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Microsoft's Promotion Plans
thestreet.com - Mar 16, 2006
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Microsoft (MSFT:Nasdaq) will spend $500 million on a new marketing campaign aimed at convincing customers that its software will help them build their businesses. CEO Steve Ballmer announced the campaign at a customer event in New York on Thursday, saying the company's newest software is the fruit of "a $20 billion R&D investment over the past three years that is producing new innovation in a range of categories. "From business intelligence to the mobile work force, from collaboration to communications, and from CRM to enterprise search, the opportunity for software to deliver even greater customer value is limitless," Ballmer said. The marketing campaign comes as Microsoft is in the midst of its strongest new product cycle in years. The software giant has already released a new version of its database software, and by the end of this year it plans to launch new versions of Windows and Microsoft Office... html
Microsoft (MSFT:Nasdaq) will spend $500 million on a new marketing campaign aimed at convincing customers that its software will help them build their businesses. CEO Steve Ballmer announced the campaign at a customer event in New York on Thursday, saying the company's newest software is the fruit of "a $20 billion R&D investment over the past three years that is producing new innovation in a range of categories. "From business intelligence to the mobile work force, from collaboration to communications, and from CRM to enterprise search, the opportunity for software to deliver even greater customer value is limitless," Ballmer said. The marketing campaign comes as Microsoft is in the midst of its strongest new product cycle in years. The software giant has already released a new version of its database software, and by the end of this year it plans to launch new versions of Windows and Microsoft Office. Microsoft calls its vision "people-ready," and Ballmer took some pains to contrast it with the vision of one of its major rivals. ""We're talking about unlocking the potential of each and every employee.
http://www.thestreet.com/p/pf/tech/software/10274109.html
Collaboration, CRM v.2 and the Truth about Chat
CIO - Mar 20, 2006
With more than 1,000 vendors, according to industry watcher Collaborative Strategies, and accounting for software sales of between $1 billion and $4 billion depending on whom you ask, the collaboration sector is both an emerging and an established market. It’s also incredibly diverse, with tools supporting online communication, like Web conferencing and IM; publishing and sharing via forums, whiteboards and blogs; and coordination of resources or knowledge, like knowledge base tools and groupware applications. The roster of vendors is equally diverse, from IBM and its Lotus offerings and Microsoft with Live Meeting, Groove Networks and SharePoint, to CRM and self-service platform providers like Knova and Sento, which bundle collaboration capabilities as part of an overall solution, as well as emerging “pure-play” vendors like GroveSite, Jive Software and Socialtext. Help Each Other, Help YourselfAs a customer service and marketing tool, the growth of collaboration applications mirrors the rise of intranets and Web applications in the mid-1990s. On one hand, consumer adoption of tools like IM, SMS, blogs and social networks has generated market demand, and even brought these technologies into corporate environments as home and work roles become increasingly blurry. This is especially the case for consumer goods and services companies targeting teen and young adult buyers. For these markets, it’s not a choice to offer online communities or to publish a blog or to support the latest mobile devices; it’s a competitive necessity.
http://www.cio.com/weighin/column.html?CID=19299
vnunet.com interview: Ingres takes on the stack
VNUNet.com - Mar 20, 2006
We don't have tocreate a strategy which says that we're going to go out there and displaceOracle from every site. How do you plan to carve out a market between MySQL andOracle?Oracle's free products are designed to compete against the price pressurefrom open source. In the 1970s and 1980s companies like Oracle and Microsoftwere the leaders; they were the revolutionaries and they were doing things thatwere new and they became the establishment. And so at this point Oracle and Microsoft have established these fortressesof their models. I view Oracle's acquisitions of Sleepycat and InnoDB andTimesTen as ways of deepening or broadening the moat around their fortress. There have been a number of open source players and their perception of opensource is that open source is a price play. They are looking to arbitrage theOracle price points, the Oracle profit margins, and be able to pick up some ofthe things that Oracle can't do... The email vendor will be able to provide the fix directly toyou and that is what I mean by single maintainable stack. You're saying that I'm going to have one physical server and it'sgoing to run a CRM stack, it's going to run a web service stack, it's going torun an email stack and they are all compartmentalised?As you look at a lot of these things, the compartmentalisation becomesimportant. CRM tends to be a complicated application on top of the database, ontop of the operating system. The issue there is that you really want that to bedistinct from your email and collaboration appliance. They still may need to communicate with one another and they'll havereference points where you may take something from the CRM that generates anemail or generates a calendaring event. But you still want them to be somewhatcentrally maintainable from a compartmentalised view. Virtualisation software allows you to make strong compartmentalised systemswithout having to go out and get dedicated hardware.
http://www.vnunet.com/articles/print/2152300
Software as a service: The next big thing
InfoWorld - Mar 20, 2006
com, founded in 1999 and still the standard bearer of SaaS business applications, is enjoying dramatic growth, reaching 399,000 subscribers at the end of its most recent fiscal quarter. Employease, which launched in 1996, now delivers HR management through the browser to more than 1,000 customers managing more than 700,000 employee records. And among the major software vendors, Microsoft is hardly the only one exploring SaaS. “All the big players are now in the water,” says Rick McGee, vice president of SaaS strategy for IBM Global Services, noting that Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP are staking their claims. IBM provides the platform for SAP’s new entry into hosted CRM. IBM also has been busy assisting SaaS startups -- the darlings of the VC community -- to create a network of partners that can provide IBM customers with quick-to-market solutions... “All the big players are now in the water,” says Rick McGee, vice president of SaaS strategy for IBM Global Services, noting that Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP are staking their claims. IBM provides the platform for SAP’s new entry into hosted CRM. IBM also has been busy assisting SaaS startups -- the darlings of the VC community -- to create a network of partners that can provide IBM customers with quick-to-market solutions. Meanwhile, SaaS ecosystems are emerging, such as the on-demand, SOA-based platform developed by Rearden Commerce, which connects business customers with travel, shipping, and other service providers through identity-based Web apps. And then there’s Salesforce. com’s exciting new AppExchange platform, which offers a hosted space for sharing Salesforce.
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/06/03/20/76103_12FEsaas_1.html
A Primer in CRM
BusinessWeek - Mar 17, 2006
For many of us, organization isn't one of our strong points. Keeping track of which customers to follow up with when, how, and, most importantly, why usually requires some.
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/mar2006/sb20060317_666759.htm
Wall Street Beat: Product plans get reality check
ITworld.com - Mar 17, 2006
com - Wall Street Beat: Product plans get reality check. and Apple Computer Inc. product plans, and gave a mixed response to international moves by telecommunications companies... The mercurial Ballmer tried to differentiate Microsoft from IBM Corp. by stressing the company's "people-centric" approach toward helping businesses drive revenue growth through software for, among other things, communication and collaboration, CRM (customer relationship management) and business intelligence. He also clarified that the hosted versions of the company's software, being marketed under the "Live" brand, are geared mainly for small and medium-size businesses. Company shares (ticker symbol: MSFT), however, fell by US$0. 09 to close at $27. 27 after the event.
http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/060317wallstbeat/
Oracle Adds 'New Leg' to Biz With BI - CIO Tech Informer -...
CIO - Mar 22, 2006
The bundles include analytics software Oracle acquired through its approximately US$6 billion purchase of Siebel Systems, completed earlier this year. Available Wednesday, the three software bundles are branded Oracle Business Intelligence Suite and include the company’s database, its Fusion middleware and analytics software, according to Phillips. The entry-level Standard Edition One bundle is a volume product designed to pit Oracle against Microsoft, Phillips said. The software is limited to two processors and is priced starting at US$25,000. The Standard Edition bundle is aimed at existing Oracle users and includes the company’s Discoverer tools, while the Enterprise Edition is for users working in heterogenous environments, he added. When Oracle first announced its intention to acquire Siebel in September 2005, executives said the purchase’s primary driver was the company’s presence in the CRM (customer relationship management) software market. Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison said that adding Siebel’s CRM customers and products to Oracle’s CRM business would let the company overtake market leader SAP AG... The Standard Edition bundle is aimed at existing Oracle users and includes the company’s Discoverer tools, while the Enterprise Edition is for users working in heterogenous environments, he added. When Oracle first announced its intention to acquire Siebel in September 2005, executives said the purchase’s primary driver was the company’s presence in the CRM (customer relationship management) software market. Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison said that adding Siebel’s CRM customers and products to Oracle’s CRM business would let the company overtake market leader SAP AG. Phillips noted Wednesday that Siebel was also a strong player in BI, with the company deriving 25 percent of its revenue from analytics. Oracle has formed a specialized sales force to sell Oracle Business Intelligence Suite and will provide lifetime support for all the products in the bundles, according to Phillips. "We will invest in these products in perpetuity," he said. Phillips said that Oracle hopes to model its move into BI on its push into the middleware market two to three years ago.
http://www.cio.com/blog_view.html?CID=19379
Apple vs. France
BusinessWeek - Mar 21, 2006
Should the draft law ultimately be enacted and enforced, it could force Apple to make iTunes tracks available on other brands of players as well. Apple is clearly the leader in the digital music business. But other companies including Sony (SNE) and Microsoft (MSFT) could feel the effects of the French law as well. All three use proprietary technology for digital rights management, the protection of content against unlawful copying. In the longer term, though, the French legislation is a warning shot for the music business. Other countries could decide to enact similar laws, to protect consumers from "lock-in" by a single vendor. The European Commission also could take up the question of whether Apple's proprietary copy-protection scheme and dominant market share together constitute unlawful monopoly behavior.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2006/tc20060321_144066.htm
Dear Subscriber to TheStreet.com Stocks Under $10,
thestreet.com - Mar 17, 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... Pipeline accelerators include white papers, case studies
and Webcasts. RightNow expects to deliver 40% to 50% sales
bookings growth in 2006 as the need for on-demand CRM
software continues to outpace the need for installed
applications. RightNow's chief competitor, Salesforce.
http://www.thestreet.com/k/su/_googlen/archives/200603171833.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN&cm_cat=SU&cm_ite=003966
Eclipse bulks up, reaches out | CNET News.com
CNET News.com - Mar 19, 2006
com, an on-demand CRM (customer relationship management) provider, and SugarCRM, a sales application company, are to be welcomed into the fold at EclipseCon in Santa Clara, Calif. Attendees there can expect to hear about new projects, such as an effort based on the... For example, a Java programmer can use Eclipse in conjunction with a plug-in for application modeling or performance management. Eclipse is one of the most popular tools for Java programming, according to IT development research firm Evans Data. But in addition to it, the Eclipse Foundation has started a number of projects for other languages, such as PHP and.
http://news.com.com/Eclipse+bulks+up,+reaches+out/2100-7344_3-6051168.html
Take care.
