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Microsoft to bolster CRM with new European partner
InfoWorld - May 8, 2006
0, which Neocase can use to reduce its own marketing costs. According to Neocase CEO Herve Pluche, his company has already signed on seven major Microsoft VARs to co-sell Microsoft, Neocase CRM solutions. Neocase Version 10 can be integrated into Microsoft CRM 3. 0 with the same look and feel on the front end, and at the back end, it can use the same database. More importantly, Neocase will supplement what Pluche called Microsoft's "very basic customer service" component with its own robust capabilities. According to Wetteman, Neocase has deep domain expertise and features, such as parallel processing in order to handle a collaboration between multiple departments, that are beyond what Microsoft's CRM 3.
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/06/05/08/78126_HNneocase_1.html
SAP and Microsoft announce Duet to link programs
VNUNet.com - May 2, 2006
Announced a year ago under the Mendocino codename, Duet should make it easierto access SAP applications through Microsoft Office. Duet is important becauseOffice is ubiquitous on desktops and SAP is the leader in back-officeapplications... “When people are unaware that information exists or lack the time to findwhat is needed, they risk making bad decisions,” said Mark Levitt,vice-president for IDC’s collaboration and enterprise workplace research group. Tools for budget monitoring, time management, leave requests and humanresources will be available in the first release but other functionality isplanned. Later this year, to chime with forthcoming upgrades to Office and MySAP, two“value packs” are due, with more language translations and extra businessscenario support covering recruitment management, travel management, analytics,purchasing management and sales activity management via links to SAP’s back-endcustomer relationship management (CRM) and supplier relationship managementmodules. SAP said almost 100 joint customers and partners have been running thesoftware since late last year. Silicon device maker Atmel used Duet to monitor budget planning data in SAPsystems across its global network, using Office as the front-end. In astatement, Atmel chief information officer (CIO) Mikes Sisois said Duet allowed“greater visibility and access to SAP business data …from a widely used andfamiliar user interface”. Another firm testing the software internally is Indian IT services firmInfosys, which also plans to offer advice on Duet deployment to its customers.
http://www.vnunet.com/itweek/news/2155177/sap-microsoft-announce-duet
WebEx Making Money on Demand
Motley Fool - May 2, 2006
Instead, a customer logs onto the Internet to consume the software (often called "software as a service"). WebEx used to focus on allowing customers to conduct meetings via the Web. However, over the last few years, the company has greatly expanded its offerings into areas such as training, customer support, and sales presentations -- offering features like telephony and video as add-ons to its software packages. Moreover, the acquisition of Intranets... For example, WebEx recently launched an instant messaging product for the corporate market. The company formed an alliance with AOL to sell the product to small and mid-size companies. And as I look at this, I'm compelled to agree that Microsoft was and is right that collaboration is a growing market. Unfortunately, it looks like it bought the wrong companies. Microsoft is a Motley Fool Inside Value recommendation.
http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2006/mft06050221.htm
Corel: Second Best Not Good Enough
Motley Fool - Apr 28, 2006
Corel believes that its growth opportunity is to sell cheap software to developing countries. But Microsoft and Adobe have strong distribution in these markets already, and can no doubt compete (after all, these companies generate huge cash flows to support more marginal markets). Also, it appears that Google will launch its own Office suite. The company recently purchased Writely, which is an online word processor. The big winner is actually Corel's private equity investor, Vector Capital. The firm took Corel private for $98 million and still owns 72% of the company.
http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2006/mft06042829.htm
Microsoft's Strange Spending Splurge
BusinessWeek - Apr 27, 2006
Investors want to know when it will pay off. The software giant released quarterly results that were largely in line with expectations.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2006/tc20060427_666926.htm
McAfee Making the World Safe for the Net
Motley Fool - May 1, 2006
Thus, there's no need to get update CDs. This is critical for security, since virus outbreaks can spread quickly. In the first quarter, McAfee added 1. 9 million net new subscribers... As for Symantec, it has been diversifying its business through acquisitions and appears to be distracted. And Microsoft is still having problems getting traction. McAfee has the advantage of being laser-focused on security. To this end, the company has made several important acquisitions, such as SiteAdvisor. And SiteAdvisor does something quite useful: It rates nearly every site on the Internet for threat problems. For example, you can search Google (Nasdaq:.
http://www.fool.com/investing/value/2006/05/01/mcafee-making-the-world-safe-for-the-net.aspx
Microsoft, SAP sing praises of Duet
InfoWorld - May 8, 2006
Duet, formerly known as "Project Mendocino," is the product of a year-long development effort between the companies that will give knowledge workers and their managers a way to get at SAP information and transactions from Office. Executives from both companies promoted it as a safe, controllable, and convenient way to move data back and forth between applications"Traditionally, we have had different kinds of applications from different kinds of vendors all architected differently, and that is not what people want," said Jim Shepherd, senior vice president at AMR Research. Many knowledge workers, for example, are unsure how or if they should move their spreadsheet data into their SAP business applications. Duet will make it safer to do that, according to Shepherd... The first scenarios will be for budget monitoring, time management, leave management, and organization management. They will ship in June. More scenarios for CRM, SRM (storage resource management), and supplier relationship management will be available in the second half of 2006, the companies said.
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/06/05/08/78043_19NNsapmsftduet_1.html&source=searchresult
RIM's Latest Patent Problem
BusinessWeek - May 2, 2006
District Court in Texas. It's seeking an injunction and monetary damages for the infringement of four patents, three of which had been part of its suit against Seven. Visto has also filed patent-infringement suits against Microsoft (MSFT) and Good Technology, which both provide wireless e-mail technology. Visto CEO Brian Bogosian has previously portrayed the lawsuit against Seven as aimed at putting the company out of business. When asked if he'd like to do the same thing to RIM, he said: "Absolutely. But that doesn't mean there's not a deal to be done. We want them to stop misappropriating our intellectual property.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2006/tc20060502_228329.htm
Startup launches Web analytics for salespeople
InfoWorld - May 1, 2006
The company plans an official launch for the service Wednesday in San Francisco. SalesGenius costs from $49 per user per month with the number of e-mail recipients capped at 2,000 per month. The company plans to release a team edition of the product this summer, according to Thompson, incorporating support for CRM player Salesforce. 's AppExchange integration network. "SalesGenius is as applicable to marketing as much as to sales," he said, reflecting on potential future directions for the startup. The company has also talked about possible applications in human resources, according to analyst Kingstone, but she believes they should stay focused on the sales and marketing arena.
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/06/05/01/77960_HNgenius_1.html&source=searchresult
Dear Subscriber to TheStreet.com Stocks Under $10,
thestreet.com - Apr 28, 2006
Unfortunately, lackluster earnings guidance from Microsoft
(. For the week, the Dow added 0... 51, 300 shares,
4. 83%, Stealth Stock): The company is an emerging player
in the on-demand customer relationship management (CRM)
space. The company announced solid first-quarter earnings
and sales bookings results Monday, and shares rallied 30%
this week. We sold 100 shares Tuesday to lock in a 66%
gain and also moved the stock to a Two rating; a spike to
$20 a share will prompt a further sale. For the quarter,
RightNow earned 1 cent a share vs. analyst estimates for a
3-cent profit.
http://www.thestreet.com/k/su/archives/200604281717.html
Google enterprise effect, Take II
InfoWorld - Apr 28, 2006
And the Googlers aren’t expected to stop there. “Google recognizes the importance of the end-user point of view, both as the source of its own success in the consumer market and the obstacle to success of many enterprise systems,” writes AMR’s Jim Murphy , the report’s author. In particular, AMR sees opportunities to add value in making business intelligence, CRM, and ERP deployments more accessible and usable. But to do so, Google will need strong enterprise partners to lend it enterprise credibility, AMR argues, including SIs and software vendors. And why would these partners want to let Google take the presentation layer away from them, I wonder?Google must also change perceptions about security and privacy. I recently lunched with a group of large-enterprise CIOs when the topic of Google’s new enterprise capabilities came up. “I’d love to have better enterprise search,” said one CIO, “but I’m not gonna let anybody store my data outside my firewall to do it... “I’d love to have better enterprise search,” said one CIO, “but I’m not gonna let anybody store my data outside my firewall to do it. ”Personally, I’d love to see Google make some headway in the enterprise. I think it would have the same effect it’s having on Yahoo and Microsoft: better services, lower prices, and better support. Shift at Oracle fuels commoditizationLinux will become the dominant OS for Oracle databases by 2007, displacing Solaris, according to a new survey from the Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG). But just by a smidge -- 44 percent will run on Linux by then, versus 43 percent on Solaris. Of the users who responded to the survey, 34 percent planned database migrations in the coming year. “This forecast marks a definitive tipping point for Linux,” trumpeted the press release.
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/06/04/28/77727_18OPanalysts_1.html
Everest aims at NetSuite with on-demand move
InfoWorld - May 9, 2006
to see if the approach is popular with customers and likely to generate significant revenue. Everest defines the SMB market as companies employing 5 to 75 staff with revenue up to US$20 million, said David Gutch, the company's senior vice president, worldwide sales and marketing. The firm targets users who find that they can no longer run their businesses on Microsoft Corp. 's Excel spreadsheets or Intuit Inc. 's entry-level accounting software QuickBooks and are looking for extra functionality at a low price. Prior to Monday, Everest offered an on-premise combination of ERP (enterprise resource planning) and CRM (customer relationship management) capabilities with optional electronic commerce and point of sale (POS) add-ons. The company has made its Advanced software also available as Everest On-Demand, a hosted version of the software accessible via a broadband Internet connection... 's Excel spreadsheets or Intuit Inc. 's entry-level accounting software QuickBooks and are looking for extra functionality at a low price. Prior to Monday, Everest offered an on-premise combination of ERP (enterprise resource planning) and CRM (customer relationship management) capabilities with optional electronic commerce and point of sale (POS) add-ons. The company has made its Advanced software also available as Everest On-Demand, a hosted version of the software accessible via a broadband Internet connection. Pricing for the software, implementation services and support starts at $300 per month for two users with a minimum one-year contract. Dirt Cheap Drives, a reseller of computer disk drives and other IT components in Dickinson, Texas, is already up and running with Everest On-Demand. "It's a lot more affordable for a small business," said Karen Timme, chief executive officer at the reseller.
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/06/05/09/78149_HNeverestsmb_1.html
JSR 170: A standard content repository
InfoWorld - May 5, 2006
Equally significant, if you want to swap in a different compliant repository you can without recoding. Further, the repository isn't tied to any one application. This added benefit permits a single repository to be shared by your portal, CRM system, or legacy application. Day also sells JSR 170 repository connectors for EMC Documentum and BEA WebLogic Portal -- with others in the works for Microsoft SharePoint, FileNet, OpenText LiveLink, and Interwoven. As a result, even though these products do currently have legacy repositories, Day's connectors should reduce a lot of work normally associated with integration projects. IT staff only need to learn one API and should no longer be concerned about which vendor's repository is underneath their applications. But, like any technology, there's room for improvement... Further, the repository isn't tied to any one application. This added benefit permits a single repository to be shared by your portal, CRM system, or legacy application. Day also sells JSR 170 repository connectors for EMC Documentum and BEA WebLogic Portal -- with others in the works for Microsoft SharePoint, FileNet, OpenText LiveLink, and Interwoven. As a result, even though these products do currently have legacy repositories, Day's connectors should reduce a lot of work normally associated with integration projects. IT staff only need to learn one API and should no longer be concerned about which vendor's repository is underneath their applications. But, like any technology, there's room for improvement.
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/infoworld/article/06/05/05/77794_19TCportalssb_1.html
Tech CEOs find hiring tougher, study | Tech News on ZDNet
ZDNet - Apr 28, 2006
Sixty-two percent use IP to connect geographically dispersed employees; other internal uses include research collaboration, voice communications, and reporting and regulatory compliance. Externally, 65 percent use IP as a data communication channel with clients; 56 percent use IP to deliver customer support and maximize CRM; and 50 percent use it as a sales and distribution channel. Excessive government regulation worries CEOs, access to capital doesn�t
Twenty-eight percent of CEOs say excessive government regulation is the biggest threat to growth in the tech sector over the next 12 months, even though only 4 percent report that dealing with regulatory issues is their biggest operational challenge. This year, far fewer CEOs are concerned about limited access to capital (13 percent, down from 21 percent last year) or terrorism (9 percent, down from 15 percent last year).
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-6066456.html
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