DATA POINTS: PUBLIC COMPANY DIRECTOR FEES.

Public software companies pay their outside directors in a variety of ways, including annual retainers, fees for regular and special committee meetings, and option grants (which usually vest over several years). In general, directors who are also employees receive no extra pay for board membership.

ORACLE APPLICATIONS USERS GROUP (OAUG) executive vice president Don Payne on the reluctance of corporate users to buy ASP services instead of traditional application licenses: "In general, IT professionals are expressing frustration at the services they already receive from vendors and suppliers and are not anxious to add another dimension to an already complex environment." (Quoted in Computerworld, 10/9/00)

LANDS' END senior vice president of e-commerce Bill Bass on Web customer service: "If there's a train wreck to happen this year, it's going to be around customer service." (Quoted in Business Week, 10/23/00)

ONE OF A KIND KID.COM owner Kim Michaux on her one-person company's commitment to great service: "My goal is to out-Nordstrom Nordstrom. We're scrambling and staying up until 1:00 in the morning, but customers don't see that." (Quoted in the Los Angeles Times, 11/16/00)

GREAT PLAINS chief executive Doug Burgum on an offer he made several years ago to reimburse resellers for out-of-pocket costs because of a buggy release of his company's accounting software: "We wanted them to know that our problem was costing them time and money. Nine out of ten of those affected said they still wanted to work with us." (Quoted in The Wall Street Journal, 11/21/00)

NIELSEN NORMAN GROUP principal Jakob Nielsen on the impact of even small improvements in Web site usability: "If you have two sites and one is 10% better, you spend 100% of your time there and no time at the site that's 10% worse." (Quoted in iMarketing News, 11/20/00)

MICROSOFT chairman Bill Gates on why technology alone can't save an African village: "The mothers are going to walk right up to the computer and say, OMy children are dying, what can you do?'" (Quoted in Time, 11/13/00)

DELOITTE & TOUCHE managing national partner of HR on the limitations of the e-learning model: "Technology is the great enabler, but it's not the answer. To think it will replace face-to-face is flawed." (Quoted in Information Week, 11/20/00)