Edward Cone

In Japan, an accounts payable clerk at Cigna International uses a financial application from Oracle to enter a transaction in Yen, while in Brazil her counterpart performs the same operation in Reals. In California, Oracle employees tend the software supporting these users and others in more than two dozen countries. And in Philadelphia, Nick Amin […]

When Microsoft rescued USinternetworking with a $50 million equity investment last November, the software vendor wasnt just shopping for an underpriced asset. Instead, Microsoft was buying a potentially potent distribution channel for its .Net services initiative. It was a role USi was ready to play. “We were always a Microsoft partner, but we were less […]

The $1 billion Nutrilite division of person-to-person marketer Amway demands a lot from its global Web site. Content must be not just multilingual but multicultural, reflecting in its various versions the local laws, customs and idioms of each of the 70-plus countries the site serves, not to mention the appropriate mix of products for each […]

April has been anything but cruel for NetLedger, a San Mateo, Calif., application service provider that this week launches a new suite of application services for small companies. Earlier in the month, NetLedger announced $30 million in funding, a good chunk of that coming from Oracle boss Larry Ellison, an early backer. “We didnt even […]

The early promise of application services has been keyed to stuff that most people never see — implementation, cost and staffing issues that are important, but off the radar screen of the average worker. Now the fun part is coming, including wireless application services that will have a noticeable impact on many jobs by providing […]

Perks and salaries are easy to compare, but some companies offer employees an atmosphere that is tougher to quantify. “I tell my friends about the morale here,” says Stacy Rogers, 30, a senior buyer at ASAP Software. “No one says bad things about work, because people are happy to be here. Its a family atmosphere. […]

The El Pollo Loco restaurant chain, best known for its quick-service chicken burritos, needed a little quick service itself on some new financial applications. By using an application service provider for its Lawson Software financial apps, the Irvine, Calif., company was able to meet a tight deadline, and do it under budget. Spun off from […]

Clarence Bastarache thought it would take him four weeks to choose an application service provider to run the SAP financial software he needed. It ended up taking eight. “I asked for a list of résumés for the people who might work on the project, interviewed them and even turned down one or two,” says the […]

Aubrey Chernick ignores the team of caterers setting up an after-hours buffet on the nearly deserted floor of the Georgia World Congress Center. The founder and chief executive of Candle loves to talk technology, and hes not about to leave his booth in mid-demo. “I go to different events and just enjoy discussing our vision […]

In an application services business where the losses keep piling up, Agilera founder and Chief Executive Paul Rudolph has put his Englewood, Colo., company in a position to win. The Electronic Data Systems veteran steered Agilera past the obstacles on which better-known enterprise-class application service providers have stumbled. Rudolph chose from the start to partner […]