Stories by Fred O'Connor

  • CFOs see tech, strategic hires key to business growth

    An improving economy should be spurring CFOs to hire workers to handle the increased business that their companies are experiencing lately. But <a href="http://rhfa.mediaroom.com/2Q11HiringIndex"><a href="http://rhfa.mediaroom.com/2Q11HiringIndex">a survey</a> </a>conducted in conjunction with the latest Robert Half Financial Hiring Index finds that finance executives are being extremely cautious about how they increase headcount.

  • How’s Business? More Retailers Say Wait Until the Quarter

    Among analysts and investors, debate has been growing about a retailer-reporting trend to stop publicizing monthly sales, and instead to offer results only quarterly. It's a trend some retailing experts see as robbing them of an important barometer in determining a business' fiscal well-being.

  • UN: Mobile tech, Web services to aid in disaster relief

    Traditional helpers in disaster relief, such as the U.N. and world governments, provided aid after a massive earthquake devastated Haiti in January 2010, leveled Port-au-Prince, claimed 230,000 lives and <a href="http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/139280.pdf">caused US$14 billion</a> in damages.

  • Tech CFOs anticipate revenue increase in 2011

    Increased revenue will foster mergers and acquisitions in the technology space, according to a survey by accounting and consulting firm BDO USA that polled chief financial officers at technology firms.

  • Despite recession, finance job competition stays strong

    Finding qualified candidates for financial services and accounting positions should prove easy with the U.S. unemployment rate near 10 per cent. However, firms have encountered a competitive marketplace as they search for the right employee, according to a new survey.

  • Intel bends to U.S., Google Wave washes up

    It's the end of an era: Intel can no longer offer computer makers perks for using its processors, according to an antitrust settlement that the chip maker reached with the U.S. government. Meanwhile, BlackBerry users in some countries may find their e-mail service terminated if governments are denied access to the network's secure data. Finally, employee paychecks may no longer be safe as hackers look for new revenue sources.

  • Smartphones, tablets seen boosting mobile health

    Smartphones, tablet PCs and other wireless devices are poised to play a greater role in health care as doctors and patients embrace the mobile Internet, panelists at a mobile health technology conference in Boston said Thursday.

  • Scientist: Technology can solve problems, introduce new ones

    Technology holds the ability to solve some of society's problems, but can generate new issues or require measures that people are unwilling to take, said Dennis Bushnell, chief scientist at the NASA Langley Research Center, during a Friday talk at the World Futurist Society conference in Boston. The end result is that humans are "in the midst of a wholly unexpected technology revolution."

  • Era of robots, tech-enhanced humans not here yet

    Advocates of the concept called singularity envision a future in which humans and technology fully converge, but a keynote speaker at the World Future Society conference voiced skepticism about the idea, citing the complexities of the human mind.