Renee Boucher Ferguson

BOSTON—Despite the obvious differences in technology interests between Gen X, Gen Y or the upcoming Gen Alpha, there seems to be a common thread in getting just about any aged employee to use Web 2.0 technologies: Build it and they will come—for the most part. Following the rule that if it takes more than two […]

Savi Technology, now a Lockheed Martin company, is continuing its trek around the globe to push its supply chain products into other nations and software products. The company announced on June 19 that it secured a pan-NATO contract for its RFID technology and services, and joined in a partnership with IFS Defense to integrate its […]

Microsoft has reached the halfway point in its long march to converge its four separate Enterprise Resource Planning suites into a common technology platform. But its still an open question whether this now three-year-long campaign will deliver a fully converged suite that will hold its own in the midsize market that SAP and Oracle also […]

Imagine a world where every single manufactured item is tagged with a tiny RFID chip that holds various bits of information about that item. And as each item moves along a supply chain—pharmaceutical, aerospace, consumer goods, automotive, livestock or even human identification—information is gathered, stored and accessed at various points in a mixture of systems. […]

At a time when the President Bush is under fire for his immigration reform initiatives and the software industry is up in arms over intellectual property rights, Oracle has hired a Washington D.C. law firm to press its case in both matters. Oracle hired Barbour Griffith & Rogers to lobby the federal government on immigration, […]

On three separate occasions in recent months, the Food and Drug Administration nabbed counterfeit drugs off the Internet—from 24 different Web sites. On a global scale, more than 10 percent of the drugs sold around the world are counterfeit, according to the World Health Organization. The problem, in existence for years, appears to be worsening. […]

Lawson Software is pulling out of the doldrums after its Intentia acquisition in 2006. The company announced June 13 that it has raised its fourth quarter 2007 earnings and revenue guidance due in part to higher-than-expected sales of its namesake System Foundation software. Lawson sold $6 million more System Foundation licenses than it had initially […]

Aspen Technology, a developer of manufacturing and supply chain optimization software for the chemicals, oil and gas industries, announced June 7 that it has acquired Plant Solutions, the companys alliance partner in Australia. Plant Solutions, an AspenTech partner since the companys inception in 2000, provides software and professional services for process companies in Australia, New […]

The market for portal, business process and middleware applications rose 16 percent in 2006, according to a new report from Gartner. According to the report, released July 6, demand for these applications was driven by strong growth of implementations of ESBs (enterprise service buses), BPMS (business process management suites) and applications servers. The increase in […]

Oracle is throwing more accusations at rival SAP, amending its complaint June 1 by adding claims of copyright infringement and breach of contract. In its lengthy amendment filed to its complaint in U.S. District Court in San Francisco June 1, Oracle alleged that SAP—through its subsidiary TomorrowNow, which offers third-party support for Oracle applications—engaged in […]