Renee Boucher Ferguson

On the heels of preliminary 2005 fourth-quarter results that have SAP AG sailing into 2006 on increased software revenues, the company has merged its North American and Latin American business units to increase sales and market share. SAP, headquartered in Walldorf, Germany, announced Wednesday that it had combined the two businesses to create one new […]

Industry darling Salesforce.com is seeing mounting competition from NetSuite Inc., in more ways than one. NetSuite provides on demand ERP (enterprise resource planning) and CRM (customer relationship management) software. The company announced Thursday a new NetFlex Applications Program, which leverages its NetFlex development platform to allow third-party vendors to tap into information in NetSuite and […]

Rimini Street Inc., the company that started as a third-party support provider for Siebel Systems Inc. after Oracle Corp. announced its plans to acquire Siebel, made its own acquisition this week. The company announced Wednesday that it has acquired Sidney Blue LLC, an ERP (enterprise resource planning) and CRM (customer relationship management) consultancy. Details of […]

Ram Gupta, the former executive vice president of strategy at PeopleSoft Inc.—the worlds second-largest application developer before it was acquired last year—is taking on integration. Cast Iron Systems Inc., which develops an integration appliance, announced Tuesday that Gupta is the companys new president and CEO. Former CEO Fred Meyer will retain a position on the […]

With the bulk of her career at Texas Instruments Inc. spent in the semiconductor business, Julie England has her work cut out for her. A vice president at the company and the general manager of TIs RFID business, England is charged with running that division under a new umbrella. TI announced Monday that Bain Capital […]

Beefing up the financial modules that complement its E-Business Suite, Oracle Corp. announced Wednesday upgrades to its namesake Internal Controls Manager and Financial Consolidation Hub. The upgrades are geared toward helping companies keep up with compliance mandates like Sarbanes-Oxley by integrating the process of reporting with compliance efforts. To do this, Oracle has actually integrated […]

TIAA-CREF, one of the nations largest private retirement systems, continues to struggle with serious issues with internal systems that have caused delayed access to pensioner funds. While TIAA-CREF officials said only a small percentage of users have been affected by the infrastructure upgrade snafu, pensioners and employees have put the number closer to 15,000. Some […]

TIAA-CREF (Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association–College Retirement Equities Fund), one of the nations largest private retirement systems, has had ongoing issues with internal systems that have caused delayed access to pensioner funds. While the company has pointed to infrastructure upgrades as the culprit, internal TIAA-CREF e-mails obtained by eWEEK from an anonymous source indicate that […]

January 2006 will do more than lead off the new year. It will likely add another company to Oracle Corp.s ever-expanding roster of acquisitions. Siebel Systems Inc. released a statement late Thursday saying that its shareholders will vote on Jan. 31 to approve Oracles intended $5.85 billion buyout bid. Given Siebels apparent delight with Oracles […]

If market indicators prove out, 2006 could be the breakout year for RFID—at least thats the goal for the folks at Symbol Technologies Inc., which manufacturers RFID-enabled tags, readers and antennas. But there are no guarantees. Symbol has a number of new initiatives in the works, including new form factors for readers (think fork lifts […]

As companies integrate more and more systems, both internally and externally, the reality of having one single version of data—master data management, in other words—becomes crucial. SAP AG, Oracle Corp. and IBM are taking different approaches to MDM: Oracle with its customer data hubs, and IBM by buying functionality. Having spent the last year rebuilding […]

Microsoft Corp. took another step down the path of service-enabling its enterprise applications with the release of Dynamics SL 6.5 Thursday. The upgraded suite brings more personalization features, bank account management capabilities and tighter integration with Office—particularly Outlook, according to Mary Jo Foleys Microsoft Watch newsletter. SL 6.5, formerly known as MBS Solomon—one of four […]