Archive

Last week Salesforce.com introduced a new call and contact center service called Supportforce.com. It's a slick package that includes the hardware and software any company needs to initiate or enhance call center activities right down to voice over IP. Salesforce now joins the ranks of companies suc...

Oracle will enter a Delaware court this week to request an order for dissolution of PeopleSoft's customer assurance program and poison pill. "The poison pill is designed to make it more difficult for Oracle to take over the organization. The customer assurance program is designed to compensate custo...

For companies that don't rank among the Fortune 500, an incremental approach to CRM often feels most comfortable. These smaller companies get their feet wet with sales force automation software or call center and customer care solutions. They build or buy these applications to handle discrete parts ...

With a front-office firing, a rosy earnings report and a renewed court battle against Oracle, PeopleSoft continues to keep industry watchers busy. After the announcement Friday that PeopleSoft CEO and President Craig Conway had been fired, many observers assumed that the move was related to Oracle's...

IBM recently announced that it will pour US$250 million into the development of radio frequency identification and sensor network technology over the next five years. In addition to developing hardware, including the wireless tags and readers, IBM also plans to provide software and integrated suppor...

PeopleSoft shocked the business world this morning by announcing that it had fired Craig Conway as president and CEO, effective immediately. Dave Duffield, the company's founder, stepped into the CEO position, and the presidency will by shared by two men, Kevin Parker and Phil Wilmington. The news s...

Customer retention has always been an important issue for wireless operators, and they acquired a new problem earlier this year when users gained the right to take their mobile phone numbers with them to a new carrier. In their efforts to retain customers, most focus on services and products. Some s...

They're at it again -- Oracle and (reluctantly) PeopleSoft -- like siblings in the back seat on the ride to grandma's house. Now that a federal court has said that Oracle's pursuit of its rival is OK on anti-trust grounds, Oracle is trying to clear the remaining hurdles, such as the European Commis...

Almost one-third of the world's financial institutions have outsourced work overseas, and the practice has spawned consumer and political backlash. But according to many analysts, the benefits outweigh the negative publicity incurred by financial services giants such as American Express and Discover...

While American minds may be opening to various self-help pharmaceuticals, from Viagra for erectile dysfunction to Wellbutrin for depression, American feet aren't equally comfortable walking the aisles of brick-and-mortar drugstores to get the goods, some studies show. Enter Drugstore.com, a site lau...

There are many common threads that tie together shopping for an analyst firm and kicking the tires of a sports utility vehicle. The power promised by the marketing behind both is impressive. The trick is finding one that fits what you want to accomplish. Both have high expectations associated with t...

A little more than a week ago, JPMorgan Chase withdrew from a seven-year, $5 billion Internet technology outsourcing agreement it inked in 2002 with IBM. It decided to pull IT inside. But this decision represents an anomaly in the outsourcing industry. All news reports verify the accomplishment of a...

This week I'm trying something different. I usually try to go in-depth with one subject for a column. To do that I frequently start out writing about a number of different ideas just to see where they end up. Many of the ideas don't make it into a column because they never reach a sufficient length...

The Oracle-PeopleSoft controversy has caused a ripple -- or perhaps a wave -- that has not yet reached the shore of software development, but it carries implications for many software firms. Although Oracle's hostile takeover of PeopleSoft is by no means a done deal, the very possibility signals a s...

First Chicago (now Bank One) initiated the trend of charging for face time with a teller in order to encourage the more cost-efficient use of ATMs. Competitors hastily followed suit. In December 2002, however, the bank dropped this controversial practice, concerned that self-service banking channels...