Trucking Technology Report - June 12
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Both the online report and e-mail are sponsored by @Track Communications, a supplier of wireless communications and dispatch services.
Today's Technology Headlines:
- Microsoft Equips All Computers With Phones
- AT&T Extends Service to Michigan
- FedEx Launches ISIS Project
- Reversal of Fortune
- Procurement Network Harnesses Buying Power
Microsoft Equips All Computers With Phones
Microsoft's Windows XP operating system will give users the digital tools to make and receivehone calls via their computer.
Bell Laboratories scientist David Isenberg warns that Microsoft wants to capitalize on Internet telephony to break into the telecommunications market. Company executives say the software giant may announce key alliances with other communications companies before the release of the new XP system this October.
One problem Microsoft will have to overcome is the reliance on third-party sites, such as DialPad and Net2Phone, to route and identify calls, although its .Net platform may soon make such third-party routers unnecessary. Once Microsoft's millions of customers have signed onto .Net, the company will have enough leverage to fully implement the value-adds, such as voice mail and caller ID, that it expects to give Internet telephony. New York Times (06/12/01) P. A1; Markoff, John
In an address to regulators at the MidAmerica Regulatory Conference in Michigan, AT&T CEO C. Michael Armstrong said AT&T would become a local phone provider in Michigan "on a broad scale" by the end of 2001. Armstrong said earlier that the company might be forced to withdraw
rom the local phone market in several states, including New York and Texas, because of a lack of profit.
AT&T requires access to the incumbent local telco's network to provide local phone service. While Armstrong said that network access fees in New York and Texas are too costly, he said Michigan regulators have established rates that would allow carriers to more effectively compete. Wall Street Journal (06/12/01) P. B8
The system focuses on providing business-intelligence Web applications to FedEx's 75 delivery agents throughout the world. Joe Namie, FedEx's global service program administrator, reports that the company plans to launch the project by September.
According to Namie, delivery agents working under contract to FedEx will be able to access the system for delivery information pertaining to their countries via a virtual private network. Computerworld (06/06/01) Vol. 35, No. 22, P. 12; Dash, Julekha
Rather than change their own processes, some companies prefer to outsource their returned merchandise issues through specialty firms like Returns Online. According to experts, reversing a warehouse distribution system is difficult to standardize and full of exceptions.
Central to the reverse distribution concept though, is being able to fully appreciate the characteristics, commodity and reclaimed potential as well as the related costs prior to committing to any solution. Supply Chain Technology News (06/01) Vol. 3, No. 6, P. 41; Kuhel, Jennifer S.
Through the network, still in the implementation phase, Boeing employees use a Web interface to search catalogs of items with previously negotiated discounts on needed items. The system is the first non-customized software that Boeing has deployed company-wide, allowing employees all over the world use it the same way. Computerworld Online (06/04/01); Vijayan, Jaikumar
AT&T Extends Service to Michigan
AT&T, which warned earlier in the year that it would withdraw from the local phone market in several states, announced plans to become a local phone provider in Michigan by year's end.FedEx Launches ISIS Project
FedEx plans to spend $250,000 this summer to test launch its ISIS (international strategic information system) project.Reversal of Fortune
Xerox has discovered a dramatic way to reduce manufacturing costs by using reclaimed and refurbished parts putting them into new machine bodies. However, not all companies can follow that model and have to instead, observe returned merchandise coming back to their warehouses and try to figure out what to do with it.Procurement Network Harnesses Buying Power
Boeing is working to improve its complicated procurement process by use of a Web-based enterprise-wide system dubbed the Shared Service Procurement/Payables Network.
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