Renee Boucher Ferguson

On the surface, all is well at the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association—College Retirement Equities Fund, better known as TIAA-CREF. Despite recent issues that denied thousands of pensioners access to their funds—in some cases for months, while others received overpayments amounting to thousands of dollars— customers contacted by eWEEK March 5 said that, by and […]

At the annual, and huge, CeBIT trade show for information and telecommunications technology held in Hannover, Germany, the week of March 6, SAP announced a slew of upgraded technologies. SAP, based in Walldorf, Germany, announced on March 8 an upgraded supply chain management suite that builds in more functionality for collaboration with partners and adds […]

ERP software provider SSA Global Technologies announced Feb. 7 the acquisition of Provia Software for an undisclosed sum. Provia develops order-to-delivery supply chain execution software that helps companies with heavy distribution arms manage the planning and execution of delivering goods. What Provia brings to the table in terms of technology is a suite of third-party […]

With Oracle in an acquisition frenzy, acquiring more than a dozen companies in as many months, the market for third-party support is rife with opportunity, according to at least one such provider, NetCustomer. NetCustomer announced March 7 direct support and services for PeopleSoft and JD Edwards customers—a group that had no choice but to play […]

Savi Technology, which develops RFID hardware and software for supply chains, is tackling harsh conditions with its latest active tag. Washington, D.C.-based Savi announced March 7 the low-profile version of its Savi Tag ST-656 that is actually split between the outside of a container and the inside to protect the more delicate RFID electronics. The […]

The bottom line for suppliers at last weeks RFID World conference in Dallas: Implementing RFID is a necessary evil, but it doesnt come cheap. Consumer products companies that have already jumped into the fray with radio-frequency identification pilot projects to comply with Wal-Mart Stores and the Department of Defense mandates say cost is still the […]

There were two evident truths at the RFID World conference in Dallas: Wal-Mart Stores is the impetus behind the technologys recent popularity; and RFID for Wal-Mart is a long-term journey. One thats only just begun. The biggest retailer in the world, Wal-Mart currently has 300 suppliers sending products to 500 RFID-enabled Wal-Mart and Sams Club […]

DALLAS—At this weeks RFID World conference here, theres no question that Generation 2, the UHF (ultra high frequency) air protocol for tags and readers, is garnering major acceptance. The specification, ratified by standards forming body EPCglobal Inc. in 2004, is being adopted on a wide scale by customers and hardware manufacturers. Early RFID adopters like […]

DALLAS—Microsoft Corp. revealed at this weeks RFID World conference here that it is developing an RFID infrastructure—one that its claims will affordably handle device management, event management, integration and application development. The infrastructure, in beta since January, is really an expansion of a middleware strategy Microsoft introduced just about a year ago. In April 2004, […]

DALLAS—The fourth annual RFID World event here this year holds few surprises in terms of customer adoption rates—it turns out most RFID implementations are still the result of mandates. That said, there is no lack of new technology to bring existing and potential customers along the RFID path. EPCglobals generation two standard, more colloquially known […]

RFID World, the Auto ID conference being held in Dallas this week, will feature a big crowd, small incremental technology advances and a continuing search for a business case. Theres little doubt that radio-frequency identification has become a hot topic—4,500 people are expected to attend this years event, compared with 3,000 the year before; there […]

Taking lessons learned from its joint “Mendocino” development project with SAP in-house, Microsoft announced on Feb. 20 its namesake Dynamics Snap initiative. The initiative consists of components culled from Microsofts Dynamics enterprise resource planning software that can be snapped into Office and used from that environment. Mendocino, due this year, looks to tie SAPs ERP […]