Enterprise Apps

In today's challenging economy and ultra-competitive marketplace, businesses simply can't afford customer churn; retention, engagement and overall experience are more important than ever. That's why business leaders are increasingly adopting and integrating the latest customer relationship managemen...

Good news for the economy: Small business outsourcing has gone mainstream thanks to the increased use of automation technology -- computers, software and the Internet powering cost-efficient outside service provider teams. Bad news for outsourcing service providers: Small and mid-sized businesses ar...

Why do your best laid plans often go unfulfilled? You have put the right people in the right jobs, empowered them to achieve, drafted an excellent plan, and got the necessary buy-in and funding. Yet somehow things went into the ditch -- and now the project is late and over budget, delivering a poo...

Enterprise Resource Planning systems have become the core platform for both internal and cross-company business processes. By integrating business functions, data and interfaces, they can bring many benefits, process efficiencies, improve customer service and -- if coupled with the right business st...

Microsoft gave audience attendees at the 2nd annual Microsoft Business Intelligence conference a sneak preview of its forthcoming SQL Server this week, code named "Kilimanjaro." It was an appropriate venue for its debut, given its increased emphasis on BI. New functional areas of emphasis in the ser...

Oracle is acquiring Primavera Software -- a best-of-breed vendor in the project portfolio management niche. The company already has some in-house functionality in this asset category; it now plans to leverage its existing technology with the Primavera product line to produce an enterprise applicatio...

Last year's online shopping season surpassed $29 billion in sales, up a full 20 percent from the previous holiday. More consumers did their shopping online than any holiday season before, due to the convenience and increasing popularity of the Internet as a way to get too many things done in too lit...

Cyber Monday, once considered the No. 1 shopping day for e-commerce and retail Web sites, has become the official kickoff to the holiday season and a key marketing event for the online community. As with any economic marker, it is vulnerable to credit crunches and significant financial tide changes....

All companies have similar problems, with one of the biggest being the ongoing challenge of growing their revenues. In today's declining economy, companies are seeking new ideas, new solutions, and proven advice to fight off competition and stay above water. The most successful organizations are not...

As Wall Street unwound last week, RightNow CEO Greg Gianforte watched from a vantage point an ocean away. He was in London, making a stop on his self-assigned global tour to visit the company's top 50 users. Like many people, Gianforte is viewing the events with a combination of uncertainty and cau...

The other day I had a conversation with some nice people from the market research company Coleman Parkes Research. They wanted to tell me about a study they have recently concluded about social networking. I have to say it was pretty interesting stuff. I will leave it to you to search for them and t...

Mobile application developers are a busy lot these days as organizations look to put the latest applications in the hands of mobile employees. However, as organizations' networks extend ever outward and "over the air," data and application security are primary concerns. Enterprise networks are a po...

Peak oil: When planet Earth reaches the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline. Some say it has already happened, some believe it will within the next 50 years, and some deny the possibility all together. By any measure, though, it is ...

There is a near-universal desire among firms to link all aspects of their supply chain -- including the customer front end -- on one platform. However, there are relatively few applications on the market today that address that demand. ModusLink hopes to fill that void with its newly launched e-busi...

Gartner's CRM conference is always a big event for the industry. The 2008 gathering, which just wrapped, was no different, with attendees leaving the Gaylord National Resort and Conference Center in Oxon Hill, Md., in a thoughtful mood over the direction CRM is heading. Not surprisingly, there was a...