Wisconsin Technology Network

Guest Column: Venture capital and private equity: The same, only (very) different

If you’ve followed Presidential politics of late – and as much as I want to look away I find myself gawking as at a freeway pileup - you have no doubt heard a lot about private equity and venture/vulture capital. The good news is that much of what you have heard is not true; which, I suppose, is also the bad news. Herewith a brief attempt to provide a little clarity.

 

Business Model Innovation: Do you have a strong portfolio of business models?

The news has gone from bad to worse. The bad news: Kodak, the company that fueled the growth of the photography industry is selling its patents. Not the patents for intellectual property related to film photography, but its more than 1,000 patents for capturing, storing, organizing and sharing digital images, according to the Wall Street Journal.

 

Alice.com raises additional $3.6M

 

When ERP is botched, CFOs must act

Companies long have grappled with glitches in their ERP (enterprise resource planning) system implementations -- a situation that the recent botched-rollout record suggests won't get better any time soon. While ERP projects go awry for many reasons, each incident reveals its own set of troublesome repercussions, financial and otherwise. IT, of course, is the first to get the call for repairs. But the CFO is rarely far behind.

 

IT Salaries: Growth reflects positive changes in the IT job market

Software developers, information security analysts, network architects and business intelligence analysts are among the IT professionals experiencing the most significant salary growth in 2012, according to a new report from IT staffing firm Bluewolf.

 

CIO Executive Edge: The European Citizen Initiative using social media in the first and last mile of the policy process.

Last week I had the honor of being on a panel at the launch of the European Citizens Initiative (ECI). The ECI represents an innovation in the relationship between citizens, the government and representative democracy. Social media is at the center of the initiative representing one of the first formal ways in which social media technology is recognized in legislative process.

 

Cease fire! End the war between business and IT

For today's businesses, information technology is integrated into the enterprise and not just bolted on, meaning IT organizations have to be integrated into the enterprise as well. This seemingly simple idea can't be achieved without a healthy relationship between IT and the rest of the business, which begins with establishing an appropriate relationship model and ensuring positive interactions between every IT employee and everyone else in the company.

 

AT&T invested more than $1 billion in its Wisconsin networks

AT&T invested more than $1 billion in its Wisconsin wireless and wireline networks from 2008 through 2011 with a focus on improving the company's mobile broadband coverage and overall performance of its networks. "A more advanced mobile broadband experience drives economic growth, stimulates jobs and equips Wisconsin businesses to meet the network demands of today and tomorrow," says Scott Vander Sanden, AT&T Wisconsin president.