A new survey has found that companies—whether financially weak or strong—are struggling to make the right moves in the current economic environment, with many wavering in their confidence of leadership’s ability to navigate the crisis.

According to the survey, 40% of senior managers doubt that their leadership has a credible plan to address the economic crisis, while an even greater number—46%—are not sure that their leadership could carry out the plan, credible or not. Additionally, one-third of all CEO and CXO-level respondents do not have confidence in the plans that they presumably wrote themselves. Further, a remarkably high number of hard-hit companies—65%—are not doing enough to ensure their own survival, such as accelerating efforts to dispose of assets or secure external funding. Among companies that state they are financially strong, one-quarter are not taking advantage of opportunities to improve their position in the crisis.

While more than half (54%) of the managers expect their companies to emerge from the crisis stronger, the survey finds their optimism doesn’t square with their balance sheets; there is a disconnect between many companies’ financial/competitive position and strategic response. “Companies have focused on the near term, some at the expense of the long-term opportunities. The strong need to go long. They need to create a view of new industry structure,” said Bill Jackson, Booz & Company Senior Partner. “Many strong and stable companies are playing things too short-term oriented for the moment. The really struggling and failing companies have reacted dramatically and some have already moved into bankruptcy.”

With the economy in a slump, many companies are asking the question “how can I best make use of every technology dollar I spend?”

Many of the world’s top enterprises are taking steps to answer this question by implementing a Technology Financial Management (TFM) solution from ComSci. The ComSci IT Cost Transparency and Chargeback solution enables enterprises to gain more visibility into the costs of IT products and services, optimize IT investments and better align IT with the overall strategy of the business. By utilizing ComSci’s intuitive, interactive web-based reporting and analytics engine, these firms provide business users with the details of their individual usage, so enterprise customers everywhere can minimize IT costs and maximize IT business value.

In general, companies that implement a cost transparency and chargeback process can save 3% to 5% of their total IT Budget. ComSci’s solution provides detailed consumption information and metrics to the business users in order to obtain these savings. The business users, now aware of the costs of their consumption of IT services, are able to make better decisions about IT priorities and this enables them to eliminate services that are not adding value to the business.

“To many CIOs, the demand for IT resources appears infinite,” Craig Symons of Forrester wrote in his June 2006 report, How IT Must Shape and Manage Demand. “No matter what the business cycle, competitive environment, or internal conditions may be, IT resources are needed to grow or enable new businesses, improve margins, or reduce fixed and variable costs…. Without an effective mechanism to shape or control this demand, IT will almost always be faced with more demand than resources, forcing difficult decisions about resource allocation and leaving the perception that IT is a bottleneck to getting things done.”

Here is to a successful and prosperous 2009 from the entire Vcorp Services team!

Canadian infrastructure is in crisis. In a special five part series – Rebuilding Canada – Canwest News Service explored the critical infrastructure issues facing cities.  The series takes an in-depth look at the realities and the dollars behind Canada’s infrastructure crisis including:

• A study by economic forecasting firm Informetrica estimates that every one billion dollars invested in infrastructure would create the equivalent of 11,000 jobs, including 5,500 in the construction sector.
• The Canadian Federation of Municipalities estimates that our cities need $123 billion to bring essential public infrastructure up to acceptable levels; and another $115 billion to meet the needs of a growing population.
• Canada’s social infrastructure (pools, libraries, arts centres, community halls) is estimated to be in need of a $40.2 billion dollar boost to maintain and grow to meet the needs of an expanding population.
• The average Canadian produced more than 1,000 kilograms of garbage in 2006 and we’re running out of places to put it. A number of Canadian provinces have major projects in place to convert and compost that waste into renewable resources.
• Transit initiatives in six of Canada’s largest cities will transform the way commuters move between work and home. Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa and Montreal all have billion dollar projects planned.

If you are in the real estate industry, you know how difficult it can be to supply relevant and timely information to clients can be.  That is why I am a strong proponent of real estate specific search engines.  And one in particular even allows other web properties to partner with them, which is especially beneficial. Trulia announced the momentum of its Trulia Publisher Platform (TPP), a hosted technology solution that gives Web publishers the ability, completely free of charge, to create co-branded online real estate sections powered by Trulia’s search technology. With TPP, publishers can offer their audiences the ability to find and research homes nationwide using Trulia’s innovative search technology, award-winning user interface and useful online tools like local real estate guides, heat maps and sales comparable information.

TPP is profitable for partners from day one because the platform is offered for free and allows partners to monetize the experience through their own display advertising. And because Trulia hosts the TPP site co-brand, implementation is turn-key and publishers always have immediate access to Trulia’s latest functionality and features.

“As newspapers, magazines and Web publishers continue to evolve their business models, the Trulia Publisher Platform is an excellent alternative to their web site’s home search needs,” said Pete Flint, co-founder and CEO of Trulia. “Because of the easy integration, best-in-class technology and favorable economics for the publishers, we’ve been able to power real estate search for over 100 websites in less than a year.”

“The Trulia Publisher Platform allows us to leverage Trulia’s technology to integrate real estate search functionality seamlessly throughout our site,” said Jennifer Simonds, VP of Audience and Business Development at U.S. News & World Report. “We can then focus on content creation and ultimately deliver a greatly enhanced product that appeals to both our visitors and advertisers.”

It’s no easy feat to come to America at the age of 10, grow up in modest circumstances and become a real estate millionaire by the age of 30.

But Moe Vahnish did it. Fresh out of college, he studied every real estate investing course he could get his hands on, applied for every credit card that you could think of, and maxed out handfuls of cards to purchase his first condo. A little over a decade later, he owns millions of dollars in properties and buys and sells dozens of them a year.

Now, this American success story has written a highly readable and practical guide that can teach just about anyone how he or she can do it, too.

More than just theory, The Road to Real Estate Wealth walks readers through a dozen complete actual real estate transactions, allowing the reader to follow Mr. Vahnish as he searches for, selects, finances, renovates and sells properties at great profit. No previous knowledge is needed, but even veteran investors will find a world of new knowledge in this exciting book.