Jennifer Jones

W.W. Grainger Inc. CIO Tim Ferrarell describes how this industrial products leader keeps close to customers and tabs on suppliers.

"Enterprises now realize they don't need to build dedicated networks or own their own corporate data centres," says Steven Blumenthal, CTO of Genuity Inc., a Woburn, Mass.-based MSP (managed services provider).

Extreme caution is likely to pervade the corporate budgeting process for much of 2002 as executives ponder what's needed to bring enterprises out of the economic slump.

After a stunningly brutal fiscal season, telecom giants AT&T Corp., Sprint Corp., and WorldCom Inc. are revving up enhanced services for the enterprise, realizing that their futures likely hang on selling deeper into corporate accounts.

A week after the Sept. 11 wreckage in New York, some businesses were reportedly without basic phone and data services, but carriers overall seemed to struggle with the physical

Telecom titan WorldCom Inc. recently unveiled a hosted eCRM (customer relationship management) solution, signalling the carrier's intent to delve further into the hosted solutions market.

In a victory for Microsoft Corp., the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division Thursday said that it will not force a breakup of the software giant, nor will the agency pursue further proceedings on tying counts contained in the original case.

Enterprise spending may not get an expected bounce in the second half of the year, according to Wall Street analyst firm Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., which recently doled out grim financial predictions, particularly for the PC industry.