Google Uses the Salesforce

Nice meeting you!

Salesforce.com shares jump as it turns in a loss
Register - Aug 18, 2006
is delivering the promise of on-demand services to nearly 25,000 customers with more than 500,000 subscribers around the world today. The comment was presumably a dig at Microsoft's CRM software and Oracle's Siebel venture. The firm netted 57,000 new subscibers to its services in the quarter, up 63 per cent on the Q2 2005 total. ® Track this type of story as a. Related storiesSalesforce.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/18/salesforce_q2_2006/

Google Uses the Salesforce
Motley Fool - Aug 23, 2006
After a free 30-day trial, Salesforce customers can pay $300 a month to continue the service, which manages paid-search campaigns while also tracking potential leads. With nearly 25,000 corporate clients and more than half a million subscribers to its hosted applications, Salesforce -- which provides online services for employees to track customer leads, accounts, marketing campaigns -- is no slouch. If successful, Salesforce. com's service has many implications.
http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2006/mft06082302.htm?ref=foolwatch

Critical Flaw Found in IE Patch
PC World - Aug 23, 2006
Patched browsers would crash when using Web-based versions of several applications, including PeopleSoft, Siebel, and Sage CRM. Web sites that used HTTP 1. 1 compression to speed up the downloading of images could also cause the browser to fail. These issues are described on.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,126879-c,browserbugs/article.html

TechWeek: Shorts Drive the August Rally
thestreet.com - Aug 19, 2006
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) , Salesforce. com (CRM) and BEA Systems (BEAS) delivered stronger-than-expected earnings, while Dell (DELL) found new ways to scare customers and investors. And when Microsoft (MSFT) figured out that its "modified Dutch auction had flopped," it changed the timing on the buyback offer. All of this gave the market a solid bounce, with the Nasdaq, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index and the Goldman Sachs Software Index all on the rise. To be sure, the solid earnings reports were an important driver this week. But interviews with money managers and equity strategists suggest that the rally wasn't all that solid. One big factor: short covering.
http://www.thestreet.com/p/pf/newsanalysis/techsoftware/10304744.html

Salesforce.com buys into Google AdWords | CNET News.com
CNET News.com - Aug 21, 2006
is trying to get information from Google AdWords to knowing who the customer is can be kind of a difficult thing," Benioff said. "You tend to lose the link between CRM (customer relationship management) and Google ads. caro -->


Now on News.
http://news.com.com/Salesforce.com+buys+into+Google+AdWords/2100-1014_3-6108046.html

SAP: Tapped for Bigger Things
BusinessWeek - Aug 22, 2006
In 2004, SAP furthered its commitment to ESA by announcing a three-year road map through which it expects to deliver increasingly service-oriented solutions to the market annually, until the entire portfolio of the company's solutions is based on ESA by 2007. Recent product introductions have included SAP CRM on-demand (February, 2006) and mySAP ERP 2005 (May, 2006). THREE GROWTH DRIVERS. We think that a key driver of SAP's recent growth has been the company's notable progress in selling its products to SMB customers. In its recent June-quarter release, the company reported that 30% of its software revenues over the trailing four quarters came from the midmarket... Finally, we have a favorable view of SAP's ability and willingness to collaborate and partner with other technology companies, large and small. A recent example of this is the May, 2006, introduction of Duet software for Microsoft Office and SAP, launched and jointly developed with Microsoft (MSFT). This product brings SAP's ERP data into the workflow of a broader base of users by incorporating Microsoft's ubiquitous Office as a user interface. We expect the primary appeal of Duet to be for the SAP ERP-installed base, with the potential to raise ERP users by four times within its current client base, according to the company. We view these efforts favorably as a less risky, and potentially much cheaper, way to grow its business.
http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/aug2006/pi20060822_581271.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_investing

See you later.

How much is that Apple in the Windows?

How are things?

Red Hat Buys the Boss
Motley Fool - Apr 11, 2006
Red Hat's home-brewed application server didn't gain much traction, but JBoss emerged as a standout. This deal doesn't look cheap. JBoss's revenues are expected to reach just $60 million in 2006. To be fair, they're growing quickly -- last year's revenues were estimated to fall somewhere between $20 million and $30 million.
http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2006/mft06041117.htm

How much is that Apple in the Windows?
Register - Apr 7, 2006
Even if they did a bit, people don't want change. After 20 plus years of enforced technology firedrills they've become highly sceptical of technologists' promises of a better life, and rightly don't believe the endless theoretical business cases technologists dream up. Those ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) battles that have raged since the late 1990s have left many of the folks who do the real work in companies, forever scarred. Talk about the thousand yard stare - visit an business accounting office after an implementation of SAP!So what to do. Well, my advice would be to actually give people the choice. There are unlikely to be support issues, especially with Apple's long-term commitment to support dual Windows and Mac OS. And few extra cost issues... The new Apple world is the perfect reason to accommodate this, and gradually take companies out of PC ownership. You own your own calculator and mobile phone - PC ownership is a natural evolution. And the timing is perfect, especially as Microsoft will be pushing a wholesale move to its much delayed and maligned Windows Vista. Just the thought of which makes me feel a thousand yard stare coming on! ®About Cormac O'Reilly: Late sixties IT industry entrant with early developer gigs in London at Abbey National, Unilever & BOC. Senior IT oil field trash in the eighties and nineties; Schlumberger (Houston TX) and Shell (The Hague). Non-exec director at two flame-out dot.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/07/apple_announcement/

Salesforce.com takes hit from outage
InfoWorld - Apr 7, 2006
com, the company's hosted CRM service is back up and running. The site notes that there was an interruption on Thursday, beginning at 8:11 Pacific Daylight Time and affecting its North American operations. The cause was "a software patch affecting the cache server. "According to Salesforce, "the service was restored to full operations after removing the software patch, resetting the cache system configuration, and re-starting the cache servers. Changes to operational procedures have been made to protect the service from similar issues going forward... com outtages don't seem to have a common cause, and may be expected from a company growing as fast as Salesforce is, knocking your entire North American customer base offline, for any reason at any time is untenable -- and won't engender a lot of good will. But companies such as Microsoft or SAP don't need to worry that all of their customers will be affected by an glitch at the same time.
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/06/04/07/77264_HNsalesforce3_1.html

Why they're making it Sino this time
The Age - Apr 11, 2006
That's why we're using cost-effectiveoutsourcing. CRM Chefs helps customers implement Microsoft customerrelationship management software. This sometimes involves helpingcustomers incorporate new software, such as invoicinghistories. "We provide the high-end strategy and software architects andoutsource the coding to Sinocode," says Mr Wood. "We get them tobuild to our specs. It's very inexpensive, around half the cost,compared to getting contractors in Australia.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/why-theyre-making-it-sino-this-time/2006/04/10/1144521238562.html

NetSuite 11.0 adds deeper support for Ajax
InfoWorld - Apr 6, 2006
"Someone will ultimately become the SAP of the midmarket," Nelson added, referring to SAP which has long been the No. 1 vendor of enterprise applications. NetSuite's primary competitor is hosted CRM player Salesforce. The company also comes up against Sage Group, SAP, Microsoft, Oracle, Salesnet, and SugarCRM. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is one of the founders of NetSuite and its lead investor through his Tako Ventures investment company.
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/06/04/06/77168_HNnetsuite11_1.html

Dear Subscriber to TheStreet.com Stocks Under $10,
thestreet.com - Apr 7, 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... His presentation, which focused on key
requirements for upmarket on-demand software sales, could
help boost the company's profile among investors and
potential customers. The company is on track to deliver
sales bookings growth of 40% to 50% in 2006, up from the
29% sales bookings growth in the fourth quarter of 2005. On-demand CRM software is a burgeoning business, and
smaller players like RightNow stand to gain more than
larger players such as Oracle (. The law of large numbers states that
showing large percentage gains becomes more challenging as
the base number, or denominator, grows.
http://www.thestreet.com/k/su/_googlen/archives/200604071655.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN&cm_cat=SU&cm_ite=003966

Bye.

In the software crusher

How's things?

Microsoft CRM hits the spot
InfoWorld - Feb 27, 2006
BorckFebruary 27, 2006 I’ve unlocked and loaded Microsoft’s recently refreshed customer relationship management solution, Dynamics CRM 3. 0 Professional, and the preliminary results are quite good. The improvements run broad and deep. Microsoft leapfrogged Version 2, going from a now-dated 2003 debut release to a “Version 3” product that is markedly more mature and usable. Not that Dynamics CRM is teeming with innovation -- at least not by today’s CRM standards -- but current Microsoft customers clinging to the hope of a worthy upgrade will not be disappointed.
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/06/02/27/75533_09PPpreview_1.html

In the software crusher
BBC News - Feb 24, 2006
The big players in the multi-billion dollar market for CRM software have taken note and launched their own on-demand products. Siebel - now owned by Oracle - started offering online CRM services two years ago, while the global market leader in enterprise software, Germany's SAP, announced its own on-demand product at the beginning of February. Microsoft wants a slice of the action too, with the roll-out of its CRM 3. 0 application and tests of its new on-demand "Microsoft Office Live" product. Mr Benioff, for his part, speaks of defensive moves by traditional software giants who worry that Salesforce. com might put "their entire business model.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/business/4735944.stm

PC World - Test Versions of New Windows Live Services Arrive
PC World - Feb 28, 2006
Microsoft introduced its plan to offer hosted services under the Windows Live moniker last fall. Recommend this story?.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,124893,00.asp

Apple's Latest Audio Offensive
BusinessWeek - Mar 1, 2006
Ever since Jobs began talking about turning the Mac into "the hub of the digital lifestyle" in 2001, analysts have been waiting for Apple to employ its techno-stylings to revamp the decades-old entertainment center. Who better to enable consumers to listen to music without racks of CDs, view photos without keeping dust-collecting photo albums, or watch movies (be they the home, or Hollywood variety) without VCR tapes, DVDs and the requisite herd of remote controls?Apple has indeed stepped lightly, even as Microsoft (MSFT) and partners dumped gazillions into creating products designed to do many of the same tasks. But Apple's latest devices leave no doubt whether Apple is on the attack -- or that the immediate target is home audio. For all the hoopla over the iPod and iTunes in the past four years, it's almost all been focused on how to listen to music through mediocre PC speakers or via earbuds -- but not in PC-less rooms of the house. ONE SYSTEM, MANY ROOMS. Now, that's changing.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2006/tc20060229_550598.htm

Dear Subscriber to TheStreet.com Stocks Under $10,
thestreet.com - Feb 24, 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
believe the company is on track to deliver 40% to 50%
sales bookings growth in 2006 vs. 29% sales bookings
growth in the fourth quarter. RightNow is a small player
in the burgeoning on-demand CRM software space, and we
believe the stock will trade closer to $20 a share in
2006. Based on this belief, we are moving RightNow to a
One and believe subscribers who do not have a position in
the stock should considering buying it here. We will not
add any shares unless they fall below $15, given our 30%
gain.
http://www.thestreet.com/k/su/archives/200602241803.html

See you.