Re: Shipping fee an online deal-breaker (Oct. 9)
Shopping carts are too expensive. Let me give you my example: Chapters.
Two books total $15. A pretty good deal, about
$4 off stores here in Victoria. Shipping and handling, $15 more for a total of $30. Not a good deal. I went through with the purchase to see how it worked and to have the experience, but never again.
If Chapters had an option for free shipping with a 2 week delay for pick up at a local store of my choice (5 blocks away), you bet I would go back. I spend $50.00 a month on books & magazines, on average.
Ian Frazer
Network Architect
IPF Consulting
Re: Scorecards are no gamble: gaming company (Oct. 8)
I think this was the opportunity for you to explain what the scorecard is in brief so that the news item becomes a complete news item and would be read by more people — both those in the know and also those who are intermittent readers. The same principle applies to many items.
Vishnu Lagoo
Gary Hilson replies:
- Robert S. Kaplan and David Norton, co- authors of The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy Into Action (Harvard Business School Press, 1996) originated the concept of a scorecard to measure specific metrics in an organization in 1992. They coined the term “”Balanced Scorecard”” that year in an article for the Harvard Business Review.
- The Balanced Scorecard model offers a way for a corporation to gain a wider perspective on its strategic decisions by considering the impact of several key elements in their business, including finances, customers, internal processes and employee learning. The analysis takes into account financial and non-financial measures, internal improvements, past outcomes and ongoing requirements as indications of future performance. As Giga analyst Philip Russom notes in the article, it’s more than a technology — it’s a methodology. But like any methodology, software vendors have found an opportunity to develop a tool to aid in the process.
Re: Don’t shoot the instant messenger (Oct. 7)
Thanks for pointing out, “”AOL actually has a history of intransigence, occasionally blocking messages on both MSN Messenger and AT&T’s IM Here service a few years ago.””
It always amazes me that no one ever points that Netscape, AOL, IBM, SUN, HP etc. all want to rule the world the same as Microsoft. They all play as dirty as they think they can get away with, yet they prosecute Microsoft for doing the same things they are trying or would love to do.
Most of us don’t want any of these players to take over the world. We want fair competition, choices and interoperability — the things that will benefit us, the consumer. No monopoly is good for us.
David Taubner
CIS Systems Administrator
Health Sciences Centre
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