How's it going?
SAP vs Salesforce.com
BusinessWeek - Feb 2, 2006
After months of warming up, SAP is finally expected to announce an on-demand CRM product this week. Europe's most influential technology company is helping us make on-demand the global standard. Is SAP on the defensive? Are they worried that with few customers actually using their CRM software, and salesforce. com making significant inroads in their customer base, their entire business model may be at risk? For starters, they had better hope that their on-demand offering will win more fans than their on-premise solution has. While SAP claims leadership in CRM, experience suggests a different story. I have often wondered, “If SAP’s CRM software is any good, then why doesn’t SAP use it to manage their own customer relationships?” I have interviewed hundreds of salespeople and executives from SAP from around the world, and each has told me the only CRM system at SAP is an executive system based on Microsoft Excel. I’m not surprised since I have never met a salesperson anywhere in the world who uses SAP CRM... com making significant inroads in their customer base, their entire business model may be at risk? For starters, they had better hope that their on-demand offering will win more fans than their on-premise solution has. While SAP claims leadership in CRM, experience suggests a different story. I have often wondered, “If SAP’s CRM software is any good, then why doesn’t SAP use it to manage their own customer relationships?” I have interviewed hundreds of salespeople and executives from SAP from around the world, and each has told me the only CRM system at SAP is an executive system based on Microsoft Excel. I’m not surprised since I have never met a salesperson anywhere in the world who uses SAP CRM. Indeed, Gartner noted at a recent conference that only 19 percent of SAP CRM customers actually use it. If fewer than a fifth of our customers used our service, we’d consider that a failure. At SAP, they call it a business plan.
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2006/02/sap_vs_salesfor.html?campaign_id=rss_blog_techbeat
Oracle plots integration and support for Siebel
VNUNet.com - Feb 6, 2006
In an open letter, Oracle president Charles Phillips wrote, “We plan toprovide end-to-end integrated business processes by combining the leadingfront-office, back-office, and industry solutions from Oracle and Siebel. Integration work has begun with a focus on developing and enhancing businessprocesses for over two dozen industries. ”Phillips added that Oracle intends to combine Siebel CRM analytics, OracleERP analytics, and industry-specific content to provide a holistic view ofenterprise performance. The company also plans to continue to offer Siebelprograms on both a piecemeal and integrated basis. In a separate FAQ, Oracle said it would continue support for currentprogrammes and would maintain current phone numbers and web links. Support forIBM and Microsoft databases will remain. Oracle’s promises are lent weight by the experience of PeopleSoft customers,the vast majority of whom have stayed with Oracle and given approval to progressso far, despite rivals’ earlier suggestions that the database giant would take aruthless approach to the acquired business... The company also plans to continue to offer Siebelprograms on both a piecemeal and integrated basis. In a separate FAQ, Oracle said it would continue support for currentprogrammes and would maintain current phone numbers and web links. Support forIBM and Microsoft databases will remain. Oracle’s promises are lent weight by the experience of PeopleSoft customers,the vast majority of whom have stayed with Oracle and given approval to progressso far, despite rivals’ earlier suggestions that the database giant would take aruthless approach to the acquired business. “My feeling is positive that the Siebel product is going to go forward,” saidNigel Montgomery of analyst firm AMR Research. “Before Oracle, Siebel wasdropping and the challenge was how to get to a service-oriented architecture. They now have the heft to do that.
http://www.vnunet.com/itweek/news/2149790/oracle-plots-integration
Top 10 IT New Stories of the Week - CIO News Alerts - News - CIO
CIO - Feb 3, 2006
Sticking with Massachusetts, the state has named a permanent replacement for former chief information officer Peter Quinn who recently resigned citing political pressure. After proposing plans to migrate off Microsoft’s software in favor of the OpenDocument file format, Quinn found himself under intense local and international scrutiny. The new CIO, Louis Gutierrez, is set to continue Quinn’s plans of beginning the move over to OpenDocument in Jan. However, the state’s current governor is stepping down at the end of this year and the next incumbent would have the option to name a new CIO in 2007.
http://www.cio.com/blog_view.html?CID=17453
Securing SAAS
eWeek - Feb 6, 2006
Roberts, Peter Coffee and Ryan Naraine. With everyone from Salesforce. com to SAP to Microsoft to Google joining in, on-demand applications are unquestionably the way that most software will be delivered in the coming years. Yet there will be few products or services on display at next week's RSA Security Conference that focus on securing those very applications. The paucity of third-party on-demand security solutions is only part of the problem. Malicious hackers will always be one step ahead of the patch unless developers make applications more secure from the ground up. Microsoft and Oracle, for instance, have been trying this, but they will control only a few of the many on-demand applications coming on the horizon... The paucity of third-party on-demand security solutions is only part of the problem. Malicious hackers will always be one step ahead of the patch unless developers make applications more secure from the ground up. Microsoft and Oracle, for instance, have been trying this, but they will control only a few of the many on-demand applications coming on the horizon. In addition, most current service applications are merely "Web enabled" (remember that one?) for on-demand use and not designed with the on-demand model in mind. This does not mean you should scrap your on-demand initiatives. IT managers should be putting all their software-as-a-service projects through the same security screens as everything else. The business model of on demand makes too much sense to fail, but only when vendors start solving their own uptime and security issues can we truly say that on demand is here to stay.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1918820,00.asp
Bloomberg.com: Investment Tools
Bloomberg - Feb 8, 2006
" The company plans to report preliminary earnings estimates for thefourth quarter of 2006 by early February. About CDC Software CDC Software, The Customer-Driven Company(TM), is a provider ofenterprise software applications designed to help organizationsdeliver a superior customer experience while increasing efficienciesand profitability. CDC Software's product suite includes the PivotalCRM (customer relationship management), c360 CRM add-on products,industry solutions and development tools for the Microsoft DynamicsCRM platform, Ross Enterprise - ERP (enterprise resource planning) andSCM (supply chain management), MVI real-time performance management,IMI warehouse management and order management, Platinum China HR(human resource) and business analytics solutions. These industry-specific solutions are used by more than 5,000customers worldwide within the manufacturing, financial services,health care, home building, real estate, and wholesale and retaildistribution industries. The company completes its offerings with afull continuum of services that span the life cycle of technology andsoftware applications, including implementation, project consulting,outsourced business services, application management and offshoredevelopment. CDC Software is the enterprise software unit of CDCCorporation (NASDAQ: CHINA) and is ranked number 18 on theManufacturing Business Technology 2006 Global 100 List of Enterpriseand Supply Chain Management Application vendors. For more information,please visit www.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conewsstory&refer=conews&tkr=AGN:US&sid=aU4SlW6yCyxY
CRM News: Scribe Software, CoreTrac, Universal Computer Systems
TMCnet - Feb 4, 2006
Click here to learn more. 0 customers to Scribe Insight and how it increases the return on their CRM investments," said Lou Antonucci, Scribe's Director, Channel Sales. "By making it simple and straightforward to bring enterprise data together into Dynamics CRM 3. 0 to create one view of the customer, sales teams are increasing revenue and serving customers better. "
…
CoreTrac, Inc.
http://news.tmcnet.com/news/-crm-customer-relationship-management-/2006/02/04/1342533.htm
SAP and Microsoft Introduce Duet Software; Bringing Together the...
noticias.info - Feb 5, 2006
� May 2, 2006 � Twelve months after first unveiling plans to create �Project Mendocino� � a joint product that enables people to interact quickly and easily with SAP business processes and data through Microsoft� Office applications � SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) and Microsoft Corp. today announced that the two companies are scheduled to ship the product on time in June, 2006. The product is officially named Duet software for Microsoft Office and SAP. Nearly 100 joint customers and industry partners � including Atmel and Infosys � have been exploring the software�s benefits in early release versions since late 2005. SAP and Microsoft also announced plans to enhance the capabilities of Duet this year and to release additional business scenarios in the second half of 2006. Duet allows information workers to use their familiar Microsoft Office environment to access selected SAP business processes and data. This improved and flexible access to dedicated SAP application functionality will help companies who use Duet to save time and money, increase process compliance, and improve decision making... � Organization management: Allows employees and managers to access organization information and HR-related tasks in the familiar Outlook environment. Expanded Product Roadmap In the second half of 2006, SAP and Microsoft plan to offer two value packs for Duet, providing additional business scenario support, enhanced platform capabilities and language support. These value packs will expose five additional scenarios in the Microsoft Office system coming from mySAP ERP and mySAP Business Suite applications for customer relationship management (CRM) and supplier relationship management (SRM). The scenarios are: recruitment management, travel management, analytics, purchasing management, and sales activity management. With these value packs, capabilities of Duet will go beyond self-service for employees and managers to enable line-of-business operational efficiencies and cost savings. The value packs are designed for compatibility with the next release of mySAP ERP and the 2007 release of the Microsoft Office system and will expand language support to include English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish and Japanese. �With Duet, SAP and Microsoft are delivering a people-ready solution for our joint customers, which gives decision-makers improved access to the information they need to be effective,� said Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division.
http://www.noticias.info/asp/aspComunicados.asp?nid=173382&src=0
… Corporate News - Picis implementeert FastTrack BI van...
Netherlands Corporate News - Netherlands Corporate News (persbericht) - Feb 5, 2006
nl -->( BW)(CLEARPEAKS) Picis Implements ClearPeaks' FastTrack BI(TM) forSiebel CRM; Real-Time Analysis for Better Customer Insight Business Editors BARCELONA, Spain--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 2, 2006--Picis, the leadingworldwide provider of information systems for surgery, emergencydepartment and intensive care units across the hospital enterprise,recently implemented ClearPeaks' FastTrack Business Intelligence (BI)for Siebel Customer Relationship Management (CRM). FastTrack BI is acomprehensive end-user reporting environment based on the BusinessObjects platform, which allows Picis to easily tap into the wealth ofcustomer information stored in their CRM system from Siebel. "We have recently implemented a best-of-class CRM system allowingus to track all customer interactions with the objective to betterserve our customers with an even more focused approach," says KevinPettet, executive vice president of client operations, Picis. "WithClearPeaks' FastTrack BI solution we are now able to better analyzeour data, segment our customers, measure the ROI of our marketinginitiatives and provide an automated and rolled-up sales forecast. This capability will allow us to be more competitive, offer betterservice to our customers and provide a faster response to changingmarket conditions. By providing FastTrack BI for Siebel CRM, ClearPeaks enables itscustomers to effortlessly extract the vital information contained intheir CRM systems by using a ClearPeaks developed Business ObjectsUniverse. FastTrack BI is easy to deploy, flexible, user-friendly andallows business users to report and analyze Siebel Systems CRM data ina language they can easily understand in real-time and without theneed for a costly data warehouse... com About Picis Picis is the leading, worldwide provider of information systemsthat deliver proven best-in-cluster patient care transformation forthe highest-acuity care areas of the hospital. Headquartered inWakefield, Massachusetts, Picis has installed systems in more than 900hospital worldwide, automating more surgical procedures, emergencyvisits and intensive care stays than any other company in the world. Picis has received numerous awards, including those from Microsoft,Ernst & Young, HCIT Research, Healthcare Informatics and Frost andSullivan. Picis was recently named to both the Deloitte & Touche Fast500 and the Inc. Magazine 500 lists (105th overall) of the fastestgrowing private companies in the U.
http://www.netherlandscorporatenews.com/archive/en/2006/05/02/f022.htm
IT Weekly Roundup, Feb. 3
Microsoft Certified Professional - Feb 3, 2006
0 securely stores all e-mails and attachments, provides
secure access to indexed e-mail for CRM systems and Web portals such as Microsoft
SharePoint, and offers single-instance storage and compression technology to
control data volume. Pricing starts at $40 per managed mailbox.
http://www.mcpmag.com/news/article.asp?EditorialsID=879
Dear Subscriber to TheStreet.com Stocks Under $10,
thestreet.com - Feb 3, 2006
Now let's take a look at the portfolio and some of the
moves we made this week. One quick note: Ones are stocks we would buy now, while
Twos are stocks we would buy only on a pullback from
current levels. And as a reminder:
-- A Game Breaker is going to change the landscape of an
industry, as Intel, Microsoft and Wal-Mart did in their
sectors. Investors can make big money in these stocks by
getting in before the crowd. -- Inflection Point stocks have a broken business model
that's on the mend but has yet to be recognized by the
market. Investors who recognize a turnaround early can
pocket strong returns. -- Stealth Stocks are often unknown names to the general
public, but can be hugely profitable investments,
especially when they score well in the Alpha component of
our proprietary rating system... We are moving Wireless
Facilities to a Two rating this week as 2006 capital
expenditures guidance from the large wireless providers
appears to be for only mid-single-digit percentage growth
over 2005 levels. While Wireless Facilities has
historically been able to grow its top line by a higher
percentage rate than the capital spending budgets of its
customers, a report from research firm Jefferies this week
says the wireless portion of capital budgets will grow by
less than 2% in 2006. Even so, the company is a prime
candidate to benefit from the rollout of digital video to
wireless devices in the coming years, so we will continue
to hold our small position and monitor the company for
signs of stabilization in the wireless business before
recommending shares. Trade closer to $6 a share would
likely prompt a sale from the model portfolio.
http://www.thestreet.com/k/su/_googlen/archives/200602031706.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN&cm_cat=SU&cm_ite=003966
CIO - Dial VoIP for Vulnerability
CIO Australia - Feb 3, 2006
If we didn't have all that, I'd be scared. " Here's what a number of early VoIP adopters have done to realize the cost savings of VoIP and to save their companies from a potential disaster. Full VoIP Ahead
With VoIP, PBXs - the backbone of the traditional phone system - are replaced by IP voice servers that usually run on Microsoft or Linux operating systems. These "call management boxes" deliver VoIP services and log call information - and they are susceptible to virus attacks and hackers. VoIP is even more sensitive than data when it comes to disruption and packet loss. Yet many security measures that are applied to data networks don't work well for VoIP. For example, traditional firewalls can result in delays or blocked calls, and encryption can cause "latency" and "jitter" (packet slowdowns that can disrupt calls).
http://www.cio.com.au/index.php/id;845465733;fp;16;fpid;0
Bye.
