Cellular Carriers Hit Bottom With IT ...

By Mark Hall

September 19, 2005 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - ... on satisfaction. ForceNine Consulting, which is part of Washington-based telecommunications consultancy ForceNine Services LLC, surveyed the satisfaction level among more than 600 IT managers who work at $1 billion-plus companies and oversee the use of over 6 million wireless voice and data devices. And the bliss level was pretty low. According to Andy Roscoe, a partner at ForceNine, a mere 21% of the respondents said they were happy with their cellular carriers. That compares with 36% who expressed glee with their wire-line providers and a whopping 44% of joyfulness for ISPs. Roscoe says his study, which will be revealed in detail at next month's Enterprise Wireless Summit in Landsdowne, Va., underscores CIOs' frustration at not being able to construct useful business partnerships with cellular carriers - something they have long been able to do with IT vendors. Like the CIOs themselves, Roscoe is mystified by the carriers' attitudes. "Corporate IT are their best and largest customers," he says. "Something's got to change." What's the biggest headache for CIOs? Coverage. Global companies that operate in Europe or countries such as Japan and South Korea don't have to account for vast swaths of territory where data can't be transmitted and simple phone calls can't be made. But it's still an issue in the U.S. In that context, "Can you hear me now?" is as much an embarrassing admission as a clever ad slogan.
Boost branch-office application ...
... performance, while accelerating server consolidation and centralization efforts. That's the promise from a start-up that this week is unveiling software designed to put the brakes on what CEO Rick Tinsley calls "server sprawl in branch offices." Tinsley heads Mountain View, Calif.-based Silver Peak Systems Inc., which makes a line of appliances that use its Network Memory software to look at every byte being transmitted between your branch offices and your data center. By transmitting only new data, the appliances reduce the number of packets that need to be sent, greatly improving response times. Tinsley claims that with Network Memory, many IT shops that now deploy servers to local offices to meet service-level agreements will be able to move those systems back to the data center. Pricing starts at $9,995.

Silver Peak's network acceleration appliance


Ajit Deora, CEO of enKoo Inc.

Web conferencing device replaces ...
... services and saves you money. So boasts Ajit Deora, CEO of enKoo Inc. in Fremont, Calif. Midsize companies that use conferencing services from vendors like WebEx Communications Inc. and Citrix Systems Inc. are wasting $2,800 to $4,200 each

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