Expert Advice

Hope was a slogan and a sentiment that played a major role in the U.S. presidential election of 2008, and hope continues to be the mindset of technology advocates pushing for cloud computing in the public sector. As a former government employee with a long history in the intelligence field, I can ea...

I first became aware of cross-site scripting (XSS) nearly a decade ago. At the time, despite being an all too prevalent bug in Web applications, the risk posed by the flaw was of limited value. It was the go-to vulnerability for any pen tester that was having trouble digging up a meaningful vulnerab...

Today's enterprises are clamoring for software applications that run in a wide variety of environments -- everything from physical to virtual to cloud. If you are a software vendor, how do you make it easy to give them what they want? You could hand customers your software on a CD and let them figu...

Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace rely on the trusted nature of the relationship between friends, colleagues, associates and followers. Unfortunately, the level of trust that end-users invest in each other is also being applied to the makers of applications and is perhaps a little...

After an exceedingly tough year for businesses in virtually every sector, reports of online sales Cyber Monday offer hope for the turnaround so many people have been waiting for. The Internet has been called by many "the great equalizer." One of the best things about selling online is that virtually...

In a bittersweet twist of irony, a CRM technology solution can save a company or kill it. If wielded effectively, obstacles disappear and profits materialize. Used wrongly, your investment and customers are lost -- often permanently. It's crucial to know your company's CRM strengths and, more import...

In an effort to beef up internal controls and data security, service organizations have sought out SAS 70 reports to demonstrate their level of compliance. When businesses choose to outsource critical processes, the SAS 70 helps them assess and select potential providers. This assessment tool can ...

It's important to keep the story of eService in mind when thinking about social media's role over the past few years in reshaping the ways customers interact with brands. Undoubtedly, the influence of social channels has been at least as profound -- and perhaps even more profound -- than that of eSe...

2009 is expected to be the first year when mobile phones start gaining real traction in holiday shopping. Nearly one in five consumers will use a mobile device to assist in their holiday shopping this year, according to Deloitte's most recent Annual Holiday Survey of retail spending and trends Shop...

Remember the "Scantron" sheets that you had to fill out in school for taking standardized tests -- you know, the ones where you had to fill in the circle with a No. 2 pencil to mark your answer? Now imagine you're watching someone take a standardized math test -- you watch as they spend 15 minutes c...