Finalists for the IT Personality of the Year Award are crying out in resounding unison for decision-making bodies within the ICT industry, not only to keep the skills challenge high on their agendas, but to take action.

Many vendors might think that if they scale down their solution, it will automatically be suited to the needs of small and medium enterprises - this is not the case.

Mobile telephony grants businesses unlimited access to partners and clients and vice versa, but this "always on" reality brings with it the question of whether the stress is worth the benefits.

A customer-centric strategy isn`t a nice-to-have any more. It`s a business must.

A boom within the South African wireless sector is on the horizon.

E-billing is not only about saving money on paper and postage, it can help companies build better relationships with customers, deflect calls from contact centres and speed up collection of payments.

Business intelligence (BI) is attracting significant attention, as local companies delve deeper into their data.

Business electronic banking has become so ubiquitous that one would expect the participants to be blas'e about it all. Not so. Constant reminders in the media keep bankers and customers alike on their toes.

Corporate networks have evolved from simply being the glue that connects different layers to intelligent systems that do more than just facilitate the transfer of voice and data.

New human resources technology is driving competitive-edge, integrating HR into the enterprise and bringing together personnel and business objectives to create a new working world.

Retailers seem awash in money to spend on their IT strategies. However, this won`t make life easy for IT vendors who need to know retailers` business models, issues and widely varying technical competencies.

Choosing a Web host is like any other corporate investment. It has to be affordable, and it has to make business sense.

PC commoditisation has happened, but first-tier vendors are still struggling with the concept.