Marc Ferranti

As do many IT executives who have outsourced applications development work, Jonathan Sapir, president of InfoPower Systems Inc., in Deerfield, Ill., stumbled at first.

Talisma Corp. has upgraded its namesake software for the increasingly competitive CRM (customer relationship management) market, adding "co-browsing" capabilities, user-defined interface customization features and the ability to handle a greater number of concurrent users, according to company officials in New York last week at CeBIT America

With the breakdown of settlement talks between the European Union and Microsoft Corp., the stage is set for the E.U. to announce next Wednesday a series of antitrust remedies and declare that the software company is an abusive monopolist, thus setting a precedent that will make it easier to prosecute other complaints, including several that are already under investigation.

Preparing yourself to deal with the impact of outsourcing on your job is not much different from what IT personnel should be doing in general to advance their careers and ensure they will continue to be valuable to their employers, according to one specialist.

After a three-year roller-coaster ride, the IT industry settled down a bit in 2003. The year seemed to provide a respite from megamergers, monopoly-busting, history-making corporate scandals, and the exhilarating but scary boom-and-bust cycle. Not that anyone was operating on cruise control. IT managers faced continual assault from a variety of nasty worms, handled user demands for wireless access and figured out how to work 64-bit computing technology into their systems.

NEW YORK

In an effort to reclaim a bigger piece of the office-product market and raise revenue, Xerox Corp. Wednesday announced an overhaul of its line of copiers, printers and multifunction units, as well as a panoply of new services and distribution channels.

Microsoft Project will make its debut next month as a full-fledged corporate project and resource management product suite, the company announced at the NetWorld+Interop 2002 show in Las Vegas.