| Microsoft to go Live with on-demand CRM
Microsoft plans to launch a new hosted CRM service next year under its expanding Live brand. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live, an on-demand alternative to its on-premise CRM software, is set to debut by mid-2007 as part of a revamped product code-named Titan. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive, announced the offering in Boston on Tuesday at a conference of roughly 8,000 of Redmond's business partners. Ballmer made his pitch to the partners on why they should work with Microsoft. "When you leave you have to understand what the opportunity is for you, and do you want to invest with Microsoft," he said. The revamped customer relationship management hosting plan was widely expected. Ballmer called CRM Live "maybe the single most inevitable announcement in the history of Microsoft".
Oracle snaps up Hyperion for $3.3bn
Oracle announced on Thursday that it has agreed to buy Hyperion Solutions for $3.3bn, in a move to expand in the area of performance management systems. The acquisition is yet another multibillion-dollar deal in recent years for Oracle, which has shown a hunger for expanding quickly via mergers. The software maker acquired customer relationship management software maker Siebel Systems for $5.85bn last year and archrival PeopleSoft for $10.3bn in 2005. While the PeopleSoft and Siebel acquisitions had product overlap to varying degrees with Oracle's existing business, the Hyperion deal is expected to have little redundancy, Oracle executives said in a conference call with analysts. Hyperion sells business intelligence tools and financial applications to corporations.
Oracle 'same old' strategy for post-Siebel CRM
Oracle has unveiled its strategy to deal with the integration of its Siebel business with the CRM operations of JD Edwards, Oracle and PeopleSoft. The key message is "no change". The company plans to continue with all its current lines of business for the foreseeable future, with the promise of full integration through its Fusion strategy at some point. At a conference on Tuesday for customers and press in London, Oracle offered few concrete details on future plans for the four existing customer relationship management businesses other than to insist they would continue as they are under the same financial models and the same software. But the company did say Oracle-Siebel CRM will form "the centrepiece of the next-generation Oracle Fusion CRM applications strategy".
Oracle-Siebel: Ellison's axe falls on 2,000 jobs
Oracle outlined its integration plans for Siebel Systems on Thursday, with 2,000 job cuts among the most notable tasks at hand. Oracle, which closed its $5.85bn merger with Siebel last week, plans to cut 2,000 jobs across the Siebel and Oracle work forces, Oracle chief financial officer Safra Catz said during a conference call with analysts. Catz said: "We will retain... Siebel's product development and product sales and marketing teams." The layoffs had been expected, with many observers thinking the cuts would hit Oracle's customer relationship management (CRM) employees the hardest. Oracle had previously said it would use Siebel technology as its core CRM product. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said: "We will retain 90 per cent of Siebel's support, development engineers, sales and sales consultants.
Newforma Presents Insights on Email Management at ACEC's 2007 National ...
MANCHESTER, N.H., Oct. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Newforma, a software company addressing the project information management needs of the design and building industry, announced today that Chief Data Architect Jim Forester, P.E., presented "Thinking outside the inbox: deploying an email management process enterprise-wide" to more than 100 senior executives at the 2007 American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) National Conference on the Built Environment, September 26-29, 2007, at the Grand Wailea Resort & Spa in Maui, Hawaii. During the session, Forester discussed the effect enterprise-wide email management practices have on making engineering firms more productive, more profitable and less exposed to the legal problems that may result from an inability to find information. With real customer examples, he demonstrated how engineering firms are implementing a consistent email management process enterprise-wide.
|
