** Reminder: IIA international revenues survey **

The IIA is hosting an event in the autumn aimed at helping organisations tap into international revenues using the internet. The IIA's International Strategy Working Group is inviting anyone interested in this area to complete a short survey here. For more information visit the IIA website.

IT under pressure to deliver

IT workers are under pressure to reduce the return on investment (ROI) period for technology projects. Some 37 percent of European IT staff have had to reduce the amount of time to achieve a return on their technology investment as a result of the downturn, according to research by telecoms giant AT&T. Cutting costs or getting spending under control was the top priority among survey respondents, with survival and maintaining the status quo the next most important objectives. "IT has an important supporting role primarily because it helps identify inefficiencies that can lead to process improvements and a reduction in costs, both of which help companies achieve a return on investment. In today's economic climate, a return on investment is extremely important," said the report. For more on this story see Computing.co.uk.

Twitter's business benefits questioned

The potential business benefits of micro-blogging site Twitter have been undermined by new research which describes more than 40 percent of tweets as 'pointless babble'. Market research firm Pear Analytics studied 2,000 tweets over a two-week period, categorising their content under six headings: news, spam, self-promotion, pointless babble, conversational and pass-along value. 'Pointless babble', defined as "I am eating a sandwich now" type tweets, came in at 40.55 percent and 'conversational' at 37.55 percent - by far the two largest categories. Only about 5 percent of the tweets studied came from businesses trying to market or promote products or services, while a little over 3 percent fell into the news category. For more on this story see V3.co.uk.

Email marketers overestimate readers

Business users who send email marketing messages may be overestimating delivery rates, according to a new study by email solutions provider Return Path, reports eMarketer.com. Hard bounces are not the only reason for non-delivery of mail, the study found. Internet service provider (ISP) and corporate filtering systems also weed out messages without informing the sender. Some messages end up in bulk or spam folders, while others end up "completely missing". Return Path found that 79.3 percent of permission email messages made it to inboxes in North America in the first half of 2009, with only 72.4 percent of business-to-business emails delivered. "Many marketers are still resistant to implementing the best practices that make email deliverability more likely and more consistent," wrote the report's authors, who recommended welcome messages, efficient opt-out procedures and appropriate permission levels as best practices. For more on this story visit eMarketer.com.

Online retail spend declines

E-commerce spending in the US has dropped, although the quarterly decline is only the second fall in numbers since comScore began collecting data. The US internet metrics firm said overall sales declined 1 percent in the second quarter this year, to USD30.2 billion, after showing zero growth in the first quarter and falling 3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008. "The marginally negative growth in Q2, on the heels of flat growth in Q1, signals that online retail spending has yet to turn the corner after a disappointing end to last year," said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. "Unfortunately, it appears that the reality of nearly 10 percent unemployment and rising gas prices, coupled with an increased savings rate, continues to hold down consumers' discretionary spending and it may still take some time to dig our way out of this recession." For more, visit PR Newswire.com.

Here are some of the issues our forum members have been discussing:

• Newsletter software and services view thread
• Irish spammers - complain or ignore? view thread
• W3C compliance view thread

Website focus: Homepage

Preparing for crisis with business continuity

Case study: Loyaltybuild

Maintain a healthy workstation

Croke Park, September 22
The Cloud Summit workshop aims to give attendees the technical know-how to make informed decisions about cloud computing and what form (if any) is appropriate to your needs. The target audience is System Architects, Development Managers, CIOs and CTOs who need to gain a rapid appreciation of the technical issues involved in deploying applications to the cloud.

Although this Google site is aimed at UK companies, it provides some useful tips and advice on exporting for companies located around the world. The Google Export Adviser is handy for companies who want to use Google or its AdWords program to market their online offerings overseas. A widget aims to help identify target markets, new ideas for keywords are offered, and information on the popularity of search terms is provided. You can also translate keywords into different languages, and produce a click/cost forecast for a Google AdWords campaign.