Archive

Customer data integration (CDI) is becoming important for enterprises who want to target, acquire, develop and retain customers. In order to benefit from it, however, an enterprise needs to create a unified and comprehensive customer view from all disparate data sources -- including CRM, financial,...

When is a sales representative not a sales representative? That sounds like one of those brain teasers we learned as kids. Back when we had all the time in the world we could spend hours puzzling about the seeming contradictions in a simple question like, "What walks on four legs when young, two whe...

Oracle has made its third purchase in less than a year, announcing today that it has acquired Oblix, a small identity management software company. Terms of the sale were not announced. Oblix's security software allows for Web access control of single sign-on, identity administration and user provisi...

Phishing is one of the most significant threats to online consumers, and as the incidence of this type of fraud increases, so does the perpetrators' average take. Phishers who lucked out and lured several customers of a British bank into false communications recently made off with an average of 5,00...

While they worked closely together in the past to provide cutting-edge wireless, bar code and radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, U.S. companies Symbol and Intermec are now locked in a widening patent battle that some fear could hamper the progress of RFID. Holtsville, New York-based S...

Customer data integration (CDI) is becoming important for enterprises who want to target, acquire, develop and retain customers. In order to benefit from it, however, an enterprise needs to create a unified and comprehensive customer view from disparate data sources -- including CRM, financial, pro...

Last week a small piece of our world changed. Did you catch it? It happened Thursday, when NetSuite, with its NetFlex announcement, became the second company to offer development and customization capabilities. The week before, in New York, Salesforce.com announced Multiforce, an ambitious additio...

Oracle and its CEO, Larry Ellison, have won the battle to acquire retail software maker Retek, signing a definitive merger agreement announced today. SAP, Oracle's rival in the quest to buy Retek, bowed out of the bidding. The database giant will buy Retek's outstanding stock for $11.25 a share, or ...

Phishing as a way of pilfering private consumer information has become a major security concern. What started as fraudulent e-mail requesting personal information has morphed into sophisticated phony eBay transactions and fake online bill-pay opportunities. Consumer fears, combined with the someti...

Oracle bumped up its bid to acquire Retek late yesterday, in the second round of its battle with SAP for the retail applications developer. The move was expected, but the new offer, US$11.25 per share to SAP's $11, was lower than the $12 Gartner analyst Andrew White predicted yesterday. At the new h...

Home-grown ERP systems are the Oscar Madisons of the IT world. Grizzled by years of service yet reluctant to change, these massive home-grown systems resist the efforts of CIOs to transform them. More often than not, the home-grown ERP system ends up changing the CIO. The complexity and lack of c...

SAP took another shot in its battle with Oracle, raising to $11 a share its bid for Retek. SAP had been set to buy the retail applications provider for $8.50 a share, then Oracle countered at $9. The war, however, is far from over, analysts say. "I would be surprised if Oracle didn't go through anot...

The theory goes that each side of the brain controls a distinct mode of thinking: holistic and synthesizing on the right and logical and sequential on the left. Many people believe that they lean to one side or the other in their approach to learning and doing. Now help is on the way for right-brain...

Sales systems are a regular feature of the CRM suite, and if you didn't know better you might think that garden-variety sales force automation (SFA) is about the only thing you need. That might have been true a few years ago, but we're seeing that changes in markets and economies can have a great e...

Blogging is quickly becoming part of the online lexicon of marketing, sales and support organizations as companies look for better ways to connect with customers. The Pew Internet and American Life Project published a report in January based on two blog surveys. The report is free and can be downl...