Renee Boucher Ferguson

Ariba Inc. is acquiring another technology company, software developer Softface Inc., bringing its spending on acquisitions this quarter to half a billion dollars. Ariba on Wednesday afternoon announced the acquisition of Softface, a privately held developer of spending performance management software. Earlier in the quarter, Ariba of Sunnyvale, Calif., acquired FreeMarkets Inc. and Alliente Inc. […]

In the world of supply and demand, manufacturers are working to bridge the gap between what is planned and what is re-ally happening. To help bridge that gap, Ottawa-based Webplan Corp., Tuesday announced version 7.3 of its RapidResponse software that helps manufacturers to anticipate supply chain issues, review alternatives and align operations accordingly. The architecture […]

To help companies better respond to data from sensor-based tools such as RFID (radio frequency identification) tags, Oracle Corp. on Tuesday announced its namesake Sensor-Based Services, which draw on capabilities of its 10g database and application server. The 10g databases business-intelligence features provide embedded-location, network and trend-modeling capabilities for the new services, while analysis tools […]

Despite technology that promises to make it easier to onboard suppliers for electronic-trading capabilities, the reality is, most companies have not had glaring success in this area. E2open Inc., the e-hub started by IBM, Hitachi Ltd., LG Electronics Inc., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., Seagate Technology, Solectron Corp. and Wistron Corp., announced today new functionality […]

At Microsofts Convergence conference in Orlando, Fla., this week, officials detailed the companys latest Great Plains release and talked about a road map for the namesake manufacturing and accounting ERP suite. New portal functionality in Great Plains 8.0 includes a human resources management self-service suite, a requisition management module, a project time and expense module, […]

Oracle Corp. defends its bid for PeopleSoft Inc. against charges that it would violate antitrust laws by saying customers could go to second-tier vendors for ERP software. Midmarket enterprise resource planning software vendors Geac Computer Corporation Ltd. and Lawson Software are both looking to take advantage of this spotlight. Like the big ERP vendors, Geac […]

While BPM—or business performance management—has received its share of attention, it hasnt seen quite the adoption some would like. To remedy that, a handful of companies have banded together to create a standards organization thats meant to speed up the adoption of successful BPM implementations. IBM, SAP AG, Hyperion Solutions Corp., IDC, Meta Group, The […]

Completion of Microsoft Corp.s Project Green initiative to bring its four business application suites together on a single code base is still two years away, but the company is already trying to standardize some features across the line. At its Convergence conference here last week, officials of the Redmond, Wash., company discussed existing and future […]

At an annual shareholders meeting surprisingly lacking in any real backlash, PeopleSoft Inc. investors showed they approve of the current board of directors and its choice of fiduciary overseers. However, shareholders also flexed their collective muscles by voting in a measure that will ensure PeopleSoft count employee and director stock options as expenses—a measure the […]

ORLANDO, Fla.—It is likely Microsoft Corp. will file a protective order to stop Oracle Corp. from viewing sensitive information, according to a Microsoft executive. Microsoft submitted thousands of documents to the U.S. Department of Justice during the DOJs preliminary investigation into Oracles $9.4 billion bid for rival PeopleSoft Inc. Once the DOJ filed suit against […]

Despite the fact that PeopleSoft Inc. shareholders will not get a chance to vote on a pro-Oracle Corp. slate of candidates for the PeopleSoft board, there still could be fireworks at this weeks PeopleSoft annual meeting. The meeting, which will be held on Thursday, is the first for PeopleSoft shareholders since last June when Oracle […]

Even in the Internet age, many enterprises continue to use ERP applications that are not wired for the Net. Some IT departments havent opted for Internet-enabled upgrades from enterprise resource planning software providers such as SAP AG and PeopleSoft Inc. for any number of reasons. Some didnt have the resources, some didnt think the payback […]