Renee Boucher Ferguson

IBM announced today new versions of its WebSphere Host Integration middleware to help companies extend their legacy systems to the Web. The new software includes Host Access Client 3.0, which introduces a WebSphere Host Access Server, and Host Publisher 4.0. The upgrade to Host Access Client adds support for IBM WebSphere Portal that enables access […]

Business planning software maker Adexa Inc. announced today the availability of a new suite of tools to address an emerging market: enterprise performance management. EPM is a set of applications and processes that combines goal setting and alignment with planning, forecasting and modeling capabilities, according to Adexa. Adexas Enterprise Global Planning System [eGPS] encompasses 11 […]

Optiant Inc. last week made available PowerChain 4.0, software that works with a companys advanced planning system to optimize inventory based on sales and operations balanced with supply chain needs. PowerChain 4.0 provides a Web-based interface for modeling the stages in a supply chain, optimizing the configuration based on its unique parameters and evaluating decisions […]

New and expanded offerings from Microsoft Corp. and J.D. Edwards & Co. promise to bring efficiencies to small and medium-size businesses that previously were limited to large enterprises. At its Stampede partner conference in Minneapolis, Microsoft Business Solutions last week unveiled software for small retailers, professional services companies and other small businesses that automates daily […]

Business-to-business online commerce is entering a new phase of acceptance and adoption as heavyweights such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Do It Best Corp. begin to require suppliers to transmit transaction information over the Internet. Wal-Mart, which conducts more than $217 billion in transactions annually, earlier this month told its 14,000 suppliers that if they […]

BMC Software Inc. announced yesterday that it has agreed to purchase the Remedy assets from Peregrine Systems Inc., which filed Monday for reorganization under Chapter 11 Bankruptcy rules. BMC will pay $350 million in cash, plus the assumption of liabilities of Remedy, for the asset management unit. As part of the agreement, BMC also agreed […]

New business process modeling and management software from InterActive Objects Inc., Q-Link Technologies Inc. and WebMethods Inc. should help companies better configure and extend their business processes. A little-known company in the integration space, Interactive Objects, will announce on Monday the next generation of its ArcStyler platform that, starting from the business process layer, allows […]

Enhancing the functionality of its Web services platform first introduced in July, Commerce One Inc. on Thursday announced seven technology partnerships. Joining Commerce One are Actional, Satyam Computer Services Ltd., Baltimore Technologies, Verisign, Contivo, Sonic Software and Cognos. Each will make technology contributions to version 6.0 of Commerce Ones namesake software suite that will encompass […]

The former supply chain enablement division of Peregrine Systems Inc. is rising again as a new company focused on enabling business-to-business communities. Private equity firm Golden Gate Capital LLC, of San Francisco, last week launched the company, called Inovis Inc.—a reconstruction of the Peregrine unit that Golden Gate purchased in June. Cerberus Capital Management LP […]

TIBCO Software Inc. is updating its Designer tool to correlate metadata information from disparate applications as well as to enable easier integration of enterprise business processes. Version 5.0 of TIBCO Designer, due in February, addresses what is called the semantic remediation problem of application integration by enabling two applications to figure out which metadata is […]