Stories about: FTD

Take note, Microsoft: There may be better ways to diversify your business than by wooing Web 2.0 companies such as Yahoo.

On the surface, Web advertising seems healthy. Revenue in the US last year was up 27 per cent to US$25.5 billion, according to IDC.

Acer president Gianfranco Lanci became the first major PC manufacturer to openly attack Microsoft over the Windows Vista operating system in the Financial Times Deutschland on Monday.

EnterpriseDB has notched up international florist FTD Group as a customer in a vote of confidence for the young database company, which is trying to poach customers from Oracle with the promise of lower license fees and compatibility with Oracle applications.

CIO Fred Johnson oversees FTD.com Inc.'s floral delivery e-commerce site from his office in Downers Grove, Ill., but you won't find his Web servers there. Nor will you find them in Toronto, where FTD.com's application service provider (ASP), Novator Systems, designs the content for the site, uses its proprietary e-commerce applications to process orders and manages the network. FTD.com's Web servers actually run in a secure cage at a data center in Jersey City, N.J., operated by another service provider, Exodus Communications.

Flowers, the quintessential Valentine's Day gift, have migrated to the Web, big time. And processing all the transactions being submitted by online buyers in a short period of time is putting the Internet infrastructure of Internet-based flower shops to the test.

To take on tough rivals, American Floral Services seizes the mantle of e-business evangelist to retail florists

Amid fierce competition, American Floral Services (AFS) is striving hard to keep pace with an ever-changing wire service market to produce more blooms for its IT investment buck.

What do you get when you combine fragrant purple stock, pink sweetheart roses, yellow daisy spray mums and white mont casino asters with the Internet? The answer is leadership in the US$15 billion-per-year floral industry, says Tom Butler, president and CEO of American Floral Services Inc. (AFS).

A new survey of 66 North American online retailers released today by the Shop.org trade association and a consulting firm indicates that e-commerce companies are taking steps to cut down on their advertising costs and to fine-tune their marketing strategies as part of an increased focus on becoming profitable.

In one way, John Steenson's job is not unusual. Like other CTOs, he worries about finding good IT help for his company, Intira Corp.; he must keep on top of new technology advancements; and he needs to make sure his mission-critical e-business applications are running smoothly. But the difference for Steenson is that if he hits a snag in his infrastructure, it can take down not only his network but also the networks of his clients: the major Fortune 500 companies that pay Intira to host their e-commerce Web sites, business extranets, and secure intranets.