Renee Boucher Ferguson

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.—The supply chain in the 21st century is about a lot more than supply and demand, according to Bill Clinton, the forty-second president of the United States: Its about matching capability and opportunity. Its an interesting pairing, politics and supply chain. But President Clinton, speaking at AMR Researchs annual Supply Chain Executive Conference here […]

Oracle announced June 1 its plans to acquire supply chain management software developer Demantra. The terms of the deal are undisclosed. Demantra offers software for demand management, sales and operations planning and trade promotion planning and optimization. Oracle plans to combine the Demantra suite of software with its own burgeoning stable of supply chain software […]

Chris OKeefe was, in a former life, an IT manager in charge of customer relationship management implementations at TIAA-CREF, a prestigious financial institution that handles some of the nations largest academic retirement funds. OKeefes story is a cautionary tale for anyone in IT—particularly anyone that handles sensitive customer data. Well into his 13th year on […]

Despite the U.S. Department of Homeland Securitys efforts to steamroll through the use of RFID technology in all U.S. issued passports by the end of 2006, not every governmental entity believes RFID is the answer to speedier passport checks. A draft report released May 23 by a subcommittee of the DHS Data Privacy and Integrity […]

A new open-source integration company, Jitterbit, is jostling to distinguish itself in an increasingly crowded marketplace through two factors: published, predefined integration documents, called Jitterpaks; and a focus on small and midsize businesses. Jitterbit announced May 22 the availability of its namesake Community Edition and Professional Edition suites (the first open source, the second paid […]

ORLANDO, Fla.—Hasso Plattner, co-founder of SAP AG, the worlds largest software developer, said he views three companies as potential competitors in the next five years: Oracle, Microsoft and Google. “I still regard Oracle as a competitor,” said Plattner during a news conference at SAPs annual Sapphire user event May 16-18 here. “But sooner or later, […]

SAP is taking a page from Microsofts playbook when it comes to selling into the small and midsize business sector. Bill McDermott, president and CEO of SAP Americas and a corporate officer of SAP AG, said during the companys annual Sapphire user conference in Orlando May 16-18, that the company plans to invest heavily in […]

ORLANDO, Fla.—SAP AG made some sweeping announcements at its annual Sapphire user conference here May 16-18, led by the introduction of the long-awaited MySAP ERP 2005 suite that sports new vertical industry processes and analytic capabilities baked into the applications. SAP also made the conference the forum to announce a the acquisition of Frictionless Commerce […]

ORLANDO, Fla.—Its not common to hear impromptu applause during a keynote address—especially at a tech conference—but applause there was during Shai Agassis May 17 speech at Sapphire, SAP AGs annual user conference. With little fanfare, the SAP executive board member stepped on the stage and quickly launched into a software demonstration of a company placing […]

ORLANDO, Fla.—SAP AG announced at its annual Sapphire user conference a $125 million venture capital fund for expanding development around its NetWeaver platform. The SAP NetWeaver Fund is geared toward ISVs that are or will be “Powered by NetWeaver” partners actively developing on SAPs platform. The NetWeaver Fund is, interestingly, also aimed at helping SAP […]

Bostons Logan International Airport has agreed to allow a pilot project funded by Boston Engineering and Inkode Corp. to demonstrate chipless RFID technology that tracks customers and their baggage from arrival to final destination. Boston Engineering will utilize Vienna, Va.-based Inkodes CRIS (Chipless Remote Identification System) technology as the basis for the pilot program. Dubbed […]

After years of work, business-to-business software companies are still struggling to connect smaller suppliers with their global, often-much-larger supply chain partners. The issue? While most big buyers have massive IT departments to facilitate back-end integrations to suppliers, smaller mom-and-pop shops lack such facilities. B2B integration company GXS and Microsoft are out to fix that. The […]