Stories by John Edwards

Future watch: Under development - new millennium barcodes

Barcodes have been prominently displayed on magazine covers, cereal boxes and other retail products for more than 25 years, and they aren't about to disappear.

Hope for the Storage Starved

Believing that you can never be too rich, too thin or have enough storage, IBM Corp. researchers have created a new class of magnetic materials that could pave the way for hard drives and other data storage systems to store over 100 times more data than existing technologies.

What's your problem?

A combination of CRM and knowledge managementsoftware puts answers at fingertips of 3M call centre reps.

Shopbots search the Web for bargain

Randy Watts likes to design Web pages, but he doesn't like to pay unnecessarily high prices for new development tools. Like a growing number of small businesses and consumers, Watts has started relying on shopbot technology to help him find killer deals on a wide array of products. But while current 'bots can offer a great service to small-volume buyers and individuals, similar tools for larger companies are just starting to appear. And if you're an online merchant, the very thought of such margin-slimming shopping assistants may cause you to groan.

CRM, Knowledge Mgmt. Puts Answers at Fingertips

A typical day in the life of a 3M Co. call center agent is a lot like spending a not-so-quiet evening with Regis Philbin. The questions keep coming, and the pressure steadily builds.

Online Tools Boost Expert Workers Efficiency

Crestone International had a problem. The Atlanta-based e-commerce consultancy couldn't find enough local designers, programmers and other IT professionals to meet its rapidly escalating workload. Experiencing triple-digit growth each year since its 1995 founding, the company needed to find a way to get extra productivity out of its current employees--or face the disagreeable prospect of turning away work. "It wasn't a matter of cutting expenses; it was a question of long-term viability," says Cal Yonker, Crestone's president.

Digital Money Finds a Home with Credit-Card-Less

For Pacific Sunwear of California, selling sportswear on the Internet sounded like a surefire idea, until company managers realized something: Most of their potential customers didn't have credit cards.