Articles by Erika Morphy

Microsoft has released Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP. Besides offering such incremental improvements as better sync and search capabilities, this latest download is the first with URGE -- MTV Networks' digital music center -- directly embedded into the application as a default setting. This release also lets consumers test drive Media Player 11 for Windows Vista...

eGain Communications on Monday released the latest iterationof its self-service application, eGain Service 7.6.New features include guidance on complex customerinteractions and tweaks to security, as well as additionalprocess improvement. The changes, eGain CEO AshuRoy told CRM Buyer, are based on either customerrequests or the company's experiences in the field...

Concerns have been growing that voting machine mishaps might undermine the results of the upcoming Congressional elections -- among the most bitterly fought in recent memory -- either through glitches in the new technology or through outright fraud The latest worry? The ownership of Boca Raton, Fla.-based Smartmatic, which last year acquired Sequoi...

NetSuite has introduced a new development platform that gives both users and partners deeper customization capabilities for their respective needs. Called "SuiteFlex," the platform gives customers the tools to build their own workflows and user interfaces -- for example, a billing application that reflects the multiple pricing policies the firm offers -- within NetSuite...

Renault is marketing a car called the Logan -- a starter vehicle that retails for about US$6,300. A safety conscious consumer may pause before getting in -- but he shouldn't, or at least not more so than he would with any other car. Renault is not cutting corners in its manufacturing process. Instead, Renault is reverse engineering its landed costs to make sure its manufacturing and sources processes are done at the lowest cost possible...

Microsoft is making greater portions of its Sender ID framework, a security standard designed to ensure that e-mails come from legitimate sources, available under its Open Specification Promise (OSP) program At one time, the standard -- which is used alone or in combination with others by most of the major ISP providers -- was seen as a viable tool...

Oracle and IBM are leveraging the multi-million dollar investments they have made in their Linux product lines by joining forces to collaborate on the sales and marketing of Oracle applications for Linux on System z This collaborative effort has been driven in large part by customer demand, Frank Monez, the Linux System z Initiative Manager, told C...

A survey of online banking illustrates how banks can cement brand loyalty and even increase market share through a thoughtful redesign of their online channel The survey was one of three extensive research studies released by Keynote Competitive Research, measuring the performance and competitive positioning of 29 banking Web sites. It rated and ev...

What should companies do -- and what should they refrain from doing -- when reacting to blog postings about their products or services? Robert Cox, president of the New York-based Media BloggersAssociation and a consultant to consumer packaged goods companies, has veryspecific ideas on the subject What they shouldn't do: Ignore the situation, or wo...

Oracle is offering to support clients' PeopleSoft and Siebel applications in its own data center -- a managed service option that it has offered with its own Oracle applications for the last few years Oracle is including these new offerings in its On Demand portfolio, although the name is confusing. Basically, clients purchase a traditional license...

At its first CRM customer summit, held this week in San Diego, Microsoft announced the availability of tools to integrate its Dynamics CRM application with competing ERP (enterprise resource planning) back-end systems Called "Solution Accelerators," the integration packages connect via BizTalk Server. They are available forOracle's Siebel CRM, Orac...

Of all the CRM subsector technologies, sales force automation is the most mature. Expecting dramatic change in this category, therefore, would be akin to expecting the radical realignment of a general accounting ledger package Yet, over the last year or so, dramatic change is exactly what has occurred, as a new generation of providers have entere...

Reporting a quarterly profit of US$2.2 billion, IBMhandily beat Wall Street's expectations with its Q3earnings. Impressive sales of its hardware andlicensed software sales were the primary driver of the company'sgains The only cloudy note in the report was the decline in itsservices unit, which constitutes almost halfof IBM's business. The company ...

Google is planning to deploy a solarelectricity system that will have a capacity of 1.6megawatts at its famed million square foot headquarters inMountain View, Calif. It will be the largest suchinstallation on a corporate campus in the UnitedStates and one of the largest in the world, the company said EI Solutions, a subsidiary of Energy Innovation...

Two private equity firms, The Carlyle Group and Providence Equity Partners, jointly announced on Monday that they have signed a definitive agreement to acquire Open Solutions in a transaction valued at over US$1.3 billion Under terms of the agreement, The Carlyle Group and Providence Equity Partners would acquire all of Open Solutions' outstanding ...

Growth in the enterprise resource planning market may have paused during the 2001-2002 recession, but it is now back to a steady pace, according to a new AMR Research report The consulting firm found that total ERP market revenue grew to more than US$25 billion in 2005due to strong customer demand, as well as a number of acquisitions of smaller nic...

Yahoo has launched what it ambitiously calls the largest time capsule in the history of the world. It is encouraging people from around the globe to contribute personal photos, stories, thoughts, ideas, poems, home movies -- the flotsam of every day life, in other words -- to its site, timecapsule.yahoo.com. The point, as with all time capsules, is to illustrate life in 2006...

Salesforce.com has opened its code to outsidedevelopers for the first time with the introduction ofApex, a new multi-tenant programming language andplatform. Companies will be able to useApex to tailor or reprogram their Salesforce.comdeployments or build entirely new components withinthe application from scratch Salesforce.com previously has offer...

Third party antivirus vendors are becoming increasingly convinced that Microsoft's rigorous security protocols for its forthcoming Windows Vista operating system are in effect a back-door effort to gain market share in the computer security space Symantec -- and more recently, McAfee -- have charged the Redmond, Wash.-based conglomerate with abusin...

Oracle's Fusion -- its middleware designed to help customers use the various enterprise suites and applications it has acquired over the last few years -- has been incorporated into PeopleSoft Financial Management 9, the first new release of the application in eighteen months Fusion Features...