The Week in Review: January 2, 2004

In the news... Gartner has presented its 10 must-do New Year resolutions for CIOs and IT Directors for 2004. The resolutions are designed to help CIOs drive IT innovation while maintaining the cost and efficiency savings achieved in 2003. The resolutions are grouped into three strategic themes: Maintain cost discipline, rationalize and consolidate further 1. Refresh hardware bought before 2000 and aging software 2. Continue consolidating IT infrastructure and applications 3. Plan for new competences and give your most valuable staff an unexpected pay raise Assess imminent trend shifts in business and technology, prepare to respond 4. Make clear technology choices and set policy for the future 5. Stay in direct touch with key technology developments 6. Anticipate external drivers of uncertainty and complexity Invest in midterm opportunities, pull back from short-term expedients 7. Migrate towards real-time infrastructure 8. Create a business process skills competency center 9. Build partnership management competences and processes 10. Plan to overspend your budget According to research from DoubleClick, online shopping cart abandonment continues to be an issue among e-tailers. DoubleClick found that in the third quarter of 2003, for every dollar in sales, four dollars was abandoned; that the average abandoned cart size increased from $358 to $370; and that the average abandoned unit is two times larger than a purchased unit. Deals of the week... MicroStrategy, a provider of business intelligence software, has announced that Trenitalia, a subgroup of the Gruppo Ferrovie dello Stato (Italian State Railroads), has deployed the MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Platform to analyze railroad ticket sales data. Fiserv Securities has selected Web Ally as its CRM platform for its account managers, sales assistants, group managers and administrative staff. Sharper Image has selected Coremetrics to provide detailed analysis of customer and visitor behavior on the Sharper Image Web site. Executive changes... Merkle Direct Marketing, a provider of information-based database marketing services, has appointed Pierre Charchaflian to the new position of vice president, client management services. Charchaflian was a co-founder of DiaLogos, a Boston-based CRM consulting firm. Salesforce.com announced that Cary Fulbright, senior vice president of new market and brand development, has been named to the executive committee of the board of directors of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and will chair the marketing and membership Committee. Blue Heron Consulting Corp., a management consulting and technology services firm specializing in customer care and billing solutions, has announced the appointment of Kenneth Rybka as vice president of business development and technology. Rybka brings nearly 20 years of experience in the energy and customer management technology industries to the firm. Most recently he led the overall product and marketing direction for Oracle Corp.'s utility offerings.