Mel Duvall

Siebel Systems move to acquire its own analytics company could lead other major software developers to take similar steps, creating ramifications throughout the business intelligence sector, analysts said. Siebel announced at its annual users conference in Chicago last week that it will acquire privately held nQuire Software of Minnesota for an undisclosed sum. The company […]

Supply chain software firm SeeCommerce will announce today that it has signed on electronics manufacturing giant Flextronics as its latest customer. Flextronics is using SeeCommerces software to sift through massive volumes of data related to its purchasing practices, to find instances when contract arrangements are not being met. Dale Tate, finance director of Flextronics global […]

Siebel Systems is preparing to announce a new set of marquee customers at its user conference in Chicago this week, as questions surface about its ability to dominate the midmarket for customer relationship management applications. The company is the undisputed king of the large enterprise market, but has invested considerable resources into grabbing a bigger […]

Business-to-business commerce spending has been hit hard by the current economic slowdown, forcing one research firm to downgrade its earlier forecasts for the sector. Jupiter Media Metrix said Wednesday that it now projects B2B spending will grow to reach $5.4 trillion dollars in 2006. It previously expected B2B spending to top $6.3 trillion a full […]

The technology industry is bracing for a new round of layoffs and cutbacks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks delivered a heavy blow to investor confidence and corporate spending. Analysts fear that companies will further delay or eliminate spending on technology projects on a scale that will far exceed whatever money is spent replacing equipment […]

Richard (Rick) Adams is the captain of Royal Caribbean Cruises e-business strategy. He joined the company in May 2000 from IBM, where he had a 19-year career in sales and senior management. Adams last assignment at IBM was as vice president of e-commerce solutions sales. Royal Caribbean began allowing customers to book cruises online in […]

Royal Caribbean Cruises is moving full steam ahead on a groundbreaking multistage customer relationship management and electronic commerce project that it hopes will propel the company to much higher levels of customer satisfaction. The project will cover virtually every way that customers interact with the company and serve as the foundation for a range of […]

A group representing some of the brightest minds in the computer industry is looking to establish an international consortium to oversee a new payment mechanism for goods and services purchased over the Internet. The consortium would act somewhat like a Visa International, and would make it possible for consumers to purchase a variety of goods […]

Ben Coes has made a career out of being the middleman in tough negotiations. Throughout the 1990s, Coes was a principal of Iron Road Railways, a Washington, D.C., holding company that specialized in acquiring railway assets and other transportation companies across North America. He also earned his stripes in the public policy arena, serving as […]

The New York Society of Security Analysts came up with a timely topic for its Sept. 12 conference: “Anatomy of a Corporate Crisis: Managing Distress.” Sadly, the site of the conference no longer existed that day. Instead of hosting business executives struggling to deal with a troubled economy, the society was using its Web site […]