John S. McCright

J.D. Edwards, at its Quest User Conference last week, rolled out an upgrade to its namesake Supply Chain Management software suite targeted to automate more of the business processes of its manufacturing and distributor customer base. Among dozens of feature enhancements is an updated Engineering Project Management module that aggregates information on products made to […]

Major IT developers are rolling out hardware and software to help retailers better track customer purchasing patterns. On the hardware front, Hewlett-Packard Co. at the Retail Systems Conference in Chicago last week introduced the rp5000 POS (point-of-sale) device. The appliance is designed to withstand the rigorous front-end retail environment with such enhancements as hardened cooling […]

J.D. Edwards & Co. at its Quest User Conference this week rolled out a broad slate of upgraded software targeted to automate more of the business processes of its manufacturing customer base, including those that use the iSeries server platform. Key upgrades in J.D. Edwards 5, due next quarter, revolved around supply chain management and […]

J.D. Edwards & Co. Thursday said it is suing Oracle Corp. and two of its executives for allegedly interfering with its proposed acquisition by PeopleSoft Inc. Denver-based J.D. Edwards is asking for $1.7 billion in damages, the value of its deal with PeopleSoft. The suits were filed against Oracle, of Redwood Shores, Calif., Oracle CEO […]

Linux is making cash registers ring, and not just for Red Hat Inc., SuSE Linux AG and other distributors of the open-source operating system. Retailers of all sizes are investigating the use of Linux on POS, or point-of-sale, systems to provide some flexibility in their software deployments and lower operating costs by avoiding licensing fees. […]

To stay nimble, manufacturing companies want to be able to modify their products quickly if partner specifications or customer demand changes. Getting a change order from the sales or customer service division to the engineering group and then to the shop floor usually presents a software integration challenge. The size of parts is modified, the […]

The plot thickened Monday in the enterprise software industrys high-stakes acquisition drama as Oracle Corp. sought to remove one of the barriers to its proposed $5 billion hostile takeover of enterprise software maker PeopleSoft Inc. At the same time J.D. Edwards & Co. Chief Executive Bob Dutkowsky called on PeopleSoft investors to shun Oracle in […]

An investor group led by Cerberus Capital Management L.P. and General Atlantic Partners LLC today announced that it is buying enterprise software developer Baan from Invensys PLC for $135 million. The group, which represents $14 billion in investment capital, plans to combine Baan with another ERP (enterprise resource planning) software maker, SSA Global Technologies. That […]

The XBRL data format could help companies more quickly create reports on business conditions and thus comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act reporting requirements, say proponents of the format. Extensible Business Reporting Language provides a means for IT departments to aggregate and consolidate financial information that is accurate, timely and reliable and to present that information […]

The number of major enterprise software players out there decreased by one today as PeopleSoft Inc. announced a deal to buy rival J.D. Edwards & Co. in a deal valued at about $1.7 billion. The deal, which has been approved by the boards of both companies and is expected to close in the third or […]