Adweek says Ford and Microsoft are teaming up to offer live mapping that will show you where to find the best pizza, or steak, as you drive into town. <a href=" http://www.adweek.com/aw/iq_interactive/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003522807 ...

EDGAR Online introduced its latest version of I-Metrix during the XBRL International Conference in Philadelphia. I-Metrix 2.0 is the first platform in the world to combine an XBRL database of over 11,000 companies with new powerful analytical capabilities...

Microsoft has introduced a program to bring standards and best practices to banking applications so banks can turn disparate applications into an integrated composite so customers won't even notice when they are moving from an Internet application to...

http://www.onelocalnews.com/newhopecourier/ViewArticle.aspx?id=28923&source=2 " BRIAN BERGSTEIN, AP Technology Writer, does a quick survey of the upcoming launches of Vista and Office and somewhat vaguely and inconclusively cites Bill Hartnett...

Gordon Frazer, Microsoft's newly appointed UK managing director, thinks Vista’s new features should win it faster adoption in the enterprise: unseen embedded functionality such as new security mechanisms and embedded search technology allowing users to...

TEMENOS, a provider of integrated core banking systems that offer front to back integration on a Microsoft platform, has won the Financial-i ‘Leaders in Innovation Awards’ for TEMENOS T24, the company’s modular core banking system. The criteria for selecting...

Wizzit and First National Bank in South Africa are developing banking accounts that rely on mobile phones as a way to reach the unbanked population, and clients who just want the convenience of making payment without a trek to the bank. The technology...

Jane Kim reports that usage is up, "Close to 40% of U.S. households do some banking online, more than double the rate in 2000, according to Celent LLC, a research and consulting firm." Banks are beginning to think like users rather than technologists...

Microsoft has signed a deal with Sprint Nextel to put Microsoft search on the Sprint network -- the first big deal to make search mobile. Looks like mobile devices are set to take off. Adam Kornak, the mobility specialist in Microsoft's financial services...

Because Microsoft technology uses Web services, XML, and Service Oriented Architectures (SOAs), Microsoft and partner applications can be tightly integrated to provide a strong, yet flexible multichannel delivery system. For banks, that means that a standardized...

In a white paper, titled "Unified Communications and Collaboration for the Banking Industry," outlines how Windows Vista and the 2007 Office system create a platform allowing banks to unify their business communications, empower teams through workspaces...

Annette Nazareth, an SEC commissioner, says SarbOx may need some refining but that it is good for business -- leading to higher company valuatins --and it protects the individual investors who make the US markets the deepest in the world. The slowdown...

Barclays has hired Helen Dodd from Tesco, where she was in charge of store format and design, to redo the retail branches, right down to the staff uniforms…The bank some months ago hired awayr Deanna Oppenheimer from WAMU to run its UK retail banking...

The FT reports that in London City professionals celebrate Sarbanes-Oxley for driving business form New York to the UK ; while SEC Chairman Christopher Cox promises the regulators won’t over-reach. However, the bigger dangers if legislative creep from...

From David Margulius at Infoworld: Quick. When was the last time you remember being pleasantly surprised by how effectively a company used data about you to improve your customer experience? ...Personally, I’m amazed that none of the companies I’ve...

As consumers and business buyers held off on new desktop licenses, waiting for the new Vista and Office 2007, it was server sales that drove Microsoft's increases in revenue and earnings. Revenue from server software made up for slower growth in sales...

October 04, 2006 (Computerworld) -- Until a few months ago, the clearing and billing system for NYSE Group Inc.’s stock options exchange consisted of about 800 discrete Cobol programs running on an IBM mainframe. Today, the entire application set has...

Banks are taking Basel II Pillar II seriously, though many Pillar II projects are far from complete,” according to Suhas Nayak, director, Basel II, for SunGard’s BancWare business unit. “Banks around the world are recognizing the benefits of including...

IT consulting firm Capgemini said it will acquire Kanbay for approximately $1.25 billion. Both firms do extensive work with Microsoft technology in financial services. http://www.capgemini.com/m/en/doc/06_10_26_PR_Kanbay_acquisition.pdf

Digital River has announced a three-year agreement with Microsoft to build, host and manage e-commerce stores to support the direct and indirect online sale delivery of popular downloadable Microsoft software products, including its personal finance and...

Instead of briefing books loaded with paper, corporations are turning to portals to provide directors with the information they need. Commercial solutions may run $20,000 or more a year, but companies can probably develop their own with their existing...

It's not just Microsoft and Google building big data centers for online traffic, reports Kristine Shevory of the NY Times. "Any company that wants to do business online -- such as the tech giants Microsoft and Google, insurance companies or banks -- is...

With the right communications link and readily available development tools, you can transform an off-the-shelf smart phone into a low-cost, mobile user interface for your next embedded-system project says Warren Webb, technical editor at EDN. With the...

What's driving storage sales? Fear! The next Eliot Spitzer -- where do you find an attorney general who isn't a headline hog? Anyway, Iron Mountain, the storage specialists, and Microsoft, which needs no introduction, are teaming up with Office 2007....

Gonzobanker, my favorite banking commentary (ok, the list of interesting banking commentaries is short but must include Tom Brown) has a checklist for bankers to see if they are using their communication practices to hide from customers or provide reasonably...