Renee Boucher Ferguson

SAP has a big goal: Nearly triple its customer base over the next four years. The company plans to grow its current 30,000-plus customer roster to 100,000, by 2010. One way it plans to do that is by gaining more customers in the SME (small and midsize enterprise) sector, and in turn build out its […]

What do “Shrek 2” and SAP have in common? A lot, according to Hewlett-Packard. The infrastructure hardware company announced Nov. 7 that it will collaborate with SAP on research aimed at improving the efficiency of HP systems running SAP software—or software components, as the case may be. HP Labs developed technology to help DreamWorks, the […]

Paul Moskowitz, a Ph.D. researcher at IBMs Watson Research Center, believes security is definitely an issue with RFID-tagged goods. Along with his colleagues, Moskowitz has invented whats referred to as Clipped Tag technology to help solve some of those basic security issues. IBM, commercializing Moskowitzs work, announced Nov. 8 that it will license the Clipped […]

UC Berkeley researchers have created tiny wireless “motes”—or network sensors—that use radio signals to communicate where theyre at in physical space. The goal: an RFID network that could revolutionize the industry with its ability to locate tagged items without the aid of readers. “What we showed in the university was that you could network together […]

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, at the companys first European-based Convergence conference that kicked off in Munich Nov. 6, is working hard to show that Microsoft is on top of the tech revolution—at least when it comes to offering its enterprise resource planning technology on demand. During his keynote address on the first day of Convergence, […]

Dave Duffield, founder of PeopleSoft, announced Nov. 6 the launch of a new ERP company with its foothold in human resources—the area of backend business applications where PeopleSoft made its name. The big difference with Workday, Duffields newest company, and PeopleSoft: software thats built using an on demand model versus on premises. Duffield and co-founder […]

IBM, which has pledged to invest $1 billion over the next three years on developing information management products and services, announced Nov. 2 a deal with business intelligence software developer Business Objects that should help further that mission. The two companies plan to jointly develop and sell new business intelligence-based software using IBMs hardware, software […]

UC/Berkeley researchers have created tiny wireless “motes”—aka network sensors—that use radio signals to communicate where they are located in physical space. The end goal: an RFID network that could revolutionize the industry with its ability to locate tagged items without the aid of readers. “What we showed in the university was that you could network […]

Oracle continued its two-and-a-half year shopping spree with the acquisitions of Stellent Nov. 3 and SPL Group on Nov. 2. Oracle agreed to pay about $13.50 per share, or $440 million, for Stellent, which develops enterprise content management software that works across a companys business applications—be they for public Web sites or internal governance management. […]

Symbol Technologies announced Nov. 1 at the Mobile Business Expo in Chicago a new switch that, based on its Wi-NG (Wireless Next Generation) architecture, enables users to centrally and simultaneously manage RFID readers along with a Wi-Fi network infrastructure. Symbols new RFS7000 Radio Frequency Switch in a sense bridges the gap between Wi-Fi, RFID and […]