Renee ... you are amazing! Your Convergence notes are a terrific reminder of all the great stuff that went on there.

A friend sent me the following article which should be interesting to this group. The central role of IT as one of the most powerful gatekeepers of innovation should not be underestimated.

"Innovation Interruptus"
Computerworld (09/29/03) Vol. 31, No. 45, P. 41; Hoffman, Thomas

Industry observers report that IT budget cuts extending over the past few years have dampened innovation, but this has allowed other types of innovation to come to the fore, according to experts such as Computerworld columnist Paul A. Strassmann. Some companies continue to boost their annual IT investments to maintain their competitiveness, though such increases are considerably more frugal than in previous years. Wal-Mart declared several months ago that its 100 leading suppliers have an early 2005 deadline to start tracking their shipping pallets with radio frequency identification tags, while car manufacturer DaimlerChrysler announced in November 2002 that it had begun to invest in Digital Factory, an ambitious project to automate the design of its assembly plants. Meanwhile, UPS has invested approximately $1 billion over the past six years to develop "smart labels" that will help customers more easily locate their packages, and has mapped out a five-year, $127 million investment to distribute the DIAD IV handheld terminal to tens of thousands of drivers. The DIAD IV will save drivers the hassle of manually entering a customer's address and related data and scanning package bar codes in order to get routing instructions. Many companies see the budget crunch as an opportunity to move away from investing in new technologies and concentrate on optimizing existing technologies. RadioShack recently completed the installation of a supply chain management system, while senior VP Mike Kowal says the company has hired a consultant to help shepherd further operational efficiencies through organizational and behavioral changes. Still, 70 percent of 106 IT professionals polled in an August Computerworld survey reported that their IT departments postponed or killed "especially innovative projects" in the past two years, primarily because of budget cuts.