Lead scoring - the process that measures a lead's alignment with the provider's definition of sales readiness - is critical in allocating sales resources and deriving maximum business value from marketing projects. Listen as Bob Gallagher - President of Funnel Impact - discusses how lead scoring can help your organization set priorities and sell smarter.

When and where does Gartner see growth returning? It's the question on everyone's mind and in this podcast, analyst Laura McLellan talks about the type of growth - geographically and vertically - we can expect in all regions of the globe supported by Gartner forecasts. Listen and learn why buying behavior definitely changes in a recession, and which of these behaviors will outlive the recession for years to come.

The Real Business of IT: How CIOs Create and Communicate Value, by Richard Hunter and George Westerman, outlines a step-by-step path for transforming IT from cost generator to value creator. Listen as Gartner analyst Mark Raskino talks to the authors about some of the tenets of their new book.

Every year, a bigger piece of the IT vendor's revenue pie moves through the indirect channel, including (but not limited to) OEMs, resellers, systems integrators, and vendor Web sites. What is driving this aggressive movement of IT products, especially hardware, to the indirect channel? Listen and learn more.

In an economy where budgets are continuing to be slashed, innovation remains a key strategy for improving quality without incurring cost. But what is key to really sustaining innovation versus conducting the occasional brainstorm? And have executives moved past lip service to make innovation an integral part of their operation? Listen as Lisa Bodell, President and CEO of Futurethink, talks about the changing role of innovation.

A U.S.-based life insurance company is using social networking to communicate and collaborate with customers, and insurers can learn important lessons from this company's experience in its creation of its own branded destination. Listen and learn more.

Has the term online marketing become redundant now that everything is essentially moving online? And while email marketing is hugely popular, why are customers suffering more and more from email fatigue? Listen as Simon Grabowski - CEO of Implix - talks to Gartner analyst Richard Fouts about what marketers are doing to get above the noise with new channels constantly emerging.

Insurance companies often have a multitude of applications running, many of which lack cross-enterprise connectivity. Listen and learn why taking a more integrative, architected approach to insurance IT can help your organization maximize resources and save money.

How are technology resellers and VARs using social networks to find new customers, generate leads and improve close rates? Listen as Mark Sochan - President and CEO of Constructive - discusses the growth of social media in the reseller market.

Property and casualty (P&C) insurers must continue to replace legacy claims systems with newer applications to enable greater end-to-end claims management. Insurers that fail to address their aging claims administration systems will not be able to rapidly adapt to cyclical business changes or service customers quickly, accurately and cost-effectively. Listen and learn more.

To remain competitive, life insurers must efficiently offer new products, such as hybrid annuity and long-term care products; improve their abilities to cross-sell various products based on customer need; improve Web-based self-service capabilities for customers and distributors; and revamp operational, compliance and risk management processes. Listen and learn more.

The European Parliament has taken a first step toward harmonizing risk management for insurers in the European Union by approving the Solvency II framework. But delegates quashed stronger plans for cross-border regulation. Listen and learn more.

Every marketer wants to stand out, to be different...to rise above the market noise. But it takes courage. Listen as Eran Farajun - VP of Business Development at Asigra - discusses the challenges and successes of his company's recent marketing campaign, 'Recover Your Cool.'

Insurers underestimate the challenges that they will face in the next three years as a result of workforce turnover, recruitment and skill set preservation. Learn why it is imperative that companies prepare for the demographic and marketplace changes that are anticipated in the next few years.

Affected by the ongoing financial turmoil, insurers can't avoid pressures on their total revenue. IT departments must respond to clear directives to slash overall IT spending, while struggling to maintain long-term corporate viability. Listen and learn more.

The resignation of Satyam Chairman Ramalinga Raju and his claim of inaccurately reported finances have diminished Satyam's ability to inspire client and investor trust. Listen and learn how these recent events will affect the industry.

Life insurers migrate to new illustration systems when they need new technology, new product support and when they wish to consolidate to a single platform. Illustration budgets are holding steady for existing products and distribution channels, but new illustration deals have slowed during the past six months. Listen and learn more.

Software as a service (SaaS) for life policy administration solutions is not commonly used in Europe or the U.S. However, this will change during the next three to five years mainly because of market expansion into less mature or emerging markets. Listen and learn more.

The challenges of deploying personal health records (PHRs) often outweigh the benefits for health insurers. New partnership strategies must be crafted by health insurers to align with the reality that consumer choice of PHRs will reside with other trusted organizations. Listen and learn more.

The coming U.S. mandate for conversion from ICD-9 to ICD-10 has a broad impact, and the consequences of starting late or defining the problem too narrowly are substantial. Listen and learn more.

Insurers have been investing in online customer self-service for years. As customers demand convenience and insurers look to drive down servicing costs and improve customer experiences, self-service sites will become an even bigger priority among life and property and casualty insurers. Listen and learn more.

As European life insurers and pension providers evaluate the market for packaged policy administration solutions, they often are met with unfulfilled requirements. Listen and learn more.

An emerging market called "online care" can facilitate real-time communication and care delivery between physicians and consumers. Although the potential benefits are significant for health plans, consumers and providers, many barriers must be overcome for online care to gain widespread adoption. Listen and learn more.

Enterprise communications continues to evolve at a rapid pace and remains a critical source of competitive differentiation. However, these changes pose significant challenges as planners seek to optimize existing network and telecommunications investments. Listen and learn more.

A review of life insurers' Web sites in the U.S. and Europe shows a clear lack of Web 2.0 elements. Most Web sites don't create an exciting or engaging experience that stimulates consumers to become educated about insurance products or return to the site. Listen and learn more.

Many European insurers have not taken enough notice of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) initiative partly because of uncertainty about open issues and SEPA's future impact. Listen and learn more.

Many insurers are replacing their legacy systems with packaged applications, and modernization is needed in parallel to improve functions from systems still in place. Listen and learn more.

Life insurance agents frequently receive new software to help them increase sales or improve efficiency and customer service. Listen and learn how to help realize those benefits and enhance agent adoption of new technologies.

Organizations entrust a large portion of their budget to the people who lead and manage IT infrastructure and operations. Reliable infrastructures that provide both operational excellence and the flexibility to respond to an enterprise's strategic changes can mean the difference between success and failure. Listen as Gartner analyst Mike Chuba talks to author and professor Peter Keen.

Many life insurers entering new product markets are finding that their existing policy administration systems do not support Medicare supplement, disability, long-term care and critical illness products. Listen and learn what business and technical priorities are key for insurers to successfully make this transition.

In a data-rich world, businesses are inundated with information. Yet used strategically, it can guide decision making and boost performance. That's why Business Intelligence (BI) is on every CIO's must-have list for 2008. Listen as Gartner VP and Distinguished Analyst Bill Hostmann talks to Ian Ayres - Yale Law School Professor - about his recent book, Super Crunchers.

Managing large-scale mobility systems when business models keep shifting is a challenge, and understanding how encryption within these systems impacts your organization is key. Listen as Phil Zimmermann - Creator of Zfone and Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) - shares some of his career challenges and successes.

IT organizations have a crucial stake in ensuring the continuity and resiliency of business operations in the face of business interruptions, changing market conditions and an array of manmade and natural disasters. Listen and learn more.

Leading-edge organizations are constantly looking for ways to improve their employees' abilities to innovate and create, and information architecture plays a critical role. Listen as Gartner analyst Whit Andrews speaks with Alex Wright - information architect for the New York Times - about his recent book, Glut.

BEA Systems has agreed to be purchased by Oracle. If the deal gets the right shareholder and government approvals, Oracle will emerge as a peer to IBM and Microsoft, the current middleware market leaders. Listen and learn more.

A recent Gartner survey of insurance customers found that policy administration continues to be the top priority among P&C insurers. The Internet, pricing accuracy and rating, and architecture are also top priorities in the coming year. Listen and learn more.

Healthcare payers must grasp the impact of pervasive consumerism on their operations, and champion essential changes necessary to anticipate and address increased consumer involvement in every key healthcare decision. Listen and learn why.

Life insurance sales organizations seek greater efficiency and effectiveness through the use of sales force automation systems, but success depends on life insurers carefully matching fragmented market supplier capabilities with their business requirements. Learn why.

Enterprise architecture (EA) is a constantly-evolving discipline that is intended to broadly influence and support investment decisions and organizational change. But your EA program must be properly resourced and well-run to achieve its promised benefits. Listen and learn more.

As organizations strive to build loosely coupled systems based on service-oriented architecture (SOA) principles, data redundancy, quality and consistency issues are exacerbated and become significant barriers to successful integration efforts. Listen and learn more.

Simply being aware of some common tips and traps may help your IT organization avoid several mistakes in developing a successful service-oriented architecture (SOA) program. Listen and learn why.

Property and casualty, as well as life, insurers will face multiple risks if they don't integrate channels. To avoid these risks, insurers must invest in processes and technologies to support cross-channel sales and service transactions, and establish integrated, intelligent channel architectures. Listen and learn more.

Web 2.0 practices and technologies can deliver transformational benefits to the enterprise but success depends on effective community cultivation. The PLANT SEEDS framework identifies critical design considerations for enhancing Enterprise Web 2.0 adoption. Listen and learn more.

Mashups - Web technology-based lightweight composite applications created by sourcing capabilities from established content and systems functionality - are moving into the enterprise and are poised to enable end-user-assembled applications. Listen and learn more.

Oracle's offer to buy BEA Systems will create short-term uncertainty. If the deal proceeds, Oracle will strengthen its position and emerge as the most powerful competitor to IBM, the current middleware market leader. Listen and learn more.

Uncoordinated business intelligence (BI) tools and poor data quality continue to hamstring healthcare insurers by limiting decision-making agility. This often leads to significant business and customer risk. Listen and learn why.

Media fragmentation is frequently cited as a top concern for advertisers. This has made Millennials - consumers coming of age in and around the first decade of the 21st century - a highly prized target for advertisers. Listen and learn more.

Consumers increasingly require personal lines property and casualty insurers to think and act small, treating them as if they're individuals and not just part of the mass market. Consumers want a claims process that's much faster, more intuitive and more convenient. Listen and learn more.

As the insurance industry evolves, insurers are trying to make technology decisions that will better position them in the future market. Although there is no magic solution, simplifying business processes and being easy to do business with will be key to achieving insurance success. Listen and learn more.

Knowing how you're performing in disaster recovery (DR) management will help you determine which investments to make to improve your organization and move on to the next level of disaster recovery management maturity. Listen and learn more.

IT is no longer a separate and distinct business activity. New areas of focus are evolving that are centered on business processes and information, as well as relationships with peers, partners and customers. Listen and learn more.

Many enterprises are moving toward virtualized environments and, under the right circumstances, virtualization can offer alternatives that can improve the flexibility, efficiency and accuracy of application delivery. Listen and learn more.

iPhone's arrival on store shelves culminates months of hype and speculation. To capitalize on the buzz, Apple and AT&T must evolve products and services rapidly and create unique value for consumers and media companies. Listen as Gartner analysts Allen Weiner and Michael McGuire take an in-depth look at the iPhone and its impact on the media industry.

Digital distribution and an ever-powerful set of technologies, enabling great consumer control over media access and manipulation, will continue to set the stage for a new order of media titans. Listen and learn more.

Property and casualty (P&C) insurers are facing critical technology investment decisions that may affect their ability to compete, differentiate themselves and enhance customer service in the future. Listen and learn more.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 - commonly known as SOX - has forever changed the face of regulatory compliance. Listen as Michael Oxley - former U.S. Congressman, co-author of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and Vice Chairman of the NASDAQ - elaborates on his career.

Despite ongoing consolidation among major customer relationship management (CRM) vendors, product-centric strategies are taking a back seat to customer-centric strategies. Listen and learn more.

IT plays a critical role in effectively managing the complexities of manufacturing. Listen as Gartner analysts Bruce Bond and Dale Hagemeyer discuss why innovation may be the key to success.

A recent survey of more than 1,000 business executives reveals "bullish" attitudes and changing expectations toward the use of IT in business. Listen as Gartner analysts Bruce Bond, David Furlonger and Vincent Oliva discuss why banks may be banking too much on digital immigrants.

The consumerization of IT can be both threatening and challenging for traditional IT departments, but banning employees' personal devices from the enterprise may do more harm than good. Listen and learn how your organization can manage new technologies that originate and develop in the consumer space.

There's a lot of discussion surrounding Web 2.0 and consumerization but how do you distinguish true innovation from hype? Listen and learn more.

Sales of mobile devices to end users reached 257.4 million units in 1Q07, a 14% increase on the same period last year. Listen as Gartner research analysts Nick Ingelbrecht and Carolina Milanesi analyze the performances of the top manufacturers and discuss the buildup of inventory in distribution channels.

The maturity of an enterprise architecture (EA) program has a profound influence on its effectiveness, and understanding the numbers can help you set achievable goals and remove barriers to success. Listen and learn more.

Predictive analytics shows great potential in assisting healthcare payers with cost management, predicting consumer behaviors, improving care management and setting accurate premiums. However, the vendor market is fragmented with product offerings at varying levels of maturity, market penetration and growth potential. Learn more.

Clinical data requires a common language, consistent processes and transfer mechanisms to provide true business value. Learn why clinical data standards are instrumental to the success of your enterprise in the future.

How much of your proprietary information is susceptible to new threats? Are your security policies, practices and technologies keeping pace with new developments? Listen as Gartner analyst Rich Mogull talks to Matasano Security Co-Founder Thomas Ptacek and learn how you can better mitigate risk within your enterprise.

Why is real business advantage more difficult to achieve? Because technology alone is no longer enough. Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2007, taking place in San Francisco from April 22nd to April 26th, is about developing business advantage within the context of your working reality. Listen to the fourth installment of this four-part podcast and learn more.

Why is real business advantage more difficult to achieve? Because technology alone is no longer enough. Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2007, taking place in San Francisco from April 22nd to April 26th, is about developing business advantage within the context of your working reality. Listen to the third installment of this four-part podcast and learn more.

Many Australian companies need to do business in regional areas but availability and reliability of reasonably-priced wireless broadband services continues to be a critical requirement. Learn why the Australian government may be developing a new national broadband infrastructure to help facilitate business growth.

Measuring the effectiveness of application development (AD) is not simple. It's also not so complex that it shouldn't be undertaken, nor so burdensome that it should not be used. Learn why AD measures should target effectiveness, efficiency and in-progress areas to be fully successful.

The drive toward digital music download services is creating excitement in the mobile industry. Various emerging models will help shape the role mobile ultimately plays in music distribution. Learn why.

Why is real business advantage more difficult to achieve? Because technology alone is no longer enough. Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2007, taking place in San Francisco from April 22nd to April 26th, is about developing business advantage within the context of your working reality. Listen to the second installment of this four-part podcast and learn more.

Tactical CRM, data warehousing, Web sites and systems improvement projects of the past did not create consumer-centricity. Enterprisewide business, technical and cultural transformation is mission-critical during the next five years. Learn why.

Why is real business advantage more difficult to achieve? Because technology alone is no longer enough. Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2007, taking place in San Francisco from April 22nd to April 26th, is about developing business advantage within the context of your working reality. Listen to the first installment of this four-part podcast and learn more.

In 2007, the U.S. will move daylight-saving time to March 11th, the second Sunday of the month. While not on the scale of Y2K, this change could generate problems that modestly disrupt business operations, irritate customers and tarnish professional reputations. Learn why.

New technologies flourish in insurance claims processing. Learn why new strategies are needed to support end-to-end claims handling and settlement, as well as investment for improving the claims infrastructure by adopting new technologies and modernizing their systems and processes.

Gartner predicts that by 2010, time-based advantages in delivering manufacturing will be among the top three priorities of the manufacturing CIO. Learn how the manufacturing industry impact matrix can help you determine which technologies will have the greatest impact on your organization in the future.

Gartner predicts that by 2010, fewer than 10 vendors will garner nearly all spending on information security because of market consolidation. Listen to the third installment of this three-part podcast as Gartner security analysts Rich Mogull and Vic Wheatman report live from the 2007 RSA Conference in San Francisco.

Gartner predicts that by 2010, fewer than 10 vendors will garner nearly all spending on information security because of market consolidation. Listen to the second installment of this three-part podcast as Gartner security analysts Rich Mogull and Neil MacDonald report live from the 2007 RSA Conference in San Francisco.

Gartner predicts that by 2010, fewer than 10 vendors will garner nearly all spending on information security because of market consolidation. Listen to the first installment of this three-part podcast as Gartner security analysts Rich Mogull and Ray Wagner report live from the 2007 RSA Conference in San Francisco.

Sooner or later, most organizations will deploy Windows Vista. Learn how Gartner can help you understand what the effects will be, what the benefits are and how much it will cost, so you can decide how fast to move.

The customer relationship management (CRM) landscape is shifting toward fewer, larger enterprise suite vendors balanced by specialized solution providers, and a rapidly expanding contingent of vendors offering on-demand deployment models. Learn what else you can expect to see transpire in the CRM market in 2007.

The compliance and risk management environment has become so fraught with complexity that technology is now essential to an effective response. Listen and learn more.

Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) standards save time and money. But they also impact clinical study effectiveness by enabling the aggregation of information into a repository so that it can be reused for trial simulation, knowledge-based trial design, improved safety surveillance and efficacy analyses. Learn why.

Successful enterprise mobility strategies require a balance among people, processes and technology. Many businesses are attempting to manage their mobile computing and communications operations by placing these functions under the control of the IT department. However, learn why supporting a mobile and wireless workforce is becoming an increasingly daunting task.

While the application development service market is growing rapidly in both India and China, the evolving IT landscape poses challenges for both countries. Learn why.

In an effort to meet physician needs and consumer demands, the healthcare industry is starting to consolidate insurance benefit cards. Learn why this practice can decrease administrative complexity and increase operational efficiency for payers, providers and consumers.

Web sites that are increasing in strategic importance often lack sophisticated analytics, thus limiting the business value of the organization's investment. Learn how your enterprise may benefit by deploying more advanced Web analytics tools.

Blogging as a phenomenon has entered the public consciousness in a big way. However, there are limits to the growth of Web communities as the initial excitement about them has begun to be replaced with a more rational view of how user-generated content will evolve. Learn why Gartner predicts that blogging and community contributors will peak in the first half of 2007.

Gartner predicts that between 2006 and 2010, a variety of factors will combine to drive a 50% fall in the total cost of ownership (TCO) of new PCs deployed by businesses and other organizations. Learn why.

Gartner predicts that by 2009, corporate social responsibility (CSR) will be a higher board- and executive-level priority than regulatory compliance. This clearly predicts a stronger emphasis on companies doing the "right thing" rather than simply following rules. Learn why.

Gartner predicts that by 2010, 60% of the worldwide cellular population will be trackable via an emerging "follow-me Internet." Learn how applications will ultimately deliver context-specific information to mobile workers and/or customers.

Faced with demand uncertainty and model proliferation, automotive companies need to reevaluate their business and determine whether or not vehicle manufacturing is among their core competencies. Learn how this could lead to a new era of fabless automakers.

Fraud costs the health insurance industry from $35 billion to $180 billion per year. With more medical transactions and claims submissions moving online, more perpetrators and new schemes to commit fraud will arise. Learn what your organization can do to prevent medical fraud in the coming years.

With 2006 drawing to a close, IT managers are naturally turning their attention to 2007. Listen as Gartner analysts Dale Kutnick and Daryl Plummer discuss some of Gartner's top predictions for the coming year.

Insurance companies are constantly adopting new technologies to support new business, underwriting, customer service and operational procedures. Learn how the annuity landscape is changing and why insurers will focus more on products and services that can enable top-line growth.

While many organizations integrate customers into their processes, many fail in managing and applying the customer data they collect. Learn why understanding customer needs requires a set of feedback mechanisms to keep customers satisfied and ensure your company's long-term profitability.

The availability of enterprisewide geographic information systems (GIS) can improve decision making, enhance the delivery of services and reduce costs. Learn how your organization may benefit through the deployment of GIS.

Options for owning or operating a Web site for your business-to-business or business-to-consumer enterprise can be as unique as your business needs. Learn why you should consider several deployment models to ensure that the solution you select is right for your organization.

European insurers are building new strategies to manage customer relations, comply with emerging regulations and improve their operations. Learn why investments in new approaches and technologies to support CRM, business process management and legacy enhancements are required.

Major online players like Google and Amazon have forever changed the e-commerce landscape. In the Web 2.0 world, these companies will continue to grow in both consumer influence and market share, effectively creating a new kind of shopping experience: Goog-azon. Learn how this forward-looking concept may become a retail reality in the future.

An increase in unauthorized access to sensitive consumer data, as well as lost consumer data files, is taking a toll on consumer confidence in electronic transactions. Learn why companies are going to lose the ability to leverage low-cost electronic communications channels unless steps are taken quickly to enhance security.

Electronically stored documents are becoming the predominant form of evidence presented in courts of law. Learn why legal professionals must understand the technology and IT professionals must understand the law to effectively prepare for litigation against their companies.

Moving toward a real-time infrastructure (RTI) promises significant cost savings, as well as improvements in agility and quality of service. Learn why a RTI is a critical prerequisite to achieving business goals within the enterprise, and what steps your organization needs to take.

Many insurers are evolving their use of outsourcing for more strategic projects, and a heightened awareness of opportunities and risks. Learn why it is critical that insurers mitigate risks as they look to use outsourcing for more value-added activities.

As the connection between IT and the business intensifies, the demand for CIOs to innovative new products, services and capabilities within the enterprise has increased dramatically. Learn why.

Fraud is a moving target, and the control and management of abuse are highly dynamic. Learn how healthcare payer organizations can fight back by using technology and involving consumers in fraud prevention and reporting.

Banks are beginning to use Web 2.0 technologies internally to facilitate collaboration across organizational and technology "silos," and externally to deliver consumer information via new channels. Learn why banks should consider Web 2.0 applications an instrumental part of supporting business strategy.

As the presence and impact of IT have increased dramatically, so have the potential consequences for technology failure. Learn why this will contribute to increasing liability aimed at specific classes of applications and services, especially those targeting consumers.

Electronic prescribing is showing successes in quality of care, cost reductions and operational improvements. Learn why physician adoption and vendor options pose challenges, but strategies must be crafted to manage these issues.

Enterprises have shifted from buying individual products to buying smart enterprise suites that combine portals, content management and collaboration solutions. Learn why effective business performance depends on the integration of people, processes and technology.

For many consumer goods firms, this decade is characterized by belt-tightening and greater operational efficiencies. Learn why Gartner predicts shifts in strategy to fund significant investments in innovation solutions, real-time responsiveness, and improved focus on retail customers and end consumers via enhanced collaboration.

New technologies flourish to support property and casualty claims processing. Insurers must use new technical options and improve their business processes to reduce claims leakage, improve customer service, and reduce the time and cost of claims handling. Learn how.

The success of any outsourcing deal depends on using relevant metrics to drive the behavior of the external service provider. Learn how gathering and analyzing outsourcing metrics can help determine accountability as a group of Gartner analysts field a question asked by a client at the 2006 Symposium/ITxpo.

There has been a significant increase during the last 10-15 years in equipping sales forces with mobile tools. Learn the variables that should be considered in judging whether your sales force needs mobile devices and what kind they might need.

Enterprises that are overwhelmed by sourcing complexity can find relief by developing processes and techniques that optimize the economics of outsourcing. Listen to the second installment of this two-part podcast and learn why your organization should familiarize itself with the myths commonly associated with outsourcing endeavors.

Vulnerability management activities must expand to include networking devices, commercial enterprise and database applications, as well as internally developed Web applications. Learn how your organization can augment its security by addressing the changing IT environment.

There is currently a great deal of hype surrounding existing and emerging wireless broadband technologies. Learn how to plan strategically for the implementation of mobile technologies within your enterprise.

Manufacturers want to have more influence in what goes on the store shelves but most don't have the analytical tools to do that. Retailers feel manufacturers are not fulfilling their responsibility and may take over the category management role. Learn what each side can do about this potential conflict.

Under constant pressure to cut software licensing costs, many IT managers are trying to get a handle on software license inventories, installations, usage, maintenance and their associated costs. Learn how the elimination or replacement of unused software can help your enterprise save money.

As the mobile workforce grows it's important to develop policies for hardware choice, training, use and support. Learn how to determine the hardware usage profiles of your enterprise's mobile workers.

Although choosing a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution involves many criteria that are similar to choosing licensed software, other criteria are substantially different. Learn what kinds of issues you need to look out for prior to making an SaaS solution purchase decision.

Growing consumer empowerment is radically changing all facets of business, particularly in the medical community. Learn why healthcare payers should revitalize their business models to meet new customer requirements and opportunities while leveraging information as a commodity.

Regulatory compliance issues and the need to communicate private information have stimulated the current interest in e-mail encryption. Learn what approach your enterprise should take to fulfill your encryption needs.

After two sold-out 2005 events, Gartner's 4th Enterprise Architecture Summit in San Diego on 21-23 June 2006, held in conjunction with the Application Integration & Web Services Summit, will be greatly expanded to cover all the needs of architects and architecture-minded executives. Click here to learn more.

The growing focus on managing information security risk is challenging most enterprises to determine who should manage it, what should be managed and how much should be spent on securing enterprise assets. Learn what risk management methodologies may be useful for your organization.

Responding to compliance demands has become the biggest driver of security and risk spending. Find out what you can do if you feel you're dealing with auditor demands that are unreasonable.

The alignment of IT with business is often complicated by IT managers' lack of familiarity with the enterprise's financial objectives and constraints. Learn why the growing need to comprehend IT in a business context is transforming skill sets within many IT organizations.

Solutions are entering the market that unify and integrate communications for individuals and groups. Learn how the ability to leverage these into key business applications and processes will become a critical competitive issue for your enterprise in the future.

Chief Information Officer (CIO) concerns often reflect the tightening connection between enterprise and technology priorities, leading to innovative ways of managing IT initiatives. Learn why CIO attention will grow IT's contribution in new ways by applying technology to meet the challenge of external forces.

The number of applications accessed by employees beyond the walls of the enterprise is constantly increasing, particularly with the proliferation of mobile devices. Learn the tools, technologies and best practices available to support your organization's need for greater application security.

The emergence of new technical capabilities in mobile devices means that enterprises must be on the lookout for new viral threats. Learn why your organization should take a proactive approach to mitigate potential security breaches in mobile devices.

The sale of tablet PCs has grown twenty-five percent each year since their introduction in 2002, but their adoption remains largely for vertical applications. Find out if they are appropriate for your workforce.

Outsourcing could reduce the time and money firms spend managing mobile applications, but this is a maturing market in which delivery methods and integrated services are only just emerging. If your enterprise is looking to shift the burden, learn how to evaluate mobile sourcing alternatives.

Information security is gaining market momentum with the proliferation of mobile devices, forcing many companies to increase their focus on data protection. Learn how five wireless security technologies can help your enterprise stay ahead of the curve.

The wireless e-mail market has seen phenomenal growth in the past two years due to the mobility of employees who increasingly spend time far from their office and PC. Learn how your enterprise can benefit from implementing a comprehensive mobile e-mail strategy.

Insurers are always looking for ways to streamline the underwriting process. Learn how new tools in the marketplace can replace some of the daily manual tasks of underwriters and free them up for their real work.

Increasing numbers of mobile devices are being used in business, but the measures organizations take to secure the data stored on and accessed by these devices are often inadequate. Learn what basic steps your enterprise can take to improve wireless security.

Enterprise architecture has evolved from a discipline focusing on infrastructure toward one that touches more on the business side of the enterprise. Learn the communication skills a chief architect needs in both IT and business, as well as the critical relationships the architect must establish in the organization.

As wireless technologies mature and capabilities increase, many knowledge workers are looking for productivity and efficiency enhancements. Learn how your enterprise can cope with rising costs, security concerns and management issues in the flourishing mobile device market.

When it comes to wireless security, detection not enough. Enterprises must select a wireless intrusion prevention system based not only on its rogue detection capabilities, but its ability to enforce access control policies as well. Learn how your organization can implement an effective wireless security strategy.

There is a wide spectrum of open-source security software that is currently available for deployment within the enterprise. Learn how to determine if an open-source security tool is a safe, appropriate and effective choice for your organization.

Mobile technologies within the enterprise span hardware, software and services, making the transition to a wireless infrastructure a mammoth undertaking. Learn the advantages and disadvantages of making the move from a hardwired environment.

As new wireless technologies emerge, the demand for convergence of mobile devices within the enterprise continues to escalate. Learn how your organization may be affected in the future by the consolidation of mobile machines.

The Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard was created in 2001 yet the card-accepting industry still struggles to demonstrate compliance with it, let alone protect cardholder data in many cases. Learn what steps your organization can take to cope with the growing need for compliance.

Many vendors now sell URL filtering products that satisfy the needs of most enterprises. But this technology will increasingly be sold as part of integrated packages that guard against malicious code. Learn how your organization can maintain flexibility in this maturing market.

Fixed and mobile voice services have matured and negotiating new voice contracts has become increasingly complex. Learn why assessing future requirements and service providers, as well as limiting revenue commitments, are instrumental to negotiating the best wireless contract.

Successful mobility involves more than just transmitting voice and data. It also depends on how users interact with devices and how information is processed. Learn how your organization can maximize business value with an effective mobile strategy.

Organizational design of IT processes must focus on establishing process-oriented work structures and aligning roles and responsibilities with those structures. Learn why your enterprise should incorporate adherence mechanisms - like training, performance targets and governance - into IT operational process refinements.

Records management is a labor-intensive exercise and demands cross-departmental involvement and collaboration. Learn why your enterprise should be prepared to spend significant amounts of time and money to manage and organize upsurges of content.

Many enterprises have shown an increasing interest in improving IT management process maturity and progress - most notably in the use of IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) guidelines. Learn the pros and cons of using ITIL as a security framework.

Hurricane Katrina was one of the most devastating natural disasters in U.S. history; it put organizations on notice that they must be prepared to recover quickly from any catastrophe. Learn how wireless communication systems were an instrumental part of recovery efforts following Hurricane Katrina.

Internet Protocol Telephony (IPT) is now commercially and technically viable for virtually all voice services within the enterprise. Learn how rigorous planning may enable your business to extract more value from your voice telephony system investments.

Security information and event management capabilities can be gained through the deployment of a product, or through a managed security service provider. However, learn why organizations first need to understand differences in functional capabilities and resource requirements.

Information security architecture must provide the consistent principles, mechanisms and guidelines that are used to derive appropriate security solutions from business requirements. Learn how your organization can integrate information security into the fabric of the enterprise through a strategic program.

Traditionally, vendors in the telecom space have gone to great lengths to protect their intellectual property by keeping their applications behind closed doors. Vendors are now making the move to an open environment. Learn how this will impact the global telecom industry.

To effectively prevent fraud and unauthorized information access, companies must move beyond authentication methods that simply rely on passwords. Learn how a good authentication strategy can help secure your enterprise's data and inspire consumer confidence.

In the last decade business intelligence has expanded considerably. Enterprises now focus more on how BI relates to business processes and its application across the organization. Learn how your enterprise can handle BI in a way that will enhance performance management.

The security information markets are classified into three areas: infrastructure protection, secure business enablement and security administration. Learn why security practitioners should discern what their priorities in these areas should be in 2006.

Cisco IOS may be vulnerable to exploitation, enabling remote access to a privileged shell. Learn what the implications of that vulnerability are for your organization, and find out how you can avoid security setbacks for your network devices.

NBC Universal has announced its plan to buy Internet portal iVillage. Find out why they've decided to do this and what the implications are for organizations that are already involved in or want to get more involved in Internet purchases.

Faced with the proliferation of passwords in the rapidly growing world of IT, many organizations are migrating to single sign-on systems. Learn how this could help your enterprise reduce costs and increase security.

To overcome challenges and exploit opportunities, IBM is continually focusing on innovation - the ability to reinvent itself as technology and client needs evolve. Learn how IBM is shaping its business model to cope with these disruptive shifts.

AT&T - already serving more customers than any other telecom company in the U.S. - has made a $67B bid for BellSouth. This would raise its customer base to approximately 70 million. Learn how this merger could transform the global telecommunications space.

Adding networking, sensing and processing to real-world objects and places will create a real-world web of information to enhance business and personal decision making. Learn how "sensor networks" will come to play a crucial role in this transformation.

Organizations are beginning to realize that data quality is a critical business issue and that poor data quality can hurt them. Learn how to develop a methodology that will allow your organization to execute a successful data quality improvement effort.

To improve their responsiveness to business needs, IT infrastructure and operations leaders must move away from a traditional technology orientation and focus on clients, processes and the delivery of services. Listen to the second part of this podcast and learn how your organization may be affected in the future.

Electronically stored documents are becoming the predominant form of evidence presented in courts of law. Learn why IT professionals must understand the law to effectively prepare for litigation against their companies.

Growth in new voice and data services - such as mobile, voice over Internet Protocol, instant messaging, e-mail and online content - is changing the telecommunications landscape. Learn how this will have an impact on mobile carriers around the world.

A worldwide escalation in wireless services is taking place, and emerging mobile technologies present a variety of new offerings. Learn how six major trends will play a crucial role in this ever-growing marketplace.

Software vendors must develop ethical guidelines for software development to help users make better decisions about how to protect their data. Learn why this means informing businesses about all aspects of the software, and providing detailed information about patches and vulnerabilities.

This year's 3GSM World Congress - one of the world's premier events for mobile technologies - presented consumers and enterprises with a number of new and highly anticipated mobile devices. Learn what to expect from from some of the major mobile players in 2006.

Vendors at this year's 3GSM World Congress - one of the world's premier events for mobile technologies - are shifting their focus from consumers to enterprises. Learn how this will have an impact on the global marketplace.

The effectiveness of IT security depends to a large degree on the way that security responsibilities are delegated. Learn what your enterprise should do to maximize employees' participation in security initiatives that cross multiple lines of business.

Consumerization, defined as the adoption of consumer-oriented IT that is used inside the business environment, may result in security setbacks for many enterprises. Learn how this will impact desktop computing within your organization.

In the past, most security practitioners understood that policy and technology were their focal points. Today, learn why information security officers need to understand their responsibilities from three perspectives or lenses: architecture, process and controls.

As new technology displaces the effects of our past, many time-honored devices are sinking into obsoloscence - including the wristwatch. Learn what other everyday items could potentially meet their demise as well.

Listen in as Gartner analysts provide an overview of this year's 3GSM World Congress - one of the world's premier events for mobile technologies - live from Barcelona, Spain.

As new vulnerabilities and their related attacks emerge, security technologies and services will continue to evolve. Learn how IT security managers within your organization can implement effective defenses and vulnerability mitigation strategies.

To improve their responsiveness to business needs, IT infrastructure and operations leaders must move away from a traditional technology orientation and focus on clients, processes and the delivery of services. Learn how this may affect your organization in the future.

Most information security employees spend their time dealing with technologies surrounding security objectives. But as the complexity of security has grown, a new breed of security professionals has evolved. Learn how the role of the chief information security officer (CISO) is becoming more strategic within the enterprise.

While the increasing prevalence of enterprise search technology has had a significant impact on database management systems, traditional search engines cannot interpret well-established classifications of business data. Learn how this may affect your organization in the coming years.

Listen in as Gartner analysts conduct a round table discussion live from Lotusphere in Orlando, Florida - an IBM event for IT and business professionals looking for collaborative software and solutions.

With the acquisition of the FileLine Digital Rights Management (DRM) division of Navisware, Adobe expands comprehensive enterprise DRM functionality beyond its Portable Document Format and into enterprise workflow applications. Learn how this will impact the marketplace.

As the overall IT security industry matures, the role of the chief information security officer (CISO) continues to be redefined. Learn why a clearer understanding of the CISO activity cycle will lead to innovations in best practices and risk management, as well as greater business value.

Enterprises that are overwhelmed by sourcing complexity can find relief by developing processes and techniques that optimize the economics of outsourcing. Learn why your organization should first familiarize itself with eight myths commonly associated with outsourcing endeavors.

Mobile device deployment has become an area of interest and concern for many enterprises, forcing them to change the way they process and distribute information. Learn why your organization should carefully evaluate mobile and wireless technologies in order to get a good return on investment.

As the overall IT security industry matures, the role of the chief information security officer (CISO) continues to be redefined. Learn why a clearer understanding of the CISO activity cycle will lead to innovations in best practices and risk management, as well as greater business value.

Gartner defines "agility" as an organization's ability to sense environmental change and respond efficiently and effectively to that change. Learn why enterprises not only need to measure agility in general, but make investments to improve their agility as well.

Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies can increase competitive advantage by analyzing and optimizing customer interactions with more predictive and real-time capabilities. Learn how Gartner's CRM competitive advantage model can help.

Information technology executives and business leaders often don't understand each other's issues. This can lead to inappropriate and ineffective IT strategies. Learn how your company can bridge the communications gap with IT governance.

No matter how large your company may be, workers and customers increasingly expect to find desired documents, information and data through a keyword search interface. Learn how your enterprise can benefit from the implementation of a comprehensive information access strategy.

Business value can often be measured by the success of business intelligence (BI) initiatives. Learn how BI is becoming more than just a tactical response, and how your enterprise can use BI to drive competitive advantage.

In the coming years, the automotive industry will accelerate its efforts to set the direction for a dramatic transformation. Learn how the industry's endeavors will result in increased consumer technology compatibility, and ultimately greater product desirability.

During the past 15 years, most organizations have depended on e-mail as one of their de facto forms of electronic communications. Now other forms of business-based messaging modalities, like instant messaging, are becoming more prevalent. Learn what your enterprise can do to manage the convergence of communications in the years to come.

Outsourcing often is not well regarded because organizations enter into deals without an effective sourcing strategy in place, and the decision to outsource was poorly conceived, communicated and executed. Learn why enterprises that outsource successfully use a multisourcing model and align the outsourced work to the business strategy.

The information access market has changed significantly during the past few years. To best support your company's goals, you need to ensure that search and related functions will support internal and external users, generate revenue and support your industry.

Search has been a significant catalyst for the Internet's growth. The latest trend in search is the increasing importance of rich-media, especially television and video content. Learn why the companies that successfully fuse together the elements of user control and content access will emerge as victors in the battle to become media titans.

CIOs and IT managers face a bewildering array of choices when selecting models to improve business processes and strategies. Learn why the success of your competitive positioning initiatives may depend on your ability to adapt to new, permanent demands for business-based capability and performance.

A new workforce with dramatically different attitudes about IT is emerging. This 'Net Generation' - ranging from 8 to 28 years of age - have unconventional expectations about technology, and this is having a profound impact on the IT environment. Learn what your company can do to manage this new generation of employees.

Companies are increasingly finding that executing against a strategy to achieve business objectives is a mammoth undertaking. Some are adopting business process management (BPM) to help overcome these challenges. Learn why identifying roles and responsibilities at the onset of a BPM project can help your organization succeed.

The objective of an enterprise architecture (EA) is to define the optimal constellation of technology, information and process to support the business strategy of your enterprise. Yet, many organizations fail to realize the benefits of EA because their staffs don't immediately rush to use it in their work. Learn how this can be resolved by articulating the benefits of your EA in clear business terms.

Gartner predicts the job market for IT specialists will shrink 40% by 2010. Infrastructure specialists and programmers will be hit especially hard, but this may be good news for outsourcing and consulting companies, as well as academic institutions. Learn how developing business oriented competence may be crucial to your career in the next five years.

As international commerce regulations increase, spending on regulatory compliance is growing at a rate twice that of IT spending. This leaves organizations with few funds to allocate to technology innovation. Learn why Gartner expects the investigation of new technologies to slow through 2008 as discretionary budgets are diverted to regulatory compliance.

Delivering medical care is a complex process with many potential failure points, especially since the amount of medical data is disproportionate to the amount of technology available to synthesize and correlate it. Learn how a 50% growth in healthcare software investment could halve preventable deaths by 2013, saving more than 20,000 lives in the U.S. alone.

Business process outsourcing (BPO) firms are helping to reduce the burden of scarce internal resources for insurers, thus becoming competitors in the insurance space. Gartner predicts that by 2008, BPOs will capture a significant percentage of global annual premiums. Learn why this revenue shift may have a substantial impact on the insurance industry.

As more employees use company computers for personal use, many organizations are exploring employee-owned notebook programs. Gartner predicts 10 percent of companies will require employee-purchased notebooks by 2008. Learn why this might be a viable strategy for your enterprise.

More and more people are using mobile phones as their only communications devices, causing a seismic shift from wired to wireless. Gartner predicts that by 2010, 30% of U.S. households will use cellular or VOIP telephony rather than traditional landlines. Learn how this will transform the telecommunications industry.

As reliance on databases for the storage of corporate information intensifies, data repositories will need to evolve. Learn why your enterprise should prepare for the separation of data warehouse design from the optimization requirements of traditional business intelligence tools.

Eager to surmount the challenges that will dawn in the new year, many businesses are setting their strategies for 2006. To facilitate that planning function, Gartner analysts converge to identify trends that will likely affect clients in the year to come. Learn how these predictions can help your company formulate IT and investment decisions.

For many enterprises, mainframe application portfolios represent a significant investment. Learn why your company may need to restructure and extend these applications through service-oriented architectures as a means of leveraging IT assets.

As computing infrastructures evolve, the impact of consumerization on organizational dynamics will be substantial. Learn how enterprises will experience a power shift in the future, and how your business will need to change the way technology is delivered to employees.

Savvy CIOs and IT managers know that new technologies will be essential to their enterprises' success in the years ahead. Learn how Internet platforms like Web services will play an instrumental role in creating a flexible and agile enterprise architecture.

The failure of IT initiatives to achieve business results can frustrate clients and undermine credibility, but such endeavors are likely to succeed only when they reflect an enterprise's true personality. Learn how a practical profiling methodology can help your business define and manage its personality.

To reap business value from people, enterprises must strengthen the workforce through versatility. Learn how "versatilists" can apply depth of skill to a progressively widening scope of situations, and build a rich portfolio of knowledge and competencies to fuel your business objectives.

Many enterprises have trouble finding contextually relevant information that is buried in databases, e-mails and archives. Learn how companies can resolve this problem by building their next-generation information infrastructures to exploit Internet-style search interfaces.

Managing a virtualized workforce is a challenge that many enterprises will have to face in the future. Learn how extreme individualization - the empowerment of employees through individualized social networks, employment styles, tools, knowledge and information sources - will turn the workers of 2015 into the intellectual combustion engine of successful companies.

Broadband access and multichannel integration are having a dramatic effect on the e-commerce landscape. Learn how e-marketing and e-commerce are evolving into a single, comprehensive solution, requiring new criteria for evaluating vendors and products.

Enterprises have allocated an ever-increasing amount of their IT budgets to software licensing over the last decade. As sophisticated pricing models continue to emerge, licensing volatility will continue to mount. Learn what your company can do to prepare for the rough road ahead.

With Web services and second-generation commercial applications on the rise, conventional companies may be faced with new competition. Learn how your enterprise can utilize emerging Internet platforms for competitive advantage.

Business' increased reliance on IT has created an environment where system failures can have enormous legal ramifications. Learn what your enterprise can do to mitigate the risks associated with software and data management malfunctions.

Business intelligence tools have been in the marketplace for a while, but recent events have insurance companies focusing on liabilities and risk factors that may hinder their ability to service policy-holders during a disaster. Learn how your organization can utilize BI tools to expedite claims.

Counterfeit reality - the digital creation or alteration of documents and media - is an escalating threat. Gartner predicts that counterfeit reality will account for at least one major media and political scandal by 2009. Learn what your enterprise can do to increase awareness.

Is Microsoft shifting its strategy? Listen as Bruce Bond and David Smith discuss Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's Mastermind Keynote speech at Gartner Symposium in Orlando, Florida.

The banking industry is undergoing a significant transformation. Concerns surrounding commoditization, globalization, consolidation and competition are forcing many financial institutions to reassess their growth strategies. Learn how this will have an impact on both consumer and business banking.

Many companies have disaster recovery plans, but what happens to work that is already in progress? As enterprises contend with one of the worst hurricane seasons in recent history, this question has become paramount in assessing the efficacy of business continuity strategies.

Wal-Mart has clarified its radio frequency identification requirements for vendors in its supply chain, but the applications of RFID technology extend well beyond inventory control for retail giants. Learn how other organizations are using this emerging technology to maximize operational efficiency.

The insurance industry has undergone some major transformations in the past three years, and there are more on the way. Learn how rating engines, product configurators and business rules engines will continue to advance underwriting efficiency.

Defining a good retail service experience is a challenge...especially in the store of the future. Find out how emerging technologies will translate into consumer satisfaction in the coming years, and why the cost-benefit analysis of certain technologies may fall short of retailers' expectations.

Consumer technologies are altering the fabric of conventional IT infrastructures. Businesses are not only embracing mainstream applications like Instant Messaging, but they are becoming increasingly dependent on them for day-to-day operations. The result may be a second Internet revolution.

Preparation is the key to surviving any disaster, particularly for organizations with nonflexible business processes. Learn how flexibility can mean agility when a disaster strikes.