He points out one of the perceived benefits from such a project is to move some of the system maintenance out of the programming areas. Of course, perceived benefits often are more closely related to fairy tales.

Still, Fitzgerald reports on a consulting project where Celent discovered a way to clarify such benefits. It involves an enterprise approach and carriers with multiple systems, but it makes sense to take advantage of all the tools that are available, particularly when big legacy systems can be so costly to maintain.

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On the social networking front, Jose Antonio Vargas profiles Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in a recent edition of The New Yorker. It would appear that Zuckerberg is trying to get out front in the PR battle with the producers of the new film The Social Network that is scheduled to hit the multiplexes on Oct. 1.

It's likely a losing battle for Zuckerberg as the movie focuses on his Harvard years and the development of Facebook. If it was a movie glorifying Zuckerberg and Facebook it wouldn't be written by Aaron Sorkin nor have a budget of $47 million. The movie's tagline says it all, "You don't get 500 million friends without making a few enemies."

Zuckerberg tells parts of his story about Facebook's formation to Vargas and there's some interesting insight into a young man (only 26) who has a company worth more than $1 billion on the open market, yet refuses to sell and goes to work each day (except for lengthy vacations with his girlfriend).