Renee Boucher Ferguson

Business intelligence software developer Cognos announced Jan. 17 the acquisition of Celequest, developer of an operational dashboard appliance. The acquisition closed on Jan. 16. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. By adding privately held Celequest to its roster, Cognos will achieve several objectives: a longer reach into channel markets, a better breadth of offerings […]

With its winter 07 release event in San Francisco on Jan. 16, its safe to say Salesforce.com is no longer primarily in the customer relationship management business. The winter 07 release brought with it the first glimpse of Salesforce.coms proprietary (though Java-based) programming language and development platform, dubbed Apex. That first look-see for developers—the beta […]

Big-name business applications vendors—Microsoft, Oracle, Lawson and (on the business intelligence front) Cognos each made a splash with new software announcements at the National Retail Federations Big Show event in New York on Jan. 16. The bevy of new offerings could help businesses in the retail sector move forward with electronic initiatives. Microsoft, for example, […]

Microsoft officials are hoping a test program of an early version of their next major customer relationship management release—code-named Titan—will ease partner concerns over the upcoming on-demand version of Dynamics CRM. The Redmond, Wash., software company announced Jan. 10 that about 300 partners are participating in the program to test early versions of Dynamics CRM […]

Zebra Technologies, which makes passive RFID tags—wireless tags that are activated by radio frequency waves—announced Jan. 11 that it is moving into the active tag market with the acquisition of WhereNet. ZIHs Zebra Technologies, based in Vernon Hills, Ill., is acquiring WhereNet for $126 million in cash. The transaction, subject to standard regulatory approval, is […]

SAP AG announced late in the afternoon Jan. 11 that it will miss not only analysts consensus estimates of its fourth quarter and full year 2006 revenues—earnings per share came in above estimates—but its own estimates as well. While the missed numbers for the quarter dont bode well for SAP in the short run, some […]

VeriChip is developing a portable reader that will, the company hopes, help users get to information stored in its RFID systems in a more cost-effective manner. The subsidiary of Applied Digital Solutions announced Jan. 8 that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted it a patent for its portable RFID asset location system. The […]

Taking the next step in its walk toward an on-demand version of its Dynamics customer relationship management software, Microsoft announced Jan. 10 that its releasing the code for its next major upgrade, Titan, to about 300 partners. The early look-see could help ease some partner fears around the impact of an on-demand model from Microsoft. […]

Criminal and civil charges were filed in early January against David McQuillin, the former CEO of Aspen Technology, alleging securities fraud violations. The charges filed separately Jan. 8 by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and the Securities and Exchange Commission accuse McQuillin of plotting to exaggerate the companys software […]

It turns out 2006 wasnt the banner year for radio-frequency identification adoption that some analysts had predicted, particularly in the retail and consumer packaged goods sectors, where fast growth was expected. And it looks like 2007 wont be much different. Analysts are predicting some pockets of growth—asset tracking and contactless smart cards, for example—while other […]