Stories about: Delta Technology

An electronic revolution is taking place at George Washington University, as its CIO issues a call to IT arms to find ways to satisfy increasing user demands for support of Web 2.0 technologies like blogs and wikis.

Unlike the wild hiring of the '90s, the slow rebuilding of bare-bones IT shops over the next few years will provide an opportunity to staff up thoughtfully. It's another chance to get diversity right. Lots of IT organizations talk about diversity, but some are better at achieving it than others. We spoke with representatives of five IT groups that have been repeatedly cited as diversity leaders by the Black Data Processing Association to discover how companies can find, recruit and retain top minority talent in IT.

U.S. airlines, which spent US$14.8 billion on 20 billion gallons of jet fuel last year, go about topping off their tanks much the same way you do: They buy fuel where it's least expensive and plan stopovers and fuel contracts where it makes the most economic sense.

Meet with vendors. Review assignments for the year. Submit service estimate to customer. Valorie Hartridge, director of marketing systems at Bethesda, Md.-based Marriott International Inc., proudly points out that she crossed that last item off her to-do list just the other day. "I like scratching things off," she says.

The question still remains: What skills do middle managers need and how can they get them? Mike Keslar's roots are with the wholesale banking side of Mellon Financial Corp. "I didn't grow up on the technology side," he says. "I think my job is more of a challenge because I don't have that background." But the ability to interact with technicians, senior leaders and users and then translate messages so that they're meaningful to each group is what's most important in his job.

Who's afraid of ROI? You are. At least, that's what CFOs would have us all believe. Despite much dutiful attention to the biggest buzzword of the year, the rap persists among CFOs that IT is not only afraid of ROI but also clueless about how to find it, figure it and finesse it.

Creating value in challenging times will top the agenda when more than 350 of the nation's IT leaders gather in Palm Desert, California, for the third annual Computerworld Premier 100 conference on Monday and Tuesday.

Since Tellabs put in new procedures for measuring return on IT investment a year ago, "it's all been perfect," says CIO Cathie Kozik. Then she laughs.

Microsoft's announcement last week that it has restructured its volume software licensing and upgrade policies has sent IT managers scrambling to their file cabinets to review the contracts they have in place now.

Companies that subsidize PCs and Internet access for their employees face a growing - and often unexpected - demand for remote access to corporate e-mail and applications. This demand is prompting Delta Airlines Inc., Vivendi Universal SA and others to invest millions of dollars in their network infrastructures to let employees work from home.

As the recipients - or "the new heroes," as they're called - of the 12th annual Computerworld Smithsonian Awards took the stage at the National Building Museum on Monday to accept their coveted trophies, one could almost sense the presence of the people for whom the building was originally erected - the heroes who went to war to ensure the right of every citizen to think and create.