Tuesday | 7 October, 2008
Kimberly-Clark's Secrets to RFID Success
The man in charge of keeping store shelves across the US stocked with Kleenex and Huggies reveals the company’s best practice for making RFID work
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Process Trip 04 February, 2008 13:07:03
Why Maritz Travel revamped key business processes — and how business and IT came together to make it workWhen Rich Phillips became COO OF Maritz Travel about two and-a-half years ago, he sat down and took a hard look at the big industry picture - +
Ticked Off at Tick the Box Mentality 04 February, 2008 13:01:15
Does your executive search firm know the difference between an MIS manager and a CIO, and if it does, can it explain that difference to its corporate clients?Does your executive search firm know its MIS managers from its elbow? Does it even know the difference between an MIS manager and a CIO, and if it does, can it explain that difference to its corporate clients? - +
How to Get Real About Strategic Planning 04 February, 2008 12:50:59
Everyone agrees that having a strategic plan for IT is a good thing but most CIOs approach the process with fear and loathing. In fact, the majority of CIOs (and the enterprises they work for) are faking it when it comes to strategic planning. Isn't it time we all got real?Oh, it must be nice to be the CIO of a FedEx or a GE or a Credit Suisse. Places where IT and the business are so tightly aligned you can barely tell the two apart. Where corporate leaders understand that IT is a strategic asset and support it as such - +
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Every innovation, every business process improvement, comes with an IT complexity tax that must be paid by CIOs in time, money and sweat. Here are strategies to mitigate the increasing complexity of IT as it enables new business.Every innovation, every business process improvement, comes with an IT complexity tax that must be paid by CIOs in time, money and sweat. Here are strategies to mitigate the increasing complexity of IT as it enables new business. - +
Your RFID Battle Plan 05 November, 2007 13:40:11
Electronic tags still don’t top CIO strategy lists. But as a tactical weapon, RFID can be used to fight old problems in new waysTracking chemicals through the manufacturing and distribution process is a critical requirement for Dow Chemical, to ensure safety and operational efficiency. In 2004, identification technologies such as RFID tags had gained significant buzz due to initiatives by the US Defence Department and Wal-Mart to mandate their use in supply chain and inventory management applications
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Cisco buys into WiMAX with $US330M purchase of Navini 24 October, 2007 06:03:47
WiMAX vendor brings complete product line for wireless broadband accessThe rumours were right: Cisco has signed a deal to buy WiMAX radio vendor, Navini Networks, for $US330 million. - +
Qenos to upgrade SAP in BI push 01 November, 2007 11:54:17
SOA for integration the next big stepChemical company Qenos will upgrade its SAP platform and deploy a business intelligence portal to complement its existing Web-based reporting infrastructure. - +
Massive data-sharing may lead to mom-like services 18 October, 2007 05:26:03
For those willing to opt-in, information sharing may offer a brave new worldImagine you're driving toward smoke still distant on the horizon. A message arrives on your smart phone alerting you to traffic backups and the possibility that smoke and pollutants could affect your allergies. Warned, you change your driving route and avoid the problem. - +
Cisco buyout rumor mill focused on WiMAX vendor Navini 17 October, 2007 09:08:29
Will WiMAX drive a billion in new Cisco business?Cisco is reported to be on the verge of closing a deal to buy a WiMAX base station vendor called Navini Networks. - +
Alien products target closed-loop RFID networks 16 October, 2007 08:22:59
New products enable single-enterprise systems for asset tracking and inventory managementRFID supplier Alien Technology has introduced tags, a tag reader and a portal reader, all aimed at a new market: the growing demand for wireless asset management and inventory tracking inside a single enterprise.
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Kimberly-Clark has been around for many years - 135 to be exact. And while it may not be a household name, Kimberly-Clark's roster of products and brands certainly are: Kleenex, Scott, Huggies and Pull-Ups, just to name a few. According to the company, 1.3 billion people use its products every day, contributing to $US16.7 billion in sales last year.
Behind the nurturing and homey images of those powerhouse brands is a company with operations in 37 countries and a global supply chain that enables Kimberly-Clark to sell its wares in 150 countries.
As one of Wal-Mart's top suppliers, Kimberly-Clark got onboard the RFID revolution early and has been one of the technology's most ardent supporters. Mark Jamison, vice president of customer supply chain management, talked with CIO about the company's overall supply chain strategy, how RFID fits into the mix and how to make RFID work for the business.
CIO:What's the overall supply chain management strategy at Kimberly-Clark?
Mark Jamison: Our goal is to evolve the capabilities of our supply chain to a demand-driven supply network. One of the keys to achieving that vision is to have a highly integrated suite of supply chain systems that provide end-to-end visibility and as close to real-time information as possible.
About four years ago, we started redesigning our supply chain business processes and integrating our systems to that end. The first business process we redesigned was forecast-to-stock. We chose to go with SAP's APO [Advanced Planner and Optimizer] product, and we finished putting that in the fourth quarter of last year. Following that was the redesign of our order-to-cash business processes, and we have chosen an SAP solution for this system as well.
When we implement our new order-to-cash system, we will have an integrated suite of systems, and all of our users will be working with the same information as close to real time as possible. In addition, we are developing strategies to better leverage downstream data in our business processes for supply chain, category management and consumer insights.
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CIO Live Podcast #79: Brent D Taylor, author of The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires Part II 05 October, 2007 06:00:00
For his new book, The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires, social researcher Brent D Taylor spent four years of intensive research investigating the psychological make-up and backgrounds of some of the world's richest men and women, including IT luminaries Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs. Taylor discovered that, despite working in different industries and coming from different upbringings, they all have one thing in common -- they are all outsiders. - +
CIO Live Podcast #78: Brent D Taylor, author of The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires 28 September, 2007 17:34:25
For his new book, The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires, social researcher Brent D Taylor spent four years of intensive research investigating the psychological make-up and backgrounds of some of the world's richest men and women, including IT luminaries Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs. Taylor discovered that, despite working in different industries and coming from different upbringings, they all have one thing in common -- they are all outsiders. - +
CIO Live Podcast #77: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part III 21 September, 2007 07:00:00
Part three in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance. - +
CIO Live Podcast #76: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part II 14 September, 2007 07:00:00
Part two in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance. - +
CIO Live Podcast #75: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part I 07 September, 2007 07:00:05
Part one in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance.
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Google blacklists ATUG Web site 07 October, 2008 12:46:00
ATUG unaware of breach, Google unwilling to discuss detailsHackers may have hit the Australian Telecommunications User Group (ATUG) Web site, according to Google which has placed security threat warnings across all pages displayed in searches. - +
10 steps to loading dock security 07 October, 2008 11:30:00
Companies in all industries struggle to secure the loading dock, that sensitive spot where goods come in and go out. Follow these best practices and sleep better tonight.It's the stuff of CSO nightmares. Early on the morning of September 2, while most folks were home sleeping off the hot dogs, thieves used bolt cutters to break into an Alltel Communications warehouse and four of its loading docks in Fort Smith, Ark. Sources say they escaped with an estimated US$10 million worth of cell phones, not a bad haul for their Labor Day efforts. - +
Can security's human side stop data breaches? 07 October, 2008 14:29:00
As human error increasingly becomes the top reason for security breaches, behavior-based strategies are making their way into the workplace to supplement technologyShira Rubinoff was a practicing psychologist in 2004. When it came to technology, her experience was simply as a tech user, certainly not a tech guru. Then one day she was phished. - +
Corporate security and the climate crisis 03 October, 2008 11:21:00
How to adapt security and risk management policies - including IT security - to deal with climate change.US military strategists, CIA analysts, international agency officials and Nobel Prize winning economists concur with the consensus of the world's scientific community: the Climate Crisis is a planetary security issue, as well as a national security issue for each of the one hundred ninety two countries that belong to the United Nations. But the Climate Crisis is also, by extension, a corporate security issue, as well as, yes, a cyber security issue. - +
Companies own up to virtual security blind spot 02 October, 2008 11:05:00
VMWorld attendees reveal vast majority of companies have little or no security in place for their virtual systems.The vast majority of companies have little or no security in place for their virtual systems. That is a scary statistic revealed in a survey of attendees at the recent VMWorld 2008 conference in Las Vegas.
VeCommerce Launches Top Ten List of Personal Security Breaches In Lead Up to National ID Fraud Awareness Week 07 October, 2008 15:10:00
Multimedia Technology signs exclusive National distribution agreement with Freecom 07 October, 2008 14:30:00
Open Text: Upheaval in the Financial Markets Sharpens the Focus on Information Governance and Enterprise 07 October, 2008 13:19:00
Symantec State of Spam Report - October 2008 07 October, 2008 11:58:00
AIIA to Reward Sustainability and Green IT Champions at the 2009 iAwards 07 October, 2008 11:56:00
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Whitepaper
Still Sneaking In: The Threats Your Security Tools Aren't Telling You About
Web 2.0 applications are all the rage, offering us tremendous value when it comes to collaboration and communication. They also open us up to new kinds of attacks however, and can cause problems in keeping systems and data secure. Read on to learn about the new attack methods and how you can defend yourself and your business.
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