Where on the horizon is Vista?

Hi!

Microsoft sales soar - vnunet.com
VNUNet.com - Jul 27, 2006
‘Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) put in a very good year, and is movingtowards that magical $1bn (£539m) threshold,’ said Ovum analyst David Bradshaw. ‘Microsoft CRM played a large role in the growth of MBS. ’MSN is undergoing a major overhaul of its infrastructure, which has hit itsadvertising revenues. But its dial-up business is gradually dying away becauseof the ubiquity of broadband. What do you think? Email us at.
http://www.vnunet.com/computing/analysis/2161221/microsoft-sales-soar

Where on the horizon is Vista?
CNET News.com - Jul 27, 2006
Included in that is $450 million in product launch and marketing costs as Microsoft updates Windows and Office. Another $450 million is earmarked for growing its overall sales and marketing strength. And $500 million will go to online-services investments, including its AdCenter ad-serving tool, its search engine, Office Live, Live. com and its CRM Live service. A further $1 billion is for development of "high-growth products, and new products and services,"--an umbrella for all kinds of new ventures. That leaves about $300 million in general corporate spending and potential acquisitions, Liddell said. One of the usual questions that is likely to be less pressing this year is what Microsoft plans to do with all its cash.
http://news.com.com/2100-1016-6098922.html

Microsoft: Web Services No Threat to Traditional Software Model
FOX News - Jul 28, 2006
Ozzie took issue with technology purists who say Web-delivered services will completely replace traditional computer-installed software. "Software as service" advocates include Microsoft competitors in business and consumer markets, including Salesforce. com (CRM), Google Inc. (GOOG) and thousands of Web start-ups who are focused on market niches. Instead, Ozzie and other Microsoft executives see the emerging industry model as "software plus services.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,206057,00.html

From Options Backdaters to M&A Targets
BusinessWeek - Aug 1, 2006
The expenses and taxes related to the higher value of the option must be taken into account. The scores of companies caught up in the backdating controversy include many that are well-known. Among them are Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple Computer (AAPL), as well as book dealer Barnes & Noble (BKS) and home-improvement giant Home Depot (HD). Those accounting issues could have major strategic implications for some of those companies, if the controversy depresses stock prices and gives cash-rich buyers an opportunity to acquire otherwise-healthy businesses at a bargain price. "From a buy-side perspective, there's an opportunity for price negotiation," Aguilar said. Of course, the other side of that coin is that an options-accounting issue may be so large that it's more difficult for a company to be acquired.
http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/aug2006/pi20060801_466607.htm?chan=top+news_top+news

McAfee's Bad Options
Motley Fool - Jul 31, 2006
Its IntruShield software, which deals with intrusion prevention and detection, is popular with firms like Acxiom. For consumers, McAfee delivers its software via the Internet on a subscription basis. That strategy has been the hallmark of growth companies like Salesforce.
http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2006/mft06073118.htm

See you soon.

Analysts to Microsoft: Clarify spending

How's things?

Microsoft outlines plans at Worldwide Partner Conference
VNUNet.com - Jul 21, 2006
“But there will always be end-usersthat see SaaS as an unnecessary cost and will consequently opt out. ”Microsoft also used the event as an opportunity to talk about its intentionto grow its foothold in the CRM market, and to bring partners up to speed on thetechnology and its benefits to end-users. Jason Nash, UK product solutions marketing manager for Microsoft CRM, toldCRN that to benefit from what will be an increasingly heavy period of investmentin the technology from Microsoft moving forward, its partners would have tobegin thinking holistically about CRM and stop seeing it as a silver bullet. “Our partners might not have thought about bringing services together beforeand this represents a big opportunity for them,” he said. “The challenge [in theCRM market] this year is to get our partners to think about CRM from abusiness-process point of view, rather than as a straight sale. ”Boston’s weather during the three days of Microsoft’s WPC changedintermittently from hot and sunny to hot and raining, but overall the messagefrom the WPC was one of clement weather ahead for the channel. Richard Best, business manager for software asset management services at VAR.
http://www.vnunet.com/crn/analysis/2160831/microsoft-sets-sail-towards

Analysts to Microsoft: Clarify spending
InfoWorld - Jul 25, 2006
Of that investment, $500 million will go into expanding the online business, including the adCenter paid-search platform and Live online services, such as Office Live, CRM Live, Windows Live Search and other Web-based offerings. Microsoft also said it would spend $450 million on marketing and launch costs related to its two major product launches in 2007, Windows Vista OS and Office 2007; $450 million for sales force and general marketing growth; $1 billion for the development of high-growth products and services, such as business intelligence, unified communications and IPTV (Internet Protocol TV); and another $300 million in general cost increases and other unspecified spending. What's not clear is how this spending, which initially was frowned upon by Wall Street because of its amount, will bring more revenue to the company, and more return to investors. Analysts are hoping for clarity on that at Thursday's annual Financial Analyst Meeting in Redmond, Washington, they said. "The topic where we would like more granularity is what type of return should investors expect from the FY07 incremental investments and over how long of a time period," UBS analyst Heather Bellini wrote in a research note last week.
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/06/07/25/HNmsspending_1.html

SugarCRM readies Sugar 4.5 for mid-August
InfoWorld - Jul 26, 2006
5, the first version of its CRM (customer relationship management) software to fully support Microsoft server products, on Aug. 15 during the LinuxWorld conference in San Francisco. adCall("336","280","imu");.
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/06/07/26/HNsugarcrm_1.html

Digging deeper in data mines
Australian IT - Jul 25, 2006
"They are facing a market in which traditional lines of revenue are drying up and they are looking for new opportunities. This is where spreading data and knowledge through the organisation can make you more intelligent. "
The evolution of BI software is similar to that of CRM systems, which in many cases took much longer than expected to become accepted as tools in many companies, Clubb says. "It has taken 10 to 12 years for CRM to go through its journey," he says. "Companies bought a data warehouse and then a front end and it took a long time before the value was really seen. BI is on the same journey. "
Where once they might have been available in only the very largest organisations, they can now be cost-effectively used by small and mid-sized companies... BI is on the same journey. "
Where once they might have been available in only the very largest organisations, they can now be cost-effectively used by small and mid-sized companies. With its eye on this trend, Microsoft has been busy incorporating a range of BI capabilities into the next version of its dominant Office software suite. Microsoft Australia information workers group director Tony Wilkinson says the next version of Office will contain a range of BI tools and features that link to other Microsoft products. "Just as word processing was once a backroom task, we want to take business intelligence and put it in the hands of all workers," he says. The dashboard capabilities in Office SharePoint Server 2007 are an example of these new BI tools. They allow users to create reports and instant views of data drawn from a range of other systems.
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,19869706%5E24169%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html

Microsoft revenue up, but profits down for Q4
ITworld.com - Jul 21, 2006
com - Microsoft revenue up, but profits down for Q4. end its fiscal year on a bit of a high note Thursday, though income was down due to expenses and legal charges... Microsoft plans to spend $450 million on marketing and launch costs related to its two major product launches in 2007, the Windows Vista OS and Office 2007. Another $450 million will go to sales force and general marketing growth, with $1 billion being set aside for the development of high-growth products and services, such as business intelligence, unified communications and IPTV (Internet Protocol TV), Liddell said. Microsoft plans to spend $500 million to expand its online business, including its adCenter advertising platform, as well as its Live services, such as Office Live, CRM Live, Windows Live Search and other Web-based offerings. Additionally, the company will spend another $300 million in general cost increases and other unspecified spending, Liddell said. One thing Liddell would not address was speculation that Windows Vista would miss its target release dates of November for business customers and January 2007 for consumers, saying only that Microsoft is still on schedule for Vista's release. However, Liddell said that it will not be until "we have the date locked in" that Microsoft can predict when launch expenses for Vista will affect the company's financial results, a comment that seemed to leave room for the release of the OS to slip further.
http://www.itworld.com/Tech/5050/060721msq4/

Microsoft Buyback: Should You Bite?
BusinessWeek - Jul 24, 2006
Adjusted for splits, the shares have drifted between $20 and $30 for more than four years (see BusinessWeek. Now that the price is up on the latest news, it could be as good a time as any for impatient shareholders to give Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer his stock back... )Meanwhile, other tech stocks may offer bigger upside. Credit Suisse analyst Jason Maynard sees superior growth chances in Red Hat (RHAT), Salesforce. com (CRM), Google (GOOG), and Yahoo, plus a better large-cap opportunity in Oracle (ORCL) because of its exposure to corporate spending. Open-source software, on-demand computing, and advertising-based business models could all cut into Microsoft's revenue, Maynard wrote in a July 21 report. He has a neutral recommendation on the stock. (Credit Suisse has an investment banking relationship with Microsoft and makes a market in its securities.
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jul2006/db20060724_115939.htm

Update: Microsoft revenue up, but profits down for Q4
InfoWorld - Jul 20, 2006
8 billion, which beat Wall Street expectations of $11. 6 billion and was a 16 percent increase over the year-ago figure. However, Microsoft's net income for the quarter was down 24 percent over the previous year. The company reported net income of $2... Microsoft plans to spend $450 million on marketing and launch costs related to its two major product launches in 2007, the Windows Vista OS and Office 2007. Another $450 million will go to sales force and general marketing growth, with $1 billion being set aside for the development of high-growth products and services, such as business intelligence, unified communications and IPTV (Internet Protocol TV), Liddell said. Microsoft plans to spend $500 million to expand its online business, including its adCenter advertising platform, as well as its Live services, such as Office Live, CRM Live, Windows Live Search and other Web-based offerings. Additionally, the company will spend another $300 million in general cost increases and other unspecified spending, Liddell said. One thing Liddell would not address was speculation that Windows Vista would miss its target release dates of November for business customers and January 2007 for consumers, saying only that Microsoft is still on schedule for Vista's release. However, Liddell said that it will not be until "we have the date locked in" that Microsoft can predict when launch expenses for Vista will affect the company's financial results, a comment that seemed to leave room for the release of the OS to slip further.
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/06/07/20/HNmsrevenue_1.html

Microsoft's New, Improved Spending
BusinessWeek - Jul 21, 2006
A quarter ago, as it announced earnings, the software maker caught investors unawares with news of an increase in investment spending. On July 20, Microsoft (MSFT) had another surprise up its sleeve,.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jul2006/tc20060721_907153.htm?chan=technology_technology+index+page_more+of+today's+top+stories

SAP to ramp up attack on Oracle
InfoWorld - Jul 21, 2006
The company's on a roll. "McDermott expects Oracle to stumble in the next couple of quarters, claiming that the vendor's rise in fourth-quarter software license revenue was driven by Oracle's push to have its installed base sign maintenance licenses. As McDermott looks out over the rest of fiscal 2006, he expects growth to come in the high-end from MySAP ERP 2005, SAP's and Microsoft Corp. 's joint Duet software, SAP's hosted and on-premise CRM business and its business intelligence and analytics technologies. SAP will also be increasing its focus on the midmarket. "Sixty-five percent of our worldwide customers have revenues of less than US$500 million," he said. "We want to get the word out.
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/06/07/21/SAPrampup_1.html

TCS turns leading employer in China
Economic Times - Jul 25, 2006
22per cent stake, while the Chinese partners have 27. However,
when Microsoft joins the venture next month, TCS will reduce its stake to 65per
cent and the Chinese counterparts will offload 2per cent and Microsoft will get
10per cent... Commenting on the IT market in China, Mr Ramadorai said
that the Chinese IT market is pegged at $30bn. Also, attrition rates in China
are higher than in India, at 15per cent, while salaries are comparable, he
added. In another deal, TCS has signed a $33m with a Saudi
Arabia-based telecom company to integrate their billing and CRM processes. The
process has to be delivered in 18 months.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1803023.cms

Salesforce goes after SAP customers
VNUNet.com - Jul 24, 2006
com is celebrating the20th update of its online service by posting an offering designed to forge linksto businesses with SAP installations. Meanwhile, rival CRM vendors haveannounced acquisitions and updates to boost their own offerings. The toolkit is intended to let customers integrateSalesforce tools with back-office applications to gain an overarching view ofcustomer data, and synchronise account information between Salesforce and SAP. The step is another in the upscale progress of Salesforce, which hasambitions to attract more custom from large organisations and shake off theperception that on-demand software is mostly attractive to smaller businesses. “There’s a typical criticism that integrating enterprise apps with on-demandis a challenge, so we have packaged up transformations, information flows andtools,” said Tim Knight, AppExchange technical director at Salesforce... 9 suite withextended support for mobile devices. But CDC is now unlikely to add Onyx to itsportfolio, because Onyx last week reaffirmed its intention to merge with holdinggroup M2M. Elsewhere, InvisibleCRM, a startup firm that develops software linkingSalesforce with Microsoft environments, last week secured an extra $1. All ApplicationsLike this story? Spread the news by clicking below:.
http://www.vnunet.com/itweek/news/2160923/salesforce-goes-sap-clients

Google R&D Pays Dividends
BusinessWeek - Jul 21, 2006
search queries handled by Google jumped 55% over the past year, according to comScore Media Metrix. Yahoo's search queries rose 21%, and those handled by MSN, owned by Microsoft (MSFT), grew only 8%. Both rivals fell short of the overall market growth of 30%. "The opportunities before us are really unlimited at this point," remarked Google CEO Eric Schmidt on a conference call with Wall Street analysts. That may be a little too sanguine. But with Google's search business firing on all cylinders, its weaknesses won't likely trip up the company anytime soon.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jul2006/tc20060721_996440.htm?chan=top+news_top+news

BI's new power users rely on advanced search
InfoWorld - Jul 20, 2006
But the frequent inability of employees to locate the results they need from high-end BI applications is prompting several enterprise search vendors to step in and address the challenge. Because BI relies on data generated by accounting, sales, CRM systems, and other back-end applications, it represents a lot of data. IT departments that have made substantial investments in BI packages from Cognos, Information Builders, Oracle, and SAP, among others, are looking at ways to better expose that data and make it all actionable at a much faster clip.   Meanwhile, the number of workers who need daily access to BI data to be more effective at their jobs steadily rises. "A lot of things are changing in the industry to help expose more BI information," says Frank Brooks, chief data architect at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee. "We had reached the point where we had so much BI information that it was difficult to go and find just one piece of it... Rather than, say, waiting for biweekly reports and sifting through them, employees can now access a portal to search an array of applications where BI information is stored. Brooks is one of many IT managers taking advantage of the increasing cross-over between enterprise search and BI. Following news in April of Google OneBox, which extended the reach of the Google Search Appliance to BI, IBM and Microsoft announced new products and features for customers who want to marry search functionality with BI to get real-time business analytics into the hands of more employees. In May, Fast Search and Transfer joined its Enterprise Search Platform with Cognos 8 Business Intelligence solution to deliver corporate content directly to workers who are not necessarily sophisticated BI consumers. According to Vinod Baya, director at.
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/infoworld/article/06/07/20/30FEsearchbiz_3.html

HP to Offer Networked Storage for Smaller Businesses
PC World - Jul 24, 2006
Small-business users typically hold their data on anywhere from 3 to 14 servers, adding extra servers as they grow, Young says. In market research, HP found that 60 percent to 70 percent of those users said they had continued to use this "direct attached storage" technique because its simplicity allows them to maintain it without a full-time IT department, and because the only alternatives in today's market cost $20,000 to $30,000. To reach those users, HP has designed its new products to be able to host client applications, e-mail that runs on Exchange or Lotus servers, and ERP (enterprise resource planning) and CRM (customer relationship management) databases, all without requiring customers to install a fiber channel infrastructure. The new line of products will protect data by duplicating it in snapshots stored on the same box or by creating tape backups on an attached device. In an effort to keep prices low, the new offerings will not include data encryption. System Details HP would not reveal details of the system design, but says it will include shared application server storage, a Microsoft Windows-based file server, and proprietary intellectual property to provide data management and protection. Rather than using revolutionary hardware, it relies on the wide adoption of common industry standards, as well as on a tight integration of domains that have been separated in previous designs, says Ash Ashutosh, vice president and chief technology officer of HP's StorageWorks division... The new line of products will protect data by duplicating it in snapshots stored on the same box or by creating tape backups on an attached device. In an effort to keep prices low, the new offerings will not include data encryption. System Details HP would not reveal details of the system design, but says it will include shared application server storage, a Microsoft Windows-based file server, and proprietary intellectual property to provide data management and protection. Rather than using revolutionary hardware, it relies on the wide adoption of common industry standards, as well as on a tight integration of domains that have been separated in previous designs, says Ash Ashutosh, vice president and chief technology officer of HP's StorageWorks division. Recommend this story?.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,126520-page,1-c,networkinghardware/article.html

On-demand is a growing tech force Salesforce.com has lead in big off...
San Francisco Chronicle - Jul 23, 2006
It is really a shift away from how you typically think of software. " On-demand computing has been most widely used for keeping track of sales, marketing and customer support, also known as customer resources management, or CRM. The market for on-demand CRM grew by nearly 70 percent to $500 million in 2005. Sharon Mertz, a research director at Gartner Research, expects it to grow another 40 to 50 percent in 2006. "We continue to see high demand for it this year," she said. Small, privately held firms, such as San Mateo's NetSuite, have been aggressively pushing to gain more share. Highlighting the growth opportunities that the on-demand software market offers, technology's big guns, led by Oracle, SAP and Microsoft, have also entered the ring with their versions of software-as-a-service offerings... "We continue to see high demand for it this year," she said. Small, privately held firms, such as San Mateo's NetSuite, have been aggressively pushing to gain more share. Highlighting the growth opportunities that the on-demand software market offers, technology's big guns, led by Oracle, SAP and Microsoft, have also entered the ring with their versions of software-as-a-service offerings. But it is Salesforce. com that continues to dominate the space with 60 percent of the market. The company's user base has grown from about 15,500 customers with 267,000 subscribers in May 2005 to 22,700 customers with 444,000 subscribers this May. The company apparently became a victim of its success.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/07/23/BUGJ1K36NG1.DTL

Goodbye.

Microsoft has missed boat, says Benioff

Hi!

Microsoft Live CRM lashed
Inquirer - Jul 14, 2006
This time the butt of the groundlings' cabbages and turnips is its Live CRM service. Although a lot of the negative reactions the company has been receiving recently have mostly been the Anybody ButMicrosoft obsessive types, the announcement of Live CRM arguably merited its mauling. Microsoft's on-premises CRM has had challenging early years with Redmond forced to pull a release and changemanagement of the group. A slow-ish start wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been for Redmond being on the wrong end of comparisons withthe likes of Salesforce. com and others in the on-demand movement that have been growing at high-double-digit and eventriple-figure percentage rates not seen in business software since the last century. After expending lots of wind playing down the importance of the software-as-a-service movement, Microsoft then wenton a backtracking expedition insisting it "got it" about online business apps as well as consumer services... In one of his staff memos that, as ever, was leaked immediately to press, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff reached forhis black cap and software-as-a-service Bible and asked, "Is it the end of software as we know it?"Benioff noted that Ray Ozzie's big power move was no coincidence as Ozzie is Microsoft's biggest booster for changein software delivery. He perhaps weakened his argument by then suggesting that the huge field of Ajax-based online productivity apps backup his thesis, but that's another story. Those partners that were offering hosted versions of Microsoft CRM did not appear too happy. Others noted that Microsoft was "the new IBM" and not in a positive way either.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=33043

Microsoft has missed boat, says Benioff
Australian IT - Jul 18, 2006
module-subheader --> SALESFORCE. COM founder and chief executive Marc Benioff has hammered Microsoft's attempt to launch itself into the software-as-a-service market with a hosted version of its customer relationship management product, saying the software giant had been "left behind". Microsoft announced last week it would launch Microsoft CRM Live, an online adaptation of its existing Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and integrate it with Windows and Office Live. Mr Benioff, whose company has been banging the online application drum for years, said Microsoft was doing too little, too late. Internet companies such as Google and Yahoo were leaving traditional software vendors behind in the field of hosted applications, he said. Mr Benioff is a well-known evangelist for Web 2. 0, a term used to refer to internet-based applications that run without client software.
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,19822432%5E15316%5E%5Enbv%5E15306,00.html

Microsoft's Vista, Office delays complicate partner plans
InfoWorld - Jul 17, 2006
com, Siebel, and others. Ballmer said his company would release the product in the second quarter of 2007 and “won’t be outhustled by anybody” in the fast-growing SaaS (software as a service) market. Partners will play a role by integrating CRM Live with Windows and Office Live, as well as other Microsoft products, said Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft CRM. With new enterprise search, security, and SaaS products on tap, Microsoft also signaled that it is willing to use its deep pockets to break into areas that established companies now dominate. For example, SSA (Security Software Advisor) is a new program that provides considerable cash incentives to partners that deploy Microsoft security products such as the Forefront family of client and server security products, ISA Server, and Antigen messaging security products. To promote its security wares, Microsoft is promising to “skill up” existing partners on security and is permitting certifications from organizations such as ISC2 and ISACA to satisfy its Security Partner Competency, said Steve Brown, director of product management for security, access, and solutions at Microsoft. Microsoft is also dangling cash, offering partners bonuses of as much as 20 percent of the total sales of its security products, and 30 percent in the next seven months, Brown said.
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/06/07/17/29NNmsftpartnercon_1.html

Microsoft discovers secret to impressing Wall Street
Register - Jul 19, 2006
it's on target with vision and earnings. Microsoft already relies on client and server and tools - along with Office - for more than half of its business. Earlier this year, Microsoft said it expects its ERP and CRM business to hit profitability in 2007 and become its next $1bn business. By combining ERP and CRM with Office, though, it will be impossible to say for sure how they are performing. With revenue from new business unproven, Wall St. will be looking for positive growth in Microsoft's bread and butter businesses of Windows and Office. Microsoft is due to report its fourth quarter and fiscal 2006 on Thursday.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/19/microsoft_financial_reporting/

Salesforce introduces partner management
InfoWorld - Jul 17, 2006
com’s summer release is typically an opportunity to hype minor upgrades. Up to now, Salesforce has thrived in a market that Microsoft ignored. Those days may be over. Due in mid-2007, Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM Live reportedly will be based on multi­tenancy architecture, pioneered by Salesforce. com, in which one instance of the software is shared by all customer accounts... Up to now, Salesforce has thrived in a market that Microsoft ignored. Those days may be over. Due in mid-2007, Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM Live reportedly will be based on multi­tenancy architecture, pioneered by Salesforce. com, in which one instance of the software is shared by all customer accounts. CRM Live will be designed to make SaaS applications vastly easier to scale, manage, upgrade, and provision. In his keynote address at Microsoft’s annual Worldwide Partner Conference in Boston, CEO Steve Ballmer singled out Dynamics CRM Live as a major opportunity for the company’s huge network of business partners to make money through customizations, add-ons, referrals, and hosting.
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/06/07/17/29NNsalesforcenews_1.html

SAP suffers peer pressure
Register - Jul 13, 2006
Shares in SAP subsequently fell by seven per cent in afternoon trading. SAP is facing competition from both Microsoft and Oracle. While Microsoft is seeing growth from its own ERP and CRM applications, it is still very much in the midst of developing a coherent business applications strategy. That makes Oracle the bigger threat, and Larry Ellison’s company has been gunning for SAP on the back of a string of acquisitions, including Siebel. Announcing results earlier this year, Oracle was quick to point out 100 per cent year-on-year license revenue growth in Europe, SAP's strongest geographical region and home base. "It's very satisfying to be doing well right in SAP's backyard," Oracle president Charles Phillips said in a statement at the time.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/13/sap_second_quarter_preliminary_results/

Microsoft Bets on Integrators For Hosted Services
ITworld.com - Jul 19, 2006
But like so many other areas in which it has lagged behind, when the giant wakes up, it can bring considerable resources to the table. So it is with hosted services. One initiative we'll be seeing is a partner-based customization model for Microsoft's CRM Live. What Ballmer says is that Microsoft expects its partners to grow its business in the so-called software-as-a-service segment. The partner revenue model for this is a long way from the time-honored practice of delivering and installing software to a customer and then charging an annual maintenance fee. With software-as-a-service, partners should expect to see significant revenue from advertising. In addition, there are commissions associated with selling the Windows Live and Office Live services.
http://www.itworld.com/Man/3917/nls_solutions_msbet060720/

Putting a price on a virtual computer
CNET News.com - Jul 17, 2006
The company may not even run the software itself, instead buying it or renting it from a third-party hosting service. Microsoft, for one, has been ahead of the curve when it comes to virtual machines and dual-core chip licensing practices, but somewhat behind when it comes to hosted software, said Ovum Summit analyst Dwight Davis. The company just this week finally committed to offering a hosted version of its CRM (customer relationship management) software, for example. "Microsoft is finally starting to bite that bullet," Davis said. "It has to be a player, but it does so with some trepidation about what the impact will be on its bottom line. "


Software makers are also trying to figure out how many new licensing options to introduce and when. Although some leading-edge customers are using virtualization as a mainstay throughout their company, many have yet to even try out the technology.
http://news.com.com/2100-7339-6094502.html

Salesforce.com syncs into SAP R/3
InfoWorld - Jul 17, 2006
" The vendor plans to weigh what integration capabilities its partners have built and currently offer via its AppExchange network. The other leading ERP vendor is Oracle Corp. Both Oracle and SAP offer their own hosted CRM products. showed itself more serious about on-demand CRM, recently announcing .
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/06/07/17/HNsalesforcetwenty_1.html&source=searchresult

Microsoft to Google: get your tanks off our lawn
Register - Jul 14, 2006
Microsoft used its conference to demonstrate a strangely familiar capability of exporting customer names and addresses from these business applications for mapping and display using Windows Live Virtual Earth - either a re-branded Windows Live Local, previously MSN Virtual Earth, or just a presentational slip. com already enables integration between customers' CRM data and Google Maps through the AppExchange service launched in January. Microsoft demonstrated the ability to combine search of data with information about people who may be relevant to searches. SharePoint Server will achieve this by crawling through information about people in emails, Microsoft's ActiveDirectory, and links to SharePoint MySites. The combination led chief Ballmer to enthusiastically comment that search and SharePoint Server 2007 are "kind of like a MySpace for real business use. Kind of, Steve, but not really.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/14/microsoft_search_google/

IT gets drafted to babysit the blogs
InfoWorld - Jul 14, 2006
” These best practices include workflow, single-source content repositories, security and permissions, and content auditing and analytics. But on another level, I wonder whether there’s a bigger picture that IT should be thinking about. Will blogs get woven into products and services as a two-way customer-facing communication channel? Should they therefore be integrated with CRM systems? Where do podcasts fit into this? Will there be a battle for control of the blog-o-structure among the PR, market research, product management, and legal departments? And does IT really want to get in the middle of that fight, or just outsource it and get out of the way?Upgrade Cycles Revisited: A couple weeks ago I wrote a. An alert reader in Pennsylvania (I’ll call him Bob) challenged me on this by e-mail, basically saying that four-year cycles suit him just fine. “With resources stretched thin, can most IT shops afford to upgrade software every year or less?” Bob asked... Will blogs get woven into products and services as a two-way customer-facing communication channel? Should they therefore be integrated with CRM systems? Where do podcasts fit into this? Will there be a battle for control of the blog-o-structure among the PR, market research, product management, and legal departments? And does IT really want to get in the middle of that fight, or just outsource it and get out of the way?Upgrade Cycles Revisited: A couple weeks ago I wrote a. An alert reader in Pennsylvania (I’ll call him Bob) challenged me on this by e-mail, basically saying that four-year cycles suit him just fine. “With resources stretched thin, can most IT shops afford to upgrade software every year or less?” Bob asked. “We have a hard enough time keeping up with patches, let alone upgrades. I still have the bulk of my enterprise on Office 2000, and we’re only now looking at upgrading to 2003.
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/06/07/14/29OPanalysts_1.html

Nokia eyes business apps, VoIP integration
ITworld.com - Jul 19, 2006
General manager of Nokia's enterprise solutions, Vaughn Madeley, said the availability of Intellisync will allow local enterprises to integrate many types of back-end applications, including those developed in-house, and make them available in the field. "With Intellisync we can provide an enterprise with push e-mail, [but] the IT managers' issues were about how to manage these devices and operating systems which Intellisync allows them to do," Vaughn said, adding the software also allows devices to be erased over the air. "The next question was about being able to take back-office CRM (customer relationship management) systems and bringing them out on the road to devices. Vaughn said part of Nokia's Intellisync acquisition was to allow for application extendibility. Nokia's new E series "business optimized" devices ship with the client software pre-installed and the Intellisync server is purchased separately. "IT managers say 'that's great, but I want to consolidate devices from a management perspective' and that's why we brought out the E series which are 3G (third generation) and wireless," Vaughn said. "As a dual-mode device, if you are running a VoIP environment at the end of this year you will be able to get a client that will allow you to step from a GSM to VoIP by switching manually and seamlessly, in the future... "As a dual-mode device, if you are running a VoIP environment at the end of this year you will be able to get a client that will allow you to step from a GSM to VoIP by switching manually and seamlessly, in the future. Nokia has also released the Nokia E50, which aims to bridge the gap between and personal and business phone. The E60 comes with the business connectivity options pre-installed, can integrate with existing PABXs, Microsoft Office file viewers, and a full Web browser based on the open source KHTML project. Enterprises using Avaya's Communication Manager can connect the Nokia E50 directly to their phone networks, using Avaya's one-X Mobile Edition client. The Cisco SIP client is scheduled for 2007. Managing director of telecommunications research firm Telsyte, Warren Chaisatien said businesses need to be prudent with how they approach mobile applications. "Now that companies have deployed mobility solutions [other] than just e-mail and voice communications to things like CRM and workforce automation, they need to understand their business processes to identify where mobility fits," Chaisatien said.
http://www.itworld.com/Net/3303/060719nokiavoip/

Hummingbird in limbo as it mulls takeover bids
VNUNet.com - Jul 17, 2006
“Both vendors are of a size where they are vulnerable to takeover,” Clarkewrote in a research note. “[Open Text and Hummingbird] are clearly not of thesame size as [rivals] such as IBM and EMC. With [Oracle and] Microsoft alsoentering the fray, it will become increasingly difficult for vendors such asOpen Text and Hummingbird to survive on their own. ”Separately,.
http://www.vnunet.com/itweek/news/2160507/hummingbird-limbo-takeover-bids

See you later.

Microsoft Plans Web-Based CRM Offering

How do you do?

Microsoft's CRM Catch-Up Plan
BusinessWeek - Jul 11, 2006
Starting in mid-2007, the company will host a service on its data center servers that will let customers manage business contacts and help them follow sales leads. The software will have the same look and feel that the packaged version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM has today. What's more, Microsoft (MSFT) will weave in its widely used Outlook e-mail, contact, and calendaring software... What's more, Microsoft (MSFT) will weave in its widely used Outlook e-mail, contact, and calendaring software. Already, its CRM software meshes inside Outlook, making it a snap to create a business lead right from an e-mail. But Microsoft has a lot of catching up to do. com (CRM) pioneered hosted CRM and remains the market leader. And other big rivals have jumped in recently. SAP (SAP) launched a hosted CRM service earlier this year (see BusinessWeek.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jul2006/tc20060711_108858.htm?chan=top+news_top+news

Microsoft Plans Web-Based CRM Offering
thestreet.com - Jul 11, 2006
com (CRM) and Oracle (ORCL) , Microsoft (MSFT) plans to offer a Web-based version of its customer relationship management software. The new products will be available in the second quarter of 2007 and will initially target small businesses, the software giant said Monday. Announcing a product a year early is a classic tactic aimed at freezing purchases by customers who may prefer to actually see the new Microsoft CRM application before deciding what software to buy, said Cowen analyst Peter Goldmacher. "This is Marketing 101," he said in an interview. "Near term, it isn't a threat, and it's questionable that Microsoft will be a long-term threat to Salesforce, since this looks like a low-end product," he said. Cowen does not have an investmen-banking relationship with Salesforce. Gartner software analyst Michael Maoz, who was briefed by Microsoft before Monday's announcement, says he doesn't expect the product to be in general circulation until 2008, even if Microsoft hits the formal 2007 deadline.
http://www.thestreet.com/p/pf/tech/software/10296128.html

Microsoft 'streamlines' ERP and CRM pricing
Register - Jul 12, 2006
The change comes as business application providers increasingly charge customers using a monthly or annual per-user-based subscription. Tuesday's change is Microsoft's latest attempt to harness the industry trend without actually fundamentally challenging its own revenue model by adopting pure subscriptions. Last December, Microsoft launched Dynamics CRM 3. 0 starting at $440 per user and $528 per server for the year, excluding software upgrades. At the time, Microsoft business division president Jeff Raikes said the package mean Microsoft's CRM was "easy to use, adaptable and affordable". However, Microsoft was still massively overpriced compared to the competition.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/12/microsoft_crm_erp_pricing/

Microsoft streamlines ERP pricing
CNET News.com - Jul 11, 2006
Included will be general ledger, accounts receivable, accounts payable, fixed assets and consolidations, and "other core financial management and inventory functions," according to Gayle Hoshino, the general manager of Microsoft Business Solutions. The midrange Advanced Management edition will start at about $3,977 per user and will include more functionality in areas such as manufacturing, project management, and some integral customer relationship management (CRM) sales and marketing functions. Microsoft's own Dynamics CRM application is not included, though. Advanced Management Enterprise adds extra supply-chain planning software and will continue to be priced per server. Overall price depends on the modules purchased, Microsoft said.
http://news.com.com/Microsoft+streamlines+ERP+pricing/2100-1012_3-6092590.html

Microsoft looks to share security gains
CNET News.com - Jul 12, 2006
The incentive is part of a new "Microsoft Security Software Advisor Program" that the software giant plans to announce Wednesday at its Worldwide Partner Conference in Boston. Microsoft has a similar program for resellers of its software for customer relationship management, Microsoft Dynamics CRM. "Our goal is to build the industry's leading security partner ecosystem and to ensure that our customers have the best experience with our Forefront security products," said Steve Brown, the director of product management in the security, access and solutions division at Microsoft. "This is a fairly unique program that we're offering. "

In addition to offering partners an extra chunk of cash, Microsoft has set aside $15 million for marketing with partners as well as partner training and support, Brown said. The money is set to be spent over the next 12 months, he said.
http://news.com.com/Microsoft+looks+to+share+security+gains/2100-7355_3-6093069.html

MS details online CRM plans Michael Kahn in San Francisco
Australian IT - Jul 12, 2006
"This is one more affirmation that they are serious about competing and that they are not just content with competing in the client-server model. "
The new offering also is part of a larger Microsoft push into web services marked by its strategy to take on Google and Yahoo with its "Live" initiative ranging from Windows Live - an advertising-funded, one-stop shop for services like email and instant messaging - to Office Live business applications. Microsoft said it planned to introduce Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live in North America in the second quarter of 2007 and offer it on a monthly subscription basis. Both Oracle and SAP already offer their own versions of web-based CRM business applications. Microsoft's offering helps it challenge Oracle and SAP along with upstart Salesforce. com, which has seen growth as customers turn to its web-based software that is often easier to maintain and use than traditional applications installed on individual computers, analysts said. "It is part of a bigger trend that applications vendors need to offer as a deployment option," she said... Microsoft said it would disclose pricing and licensing details for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live after it finishes testing the service with customers. The web-based service is also part of the "Microsoft Dynamics" brand software, which the company introduced last year as its latest line of business applications. Microsoft sells its CRM software on CDs or via the web through partners. The new service will give customers the choice to purchase it directly from Microsoft, said Brad Wilson, general manager for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Microsoft executives have said CRM could represent the company's next billion-dollar business. Mr Wilson said web-based tools are critical. He predicted such applications would one day make up 25 per cent of the overall CRM market - giving Microsoft plenty of room to grow.
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,19764442%5E15318%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html

Microsoft asks partners to follow it into new areas
ITworld.com - Jul 11, 2006
Ballmer highlighted a number of new announcements from Microsoft in his keynote, notably the unveiling of Dynamics CRM Live, a hosted version of the company's CRM (customer relationship management) software. "This is the single most inevitable announcement in the history of Microsoft," he said. Microsoft used an early version of CRM Live to demonstrate a mashup of technologies for a fictitious property seller. The demonstration combines data from CRM Live with local maps and overlays to show the status of individual property lots, which had been sold and which were yet to be purchased. Ballmer and other Microsoft executives also showed off Windows Live Search Center, a future service that will combine desktop and online search results, and some of the capabilities of the upcoming Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communicator 2007, which will facilitate multiperson audio and video conferencing and call management. As Microsoft moves to offer more hosted Live software, there will be plenty of opportunities for its partners, according to Ballmer. He announced the formation of a Live Partner Advisory Council to educate partners on Live.
http://www.itworld.com/App/255/071106mspartners/

Online apps take on office tasks
VNUNet.com - Jul 7, 2006
Now, Google and a posse ofsmaller firms have ambitions for office productivity tools to follow suit. With the recent release into beta testing of Google Spreadsheets, thisfledgling field is in the news again, just a few months after anothersignificant event when Google acquired Upstartle, the firm behind the Writelyweb-based word processor. As with Writely, Google Spreadsheets lets users replicate most deskboundfunctions but via an internet connection rather than from a hard drive. The mainadvantages of the model are that applications can be accessed through anyconnected PC and documents can be easily shared... Another suite is AdventNet’s Zoho, which includes a word processor,spreadsheet, organiser, CRM and collaborative tools. Yet another is South Koreancompany Haansoft’s ThinkFree suite with “Office-compatible” word processing,spreadsheet and presentations programs. Though the buzz around these programs is building, it is unlikely that thedevelopment of web-based client programs is going to knock Microsoft Office offits perch anytime soon. Many programs – in name or in effect – are still at thetesting stage, lack key features and have been developed using tools intendedfor web sites. Another major issue is compatibility. Many early users of web programscomplain that documents are frequently mangled when swapped with the dominantMicrosoft formats, or printed. Also, some programs are tied to specific webbrowsers; and privacy concerns and the requirement to receive advertisementsbased on inputted text will deter many potential users.
http://www.vnunet.com/itweek/analysis/2159865/online-apps-office-tasks

SaaS: The Last Software Stunt [Fool.com] July 06, 2006
Motley Fool - Jul 6, 2006
According to technology analysts AMR Research, more than 80% of CRM software deployments either don't add value, encounter user resistance, or fail outright. Such highly dangerous activity has created the software-as-a-service market, led by customer relationship specialists such as Salesforce.
http://www.fool.com/news/commentary/2006/commentary06070618.htm

The End Of Philanthropy As We Know It
Forbes - Jul 6, 2006
For Benioff, that third prong is the most important part of his "1% solution. " Employees get paid time off to pursue charitable pursuits, which often involve spreading the benefits of technology to poor areas. For Benioff, companies that just write checks are missing the big picture. "The value for philanthropy here is not the money; it's in these other assets... At Oracle, there was no integration between the company and the philanthropic work. Some of the most successful foundations in the world today--and, of course, the most successful is the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation--do not practice integrated philanthropy. They are fully separate from Microsoft. Of course, they're giving away huge amounts of money and running very interesting programs. But Microsoft has a lot of very smart people. Bill Gates has spent the majority of his time in the last 30 years picking out the 100,000 smartest people he could find to work at his company. I think that is the most valuable asset you can unleash on the world.
http://www.forbes.com/2006/07/02/leadership-corporate-citizenship-cx_hc_0706endofphilanthropy.html?partner=links

SAP buys Praxis for use in Business One
InfoWorld - Jul 11, 2006
"This change will be seamless to all of the 100 customers using the products, all of whom run them with SAP," Kraus wrote. SAP is likely to continue offering Praxis software as stand-alone products as well as integrated with Business One, he added. SAP is hoping the Praxis technology will differentiate Business One from other low-end business applications from Microsoft Corp. and Sage Group PLC. "With the addition of this on-demand functionality, SAP Business One will stand out from other offerings by providing more comprehensive business management capabilities -- covering on-premise and remote users and multichannel sales -- in a single, integrated software product," Kraus wrote. SAP partners shouldn't be alarmed by the vendor buying a peer. "We have made it very clear that SAP will extend the core, horizontal functionality of Business One and leave the vertical extensions to partners," Kraus wrote... SAP partners shouldn't be alarmed by the vendor buying a peer. "We have made it very clear that SAP will extend the core, horizontal functionality of Business One and leave the vertical extensions to partners," Kraus wrote. E-commerce and CRM have become "core pieces of functionality" that the majority of SMBs need, he added. Therefore, SAP had to meet those user needs directly by providing the capabilities as part of its application suite, not as third-party add-ons. This isn't the first time that SAP has acquired a company specifically to boost the capabilities of Business One. In January 2005, the German software vendor closed its purchase of iLytix Systems AS to incorporate the Norwegian startup's XL Reporter business reporting and budgeting tool into Business One. Companies using Business One tend to have annual revenue of up to US$50 million and purchase the software through SAP's partners, Kraus wrote.
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/06/07/11/HNsappraxis_1.html

Big Media Just Wants to Relate
BusinessWeek - Jul 11, 2006
IPG also created a user-generated content lab last month. "My task is to acquire propriety insights into what is happening with user-generated content, to engage with the media community and help them develop advertising models, and to help them execute specific programs," says Brian Monahan, director of the Los Angeles-based lab. The former Microsoft (MSFT) executive started work at the lab just two weeks ago. While the lab itself is young, IPG has had experience with digital advertising. It helped design www. com, a corporate social-networking site that promotes Nature Valley granola bars from General Mills (GIS).
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jul2006/tc20060711_184814.htm?chan=top+news_top+news

See you.