Infor is benefiting from the freeing up of IT budgets, closing out the calendar year strongly.

While not quite a prediction, I think 2012 will be something of a watershed year for the mega vendors. It's all about the business model.

Iberia is an airline not to fly if you expect customer service.  Its approach seems to be not to value the people who pay for it (its customers) as the most important component in its value chain, an attitude that its staff consistently and conscientiously apply.  Ironically, with a little imagination about using modern mobile technologies and modern communications, Iberia could solve two problems simultaneously – 1) improve customer service and 2) protect those same customers from Iberia (both staff and its own ineptness).

Rapid implementation solutions are being developed as a way of adding value to large deployments. Are they all they are cracked up to be?

My post What's Next For Social Software Startups sparked a great deal of feedback both positive and negative. I received a flurry of responses ranging from "spot on" to "why would you say that!" So I want to be clear, I don't think startups are a bad choice at all. I was simply trying to assert that the large software vendors (LSVs) are no longer lagging years behind when it comes to social software (Microsoft being the exception). However, they are many reasons that Startups still have an advantage, such as:

The more you dig into Skype service failure, the worse it gets. Here is what I have found so far.

In my Predictions for 2012 blog post I wrote that one of the trends I'm seeing is a surge in new project/task/time management tools focused on Getting Work Done. My Constellation colleagues and I are working on a report that will cover this topic in more detail, but for now I wanted to share with you a few of the factors that I think are contributing to this occurrence and differentiate the new generation of tools from ones like Microsoft Project.

Another view of cloud computing is the view from the lawyer, looking specifically at regulatory issues and business challenges faced today by adopters of cloud services. It is a challenge for the legal systems of the world to regulate emerging and innovative technology markets. The piece of documentation I am reflecting on here discusses making the case for ‘flexible and light touch regulation’. But the heavier discussion is on legal accountability, especially in a multi-cloud environment.

How many things can go awry in 24 hours. Let's count the ways.