites, I came across a comment from a designer who claimed that my recommendation to use pop-ups was hopelessly out of date. Did this reader not understand me, my recommendation -- to use pop-ups primarily in situations when ...

Looking for a Web hosting service provider? All vendors are not created equal. A little consumer education goes a long way toward ensuring you get a host that offers the right combination of products and services -- and at the right price. "There are so many Web hosting providers out there today," s...

Even when companies outsource some functions, they often keep control over far more than their core competencies. Unless outsourcing will deliver a cost savings with equal or better service quality, they keep it in-house. "They say, 'We want a service level, a service assurance at a price, and if yo...

Governments at both the state and federal level in the U.S. are getting serious about addressing the void in the legal framework for fighting "spyware." To begin with, we need to define the term "spyware," due to the fact that this term has been used to describe everything from keystroke loggers, to...

Internet security firms are gearing up for an onslaught of new attacks that hackers will hurl at inboxes and against Web sites. As the computer industry awaits the release of Service Pack 2 of Microsoft's Windows XP -- which will feature improved security capabilities -- hackers are waiting too. The...

Last weekend, hundreds of die-hard fans gathered at the Star Trek convention in Las Vegas to see the stars and mingle with other sci-fi-minded folks. Costumes and attitudes aptly demonstrated their commitment to the Star Trek philosophy, which has many similarities to American ideals. When asked to ...

Think of this scenario: You're shopping for a new home and instead of guiding you into a single-digit fixed-rate mortgage, lenders try to persuade you that an adjustable mortgage indexed to your income makes more sense. Structuring mortgages like that makes no sense, and it's making less and less se...

Your most critical business decisions often come down to prices: how much to charge and how much to pay. Prices have been driven down in the South Asian call center industry in the last two years, thanks to a flood of new entrants into the industry, a glut of low-end capacity, and improvements in te...

American businesses are struggling with retaining experienced customer service agents as demands and contacts increase along with higher expectations in the customer-driven economy. At the same time, the marching orders to the contact centers are to keep costs down, reduce call time, increase satisf...