Vendors

Sometime between Groundhog Day and the Final Four each year, we try to publish a short report that showcases some of the brightest emerging companies in front-office computing. We call it the "WizKids Report," and we present the companies in the report with a small award. At times, companies who ha...

Microsoft Convergence is a very large show. Last week in Orlando, Fla., there were in excess of 9,500 people, most from outside of the United States, and by that measure alone it was a successful event. Convergence is one of Microsoft's chances to meet face to face with its partners and customers f...

It wasn't so long ago that the chief technology officer was sequestered in the IT department, cut off for all intents and purposes from the hub of enterprise power. It is different now, of course: The CTO position has grown in visibility over the last 10 years and become more closely tied to that of...

It is difficult to avoid the talk of a potential recession in 2008. Even firms whose product set or market niche are well-suited for tight times don't like the thought of slow sales and bleak economic forecasts. RightNow Technologies, an established Software as a Service CRM vendor, is one of those ...

John Roberts, chairman and CEO of SugarCRM, is no stranger to the proprietary software that delivers most of the CRM functionality in the market today. The Washington, D.C.-native moved to Silicon Valley in his twenties and spent 12 years in the "trenches" as he puts it, developing products for ente...

Now general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Brad Wilson's career trajectory has allowed him to deliver CRM to the market from many different vantage points -- and levels of resources. Wilson began at HP as a database software architect, moving into product management and marketing after a few yea...

NetSuite has sold 6.2 million shares to investors in a Dutch auction this week, raising a healthy $161 million. The haul from its long-awaited initial public offering came in spite of -- or perhaps because -- its moving target price. NetSuite ultimately debuted at $26 per share, after jumping from a...

Oracle beat many Wall Street predictions in its second fiscal quarter, reporting $1.3 billion in net income and a year-over-year 36 percent increase in stock earnings. The increase in quarterly profit equated to 25 cents per share. The Redwood Shores, Calif., software giant raked in $5.3 billion in ...

NetSuite is going to the market for its proposed initial public offering with high hopes: The company has upped its estimated price range for the second time this week. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it expects its IPO target price to be between $19 to...

Several years ago when Salesforce.com burst onto the CRM scene, it was difficult to imagine how the upstart firm could make a dent in the space. At the time, the gorilla in the room was Siebel and the thought of an Internet-based application -- an experimental delivery mode then -- besting the deepl...

RightNow and Demandware have developed a new mash-up that integrates the former's CRM and customer service offerings with the latter's e-commerce suite. The result is an application that incorporates product content management and promotion with such interaction functionality as click-to-chat, while...

Channel partner opportunity management firm BlueRoads announced on Sept. 17 a new lead referral module designed to help vendors gain strategic insight into the management of better sales channel yield. The new software module captures new referrals from a vendor's extended partner community and harn...

Silicon Valley venture capitalists Bay Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners have pooled resources with Salesforce.com to roll out a fund that will invest in companies' development activities on Salesforce.com's platform. Typical investments will equal about $500,000 each, totaling $25 million over...

Today's sales manager is faced with a myriad of challenges in an increasing hostile selling environment -- deals stuck in the pipeline, frequently missed sales "commits," sales people not hitting quota, and high sales employee turnover are just a few of the issues that the beleaguered sales managers...

During Dreamforce there was a panel discussion for media and the financial and industry analysts. Some of Salesforce.com's senior executives were there for a panel discussion, which included Chief Financial Officer Steve Cakebread, cofounder and Executive Vice President Parker Harris and Vice Presi...