Articles by Erika Morphy

As a rule, manufacturers have been blissfully unconcerned with some of the finer points of CRM functionality and processes -- but not because they have been indifferent to their customers' needs Rather, the low adoption rates of CRM technology in this sector have been more reflective of manufacturers' business operations, which traditionally have n...

MySpace.com may have been discovered and popularized by younger people, but adults over 25 years old comprise a surprising portion of the user base, according to new figures released by comScore's Media Metrix According to the firm, visitors to MySpace.com and Friendster.com generally tend to be older, with people age 25 and older comprising 68 and...

European regulatory authorities have taken a step toward bringing allegations that Intel is violating antitrustlaw closer to a resolution -- and the company's probable prosecution Officials investigating claims against the chip maker reportedly havepresented their evidence to an internal panel of so-called "devil's advocates," a step taken before f...

Microsoft and EMC have developed nativeintegration technology for SharePoint Server 2007, as well as the2007 Microsoft Office system and SQL Server 2005,through a newly announced enterprise content management alliance The new functionality expands the EMC optionsavailable to SharePoint users, EMC's John McCormick, vicepresident of product managemen...

NetSuite has married two of its applications to provide additional features for clients that use itsproduct to collaborate with partners PRM+ integrates the company's partner relationship management, order management and commission management apps, incorporating enhanced functionality. It allows companies outside the extranet to view projected sale...

Today, search giant Google occupies a state-of-the art complex at1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, Calif.However, when the company was first founded in the late1990s by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the two recentStanford grads had to make do with a garage that theyreportedly rented for US$1,700 a month from the friend ofa friend Fast forwa...

As the defective laptop battery problem reaches pandemic proportions -- with Toshiba,Fujitsu,Lenovo and IBM among the latest manufacturers to recall their products for fear they might start a fire -- Dell has expanded the recall it initiated on Aug. 15, adding more products to the list Sony, for its part, has said it will initiate a globalreplaceme...

As a rule, manufacturers have been blissfully unconcerned with some of the finer points of CRM functionality and process. This is not to say they are indifferent to their customers' needs. Rather, the low adoption rates of CRM technology in this sector have been more reflective of manufacturers' business operations, which traditionally have not required much input from customers beyond their initial specifications. Indeed, until recently, most manufacturing operations could not respond to last minute changes in customer demands or requirements...

AOL's privacy policy and how it is interpreted by the courts and federal government will be in the spotlight as two separate actions against the company move forward In the latest reaction to AOL's erroneous posting of some of its members' search term data this past August, two unnamed California residents and Kasadore Ramkissoon of Richmond County...

SAP has upgraded its Software as a Service CRM application to include service capabilities, rounding out its earlier sales and marketing offerings The new modules also have enhanced integration capabilities and new sales automation functionality, specifically the ability to provide product quotes, said John Garrish, director, solution marketing, S...

Earlier this month, Sage Software announced it had acquired one of its longtime partners, Corum, a Canada-based provider of CRM technology It was a significant deal for the company, saidDave Batt, senior vice president and general managerof Global CRM, as the acquired technology matches one of the functional areasthe company intends to push -- and ...

The Internet, a ubiquitous and essential fixturein just about every developed nation, is slowly butsurely reaching into some of the world's most remoteoutposts -- courtesy of such companies as Intel, CiscoandEmbratel As part of World Ahead, a new initiative established earlierthis year to bring technology to developing areas,Intel has created a wir...

ATG has announced that it will acquiree-commerce best-of-breed vendor eStara in a US$48.3 million cash-and-stock transaction that will increase ATG's market share and bring new niche functionality under its umbrella eStara specializes in click-to-call technology -- an online e-commerce tool that lets a customer care rep contact a buyer online to se...

Both large and small companies plan to expand their average budgets for enterprise portal initiatives by 35 percent to 40 percent in the coming year, according to a new report from the Aberdeen Group Drivers behind this demand include initiatives toextend business applications across the enterprise andpossibly into partner systems, along with plan...

For the second time in three years, Segway has issued a recall of its popular personal transporters, prompted by a series of injuries, some requiring hospitalization, that some riders have suffered when performing certain maneuvers A software glitch is responsible for the defect. Specifically, the "speed limiter" in a Segway can cause it to tip ba...

Unica has introduced the latest version of its enterprise marketing management suite, Affinium 7. Over the past few months, the company has been rolling out modules of version 7, including applications for marketing resource management, campaign management, optimization, predictive analytics and Web analytics The company also plans to release modu...

A new product fromeTalk, Qfiniti Assist, provides contact center agents with knowledge management support while they are on the line with a customer. The tool combines speech recognition and enterprise search technology to identify the information the agent needs in order to answer a client's question. It then automatically routes that information to the agent's desktop during the call...

AT&T and MobiTV are now offering a mobile television service to broadband users. Called AT&T Broadband TV, it is available to subscribers of any broadband service -- not just AT&T's high speed Internet services. AT&T and MobiTV have already partnered to offer MobiTV's content to users of AT&T's WiFi hot spots; this new offering is an expansion of that agreement, the companies said...

CosmoCom has introduced Version 4.6 of its Universe contact center software platform. New enhancements include improved reporting functionality, IP Centrex integration, and new networking functionality -- namely, the introduction of a new, proprietary NAT (network address translation) Traversal capability Also, this version continues to take advant...

Surprised by a rapidly building revolt brewing among its normally loyal customers, social networking siteFacebook has agreed to offer users privacy options with its news feed tool Introduced just last week, Facebook's news feed provides updates to members every time a change is made to a friend's profile. While it does not reveal any information th...