BI cuts cellphone bills

BlackBerry, iPhone, cellphone, pager - personal devices of every sort were rampant at Title Resource Group, a real estate closing company that's part of the $6 billion Realogy, which owns Century 21, Coldwell Banker and other franchises, says Computer World.

This time last year, Title Resource employees could use any cellphone they wanted for work, even personal devices that they, not the company, owned. Corporate calling plans for managers, sales reps and other employees allowed for a few hundred minutes per month.

Nehal Trivedi, CIO at Title Resource, needed data to make a business case for reining in cellphone expenses. So business intelligence (BI) specialists in IT worked with corporate finance to collect the data from invoices and expense reports.

Companies should make use of BI strategies in order to improve their performance, it has been claimed, says iHotDesk.

Research carried out by IT industry analyst IDC indicates it is becoming more important for firms to effectively manage an ever-increasing amount of information.

Melissa Martin, senior market analyst of IT spending and vertical markets at IDC, said modern markets are faster moving, more diverse and more competitive.

Accenture and Oracle held a mini-conference recently to publicise their strategic alliance, which is growing stronger as the two companies increase their investment in it, says Ovum.

Both companies benefit, of course, but the alliance is especially valuable to Oracle as it adopts a more partner-centric go-to-market strategy - a significant adaptation to an increasingly competitive market.

Oracle is on the right track in relying more on channel partners - and should cultivate more relationships like the one it has with Accenture.