Get in sync with suppliers
Business-to-business dependencies create the opportunity for great benefits. But if a disaster strikes any company in the supply chain, the risks to all are equally great.
Stories by Alan R. Earls
ETL: Preparation is the best bet
When you have got gambling operations on half a dozen riverboats, it’s important that everyone plays by the same rules. Argosy Gaming with a fleet of six such riverboat casinos, had decided that bringing all customer data together would enhance management’s view of operations and potentially help strengthen customer relationships. To accomplish those goals, though, the company needed to access disparate databases and put in place an extract, transform and load (ETL) system to help populate and maintain a central data warehouse.
Fraud-busters
Nobody likes being ripped off. But for online retailers, the pain of being ripped off by unethical consumers, identity thieves and bogus-card gangs has been magnified by what they consider to be the not-my-problem attitude of credit card issuers and card associations like Visa and MasterCard.
Management: Retaining staff
John Andrews used to think he had things under control. As chief information officer at CSX Technology, in Jacksonville, Florida, his recruiting needs were manageable. He had become accustomed to having a stable and reliable IS workforce. Life was good. Then, two years ago, a major employer in the region embarked on a crash year 2000 project, offering IS salaries 25 per cent to 45 per cent above the market rate.