David Needle

Artificial intelligence is becoming a mainstream technology. You can find elements of it in, for example, Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s product recommendations and Facebook’s ability to identify photos in your feed. But AI is less ubiquitous in the business world—something Salesforce set out to change a few years ago when it began developing Salesforce Einstein. “For […]

The rapid growth of the Salesforce ecosystem, including customers, developers and partners, is having an impact that stretches well beyond just the company’s own success. Two new studies take a look at what effect the growth in Salesforce deployments is having on the economy and the jobs market. On the jobs front, an analysis by […]

Most companies of any size have a website and perhaps a presence on social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter. Now having that online presence might be extended with Lightning Bolt, a new service from Salesforce.com that aims to make it easier for companies to create more customized online communities with industry-specific functionality and […]

LAS VEGAS—BMC Chairman and CEO Bob Beauchamp kicked off his company’s annual conference here Sept. 7 with a colorful analysis of the rapid changes taking place in technology in general and the enterprise specifically. The keynote for the Engage ’16 conference also featured several product announcements from the enterprise software firm. “The number of new […]

“Who is doing what and when?” It’s a question asked constantly during many ad hoc projects in departments across the enterprise that typically don’t rely on standard tools or systems to make sure they’re managed effectively. Box aims to change that. At its annual BoxWorks conference, which kicks off Sept. 6, Box is slated to […]

Hospitals are sometimes viewed as cold or impersonal by patients facing long wait times on the phone and doctors too busy with administrative tasks to always give a caring focus to patient’s needs. Salesforce.com hasn’t solved these problems, but the latest release of its Health Cloud platform aims to make the patient experience more personal. […]

Salesforce.com announced a significant new feature to its Inbox email, adding a Calendar feature that integrates with the company’s CRM platform. The idea is to make sales reps more efficient, particularly on mobile devices, by giving them information on clients and prospects without having to launch a separate program. The news comes after an earlier […]

Manufacturers and other companies that use Autodesk’s product lifecycle management application, called Fusion Lifecycle, will now find it easier to integrate certain cloud-based apps. The July 28 announcement that Jitterbit will be embedded in Fusion Lifecycle means customers can simplify the process of integrating third-party apps, such as a cloud messaging app, ERP or customer […]

PointDrive, a company that provides a presentation application to help sales professionals enhance their email pitches, has been acquired by LinkedIn. Financial terms of the deal, announced July 26, weren’t released. The deal comes on the heels of Microsoft’s announcement in June that it plans to buy LinkedIn for $26.2 billion. While Microsoft itself offers […]

Gamers have long enjoyed virtual worlds, but that same kind of simulated view now is being made more broadly available to architects and designers. The Autodesk Live online design application service gives architects the ability to create simulated views of houses or buildings that customers can interact with virtually, such as walking through hallways, checking […]