Many network executives acquire shelfware in hectic times, such as when merging with another company.

James Kritcher, vice president of IT at White Electronic Designs in Phoenix, encountered shelfware when his company bought another company a few years ago. He says the IT team quickly decided to put the acquired company's CRM software -- Microsoft Dynamics CRM -- in place to gain better "visibility of the sales pipeline." Yet positive project results were further off than Kritcher initially anticipated.

"We could see that the project was bound for failure as we realized that [the acquired company's] sales processes were much different from ours," Kritcher recalls. "We ultimately pulled the plug and sat on quite a few CRM licenses for a couple of years and paid maintenance fees in anticipation of ultimately using them."

IT must sort out plan for Web 2.0 tools before their business use explodes, execs say
 

As Web 2.0 technologies continue seeping into business systems, a new generation of corporate users is starting to gain access to the collaboration capabilities they are demanding from IT, according to attendees at the Office 2.0 conference here this week. But before use of the tools spreads too far, they noted, companies must strike a balance between the Web 2.0 wants of users and the needs of corporate IT.

The conference, described as a collective experiment by its long list of sponsors, was organized in two months using the online productivity and collaboration tools that are the focus of the event, organizers said.

Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in Qatar announced today it will implement Polycom RealPresence Experience High Definition (RPX HD), making it the first university in the Middle East to adopt immersive telepresence video conferencing as an educational tool.

The deal was signed at Gitex through FVC, the authorised value-added distributor in the Middle East and North Africa for Polycom.

Georgetown University students and faculty work, study, and perform research around the globe. In 2005, the university deepened its commitment to global education by establishing a branch campus of its world-renowned School of Foreign Service in Qatar. The program provides a 4-year undergraduate degree in international politics to students in Qatar. The degree is identical to that offered to students in Washington, DC. The program accepts about 50 students annually from around the world.

'Georgetown prides itself on seeking to move beyond the traditional lecture-style delivery of material,' said Randy Bass, Director of the Center for New Designs in Learning & Scholarship at Georgetown.

One-time market-leader in email software, Eudora had almost become extinct, but is set for a new lease of life as its embattled owner releases the source code into the wild.

Eudora, once the most popular email client around, is set for a rebirth after the owner of the software announced plans to make it open source.

The email client, named after author Eudora Welty, disappeared from view in May when its owner, under-fire mobile phone chip maker Qualcomm, stopped selling the product, but is set for a comeback as an open source application after Qualcomm handed over the code to the open source community.

Eudora routinely got strong reviews from computer magazines and had a loyal user base, but commercially it was overshadowed by software such as Microsoft's Outlook, IBM's Lotus Notes, Mozilla Thunderbird and web email services.

Qualcomm donated Eudora to the open-source community, which means that anybody is free to download and use it without paying for the product. Developers can also access the code, change it and share those changes.

Big Blue to back ODF as it agrees to contribute Lotus Notes code to the open-source office suite project.

The Aironet 1250 will be available from next month according to the networking giant.

New core switch completes HP ProCurve Networking's switch family.