GRAND RAPIDS Bill Gates, Microsofts software visionary, is putting Microsofts money where his mouth is. Gates said last week that Microsoft will invest $4 billion this year in research and development to keep the company in front of its many rivals, both on computer desktops and on the Internet. Detroit auto makers will play a
GRAND RAPIDS - Larry Eiler, president of Eiler Communications, said he thinks spending for public relations and marketing serves as a barometer for future IT business spending. If so, future prospects for the Michigan IT community look good. Since spring, Eilers company, based in Ann Arbor, has added about a dozen clients after losing nearly
LYON TOWNSHIP David Strange, whose company Pixelbit designed the Mitechnews.com web site and eNewsletters, received bad news when doctors said his daughter, Breanna Rose, had Dystonia, a neurological movement disorder. Strange seeks to raise awareness for this disease and funds to support a cure. Mitechnews.Com dedicates its guest column this week to tell Breanna Rose's
Separately, wireless phones and digital cameras are easy to use. When combined, they become an intuitive and multi-functional tool that allows you to communicate in numerous ways including pictures, writes Tracey Pruitt, director, Business Sales for the PCS Division of Sprint. Sprint, the first company in the United States to offer customers a camera-embedded wireless
DETROIT Ravinder Shahani of Acro Services Corp. has it good. His $87-million-a-year firm has won him the title of Entrepreneur of the Year by Crains Detroit Business in the Staffing/Consulting Services area, writes Hans Erickson, CIO of the Detroit Regional Chamber. In an economic downturn, he is leading a profitable company that is expanding in
DETROIT The interview process for a PDA should be like an interview for any personnel position you are trying to fill in your company, writes Hans Erickson, CIO for the Detroit Regional Chamber. If you make the analogy of hiring your own personal assistant, then carry it to its digital equivalent, you will be much
GRAND RAPIDS - In this era of e-commerce, increasingly more small to medium-sized businesses are deciding to sell their goods and services over the Internet, writes T.J Ackert, an attorney with Smith Haughey Rice & Roegge in Grand Rapids. The most essential tool for e-commerce is a Web site; so drawing up a contract with
LANSING - In the past few weeks, youve probably received brochures from doctors, pharmacies and health insurance companies regarding the new federal medical privacy regulations. Under the federal law known as HIPAA, there are very strict requirements governing the privacy and maintaining the security of individual health information. The notices of privacy practices that youve
ANN ARBOR Today in the workforce, leaders face an unprecedented triple whammy of stresses which threaten to undermine productivity and profitability Worker pre-occupation with the war; worker anxiety about terrorism; worker fear about job loss, writes corporate psychologist Robert Pasick. Based on my work with corporate CEOs and government officials, Im providing the following eleven
AUBURN HILLS Whether your business is succeeding wildly or struggling along through a tough economy, the Internet as a highly effective business tool is here to stay, writes Bruce Marsh, Group Creative Director for Organic Inc.s Michigan office. Consumers and businesses alike turn to it daily for all aspects of their lives, and rates of