June 9th Issue Online

Greetings all,

The June 9th Edition of Network Computing is now available. Here's what you'll find:

Market Analysis: IP Contact Centers
By Michael J. DeMaria
An IP-enabled contact center gives your agents access to all telephone, e-mail, fax and Web customer communications. We discuss the potential benefits to your business and examine ways to get management buy-in for an upgrade.

RFI Analysis: IP Contact Centers
By Michael J. DeMaria
Of the eight products we examined, our Editor's Choice provided our fictional thermal-management company a comprehensive mix of features as well as integration with legacy systems--all for a price that doesn't freeze out upgrades.

Professional Development Strategies
By Jonathan Feldman
Building a comprehensive training program for your IT staffers will pay off in higher morale and superior customer service. Learn how to implement those plans.Affordable IT: Staying on Budget
By Tim Wilson
Despite best efforts, the average IT project still overruns its budget by about 43 percent. How can enterprises prevent these overruns? We examine the means for setting good budgets, monitoring them across their lifetimes and contingency planning for projects that go into the red.

Workshop: Implementing BPL Technology
By Peter Morrissey
After a series of setbacks with interference problems and failed trials, the broadband-over-power-lines technology is now a viable alternative in areas where DSL and cable aren't available or customer service is lacking.

Buyer's Guide: SOHO Wireless Gateways
By Dave Molta
Wi-Fi is quickly becoming a fixture in a growing number of SOHO environments. Many of the devices are used for remote access into enterprise networks, and protecting them from wireless attacks is crucial. We explore your wireless gateway options.

Sneak Preview: AirMagnet Laptop Analyzer 5.0
By Dave Molta
Full real-time analysis of 802.11 a/b/g networks and a slew of features may help you see past the hefty price tag.

Sneak Preview: SmartCompany's Turbo 1.0
By Lori MacVittie
This .Net-supported smart client is subject to Microsoft vulnerabilities, but its pivot-table paradigm makes up for the time you spend patching.Sneak Preview: Apple Mac OS X 10.4
By Michael J. DeMaria
Improvements to the OS, including a better interface, new services, increased security, link aggregation and open-source support, give Mac users a needed boost.

BuzzCut: Sneak Peek at MS Office 12 Isn't All Pretty
By Tim Wilson
The new version of the popular Office software suite could include administrative nightmares.

BuzzCut: McData's Product Road Map leaves CNT users in a Lurch
By Don MacVittie
McData unveiled its product road map following the acquisition of SAN vendor CNT. Unfortunately, CNT's key product isn't on the map. Where does that leave CNT users?

BuzzCut: Buyouts of Avaki, ISDD could put Sybase on top of the EII heap
By Lori MacVittie
With the purchase of EII vendor Avaki and unstructured query vendor ISDD, Sybase could create an enterprise information integration environment that works across both structured and unstructured data.

BuzzCut: Many VoIP systems incapable of Handling 911 Services
By Peter Morrissey
VoIP networks offer great user mobility, which is a big benefit--unless you're a 911 operator trying to locate a victim in distress.FUDBusters: FBI's successror to Virtual Case File Just as Buggy?
By Rob Preston
The FBI unveils Sentinel, a new project to replace failed its Virtual Case File, but it faces some challenges.

Last Mile: Bye-Bye, Vendor Guy!
Edited By Tim Wilson and Tom LaSusa
This edition, chuckle till you buckle at the Top 11 lame excuses for ducking out of a vendor sales presentation; virtual hunting and getting Wi-Fi access with household items.

Quick Takes: Enterprise Information Iintegration
By Patricia Thomas

This edition we look at Ipedo XIP 4.0, Apcon IntellaPatch 288, AtomPark Software Outlook Remote Access 1.10 and Expand Networks ExpandView 3.0.

Down To Business: Don't Forget Your End Users
By Rob Preston
Sometimes overlooked amid all the recent management scrutiny of tech spending is whether IT organizations are serving their other masters: The internal people who use the computers, networks, apps and services that IT administers and manages.

Reality IT: The Burden of Spoof
By Rob Preston
Take a closer look at the causes of spam proliferation and learn some steps enterprises can take to keep it to a minimum.As always you can always get the issue via our RSS Feeds.

Don't forget to post your thoughts and comments about this issue in our forum.

Have a great week.