Applications

Enterprise Security: No Perimeter Is Perfect
January 21, 2013

Enterprises of all types are increasingly under attack by advanced persistent threats, which pose much greater danger than the lone hacker who just wants to use brute force to get in and deface their website. They are exploiting the disconnect between application security and perimeter security. The growing sophistication of intruders means they can gain access to an organization's entire infrastructure.

Cisco Lets Virtual Desktop Users Get In on Its Jabber
January 17, 2013

Cisco on Thursday announced the Virtualization Experience Media Engine, new software that will extend its Jabber unified communications application to virtualized workspace environments. VXME will initially be available on thin clients from Cisco. Support for Dell Wyse thin clients, Windows-based thin clients and Windows PCs will follow.

2013: The Year of Mobile CRM, Part 2
January 15, 2013

2013 is just two weeks old, but executives in the mobile CRM space have a clear idea of how they hope the rest of it will unfold. What they want, in a word, is more: more mobile CRM functionality; availability on more devices; more vendors supplying applications. More mobile CRM is indeed on the way as economic growth picks up, said Atri Chatterjee, CMO of Act-On.

SAP Gets Real-Time With HANA-Powered Business Suite
January 14, 2013

SAP last week released SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA, which marries its popular integrated applications with its high performance business analytics platform. SAP Business Suite is the largest application SAP has in terms of customers, said Ken Tsai, VP, SAP Hana product marketing at SAP.

Zoho Update Gooses Sales Productivity
January 11, 2013

Although Zoho routinely updates its CRM application every few months or so, its latest release is far from routine, according to Zoho Evangelist Raju Vegesna, who described it as a step forward in collaborative productivity. "Essentially we added three new features, all of which focused on improving the productivity and collaborative capabilities of the sales person," he said.

CRM Product Profiles: The Year in Review
December 28, 2012

CRM applications tend to embody a range of features, depending on the maker and the audience. Some applications are stripped-down products sporting a handful of features -- and only those features -- deemed necessary to the user. Other products have become de facto mini-ERP systems with their integrations into back-end systems and business analytics.

Predicting the Future Is Not for the Faint of Heart
December 19, 2012

I was doing some research in the Time Magazine archives -- the best ones I have seen, by the way -- the other day and came across this nugget from 1962: "Despite the discouraging results so far, many scientists argue that military-space research will ultimately produce an overflowing cornucopia of marketable consumer products, from supersonic planes to small nuclear reactors for home power."

Is Something Rotten in the State of Freiburg?
December 10, 2012

You win some, you lose some," as the old saying goes, but rarely do the two occur nearly simultaneously. Sure enough, however, that's just what happened to open source software in Germany recently: It was being celebrated in Munich even as it was dumped in Freiburg.

In Search of the Killer Fitness App Business Model
October 20, 2012

It is difficult to maintain a healthy lifestyle, and consumers, academics, companies, and the government are all aware of this fact. The Affordable Care Act carries many provisions to promote healthy behaviors, in many cases following initiatives already independently implemented by insurance companies.

LibreOffice vs. OpenOffice, Part Deux
October 08, 2012

It's been a momentous few weeks for FOSS fans, not least because LibreOffice -- one of the most popular exemplars of free and open source software today -- celebrated its second anniversary late last month. Indeed, with 325 active committers over the last 12 months, LibreOffice is now the third-largest free software project listed on Ohloh focused on the development of a desktop application.

Be Not Afraid: Calculate Your Real Risk of a Software Audit
October 06, 2012

The words "software audit" can strike fear into even the most unflappable business executive's heart. Just as the sight of a police cruiser on the freeway compels all but the most foolhardy to slow down immediately, for most organizations the mere possibility of a vendor audit prompts a flurry of anxious activity and more than a few sleepless nights.

Is Oracle Making an Offer Customers Can't Refuse?
October 02, 2012

On the first day of OpenWorld, Oracle unveiled a slew of products designed to position the company as the preeminent cloud vendor: a high-end server; an upgraded flagship database, version 12c, which will be released early next year; and a range of new or upgraded applications for the cloud.

Mobile CRM Gets Gamified
October 02, 2012

CRM is a mature software category with a decades-plus history of development and evolution. Still, one important problem remains unsolved: A lot of employees, especially sales staff, just can't be bothered with it. Corporate "solutions" have ranged from bribing to arm-twisting to appeals to corporate loyalty. None, though, have worked so well as building gamification features into the system.

Oracle's Short-Term Software Gains May Have Long-Term Costs
September 24, 2012

Oracle reported earnings for its first fiscal quarter in 2013 last week, telling a tale of two product lines: Its software operations fared respectably, while its hardware slumped dramatically. Hardware systems product revenue was down 24 percent. "These are tough times, and companies are still not investing heavily in capital equipment," noted tech analyst Laura DiDio.

Aprimo Shows Reps More Cross-Sell, Upsell Possibilities
September 17, 2012

Aprimo has released its second app for Salesforce.com's AppExchange, called "Aprimo Service to Sales." It is an inbound marketing app with real-time interactive features. The first Aprimo app destined for the AppExchange was released in 2010. The newer app, however, is written on a different code base, which was acquired last year with the acquisition of Helm Interaction's IP assets.

Salesforce.com Unveils New Community-Building Plans
August 14, 2012

Salesforce.com is rolling out a limited pilot of yet another social media initiative -- Salesforce Communities. The offering combines its Chatter product, its Salesforce.com business processes, and an underlying social intelligence that makes it easy to show people the right information and give them the correct access to experts, said Doug Bewsher, SVP, Salesforce Chatter.

Open Source Still Draws Proprietary Vendors Into the Fold
August 14, 2012

VMware continued its embrace of open source software with its recent acquisition of open source and virtual network provider Nicira. The move continued VMware's aggressive M&A strategy and its effort to transition from proprietary software and virtualization to a broader market and cloud computing, largely through open source software.

SAP Innovation Day - Setting a Standard for the Next 40 Years
August 14, 2012

When SAP's five founders launched the company in June 1972, it's unlikely they foresaw where the IT industry would travel in the decades to come. SAP's core business applications, including enterprise resource planning solutions, continue to support tens of thousands of companies globally -- but how those organizations and their employees work, communicate and collaborate is changing.

Is Microsoft Bottoming Out? - Part 2
August 11, 2012

You'd think that Microsoft was all but dead, judging by some of the industry scuttlebutt. Microsoft's tactical and strategic technology and business missteps are well publicized and dissected ad infinitum. Less well documented are Microsoft's strengths -- from both a consumer and enterprise perspective -- and there are plenty of those.

Acer's Anger Rises to the Surface
August 07, 2012

Acer Chairman and CEO JT Wang has lashed out at Microsoft over the software giant's plans to launch its own Surface tablets in October. Microsoft should think twice before going forward with the tablet, as the move would be detrimental for the worldwide PC ecosystem, Wang said during an interview.