Dennis Callaghan

Peoplesoft Inc. is taking another step to untether users of its enterprise applications from the traditional desktop client with the launch next week of its PeopleSoft 8 CRM suite. The rearchitected customer relationship management applications, like the PeopleSoft 8 back-office applications released last September, are written entirely in HTML, making them accessible from a Web […]

E.piphany Inc. and Onyx Software Corp. are broadening their respective CRM software suites by integrating capabilities gained through recent acquisitions and partnerships. E.piphany took a major step in its evolution from being a provider of only analytical customer relationship management software to becoming a complete operational and analytical CRM vendor with the release last week […]

SPSS Inc. is taking software that it has developed for analysts and repurposing it for a broader audience. SPSS new CustomerCentric Solutions division, which was announced last week, will market the companys analytical CRM (customer relationship management) software in combination with services and middleware. To be sure, SPSS is no stranger to statistical analysis. The […]

Authentication technology being adopted by Visa USA in its 3D Secure payment system will make the checkout process at e-commerce sites more secure for online shoppers and businesses. While this may force consumers shopping at Web sites to sacrifice some convenience, it likely will reduce some of the financial burden that e-tailers shoulder as a […]

If Joe Desmond has his way, newspaper headlines this summer will read that cellular telephones helped save California from an energy catastrophe. Desmond is president and CEO of Infotility Inc., a Pleasanton, Calif., startup thats trying to give businesses, government offices and consumers more control over their power consumption. Infotility uses a hosted alert-and-response service […]

For telecommunications companies, business is about opportunity and competition. Nearly 20 years after telephone industry deregulation, these companies have tremendous opportunities to sell customers a variety of telecommunications products and services—local, long-distance and wireless phone services; Internet access; and phone cards—but there is also no shortage of companies selling the same products and services. To […]

As CRM software developers line up to explain how the state of the U.S. economy is slowing their businesses, SAS Institute Inc. is preaching a message of expansion. The developer of customer relationship management and other analytic applications not only is experiencing double-digit revenue growth but is expanding its offerings through a partnership with CRM […]

A proposed new XML specification from Microsoft Corp. and Hyperion Solutions Corp. to allow open access to multidimensional databases likely will streamline development of some analytic applications but will not affect the large number of IT departments that dont use both those companies products. The new specification, introduced last week and known as XML for […]

Tom Siebel, CEO of CRM software giant Siebel Systems Inc., laid down the gauntlet to smaller competitors during his companys first-quarter-earnings call last week. “That anything other than a Tier 1 company can close any business at all is pretty incredible,” Siebel said, predicting that 60 of the 80 companies that Siebel Systems competes with […]

Noetix Corp. is looking to ease a chronic issue for many companies—data integration. The Noetix Enterprise Technology Suite, or NETS, which will be announced this week, enables IT managers to bring together data from disparate operational and transactional systems to form a single view of a companys business. The suite brings together three Noetix products—Views, […]

Theory had it that in an economic downturn, companies would increasingly turn to CRM software that could help them acquire new customers and make existing customers more profitable. For many customer relationship management companies, that theory has not resulted in improved sales or profits, as evidenced by the handful of earnings results expected to trickle […]

eBay Inc. is looking to leverage its 28 million registered auction customers by expanding its e-commerce offerings with hosted storefronts for small business. The plan is facing criticism from small businesses that demand a lot of services and said theyd worry about competition from eBays auction business. For example, before it launches the Web storefronts, […]