Renee Boucher Ferguson

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, at the companys first European-based Convergence conference that kicked off in Munich Nov. 6, is working hard to show that Microsoft is on top of the tech revolution—at least when it comes to offering its enterprise resource planning technology on demand. During his keynote address on the first day of Convergence, […]

Dave Duffield, founder of PeopleSoft, announced Nov. 6 the launch of a new ERP company with its foothold in human resources—the area of backend business applications where PeopleSoft made its name. The big difference with Workday, Duffields newest company, and PeopleSoft: software thats built using an on demand model versus on premises. Duffield and co-founder […]

IBM, which has pledged to invest $1 billion over the next three years on developing information management products and services, announced Nov. 2 a deal with business intelligence software developer Business Objects that should help further that mission. The two companies plan to jointly develop and sell new business intelligence-based software using IBMs hardware, software […]

UC/Berkeley researchers have created tiny wireless “motes”—aka network sensors—that use radio signals to communicate where they are located in physical space. The end goal: an RFID network that could revolutionize the industry with its ability to locate tagged items without the aid of readers. “What we showed in the university was that you could network […]

Oracle continued its two-and-a-half year shopping spree with the acquisitions of Stellent Nov. 3 and SPL Group on Nov. 2. Oracle agreed to pay about $13.50 per share, or $440 million, for Stellent, which develops enterprise content management software that works across a companys business applications—be they for public Web sites or internal governance management. […]

Symbol Technologies announced Nov. 1 at the Mobile Business Expo in Chicago a new switch that, based on its Wi-NG (Wireless Next Generation) architecture, enables users to centrally and simultaneously manage RFID readers along with a Wi-Fi network infrastructure. Symbols new RFS7000 Radio Frequency Switch in a sense bridges the gap between Wi-Fi, RFID and […]

Oracles decision to cancel all one-on-one meetings with the press at its annual OpenWorld conference in San Francisco the week of Oct. 23 has led to some speculation. Some industry experts suggest the reasons were not what Oracle claimed—that it was too busy meeting with customers to meet with an international press corps—but rather the […]

Open-source ERP software developer OpenMFG announced Oct. 31 the second edition of its namesake software. The upgraded suite brings new global, vertical and horizontal enterprise-resource-planning functionality, as well as long-awaited new software: open-source customer relationship management. The CRM module was the feature most requested by OpenMFG customers, according to Ned Lilly, the companys CEO. “The […]

Thomas Kurian laid out the components of Oracle Fusion Middleware during his Oct. 24 keynote address here at OpenWorld, Oracles annual user conference. Kurians intent: Persuade the hordes of users in attendance to use Fusion Middleware to transform their organizations into services-based businesses. “Many of the leading companies in the world use Fusion Middleware to […]

The IT issues at TIAA-CREF have once again reared their (collectively) ugly head. Details of increasing problems with Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Fund, one of the nations largest private retirement systems, have recently been forwarded to eWEEK from disgruntled customers. Those, added to a number of complaints filed with TIAA-CREFs New York oversight […]

To win acceptance in big companies, Linux requires enterprise-grade support, said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison at Oracles annual OpenWorld conference here on Oct. 25. Therefore, Ellison said, his company will provide full support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. While Oracle will remove the Red Hat trademarks from the Linux it distributes, Ellison denied that this […]

SAN FRANCISCO—While Oracle is pitching its support for Red Hat Linux as a way to broaden the market for Linux adoption—and indeed that may well be the outcome—there is no shortage of controversy surrounding Oracles move to take on Red Hat. The issues: Though the Linux code is open source, Oracle does not have direct […]