E-Commerce Up in Smoke

It might seem weird to buy cigarettes online, heck it’s crazy to buy cigarettes at all, but some folks are buying cigarettes from websites and Philip Morris USA (PM) doesn’t like it. The cigarette manufacturer has filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission (ITC) to stop illegally imported gray market cigarettes bearing PM’s trademarks, including the Marlboro mark, from entering the United States.

The complaint alleges that hundreds of Internet-based cigarette vendors are unfairly selling cigarettes bearing PM’s trademarks in violation of US intellectual property laws and the Lanham Act – the US trademark act. The company wants the ITC to issue a General Exclusion Order, which would require US Customs & Border Protection to stop all infringing cigarette imports from entering the US. Basically PM wants to stub out such B2C trade.

Tech Out of Control

Households across Europe are full of expensive technology that most people do not know how to control, according to a study undertaken by Lightspeed Research for Logitech. The study found that Europeans have at least 362 billion euros worth of TVs, HiFis, speakers, video and DVD players, digital recorders and satellite boxes in their homes, with the true value probably being several billions more. In spite of this, in 24 percent of European households only one person knows how to control all the technology in their home.

The study found that the majority of people in each household are unable to do simple tasks like watching a DVD or recording a TV program. The source of the problem seems to be the sheer complexity of technology in the home – 49 percent of households have five or more remote controls and 87 percent have three or more. One in four Europeans has a very untechnical solution to this problem of complexity. They create cheat sheets — written instructions for their loved ones explaining how to control the devices.

Microsoft’s S2B Community

The Microsoft Students to Business (S2B) community (http://s2b.experience.com) has been launched in the US to directly connect job seekers with thousands of IT career opportunities. The Microsoft Students to Business (S2B) program helps Microsoft’s partners connect with and hire talented university or post-graduate students for jobs or internships in the technology industry by matching qualified candidates with open positions.

Unlike other job search engines, the Microsoft S2B site is comprehensive and housed within the Experience Network, giving Microsoft partners access to technically-focused students, alumni and universities. Experience is the only university-endorsed career network bridging the gap between college and the working world. Each year the Experience Network connects millions of candidates from 3,800 American colleges and universities with more than 100,000 employers.

The site enables users to leverage Experience’s personalized guidance capabilities based on candidates’ interests, skills and career levels. There is a web-based career portfolio designed for students and alumni to showcase skills and talents beyond the typical resume. The site also provides online professional networking and mentoring and relevant insight into career paths and industries.

Users’ Choice Database Survey

The most satisfied database customers are using Oracle Database 10g or later, according to a worldwide survey by Evans Data Corporation of actual database users. The survey ranks the top seven enterprise database servers on 13 critical user experience categories and enterprise criteria. Oracle Database scored the highest overall, placing first in all categories, with a tie for one. IBM DB2 and Microsoft SQL Server also scored well, and with Oracle, comprise the top three in User’s Choice rankings.

The Users’ Choice survey, taken at the end of 2007, is conducted from the perspective of the user rather than results from lab testing or independent evaluations to better represent real world development, use and satisfaction, and show what a new user might expect. The research included interviews of over 1,400 developers and IT managers worldwide. The four other databases in the survey were Informix Dynamic Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL and Sybase Adaptive Server. The entire User’s Choice Database Servers survey is available for free from http://www.evansdata.com/reports/free-report.php.

US IT Industry Outlook Stable

Economic news coming out of the US offers little hope for the global economy. But according to the latest reading of the CDW IT Monitor (www.cdwitmonitor.com), the information technology (IT) marketplace in the US is demonstrating a cautious but hopeful belief in prospects for 2008. The IT Monitor index registered a slight increase — from 69 in December 2007 to 73 in February 2008. The number of respondents who believe that overall IT budgets will increase in the next six months rose by 15 percentage points.

“Even with 2008 budgets approved and IT decision makers looking forward to improving IT resources in the coming months, the greenlighting of actual technology investments will depend on the overall economic environment, which remains uncertain,” said CDW Vice President Mark Gambill, the executive responsible for market insights.

The two sub-indices of the IT Monitor showed positive movements. The IT Growth Monitor, which measures anticipated investment in IT, registered a score of 69, up from 63. The IT Value Monitor, which measures the perceived value of IT, scored 76, up from 74. These scores are just seven points apart, compared with an 11-point gap two months ago.

“The narrowing of this gap indicates expected investment in IT may be slightly more aligned with the perceived value technology brings to an organization,” Gambill said. “But looking deeper into the data, we see small businesses are being much more cautious than medium and large corporations. Because small businesses are often on the front lines of an economic downturn, this data is reflective of an uncertain economy.”

The CDW IT Monitor is a bimonthly indicator of the direction, momentum and mindset of the IT marketplace in the United States, based on an online survey of at least 1000 IT decision makers from businesses of all sizes, and all sectors of government. At the center of the CDW IT Monitor is an index number, which registered an initial benchmark reading of 69 in December 2007. Results are calculated on a scale of 0-100, with 100 indicating the highest level of confidence.

Other findings from February’s IT Value & IT Growth Sub-Indices were:

*82 percent of respondents claimed that IT was effective in achieving their company’s mission and goals.

*69 percent said IT investment improved financial performance or organizational efficiency.

*24 percent said IT staffing would increase over the next six months.

*53 percent reported that IT budgets would increase over the next six months.

*Only 39 percent of small businesses reported that IT was helping their bottom