Renee Boucher Ferguson

IBM’s not in the business applications business, but that doesn’t stop it from expanding relationships with business applications providers. The company announced March 17 an expanded relationship with CRM (customer relationship management) software provider Kana Software that will have the two companies jointly developing new software, and Kana implementing IBM’s software in its existing products. […]

ORLANDO, Fla.-At Microsoft’s annual Convergence Dynamics user conference here this week, Brad Wilson, general manager for customer relationship management at Microsoft, sat down with eWEEK Senior Writer Renee Boucher Ferguson to talk about Microsoft’s quiet platform-as-a-service strategy that’s emerged with CRM 4.0, the company’s December 2007 release of CRMthat includes multitenant, on-demand capabilities. It seems […]

ORLANDO, Fla.-The focus of Microsoft’s annual Convergence Conference here has always been about the company’s line of Dynamics business applications. This year’s conference is no exception. However, Microsoft’s focus will likely shift slightly this year with a spotlight on software-plus-services, Microsoft’s parlance for on-demand software that weaves other aspects of the company’s technology into the […]

ORLANDO, Fla.-Despite the revolving door management history at its Dynamics applications division, Microsoft is steadfastly committed to the Dynamics brand. That’s the message Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer imparted to the 9,500 Dynamics partners, customers and potential customers in attendance at this year’s Convergence conference: Dynamics is Microsoft’s brand for its four ERP (enterprise resource planning) […]

Oracle is, finally, making waves with the on-demand CRM software it acquired when it bought Siebel Systems for $5.8 billion in January 2006. Oracle is rolling out the next iteration of its namesakes CRM On Demand software-Release 15-that adds new social networking and collaboration features to the software code. It’s also the first inklings of […]

SAP in the 1990s led the pack in ERP (enterprise resource planning) sales, growing to become the world’s largest business applications provider. But now with the -90s far behind it and a tapped enterprise market the company is looking for novel ways to grow its market share. While it has taken on new areas of […]

A company called VisualCalc provides a free Web site that helps citizens analyze the presidential race through a series of dashboards that chart the status and trends of the primary election. On the flip side, candidates in this year’s historical race for the White House-for the first time a woman and a black man are […]

The British Government won’t back down on its controversial plan to implement a national identification card system with data on every citizen, resident and long-term visitor stored on a single government database. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said March 6 the program will start with foreign nationals this year and work its way over the next […]

SAN FRANCISCO-OpSource is rolling out a new multi-tenant integration service bus that enables companies to consume and publish multiple Web services in the cloud from both software as a service and on-premise applications. CEO Treb Ryan said OpSource Connect, unveiled at the SAAS Summit 2008 here Feb. 28, is the first such integration service bus […]

LAS VEGAS-Craig Mundie, Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer, said long-term research and development will carry the day at the company, despite mounting competition from the likes of fleet-footed Google, Yahoo’s reluctance to accept Microsoft’s $44.6 billion acquisition offer, and longstanding intimations from industry watchers that the software giant has lost its edge. Mundie spoke […]