Renee Boucher Ferguson

Hewlett-Packard is building out its software and solutions management capabilities with the Feb. 5 acquisition of Bristol Technology. Bristol, based in Danbury, Conn., develops two separate software suites, TransactionVision and Cross-Platform Solutions. TransactionVision enables companies to track and trace business process transactions, similar to monitoring packages as they are sent through the overnight delivery process. […]

NEW YORK—The historic Hudson Theatre was home to a new sort of show Jan. 31—more technology-focused than Broadway-focused—and with a little less fanfare. Oracle hosted its Applications Unlimited road show here to unveil the next versions of its five major Enterprise Resource Planning suites: Oracle E-Business Suite 12, PeopleSoft Enterprise Suite 9.0, Siebel CRM 8.0, […]

Salesforce.com and Deloitte Consulting are going global with on-demand development capabilities. The two companies announced Jan. 30 a strategic alliance that has Deloitte building out its customer relationship management practice around Salesforce.coms applications and Apex development platform. As part of the alliance, Deloitte Consulting will incorporate Salesforce.coms suite of CRM applications, as well as its […]

The Smart Card Alliance, which represents a plethora of companies and governmental entities with a vested interest in the successful marriage of RFID and technology, has come out with best practice suggestions for companies implementing radio frequency technology in identity management systems. The goal of the best practice guidelines issued by the Alliance Identity Council—three […]

By this point its no secret that SAP is investing heavily in the midmarket. The company is planning to spend between $370 million and $493 million (from 300 million euros to 400 million euros) over the next eight quarters in building out a new suite of enterprise application software that is both agile and appealing […]

Despite a fourth-quarter and full-year 2006 earnings report Jan. 24 that came in below par, SAP is forging ahead with plans to invest heavily in the midmarket with a new services-based product and business model. SAP said it hopes the plan will increase its earnings by $1 billion over the next four years and triple […]

Claraview, the business intelligence consultancy that has provided BI systems to the likes of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Education, is expanding its educational capabilities. The company announced Jan. 23 the acquisition of HandsOn-BI, which provides BI and data warehousing architecture, planning and design services. The terms of the […]

Add one more player to the already crowded on-demand customer relationship management market. Kana Software announced Jan. 22 that its on-premises software is now available as an on-demand option as well. A 10-year-old software company with about 600 on-premises customers, Kana develops what it refers to as channel customer service solutions—e-mail, live collaboration, call center […]

When SAP said Jan. 11 that its fourth-quarter and full-year 2006 earnings, to be announced Jan. 24, will miss analyst and internal expectations, company officials blamed much of the problem on a weak U.S. dollar. However, some industry observers think the Walldorf, Germany, company is in the midst of dealing with myriad issues that will […]

SAP has had its share of ups and downs recently. On Jan. 11 the company disclosed fourth-quarter and full-year earnings for 2006 that will miss not only analyst expectations, but SAPs own earlier predictions as well, when the full report comes out Jan. 24. Theres also a chance the companys CEO may not renew a […]