Renee Boucher Ferguson

NEW YORK—After perhaps the biggest build up in recent memory, at least in the business applications sector, SAP unveiled its on demand suite built for the mid-market Sept. 19 at an event here at the Nokia Theater. SAPs long-standing code name for the product, A1S, is now officially buried. The new product name: SAP Business […]

SAN FRANCISCO—Salesforce.com is rolling out two new applications that are designed to extend its application set from four to six, but will still keep the company rooted to its origins: CRM. The new Salesforce Content and Ideas applications, announced at the companys Dreamforce user conference here Sept. 17, will grow the use of Salesforce.coms applications […]

SAN FRANCISCO—Salesforce.com is changing the name of its development platform to Force.com. The moniker is a reference to several themes that have flowed through the company—including at this event—since Salesforce.coms inception nearly nine years ago. During his keynote address here Sept. 17 on the opening day of his companys Dreamforce user conference, Chairman and CEO […]

Until now, there had been no getting around it. Salesforce.com partners and ISVs using the company’s Apex platform to develop on-demand applications had a central complaint: Every application, regardless of who the end user was intended to be, carried the Salesforce brand. The logo kept ISVs at a distance from their customers. Salesforce is out […]

Salesforce.com partners—and there are a lot of them—talk about the company with a near religious fervor. And for good reason. Salesforce.com has grown in the past decade to become the preeminent SAAS (software as a service) provider in the business applications sector. It has expanded its core CRM [Customer Relationship Management] technology to include an […]

Following the acquisition of Cartesis in April and the outline of an integration road map when the deal closed in June, Business Objects has for the most part assimilated Cartesis enterprise performance management software into its product portfolio. The result, announced Sept. 12 in a Webcast that had at least one surprising twist, is EPM […]

Oracles suit against SAP alleging “corporate theft on a grand scale” is off to a bad start – before it even officially begins. The suit, which has already seen one delay in the initial but crucial case management conference meeting, has been delayed yet again. A statement released by SAP on its lawsuit Web site […]

Infor : The $2B Company No One Has Ever Heard Of”> Infor is like the Rodney Dangerfield of the software world. For a company that has amassed 72,000 customers—more than SAP and Oracle combined—has acquired more than 30 companies in the past five years (running neck-and-neck with Oracles much ballyhooed acquisition tally), and realized more […]

In many circles Microsoft might not be considered hip enough or at least too mature now to pull off Enterprise 2.0 or Office 2.0. But eventually having Microsoft and other big technology vendors in the game may give technologies like social networking the legitimacy they need to take hold in the enterprise, according to analysts. […]

Business Intelligence software developer Business Objects announced Sept. 6 an agreement to acquire Fuzzy Informatik, its second “data quality” purchase in 12 months. Business Objects, with dual headquarters in San Jose, Calif., and Paris, plans to combine Fuzzy Informatiks data quality software with its own information management portfolio of products to give customers the ability […]

Calif . Makes Another Run at RFID Regulation”> California legislators have voted once again to derail security and privacy issues with checks on RFID technology, this time with a bill that will prohibit the forced implantation of an identification device—including RFID chips and so-called chipless, invisible RFID tattoos—under the skin. The bill, passed by the […]

The case management conference scheduled to kick off Oracles suit against SAP has been postponed before it even got off the ground. A SAP spokesperson has confirmed that the case management meeting scheduled for Sept. 4 at 2 p.m. PDT in a San Francisco court, was cancelled at the last minute due to the judges […]