From the President's Desk By Brad Elster

It is hard to believe the first quarter of 2010 is already behind us and I am pleased to report that our overall business has improved. B2B Workforce has seen a tremendous uptick in business since June 2009. Customer demand for our traditional ERP staffing services is accelerating along with demand in our newly BI and SOA service lines. Hopefully each of you who are current and former key contributors to B2B'a success are observing the same positive signs. I think we all are in agreement that we hope the trend continues.

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2010 Industry Trends from a CIO perspective.

CIOs are challenged: they must keep costs down and plan for growth. As businesses begin to exit the recession, priorities within IT are moving away from the large-scale enterprise deployments of the 1996-2007 timeframe. This is due to the advent of many new technologies that offer lower cost implementations, quicker delivery schedules, scalability, and can be easily adapted as we continue to innovate and morph these innovations. Technologies such as virtualization, web collaboration, business analytics, cloud computing and mobility solutions are a few of the most important trends. Further, IT and the CIO will become more focused on strategic activities, not just cost-cutting. The CIO must think about what is important to the business, how businesses thrive, globalization, and how businesses compete and cooperate.

There is a shift to lightweight, modular, scalable technologies because it lets businesses adjust costs and resources quickly as needed -- a major shift from IT's history of investing large sums and lots of labor in large technology projects before seeing if they delivered the hoped-for ROI. Bear in mind, the lightweight, modular technologies bring their own challenges, such as integration, security, and management, which IT is still figuring out.

BI and analytics has been one of the top priorities for the last few years based upon the need for better data and information. This has become even more important due to the financial crisis. "In the past, analytics provided a nice dashboard of data for businesses but lacked real actionable information. The crisis really exposed information gaps within businesses and today leaders are asking: if the data is really available? Is it accessible and easily retrieved? And is it sufficient to turn into action items?" Performance metrics must now translate into actionable agenda items.

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SAP in the news

Sybase shares soar 55% on SAP takeover: Click here

What Sybase customers should expect from SAP: Click here

Anatomy Of The SAP-Sybase Deal: Click here

Oracle in the news

Why EMC's New Deal with SAP Won't Affect Oracle Relationship: Click here

Oracle further simplifies project portfolio management- Launches Oracle's Primavera Inspire for SAP 7.0: Click here

Oracle Conjures Netra Server From Enterprise Blade: Click here

Health Tip from WebMD

Make-It-Yourself Frozen Treats Cool off in a hurry with these easy homemade goodies

By Elaine Magee, MPH, RD
WebMD Feature

When the weather heats up, it's time to call in reinforcements! We need some frozen treats to cool us down from the inside out, and we need them fast -- whether it's a steamy afternoon or an evening when the ceiling fan just doesn't seem to be spinning fast enough.

You might think I'm kidding when I say frozen treats cool us off from the inside out, but it's true. By eating or drinking something very cold, you help to temporarily lower the temperature of your stomach, and there is some relief in that.

What's the best way to cool your body down longer term? Go swimming in a cool pool, or take a cool bath or shower. This will lower your core body temperature and should help keep you feeling cooler for an hour or more after you get out of the water (at least, that's what I've experienced).

OK, back to those frozen treats! First off, here are 10 tips for whipping up fun frozen goodies:

1. Add a cool, crunchy element to your yogurt by stirring in frozen raspberries or blackberries.
2. Make a banana popsicle by wrapping a peeled banana with plastic wrap or a plastic bag. Place it in the freezer for 3 hours or more, until frozen.
3. Whip up a diet root beer float. Pour 1 cup of diet root beer into a tall glass and add a couple of cookie dough scoops (1/8 cup each) of light vanilla ice cream. The grand total for this refreshing treat is around 46 calories, with 1 g protein, 7.5 g carbohydrate, 1.5 g fat, 0.9 g saturated fat, 5 mg cholesterol, 0 g fiber, and 70 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 27%.

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FUN STUFF

Are you planning on taking a summer vacation but haven't actually planned that vacation yet? There are still some good deals out there. Time to grab one for yourself!

Five Summer Destinations That Won't Strain Your Budget: Click here

Travel Zoo Best Vacation Deals: Click here

Our Best Cruise Deals from cruisedeals.com: Click here