Videoconferencing has been touted as a practical, here-today technology that can save companies from having to fly employees all over. But despite its practicality, adoption of this technology has been minimal. Advances in audio and visual technology, and a sea change in attitudes about communication may change all that. Harvey Shrednick and Ajay Vinze, both information systems professors at the W. P. Carey School of Business, believe that after years of unfulfilled hype the time may finally be right for videoconferencing.

Google, a bellwether of online computing, recently announced OpenSocial — its next generation answer to Facebook, which had previously opened up its platform. But platforms that allow outside developers to create bolt-on applications are not just for the novelty functions found on social networking sites. The same concepts are being used by software companies like Salesforce.com to add value and functionality to their online platforms. As a result, in the view of Julie Smith David, Director of the Center for Advancing Business through IT at the W. P. Carey School of Business, the whole software industry is — or soon may be — all shook up.

Tools to facilitate the full range of business processes proliferated over the past decade. Some firms base entire business models or product lines on such tools, while other traditional companies are looking for tools as a means to improve operational efficiency or processes. "The question facing supply management professionals today might be best summarized as: How do we ensure we’re getting the most out of the e-tools available?" according to a report from CAPS Research, a strategic sourcing research center co-sponsored by the W. P. Carey School of Business.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have a growing reputation for being big, slow, pricey and just about impossible to change once they’re installed. Those aren’t exactly promising survival traits in competitive environs that demand IT agility. In the conclusion of our two-part story, Julie Smith David, associate professor of information systems at the W. P. Carey School of Business, discusses REA (resources, events and agents) analysis, a method of system modeling that may meet the information and agility requirements of corporate computing today.

With any luck at all, there isn’t a giant asteroid headed our way soon, but in the world of information technology, an extinction event may be on the horizon. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems — those monolithic software packages that evolved to tame companywide data — may be heading the way of trilobites and dinosaurs. Once in place, ERP systems are rigid, says Julie Smith David, an associate professor of information systems at the W. P. Carey School of Business — not the adaptive trait that leads to success in a dynamic environment.