Great Expectations Think your business technology is all that and a bag of microchips? Well, it's not. Chances are, you need an upgrade. Here's a preview of the technologies that will change the way your company works.

It's that time of year when we get the old crystal ball out of storage, polish it up, and try to divine where business technology is headed in 2005. We can definitely report that entrepreneurs won't be commuting with jet packs, and cleaning robots won't be standard in most offices. But technologies like Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), tablet PCs, Ultrawideband (UWB), VoIP and Wi-Fi are poised to make news. More important, some of them will have an impact on your business.

Even a fine-toothed comb can't always help you separate hype from reality when it comes to emerging and growing technologies. With expert help, though, we'll try. Our star witness is Patrick Duparcq, professor at the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana; director of the Center for e-Business Education and Research; and co-editor of the Krannert Technology Forecast, a yearly forecast of high technology trends. Now let's get started with VoIP.

VoIP