Expert Advice

The term "ROBO" -- Research Online, Buy Offline -- was coined by Yahoo to describe the growing number of consumers who research online but buy offline. Online "pre-shopping" has become a common activity prior to a variety of purchases. According to Forrester, online research will influence $1 tril...

For businesses serving the public, employees are the face of the company. Likewise, the manner in which employees interact with customers shapes their perception of the business and its brand. Ultimately, customer loyalty is built through positive interactions and high-quality customer service that ...

Value-Added Tax generates approximately one-third of all public revenue in many of the world's wealthiest countries; in some EU Member States, the VAT contribution to the fiscal mix is close to 40 percent. Electronic invoicing remains one of the most challenging areas of conducting e-business in and...

A well-rounded board is an absolute necessity in these economically trying times. The average board of today usually consists of at least one person who has expertise in the company's business; a high-profile person who brings credibility and gravitas to issues; a financial person who, among other t...

Enterprises that have merged with or acquired the systems and assets of another company know how difficult it is to combine disparate systems -- platforms, databases and software solutions -- with its existing infrastructure. Mergers can be very disruptive, especially if the companies have standardi...

System administrators are well aware of the pain associated with maintenance windows. This effort is usually taking place off-hours and requires challenging coordination between different activities and often different departmental personnel. Although almost every system administrator will agree to ...

"Brought to you by ..." Ahhh, the golden age of advertising. The ads themselves were social markers, drivers of our conversation, definers of what was -- and was not -- cool. We took them at face value, we obeyed their siren songs, and we sampled, and we bought, and we sang the jingles. Back in a...

Practically every business has a dirty little secret: It's called customer attrition. Rarely can a company claim someone as a customer for life. There will always be pressure from the competition -- and as a result, there will always be customer attrition. Certainly, businesses do everything they ca...

In case you missed it, seven long years of wrangling have come to an end: 802.11n has now been officially ratified by the IEEE. Super-fast WiFi is here. The 802.11n standard ushers in increased network throughput and range that will change wireless access, services and applications. With this final ...

Microsoft SharePoint Server is an incredibly versatile tool for setting up portals and Web sites that facilitate communication and collaboration within a company, between companies, and with Internet users at large. This versatility and the ability of SharePoint to boost productivity has made it the...