Year: 2005

  • Microsoft Partners Question Microsoft’s Vertical Push

    Microsoft Partners Question Microsoft’s Vertical Push
    Categories:

    MINNEAPOLIS—The easiest question that Microsoft senior VP Doug Burgum fielded during an open Q&A session with channel partners on Thursday: What is the difference between a bison and a buffalo? After that one—which North Dakota native Burgum handled with ease—the questions got a lot tougher, as MBS (Microsoft Business Solutions) partners at the worldwide partner… Read more

  • Microsoft Seeks to Decouple the ‘MB’ From SMB

    Microsoft Seeks to Decouple the ‘MB’ From SMB
    Categories:

    MINNEAPOLIS — To Microsoft, the small/mid-size business (SMB) segment is no longer a single entity. Here at the company’s annual worldwide partner conference this week, Microsoft is planning to announce new programs aimed at what its officials now claim are two very different and distinct types of businesses. Microsoft is now targeting mid-size customers with… Read more

  • Managed Services Pioneer Poised for Growth

    Categories:

    The folks who run Invision Inc. have known for years what traditional IT VARs and integrators came to realize over the 12 months or so: For many in the IT channel, the future is in managed services. Invision, of Commack, N.Y., is one of the pioneers of managed services. Having adopted the model early, the… Read more

  • ACS Buys LiveBridge, Elvis Outsources

    Categories:

    Affiliated Computer Services Inc. on Tuesday unveiled its latest BPO (business process outsourcing) acquisition: LiveBridge Inc. LiveBridge is a customer-care services company that primarily pursues the financial and telecommunications markets. The company operates call centers in the U.S., Canada, Argentina, and India. ACS purchased LiveBridge for $32 million in cash. Terms of the deal also… Read more

  • Open Source, Open Market for Ideas

    Open Source, Open Market for Ideas
    Categories:

    Why would a professional political scientist be interested in the open-source movement? For Steven Weber, a professor of political science and director of the Institute of International Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, it was the chance to investigate a technological issue that had what he saw as political ramifications. “In the political… Read more

  • Upgrading Typed DataSets in Visual Studio 2005

    Upgrading Typed DataSets in Visual Studio 2005
    Categories:

    Typed DataSets are a common feature in .NET development projects. With the release this year of Visual Studio 2005 and the .NET Framework 2.0, how will your Typed DataSet projects fare in the upgrade process? In this article, I discuss how the 2.0 Typed DataSets differ from the 1.x ones, and how upgrading your projects… Read more