Renee Boucher Ferguson

Webplan Corp. has developed software that promises to help manufacturers anticipate supply chain problems, review alternatives when problems arise and realign operations accordingly. RapidResponse 7.3, which the Ottawa-based company announced last week, enables users to connect to front- and back-end systems to support the flow of information across multiple sites. The upgrade includes three new […]

Technology consulting company Accenture announced today a new business process outsourcing company that focuses specifically on procurement processes. The new business line, Accenture Procurement Solutions, offers outsourced sourcing-to-settlement services to both corporate and government businesses. The idea is to offer strategic sourcing, procure-to-pay transaction processing, and supplier and contract management capabilities, coupled with services for […]

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 […]