Renee Boucher Ferguson

A couple of key themes emerged from Steve Ballmers March 14 keynote address at Microsofts annual Convergence conference in San Diego: Dynamics, the companys brand of ERP and CRM software, is definitely heading into big business, and its definitely going Live. In other words, Microsoft is taking on SAP, Oracle and Salesforce.com in one fell […]

Most days, at least in public venues, Marc Benioff wears a small white button pinned to his lapel that has the word “software” printed in the middle of a red circle with a thick red line drawn across it. The symbol translates to “The End of Software,” in Salesforce.com parlance, and its become synonymous with […]

Its not a rumor. Project Green is dead or at least on life support. Converging Microsofts Enterprise Resource Planning and Customer Relationship Management suites to a single code base is no longer the objective for the Dynamics development team. Rather, like Oracle, with its myriad ERP and CRM suites underpinned with Fusion Middleware, Microsoft is […]

SAN DIEGO—During this second day of Convergence, Microsofts annual Dynamics user conference, the company announced its intent to invest in five industries—manufacturing, distribution, retail, services and public sector—through OEM deals, code acquisitions and spending on the partner network. Taking its first step in this plan, Microsoft also announced code acquisition from eBECS. A Chesterfield, England-based […]

At its annual Convergence conference in San Diego March 11-14, Microsoft will make a plethora of announcements around its Dynamics brand of enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management suites, from the release of Titan, its multitenant version of Dynamics CRM, to something called Sure Step, a family of model-driven configuration, implementation and migration tools […]

Oracle is honing its focus on an area that is becoming near and dear to many corporations facing a daunting list of mandates and regulations: governance, compliance and risk. But as in other areas in the business applications market where the two companies continually go head-to-head, Oracle is facing a stiff competitor: SAP. Oracle announced […]

At its annual CUE conference in San Diego March 4-7, Lawson Software is announcing a slew of new and expanded products, including an IBM-hosted version of its enterprise resource planning software, new business intelligence capabilities, upgraded software for manufacturers and an expanded middleware partnership with IBM that will embed WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus in Lawsons […]

After a rising tide of concern over the security, privacy and monetary implications of the Department of Homeland Securitys Real ID Act, the Department has handed down proposed regulations that drastically alter its original intent. The proposed regulations, handed down March 1 by DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, suggest using machine-readable bar code technology rather than […]

Oracle announced March 1 that it intends to acquire business intelligence software developer Hyperion for about $3.3 billion, or $52 a share. Oracle expects the transaction to close, pending standard regulatory approvals, in April. About a year ago Oracle (along with other business applications developers) started focusing heavily on BI, moving away from software geared […]

Events at the state and federal level are converging around the Real ID Act, as a spokesperson from the Department of Homeland Security confirmed Feb. 28 that regulations outlining technology mandates could be handed down as early as March 1. At the same time, as many as 38 states, under a coalition formed by Missouri […]