Track Layoffs via the "TechCrunch Layoff Tracker"

October 2008 will be remembered as the time in which the credit crunch hit the tech sector. Startups have begun preparing themselves for a bleak and uncertain economic future by cutting costs and focusing on efficiency. This has been achieved most obviously through layoffs, which can reduce burn rates quickly and dramatically for web companies that require little physical capital.

Of course, many companies see this moment as an opportunity to bring bad news and to lay off temporary or excess workers. But in the end nobody knows how deep the recession will strike, and more importantly for how long. Meanwhile, fear reigns, budgets are cut, projects are postponed, and training and education of employees are put on hold.

Who dares to break this negative trend ?

Recession-Proof Your Business by Recession-Proofing IT

Business leaders can maintain their tech-reliant operations going and remain profitable by recession-proofing their IT operations. Here are some of the steps:

- Adopt business intelligence smarts: Get a business intelligence system that allows for easier data collection and consolidation, and reports management.
- Consolidate technologies: Maybe it’s time to let go of some of your clunky systems that take too much time and effort to maintain, update, and consolidate.
- Go virtual: SaaS, cloud computing, and virtualization can trim IT budgets without necessarily trimming operations and lowering the quality of their services.
- Standardize processes; adopt agile methodologies
- Outsource, and outsource intelligently: Look for long-term benefits from service provider(s), whether offshore or nearshore, from a combination of cost-savings, technology savvy, methodologies, consulting skills, and management culture of the vendor.

It is probably no surprise that I.T. Works offers seminars and workshops on all of the above topics ?

Windows 7: From Taskbar to Taskband

Based on: Windows 7 Taskbar: Most Interesting Part of New OS? - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership (article @ CIO.com)

- visually similar to the Mac OS X dock
- why wasn't this in the pre-beta Windows 7 software released last month ?
- see also: More taskbar details from Microsoft itself

Five top spending priorities for hard times

Five top spending priorities for hard times: "InfoWorld consulted a range analysts and CIOs to arrive at a consensus: the five technologies IT shops must continue to invest in despite the recession. The common theme, says IDC chief analyst and senior vice president Frank Gens, is that 'any technologies that can save companies money or reduce expenses will continue to thrive.'"

The answer:
- Storage: disks and storage management software
- Business intelligence: Niche analytics
- Virtualization: Optimizing resources
- Security: Data and end points
- Cloud computing: Business solutions