Dennis Callaghan

Another round of earnings warnings earlier this month sent CRM software makers reeling again, with several developers conceding their inability to close deals at the end of the second quarter. As a result of lower revenue, customer relationship management software developers might be hard pressed to continue their pace of innovation. E.piphany Inc., Kana Inc., […]

Plumtree Software Inc. Monday reported both a revenue and earnings increase for its second quarter, its first earnings report since becoming a publicly-traded company early last month. The San Francisco-based portal software developer reported revenues of $22.6 million for the quarter ended June 30, up from $19.4 million in the same period a year ago. […]

IPhrase Technologies Inc. released the latest version of its natural language search application Monday with improvements in accuracy and scalability, and new reporting features. Version 3.5 of the companys OneStep product can deliver results with up to 85 percent relevancy, 95 percent with tuning, iPhrase officials in Cambridge, Mass., said. This version also can automatically […]

Microsoft Corp. will introduce a new version of its Exchange messaging server next year, codenamed Titanium, that will feature an improved Outlook client and integrated Microsoft Mobile Information Server technology chief among its features. Titanium, due for release in mid-2003 according to Microsoft Exchange product manager Chris Baker, will include the Outlook 11 client. This […]

Acumen Software Services Inc. debuted its Interactive Sales Manager service at Microsoft Corp.s Fusion partner conference in Los Angeles Friday, promising to give sales organizations a boost in an era when sales are harder to close. The Web-based service was developed based on sales consulting services offered by Acumens parent company, Acumen Management Group Ltd. […]

Microsoft Corp. announced the packaging and pricing strategy for its forthcoming Microsoft CRM product Thursday during the Silicon Valley Speaker Series in Mountain View, Calif. The plan calls for customers to be able to choose from Sales or Service applications or the entire suite at Standard and Professional levels of functionality. Pricing for Microsoft CRM […]

Business Objects SA on Monday announced a new version of its analytic framework, incorporating predictive analytics for the first time. Separately, the Paris-based company, with North American headquarters in San Jose, Calif., announced three new modules for its Supply Chain Intelligence analytic application. The new version of the analytic framework, known as the Business Objects […]

Business Objects SA moved Tuesday to expand into the data warehouse building space with the acquisition of Acta Technology Inc. The acquisition will bring Actas data integration technology to the business intelligence platform and analytic applications developer, making it more of a so-called enterprise analytics platform developer. The cash transaction is valued at $65 million […]

The days of stand-alone CRM systems are numbered. More and more, users of the software want to tie data from customer-facing applications to data from back-office applications, such as supply chain and inventory management, as quickly and inexpensively as possible. A look at the latest technology initiatives from vendors in the customer relationship management space […]

Maximizing the value of an enterprises customer relationships has long been the value proposition of customer relationship management software. But companies in the business of selling services, not products, have been largely left out of the CRM party. But some CRM software developers are trying to correct this situation. Interface Software Inc., for one, specializes […]

Novell Inc. is updating its GroupWise messaging and groupware platform with support for Web services and Java, as well as an enhanced client. The release, code-named Hawthorn and due in December, should make GroupWise a more viable alternative to the top-selling messaging platforms, Domino from IBMs Lotus Software division and Microsoft Corp.s Exchange, according to […]

The spate of companies issuing earnings warnings hit the customer relationship management software space particularly hard this week with several companies reporting that losses would be worse than expected in the second quarter. E.piphany Inc., Kana Inc., Aspect Communications Corp. and Primus Knowledge Solutions Inc. were the latest casualties this week. Meanwhile, industry leader Siebel […]