Thursday, April 10, 2008 10:36 AM/EST
The rumors are true. I have it from two reliable sources that Salesforce.com is indeed announcing on Monday, April 14, an integration with Google Apps at a news conference in San Francisco. What I am not sure about at this point is whether the integration is at the applications level with, say, a tab in Saleforce.com's CRM applications so users can access Google Apps directly, or at the platform level so developers can natively build Google Apps functionality into applications developed on Salesforce's Force.com development platform. Or both.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008 1:11 PM/EST
Well into the first quarter of its Business Objects acquisition, SAP has worked to clarify its Corporate Performance Management strategy and road map, an exercise that really boils down to rationalizing a bulging portfolio of products from a mix of companies -- and tucking the whole thing under a new Performance Optimization Division umbrella (a sendoff on SAP's business user group that was combined with Business Objects). Essentially the new division is coming to market with a combination of SAP apps -- including those from its Pilot Software and OutlookSoft acquisitions -- and Business Object's portfolio that includes apps acquired from Cartesis and ALG Software. The way the whole Performance Optimization stack pans out is this: Underlying a set of GRC (governance, risk and compliance) and CPM (corporate performance management) applications is SAP's Business Intelligence Platform. The platform consists of Business Objects' Information Discovery & Delivery, Data Layer, and Enterprise...
Monday, April 07, 2008 9:03 AM/EST
At bottom the debate did more to fan the flames around the raging speculation of whether Salesforce is courting Oracle as an acquirer, Oracle is pursuing Salesforce as a love match or - a new twist - SAP is considering Salesforce.com. On the cheap, that is. Because as Plattner warned Benioff, Salesforce.com's shining star could wane.
"I'll give you advice, because you are younger," said Plattner. "Don't overestimate your platform. We have sunk so many platforms, taking with them other computer companies [that have partnered with them]."
Tuesday, April 01, 2008 5:13 PM/EST
Hewlett-Packard, it seems, typifies the type of enthusiasm prevalent at the Gartner Business Intelligence Summit here in Chicago. "We're on the road to world domination in BI," said Rod Walker, vice president of information management practices for HP Services, during an interview at the BI Summit. Walker, I think, was only half joking. BI is on the upswing and the major vendors in the space plan to follow the trajectory. Gartner analysts said March 31 that despite economic hurdles in the U.S. economy that are slowly seeping into some tech sectors, spending on BI software is expected to rise 11 percent this year, to $5.8 billion. The reason: BI platforms are a high priority amongst the CIO set. Gartner said that in a survey of 1,500 CIOs worldwide, BI beat out all other technologies in terms of priorities. Stephen Wetzel, chief technology officer for Maricopa County in Phoenix, is a...
Monday, March 31, 2008 10:44 AM/EST
There appears to be lots happening behind the scenes at SAP. The company, embroiled in a lawsuit with Oracle over improper use of support data through its TomorrowNow subsidiary, is being sued again - this time over an allegedly failed software implementation. And it's all coming down in the midst of potential internal changes in the company's leadership.
Friday, March 28, 2008 10:59 AM/EST
I spoke with an analyst yesterday, James Governor from Redmonk, and he pointed out that because Microsoft is a huge company with "different businesses that have different drivers" the separate businesses shouldn't have the same branding concerns. I agree, to a point. Sure, there should be a completely different nomenclature around xBox than there should be around, say, .Net. But I do think that the naming for on demand business applications should fall in lock step.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008 10:41 AM/EST
A company called Nox Defense has developed an "invisible perimeter defense technology" that combines high resolution video pictures and RFID tags to help users track assets and people in real time - without their knowledge.
The system, according to a press release, "allows security officers to see a theft or intrusion as it happens, and track a stolen object even if concealed inside a briefcase, under a jacket, or stuffed inside a sock."
Tuesday, March 18, 2008 10:07 AM/EST
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is canceling a $13 million contract with Cognos - which was bought by IBM in January - on the grounds that the contract was part of a back-door deal predicated on friendships in high places. The Boston Globe reported Monday that Massachusetts House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi played a central role in creating interest around Cognos' Performance Management software, at one point meeting with the state's CIO in person to push Cognos' software. Here's how Globe reporter Andrea Estes described the situation: "At almost every turn, DiMasi, his aides or his friends played a role in either creating a demand for Cognos ULC's computer software or in pushing Cognos to the head of the bidding field...A middleman in the deal, Joseph Lally, portrayed himself to key state officials as DiMasi's friend. A longtime DiMasi friend, Richard McDonough, was hired as a lobbyist for Cognos and was paid...
Thursday, March 13, 2008 7:44 PM/EST
Sure, Microsoft has an on-demand platform-as-a-service offering that executives say is akin to Salesforce.com's Force.com platform. And, sure, the company is developing a marketplace to sell its services and applications and those of its partners, again like Salesforce.com. But Microsoft, unlike the reigning rival in the hotly contested on-demand CRM (customer relationship management) sector, isn't too keen on talking about its offering. Not just yet.
Thursday, February 28, 2008 10:20 PM/EST
ZDNet blogger (and Procullux Ventures founding director) Phil Wainewright hosted a panel discussion Thursday at the OpSource SaaS Summit here in San Francisco that shed some very interesting light on Salesforce.com's platform strategy. Actually, almost shocking insight to a reporter who has covered Force.com primarily from the Salesforce user/developer and partner angle--people whom I've tracked down at conferences and over the phone to talk about their experience with Apex, with Force.com, and with Salesforce.com who have, by and large, seemed pretty excited about the platform. But I digress. Back to the SaaS Summit. The panel, titled "Platform Choices Will Define On-Demand Opportunity," included folks from WebEx, Salesforce.com, Adobe, IBM Venture Capital Group and Oracle (a terrific mix, by the way). At the end of the panel discussion, Wainewright walked out into the audience of about 250 ISVs and conducted a bit of a straw poll. He asked by a show...
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