Renee Boucher Ferguson

Lawson Software Inc. is ready to push into vertical services but faces competition there from larger ERP developers such as PeopleSoft Inc. At its Conference and User Exchange here this month, enterprise resource planning software maker Lawson introduced an upgrade to its flagship Lawson.insight suite that includes enhancements for operating, managing, tracking and understanding services-related […]

Metaserver Inc. and Versata Inc. have upgraded their respective BPI software to enable companies to tie together their internal and external systems. The goal of the business process integration software is to give enterprises the ability to gather information from a variety of operational systems, pull it together and present it back to those systems […]

As companies like i2 Technologies Inc. step up partnering efforts to bolster their supply chain software, some IT managers are looking, instead, to their ERP providers for similar capabilities. Thats because, according to IT managers, buying supply chain applications as a module for their enterprise resource planning suite is proving to reduce integration costs. Nevertheless, […]

PeopleSoft Inc. bolstered its long-held supremacy in human resources automation software with the acquisition of SkillsVillage Inc. last week. The addition of SkillsVillages functionality of locating and hiring services and contingent staff gives PeopleSoft and its namesake ERP (enterprise resource planning) software suite a fairly complete system for sourcing, administering and managing enterprise human resources […]

Two of the leading business-to-business software providers will look quite different once the CEOs that each introduced last week make their marks. While new Ariba Inc. CEO Larry Mueller expects to take his company back to basics with a heightened focus on improving e-procurement applications, i2 Technologies Inc. CEO Greg Brady plans to extend his […]

Commerce One Inc. last week rolled out products that it jointly developed with big-name partners Microsoft Corp., SAPMarkets Inc. and Citibank in an effort to make e-marketplace software standard equipment in IT shops. While users welcomed the new tools, some said Commerce One and other business-to-business software developers need to do a better job of […]

Agile Software Corp. and Datasweep Inc. announced partnerships last week to make it simpler to pass information between their respective collaborative manufacturing platforms and enterprise applications. As a result, manufacturers should find it easier to share data relating to the development and assembly of products with suppliers, according to officials at both companies. Agile, of […]

New BPM tools from a trio of vendors promise to end some of the hassle of integrating the myriad applications inside and between organizations. But while business process modeling tools, such as those from SeeBeyond Technology Corp., J.D. Edwards & Co. and PeopleSoft Inc., will enable applications to share and integrate data automatically, the variety […]

iSpheres Corp. and Acta Technology Inc. have introduced software designed to make integration of disparate applications quicker. iSpheres last week launched itself and its flagship product, MetaApp Framework, a lightweight integration tool that lets developers create business optimization software that draws functions from enterprise applications within and outside a companys IT infrastructure. Separately, Acta, of […]

If getting a single companys back-end systems integrated and operating in concert has proved to be none too quick or easy, getting connected to multiple business-to-business e-marketplaces has proved to be at least as daunting. Software developers including Tibco Software Inc., Commerce One Inc. and SAPMarkets Inc. are readying software they say makes it easier […]