Oil companies don’t want to be in the credit card business, which they farm out to financial companies on various consignment basis. Here’s a good example of bad things that happen when the two companies’ customer information gets out of sync. Bogus late charges are bad enough; wanting to verify SSNs without any verifiable security is beyond the pale. (more…)

We thought we were loosing it when we tried to use the latest MSDE 2005, until we saw a lot of posts about the same problem. Fortunately for us, we had a Plan B. Unfortunately for Microsoft, their database product got tossed.

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There seems to be growing concerns over an apparent shortage of computer programmers. Whether this is a serious problem or not is arguable, but it is one of the computer industry’s own making. Here’s a case that any shortage is artificial. (more…)

Good sales presentations take a lot of thought, planning, practice, and focus on the customer. Sales 101, been there, done that, tell me something I don’t know. Here’s one that really stood out by concentrating on customer benefits, supported by a well designed campaign.

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