John Lamb's Week: Innovation, in its various forms

The Essex boffins, who absorb a sizeable chunk of Nortel's European R&D budget, are certainly delivering the goods for the Canadian networking company. They filed an astonishing 190 patents last year. In return they will get a new lab.

Work will soon begin on a building to replace the old STC premises where, in 1966, researchers first proposed the idea of optical communications. Pascal Debon, president of Nortel Networks EMEA, says he will reassure the minister of the company's continued commitment to the Harlow Labs as a centre for product development.

Results are due out from Orchestream Holdings on Tuesday. The UK LSE-quoted company, which produces software that defines and activates services on IP networks and monitors their performance, turned in losses before tax of £8.6m in the nine months to last September.

Undaunted and with some £61m in the bank, the company acquired Canadian performance management software outfit Crosskeys Systems for £24m in January this year. CEO Ashley Ward promises to fill investors in on Orchetsream's current performance and prospects.

There are far too many reports and surveys on ecommerce - no doubt a measure of the need to identify and shape online markets. But too often they are self-serving, inconclusive and strident. What a relief to find one called The Quiet Revolution and sponsored by the Confederation of British Industry and management consultancy KPMG.

The results of this poll of 1,000 companies are out on Tuesday. It claims to be the most in-depth survey of its kind and promises to reveal the proportion of companies that have incorporated ebusiness into their strategies and the percentage of turnover that they generate from ebusiness.

The report will also identify the e-pioneers (those companies ahead of the game); the e-followers (using internet for email and promotional websites), and the e-laggards (with very basic email systems and websites) by their industrial sector.

On Wednesday, IBM will be publishing the results of an intriguingly titled piece of research called Business Women on the Move. Strathclyde University and the US-based National Foundation for Women Business Owners (www.nfwbo.org) have surveyed 1,200 UK businesses about their attitudes to and experience of work.

One of the key messages from the survey, says IBM, is that women are beginning to drive the new economy. Twenty years ago, women entrepreneurs were a rarity. However, over the past 10 years an increasing number have set up their own businesses. Cheri Piebes, IBM's global executive for women entrepreneurs, will be charting the ups and downs of business life at a women on the move conference in May.

Some of those female business leaders could be among the 100 CEOs and MDs expected to attend a Computing Services and Software Association lunch at London's Savoy Hotel on Wednesday.

The service and software industry luminaries will be hearing from Clay Brendish, deputy chairman of CMG Admiral. They will be eager for his take on the current business climate. Besides co-founding Admiral, Brendish also advised the government on the privatisation of various computer-based civil service activities.

At the other end of the spectrum, wannabe business millionaires will be assembling in Cambridge on Friday for the results of the Cambridge University Entrepreneurs Prize, sponsored by Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting). On Friday the University will be unveiling which of the 10 finalists has won £50,000 to be put towards starting their own business.