Banking Financial Services & Insurance
Fallout From the Madoff Scandal: Biggest Reform of Financial Markets Since the Great Depression
Posted by Peggy Bresnick Kendler | Jan 6, 2009

The Bernard Madoff debacle isn’t going away. In fact, new details on the fallout from Madoff’s alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme are coming to light now, and it seems that investors that include Palm Beach old money, Hollywood directors and actors, charitable foundations, trusts, municipalities and more have taken a severe financial hit. And it will likely create tighter regulations for U.S. financial services firms.

Manufacturing
U.S. Manufacturing Activity Down; IT Spending Flat
Posted by Laurie Sullivan | Jan 6, 2009

While most enjoyed the New Year's Day holiday, the Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing executives and industry leaders, released a measurement of U.S. manufacturing on Friday that was a real downer.

Telecommunications
In 2009, Mobile Phone Market Will Dip 1.9 Percent; Semiconductor Demand Down As Well
Posted by Lane Cooper | Jan 2, 2009

Echoing our report on the down-shifting smart-phone market, new published figures confirm that this sector is slowing down. This is having a pull-through effect on the semiconductor market, which is expected to experience multiple years of low demand. While the global economy is responsible for much of this trend, emerging economies are also experiencing maturation. However, the industry will likely pull itself out of the doldrums by 2010.

Transportation & Logistics
Smaller Warehouses Growing, Relying on WMS
Posted by Larry Kahaner | Jan 7, 2009

A few years ago, I was writing about how shippers were consolidating their distribution facilities into huge mega-warehouse operations. You may recall a 4 million square foot monster from Wal-Mart in Texas. But times are changing. Now warehouse sizes are shrinking in an attempt to make supply chains and transportation networks more fuel-efficient and cost-effective.

Retail
For Online Retailers, Uptime Has Never Been So Important
Posted by Mary Catherine O'Connor | Jan 6, 2009

During the weeks between Black Friday and Christmas, retail tech site Storefront Backtalk used microblogging site Twitter to chronicle each and every time any major retailer's site suffered a performance hiccup. That included everything from slower-than-normal response times to downright emergencies, such as dysfunctional check-out. The site later put coal in the stockings of retailers whose sites suffered chronic problems during that short, vital shopping season.

Healthcare & Pharma
Startup Hopes It's Found The Cure: Health System Authentication and Document Security
Posted by George Hulme | Jan 7, 2009

Readers of this blog know that I'm a strong advocate of electronic medical records and personal health records – but that I'm also a proponent that any efforts to digitize EMRs and PHRs also have to come with strong privacy safeguards backed up by rigid security. But the paradox of security is that the more you ratchet it up, the more secure your organization becomes -- and the more security gets in the way of things.

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