Tim Herbert Posts

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, the head of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), Karen Mills, discussed the importance of international markets and the types of hurdles small and medium size businesses (SMBs) face when exporting products or services.The export topic gets some “ink” periodically, but relative to other SMB topics, not much. Somewhat puzzling considering: 76 percent of global economic activity occurs outside of the United States. Granted, the U.S. economy is still ...

If it’s January, it must be time to talk predictions, trends and, let’s face it, guesstimates. Professionals and armchair prognosticators alike will share their outlook for the upcoming year, covering just about every topic under the sun. Top ten trends lists abound. From the Super Bowl to the Oscars and the S&P 500 to the next snowmageddon, people love to make and read about predictions.The tech space is especially fun for predictions, but also challenging due to the rapid pace of innovatio ...

I recently sat down with CompTIA president and CEO Todd Thibodeaux to chat about hot tech gifts this holiday season. We’re both longtime gadget guys and tech tinkerers so it’s always fun to compare notes on product trends. Since many of the tech products that find their way under the tree also find their way into the workplace, it’s worth taking a look at the drivers behind the gift lists and the implications for the IT industry.This year will again be defined by incremental improvements and new ...

Just about every water cooler discussion I’ve ever been a part of on the future of technology inevitably leads to mention of flying cars and/or robots. People can’t seem to resist criticizing the state of technology for not providing certain innovations that were “promised” years ago, or dreaming about a futuristic world where helper robots free us from the doldrums of work and flying cars free us from the annoyances of traffic. It wasn’t long ago when a discussion of the “future” would mean a d ...

Unless you are skier Bode Miller, who can apparently win the trifecta of Olympic medals with relatively little preparation, success requires hard work and lots of training. CompTIA’s recent study Government IT Buying Plans confirms that government IT professionals recognize the need for on-going training as an important step in ensuring success on the job.According to the survey of over 500 government IT decision makers, approximately 3 in 4 expect to invest in IT training in 2010. The data reve ...

Like a cranky kid on a long car trip, just about everyone these days eagerly wants to know how close we’re getting to our final destination. That is…a stable, healthy economy.Several key macroeconomic indicators, as well as CompTIA’s recently released 2010 IT Industry Outlook, suggests we’re making steady progress.CompTIA’s bi-monthly survey of over 300 tech companies points to improved business confidence, which moved into solidly positive territory on the 100-point scale (up 6.3 points to 56.6 ...

As Dwight Schrute would say, “Fact: the small and medium size business (SMB) sector is critically important to the US economy.” With the daily financial news dominated by movements in the Dow Jones Industrial Average or earnings reports from the big guys, it’s sometimes easy to forget the true significance of the SMB market. Consider for a moment: the 30 companies comprising the Dow, a proxy for “the market,” employ about 7 million workers. In contrast, the SMB market (<500 employees) employs ...

Prognosticators come in many flavors. In my opinion, the ones who actually put real money at risk provide some of the most useful insights. I recently attended Potomac TechWire’s annual Venture Capital Outlook breakfast roundtable, held just outside of Washington, DC. With panelists from New Atlantic Ventures, Columbia Capital, Calvert Funds, Valhalla Partners and LaunchBox Digital, there was a wide range of expertise, investment styles and opinions.Even for those far removed from the VC world, ...

I’m a big fan of The Onion. Yes, it sometimes trades in cheap laughs, but more often than not, it delivers clever satirical observations on some aspect of society. As a technology geek and researcher, I find the technology related stories especially brilliant.The recent Onion article New Device Desirable, Old Device Undesirable, deftly captures the conundrum of a constantly changing tech landscape (the article is CE focused, but could just as easily apply to IT).Thanks to a seemingly endless sup ...

One of my favorite sections of the Harvard Business Review is the case study. It’s the business version of the Kobayashi Maru, a no-win situation that forces you to think about the best of bad options. The October 2009 issue featured a case study titled, When Hackers Turn to Blackmail. Intriguing enough, but the fun begins when you delve in and learn that it’s a hospital being blackmailed over access to their electronic medical records. With lives potentially at stake, the drama unfolds. Who sai ...