Renee Boucher Ferguson

The day before Thanksgiving—and just days before a major holiday weekend—potentially thousands of customers of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association–College Retirement Equities Fund were unable to access funds from their accounts, according to a frustrated customer who contacted Ziff Davis Media. According to an e-mail sent from a TIAA-CREF client, the huge retirement plan […]

SAP AG announced Thursday the acquisition of Khimetrics Inc., a privately held retail analysis and optimization software development company thats been ranked as one of the fastest growing companies in North America. Khimetrics, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., develops software that enables retailers to perform demand analysis that helps with better product pricing and optimization and […]

SAP AG still has thousands of users on its R/3 ERP platform. Under a licensing structure introduced last year, dubbed 5-1-2, those users on 4.6C and older systems are facing either a maintenance shutout or a potentially significant support fee hike by the end of next year—a deadline that looms current for those users. Faced […]

Salesforce.com reported record results Wednesday for its third quarter, 2005. The company reported revenues that are up 78 percent year-over-year to $82.7 million, with paying subscribers up by 43,000—or 80 percent—to 351,000 subscribers. At the same time, Salesforce.com has increased its customer base by 50 percent from the same quarter last year. The company has […]

Midmarket enterprise resource planning developer Lawson Software Inc. announced Wednesday the next iteration of its namesake Business Intelligence software. Lawson Business Intelligence 9.0 is geared toward helping users—executives and managers—make better decisions based on relevant and timely information (pretty much the promise of BI). What 9.0 brings to the table specifically is focused insight into […]

The U.S. Department of Justice confirmed that it has closed its antitrust investigation of Oracle Corp.s acquisition of Siebel Systems Inc., ending speculation that it might be seeking a second go-around with the worlds second-largest software developer. Oracle on Tuesday announced the Justice Departments decision to end the investigation. In September, Oracle announced its intent […]

Microsoft Corp. announced Tuesday the first iteration of its next-generation ERP suite, Dynamics GP 9.0, that brings roles-based user interfaces—and a growing integration across Microsofts infrastructure—to Windows, SharePoint Services portal and Visual Studio. In addition to roles-based user interfaces, the GP 9.0 applications take on an Office look and feel, capitalizing on the familiarity—and ubiquity—of […]

Greg Maffeis departure earlier this month as Oracle Corp.s chief financial officer and co-president has led to much speculation as to why the ex-Microsoft Corp. official would leave after only four months on the job. Maffei resigned to take the CEO job at Liberty Media Corp. Industry analysts have suggested two scenarios that might prompt […]

Ariba Inc., which made its name in the spend-management software development area that covers sourcing, contract management, supplier management and procurement, is going hosted. The company will announce Tuesday a three-pronged approach to its new on-demand strategy: a redesign of its on-premises software and services offering geared to smaller companies, subscription-based pricing, and three levels […]

Application and process integration software developer WebMethods Inc. has come a long way in a short time. At its Integration World conference in Atlanta this week, the company is highlighting its recent milestones over the past year: a spate of new executives, increased earnings, and the one-year anniversary of its Fabric process integration platform. Its […]