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Oracle's Big Pivot Point April 25, 2012 
This might be the year we look on in hindsight as the time Oracle got its groove back. It is well known that CEO Larry Ellison thinks in 10-year cycles and about how the industry seems to morph like a caterpillar about every decade. He's not the only one. Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com, has referenced the decade cadence, and others have too.
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US Agency Takes 'Private' Approach to Streamlining IT Procurement April 14, 2012 
Information technology vendors seeking business from the federal government are well advised to keep an eye on the requirements of big agencies such as the Department of Justice or the Department of Homeland Security. Within big departments, there are big components -- such as the Food and Drug Administration or the Bureau of the Census.
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Vendors Must Deal With More Federal 'Commodity' IT Purchasing April 10, 2012 
Federal agencies will be moving significant portions of their annual IT spending to "commodity" type procurement vehicles by the end of 2012. As part of continuing reforms in IT acquisition and management, the White House Office of Management and Budget has directed agencies to immediately begin the process of consolidating IT procurement, with a focus on shared service arrangements.
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Oracle Trumpets Analytics Bona Fides April 06, 2012 
Oracle President Mark Hurd delivered a speech before Oracle OpenWorld Tokyo that emphasized the rapid buildup in analytical functionality the company has made in recent months. He touched upon previous developments, such as the Big Data Appliance announced at the start of the year, as well recent news, such as its update of Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management.
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Why CRM Works April 04, 2012 
I have great admiration for the work of Daniel Kahneman. He's an Israeli psychologist whose work with the late Amos Tversky won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002, even though neither was obviously an economist. The pair built the foundation for behavioral economics and did early work on framing, or how we perceive issues based on what other information surrounds them.
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Microsoft: Turn the Corner, Connect the Dots March 28, 2012 
To get a sense of all the wonderfulness surrounding Convergence, you need only glance at some of the many observations made by the likes of Paul Greenberg, Brent Leary, Dennis Howlett, Josh Greenbaum and many others. So kudos to Microsoft. My observations will be somewhat different. While I also think Microsoft has made important strides and I applaud its CRM team, I want to focus on what's around the bend.
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Microsoft Dynamics ERP Is Bound for Azure Glory March 26, 2012 
Microsoft is stepping up its cloud strategy, with the announcement that it will port its Microsoft Dynamics enterprise resource planning software to Windows Azure this year. The company outlined plans for the transition at Convergence 2012, held last week in Houston. Dynamics NAV 2013 and Dynamics GP 2013, optimized for small and mid-sized businesses, will be added to Azure in the fourth quarter of 2012.
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The Insurgents and the Status Quo March 21, 2012 
If you read Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, you get a good sense of the rivalry between Jobs and Bill Gates and Microsoft, or between Apple and the rest of the world more generally. But the rivalries were really between that past/present -- and the future -- and Jobs and Gates were only playing parts that were scripted long ago. The play's outlines are of insurgent new ideas against the status quo.
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The Cloud Computing Paradigm Shift Is Bigger Than IT March 13, 2012 
Information technology leaders in the U.S. government have been promoting cloud technologies for more than a year. In December 2010, the federal chief information officer launched an IT reform plan that required agencies to start adopting cloud technologies. At the time, some agencies had already implemented cloud solutions, and since then many others have initiated cloud programs.
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How's Your Ecosystem? March 07, 2012 
You can gauge the success and financial health of almost any company by looking at revenues. At least this is true in the short term. Since revenue is a lagging indicator -- with the exception of monthly recurring revenue that subscription companies measure -- it only tells you where you've been, not where you are going.
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Feds to Keep IT Revenue Stream Flowing March 06, 2012 
Vendors can at least count on one big customer to provide a steady stream of revenue for the next year or two: the U.S. government. Federal Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel has been promoting the idea that when it comes to IT, the federal government must "do more with less." But the Obama administration's budget for 2013 basically proposes that federal agencies do more with the same.
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Salesforce.com Chalks Up Strong FY12, but Competition Looms February 27, 2012 
Salesforce.com hit it out of the park with quarterly earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter and full fiscal year, which ended Jan. 31, 2012. Total Q4 revenue was $632 million, an increase of 38 percent on a year-over-year basis, topping the $624 million expected by analysts. For the full fiscal year 2012, the company reported revenue of $2.27 billion, an increase of 37 percent from the prior year.
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Federal Virtualization Business: Let the Vendor Clawing and Scratching Begin February 21, 2012 
"We are seizing on the power of 21st century technology to consolidate data centers and moving to lightweight, shareable technologies, such as cloud computing, while also directing agencies to consolidate commodity IT services, and shift to shared services," said Federal Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel.
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Kundra Casts His Lot With Salesforce.com January 17, 2012 
Salesforce.com has snagged a marquee name for its executive ranks: the former chief information officer of the United States, Vivek Kundra. Kundra, who left his post with the Obama administration last year, is joining Salesforce.com as executive vice president of emerging markets.
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Avaya Mobilizes Smooth Collaboration in IP Office 8.0 January 13, 2012 
Avaya has released its IP Office 8.0 -- the latest iteration of its trademark unified communications platform for small and mid-sized businesses. The new application comes with a number of new features, some of which focus on the company's core competency of communications, collaboration and presence.
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Feds on Successful IT Procurement: This Is How It's Done December 20, 2011 
Federal information technology managers -- often cited for poor execution of procurement practices -- now have some project role models to follow for successfully managing IT investments. The federal General Accountability Office has issued a report on seven case studies of successful government IT procurement projects.
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Zoho Offers CRM Users an Easy Way In December 16, 2011 
Zoho has rolled out a major update to its CRM app, completely redesigning the user interface and adding new social and productivity features. It is a massive overhaul, Zoho evangelist Raju Vegesna told CRM Buyer -- one the company plans to extend to other applications throughout its business suite of products.
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2011 in the Rearview Mirror December 14, 2011 
Every year around this time, I write two columns -- one on the year that was and another on what I expect the new year to bring. There is no methodology for this process, and I believe this lack of method is important. I take a blank screen and fill it up with what has been on my mind for the last year and what made it out through my posts. Here are a few ideas that bubbled up.
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SugarCRM Gets Sharper Interface, Speed Boost December 02, 2011 
SugarCRM, an open source CRM provider, has released 6.3, a new version of its flagship product line. It has also upped the ante in the cloud wars by partnering with IBM on its SmartCloud platform. The upshot, said CMO Nick Halsey, is a CRM app more than able to go head to head with long-established vendors. SugarCRM "put in a significant amount of enhanced administration control and management capabilities," he said.
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The Worst-Kept Secrets of the Big 4 November 23, 2011 
On an otherwise slow news week, I spotted a story emanating from a Gartner analyst, Dennis Gaughan, at a recent Gartner talk in Australia. The article was on Business Insider, and I found it interesting. The headline told the story, as good headlines often do.
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