By Evan Schuman Are retailers really willing to consider disassociating from associates? I hope that’s not the lesson that merchant executives take away from two recent self-checkout moves. The first, from Amazon, was a fully self-checkout store, where items are logged as they are placed into a cart. It uses a network of cameras and…
Category: IDG Contributor Network
IDG Contributor Network
IDG Contributor Network: Amazon Go has tremendous potential — once it fixes a few things
by •
By Evan Schuman Amazon last week introduced a new approach to in-store technology and strategy, with its Amazon Go experiment. On the plus side, it offers a vision of the possible, with shoppers taking a few seconds to check in to a store on their phone and then they grab what they want off the…
IDG Contributor Network: 5 digital business predictions for 2017
by •
By Nicholas D. Evans While discrete technology trends often get all the attention in New Year’s lists, this coming year will be highlighted by organizations taking a more holistic focus on digital transformation that taps into platform business models, the power of technology combinations, mastery of digital services and leading practices in corporate innovation. There…
IDG Contributor Network: Microsoft outlines IT tools in Windows 10 Creators Update
by •
By Andy Patrizio With the forthcoming “Creators Update” to Windows, not to mention the sleek new Surface computers, it seems clear Microsoft is targeting the artistic community that Apple seems to be abandoning. But that doesn’t mean the update to Windows is just for the artistically minded. The update — code-named “Redstone 2” — will…
IDG Contributor Network: 25 tech certifications earning the highest cash premiums right now
by •
By David Foote [Author’s Note: This is the second in a series highlighting the highest paying and fastest growing certified and noncertified tech skills at 3,000 U.S. and Canadian employers.] Why would an employer pay its tech workers extra cash for a skill or certification if they’re already getting a salary and annual bonus? This…
IDG Contributor Network: Tech skills earning the highest cash premiums — no certification required
by •
By David Foote [Author’s Note: This is the first of a series of columns that will reveal the highest paying and fastest growing certified and noncertified tech skills right now.] Why would an employer pay its tech workers extra cash for a skill or certification if they’re already getting a salary and annual bonus? There…
IDG Contributor Network: Penetration testing for small companies
by •
By Sandra Henry-Stocker Looking for the weaknesses in your systems is a critical part of protecting them against a slew of known threats. It’s only by identifying where the holes might be that you have a chance of patching them. The problem is that pen-testing can be expensive — because of the cost of the…
IDG Contributor Network: Rent-A-Center’s POS glitch is a great ROI argument
by •
By Evan Schuman Anyone in retail IT looking for a good ROI argument should simply refer to an advisory to shareholders that Rent-A-Center issued earlier this month. The $3.3 billion, 2,600-store chain on Oct. 11 advised that its revenues were dropping — and then it pointed the finger at POS problems. I needn’t point out…
IDG Contributor Network: Target’s voice-recognition effort: How natural does natural language have to be?
by •
By Evan Schuman Target has started toying with a voice-recognition device, positioned to compete against Amazon’s Alexa, said The Chicago Tribune. The issue is seeing how far Target can push natural language comprehension. This, however, is a misunderstanding of the allure of Alexa and Apple’s Siri, as well as how shoppers think and communicate. The…
IDG Contributor Network: Are you encouraging your employees to take security risks?
by •
By Robert C. Covington By now, I suspect that most everyone is familiar with the Wells Fargo scandal. For those that have been living under a rock for a few days, approximately 5,300 Wells Fargo employees have lost their jobs because they were opening fraudulent accounts in the names of unsuspecting customers in an effort…