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Last year, some 28 percent of corporate managers surveyed told Evans Data, a market research firm, that their primary driver for outsourcing was cost cutting. You'd think saving money would catch the eye of Wall Street but, in fact, it doesn't.

Few companies operate independently in the Electronic Age, which means that the security vulnerability of every business partner -- outsourcer, client, whatever -- whose computer system has access to yours is a potential portal to your most sensitive data.

As chief information officer for the state of Arizona, Chris Cummiskey directs computer operations for 114 agencies ranging from the Acupuncture Board of Examiners to the Weights and Measures Department.

The question has been debated for centuries: if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, does it make a sound? Conventional wisdom says yes, but that no one will notice. The axiom could be applied to podcasting.

Trust has always been the cornerstone of a successful business relationship. But in a global marketplace, your business partners may include a myriad of companies spread across the globe, linked by information gateways.

Hurricane Katrina delivered an excruciating lesson on "information integration in action, not theory," according to Steve Cooper, chief information officer at the American Red Cross.

Like a physical supply chain, an information supply chain (ISC) is comprised of the organizations that connect with each other to produce a desired end -- product or service -- for a user.

Thin client technology and the Java card have enabled business to create a data-centric world with a mobile workforce. The creative possibilities in this environment are boundless, but freedom from the office comes with increased risk.

Convenience and cost-savings are powerful incentives for companies to use technology as a way of convening meetings, and they do so knowing that an electronically-mediated session will be different from a face-to-face meeting.

Until now, the data collected by companies about their customers and their business processes was relatively cumbersome to use.