Mari-Len De Guzman

It takes two to tango. First it was Microsoft and Bell. Then early this week, IBM Corp. and Avaya Inc. sashayed to the convergence beat. The alliance with Basking Ridge, N.J.-based Avaya Inc. will enable IBM to integrate telephony capabilities into its enterprise collaboration tools

If the prophet cannot come to the mountain, take the mountain to the prophet. That's the thinking behind VideoCare, a London, Ont.-based telehealth network that provides video-conferencing services to hospitals and healthcare professionals across southwestern Ontario. It enables these professionals to view, in real time, complex surgical procedures

In the so-called "lawful access" controversy in Canada there are almost as many sides as there are stakeholders. The debate appears to pit law enforcement agencies here against privacy groups. Service providers

That some form of "Lawful Access" legislation is necessary seems almost a no-brainer. Who would ever be against providing law enforcement or national security agencies with the tools they need to nail bad guys? Few would dispute that "listening in" on the conversations or intercepting the communication of suspected criminals or terrorists is a great way of learning

A public advocacy group has called on Hewlett-Packard CEO and president Mark Hurd to take a pay cut in light of the company's cost restructuring to "share the suffering" of some 14,500 HP employees expected to be laid off within the next 18 months. Boston, Mass.-based United for a Fair Economy (UFE) said the impending mass lay off that HP announced yesterday is another case of "employees being made to pay for executive mistakes."

Ever tried watching a Webcast without the speakers on? How about surfing the Internet with the monitor switched off? The absence

Oracle Corp. has dropped its licensing price for multi-core processors by 25 per cent, but the strategy might not be enough for customers to favor Oracle over rivals like IBM and Microsoft, an analyst said. Last Friday's announcement by Oracle was evidence of an on-going price war the company is waging against Microsoft Corp. and IBM Corp., said Joshua Greenbaum, principal at Enterprise Applications Consulting, a research and technology consulting firm in Berkeley, Calif.

For IT to really become a key business driver one thing must happen: business leaders and IT professionals have to start communicating effectively with one another. George Galambos, Director, Architecture with IBM Global Services, Canada talks to IT World Canada's Mari-Len De Guzman about why this communication is so vital. Galambos is one of the architects of the automated banking system now known as the Interac.