Tablet deployment shows payoff in increased productivity

The latest results from giant IT products and services giant CDW’s quarterly survey of IT decision makers shows that a significant number of companies with tablets deployed are seeing productivity gains tied directly to their use. Seventy-four percent of IT decision-makers indicated that using tablet computers and smartphones led to an increase in productivity in their organization; 25 percent of those said it has led to a significant increase.

Plexus to build $50 million manufacturing plant in Neenah

Contract electronics manufacturer Plexus Corp. said Monday that it plans to build a $50 million manufacturing facility in Neenah, which will replace two existing leased plants in that Fox Valley city and create new jobs. About 1,000 employees will be consolidated at the new 410,000-square-foot building, expected to be completed in the fall of 2013, the company said.

Press releases and other news

• How CFOs really feel about BYOD
  Source: FierceCIO
• Facebook loses a big advertiser, buys a small company's employees
  Source: San Jose Mercury News

What is the average age of your customers?

CIO Executive Edge/Mark McDonald: It is an interesting question and not one most companies consider on an ongoing basis. The average age of your customer is increasingly important, not just in the Consumer Products industry but in every industry. It is a question that gradually transcends all other demographics. Generating sustainable growth requires maintaining or decreasing the average age of your customers.

Madison businessman helps promote 'urban mining' at home, abroad

Inside Wisconsin/Tom Still: Neil Peters-Michaud doesn’t look much like a miner. He doesn’t carry around a pickax or wear a hardhat, but he’s uncovering deposits of gold, silver, copper and other minerals every day. That’s because Peters-Michaud is “mining” the growing, and increasingly valuable, stream of electronic waste that is a byproduct of the information age in the United States and worldwide. His story demonstrates how profit and recycling can go hand-in-hand.

Computer capacity to get huge boost

The Milwaukee Institute will spend $1 million to add two petabytes of computer storage capacity - estimated to be enough to hold all of the information in a stack of phone books stretching from Milwaukee to the moon, the nonprofit group's chairman said Thursday. The institute is working to dramatically expand high-performance computing, high-speed data transport and mass data storage capacity and offer it at little or no cost to help southeastern Wisconsin's academic and industrial researchers.

Sears competes on big data and loyalty programs

Guest Column/Tom Groenfeldt: Sears Holdings is betting on its innovative rewards program to spur the company’s growth. It is a path that Walmart can’t match because it doesn’t have a loyalty program — its best hope of understanding customer identity is through customers who use its credit card. Sears has a very intensive big data program to drive customer loyalty; the sophistication surprised me and should interest investors.

Press releases and other news

• After two months, how does the iPad's retina display stack up?
  Source: ReadWriteWeb

The hook in my mouth – my first encounter with social virus

CIO Executive Edge/Mark McDonald: I hope you can’t see it, the mark left by the hook in my mouth as I was successfully phished yesterday via Twitter. I removed the hook late last night, reset my Twitter account and apologized to a bunch of people for being a carrier. It was my first encounter with a social virus – one that relies on social behavior for transmission rather than technology transactions.

Compromise on health data access may be ugly

The government's proposed rule for Meaningful Use Stage 2 and the comment period that ended earlier this week kicked off a battle between patients and providers. At the heart of the war is the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposal that patient information be available to the individuals within 36 hours of discharge from a hospital and within 24 hours of an office visit.

CUNA's CIO wears two hats: Isn't IT enough?

Commentary/Chris Murphy for InformationWeek: Rick Roy, CIO of CUNA Mutual Group, sees several similarities between running the IT and procurement departments, both of which he's in charge of for the financial services company. For starters, your team's help isn't universally welcomed. If a department's leaders are happily buying, say, temp services from one vendor, they're not necessarily excited to hear that they need to start buying through a centralized group. That's a lot like the conversations around shadow IT.

Five reasons data inaccuracies occur in EMRs

Studies have shown in recent years that the quality of data in many electronic medical records is often not very good. According to Peter Witonsky, president and chief sales officer at iSirona, this is largely due to simple inaccuracies that occur more often than we think.

Press releases and other news

• Is entrepreneurship for everyone?
  Source: ReadWriteWeb
• Facebook launches an app center
  Source: Washington Post

Beyond 'Jeopardy': How IBM will make billions from Watson

Like millions of others, I made a point of staying home a few nights in February 2011 to watch a computer challenge the world's best "Jeopardy" players. IBM's Watson won, of course. End of story? Just a stunt? Not at all. After about five years of development and millions in R&D spending, IBM is taking its first steps to bring Watson out of the lab (and TV studio) and make money from it.