Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Easy ERP: A Challenge to Conventional Thinking (TEC)

There is a new paradigm when it comes to evaluating ERP systems. With little difference between industry players' solutions, the key is the longevity of the system, its usability, and total cost of ownership.

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

True Tech Partnership (Line56)

As SSA Global customer weathers problems and emerges with a fuller understanding of the value of partnership

Monday, December 19, 2005

Development Trend Analysis of China's SMB ERP Market and Prediction of 2005-2006 Market Capacity Growth (Business Wire)

DUBLIN, Ireland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 19, 2005--Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c29615) has announced the addition of China ERP SMB Market Development 2005 to their offering

SMB businesses involved in this study are high-level small and medium-sized businesses. Among the four types of SMB businesses defined, the starting ones, the entry-level ones, the mid-level ones and the high-level ones. The other three types have not been covered in this study because they have not applied management software, stand-alone version management software or network version individual services management software and ERP.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

ERP Plus and Beyond (TEC)

ERP Plus provides tools that metal fabricators need to streamline their quoting, order entry, inventory control, production, labor collection, shipping, and invoicing processes.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Alfresco Named Winner in 5th Annual EContent 100 Awards; EContent Named Alfresco One of the Companies that Matter Most in the Digital Content Industry

LONDON --(Business Wire)-- Dec. 14, 2005 -- Alfresco Software, Inc., the first provider of an open source enterprise content management solution, today announced that it had been named as one of the winners in the annual EContent 100 awards--a list of companies that matter most in the digital content industry--for content management and also for intranets and portals.. Other winners include such notable names as Google, EMC and Microsoft.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Monday, December 12, 2005

Global ERP Solutions Vendor Taps the Power of Interwise to Drive Business Decisions, Corporate Culture Across Global Enterprise (Business Wire)

SYSPRO Integrates Interwise's Enterprise Conferencing into Key Business Processes to Create Tightly Aligned Business Operations on Five Continents

Intentia Launches New OneBox ERP Solution for SME Market (Market Wire)

Integrated Manufacturing, Distribution and Finance ERP Now Available in Cost-Effective Package for Smaller Businesses

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 12/12/2005 -- Intentia, a global enterprise solutions provider for the manufacturing, distribution and maintenance industries, announced today the availability of Intentia OneBox, an initiative that provides Intentia's renowned Java-based ERP solution on an IBM i5 server. This offering is targeted to meet the budget and requirements of customers with up to 50 users.

New SAP Initiative Will Help Drive SOA Adoption in Banking (Gartner)

An SAP-led working group will help banks implementing service-oriented architectures (SOAs). But broader industry participation and vendor-neutrality will be needed for the initiative to achieve widespread adoption.

Deal Extends SAP's Data Transformation, Itemfield's Reach (Gartner)

A partnership with Itemfield aims to introduce complex data transformation capabilities to SAP's offering. But the partners will face significant integration and support challenges.

Friday, December 09, 2005

Supply Chain Vendor Morphs into SCEM with Response Management Vision (TEC)

Supply chain planning vendors have moved beyond enterprise planning to solutions that encompass the whole supply chain. Companies like Kinaxis are using enterprise response management to manage events and responses as…

Thursday, December 08, 2005

SAP Education Benefits (Line56)

The first part of this article focused on the change and project management approach that allowed the Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) to achieve a successful technical upgrade from SAP 4.0 to 4.7. This time we're going to talk more about the benefits of SAP in this particular implementation, and where OCPS plans to go.

SAP darf Dienstleistungstochter integrieren (FTD)

Der Softwarekonzern SAP kann seine Dienstleistungstochter SAP SI im zweiten Anlauf wieder voll in den Konzern eingliedern. Mit einer Beteiligung von 95,05 Prozent ist der Weg nun frei für die Zwangsabfindung der übrigen SAP-SI-Aktionäre.


Die Eigner von 0,73 Prozent des SAP-SI-Kapitals nahmen das fast verdoppelte Abfindungsangebot von SAP auf 39,30 Euro je Aktie an und verhalfen dem Konzern damit über die Schwelle von 95 Prozent. Sie erlaubt es nun, die übrigen Aktionäre hinauszudrängen. Im ersten Anlauf war SAP im vergangenen Jahr mit einem Abfindungsangebot von 20,40 Euro kurz vor dieser Hürde gescheitert.

Die einst aus Teilen von SAP und Software AG entstandene SAP SI soll mit SAP verschmolzen werden. Der Konzern hatte die geplante Integration damit begründet, dass die Mitarbeiter von SAP SI in der Praxis die gleichen Wartungs- und Dienstleistungsaufgaben wie SAP-Beschäftigte erfüllten. Operativ hat SAP die Tochterfirma bereits so weit wie möglich in die eigene Organisation eingegliedert.

SAP darf Dienstleistungstochter integrieren (FTD)

Der Softwarekonzern SAP kann seine Dienstleistungstochter SAP SI im zweiten Anlauf wieder voll in den Konzern eingliedern. Mit einer Beteiligung von 95,05 Prozent ist der Weg nun frei für die Zwangsabfindung der übrigen SAP-SI-Aktionäre.

Die Eigner von 0,73 Prozent des SAP-SI-Kapitals nahmen das fast verdoppelte Abfindungsangebot von SAP auf 39,30 Euro je Aktie an und verhalfen dem Konzern damit über die Schwelle von 95 Prozent. Sie erlaubt es nun, die übrigen Aktionäre hinauszudrängen. Im ersten Anlauf war SAP im vergangenen Jahr mit einem Abfindungsangebot von 20,40 Euro kurz vor dieser Hürde gescheitert.

Die einst aus Teilen von SAP und Software AG entstandene SAP SI soll mit SAP verschmolzen werden. Der Konzern hatte die geplante Integration damit begründet, dass die Mitarbeiter von SAP SI in der Praxis die gleichen Wartungs- und Dienstleistungsaufgaben wie SAP-Beschäftigte erfüllten. Operativ hat SAP die Tochterfirma bereits so weit wie möglich in die eigene Organisation eingegliedert.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Upgrading SAP (Line56)

How Orange County Public Schools went to SAP 4.7 after missteps with 4.0; even a technical upgrade can represent a big opportunity

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

SAP continues toying with hosted ERP (InfoWorld)

Software, planned for launch sometime next year, will likely be offered with both hosted and on-premise options

AP Knowledge Base (Line56)

Introducing a portal and knowledge base for accounts payable (AP) professionals that pools intelligence and best practices

Microsoft looks to reinvigorate business unit (FT)

Microsoft will on Tuesday make another effort to reinvigorate its slow-growing business applications division, Microsoft Business Solutions, with the launch of a new version of its customer relationship management software.

By tying the software closely to Outlook, the e-mail and calendar software included in Office, the launch also marks a new attempt by Microsoft to win over more users by drawing on the broad use of its desktop software.

However, the factors that have held back Microsoft’s growth so far in the applications business, where it competes with giants such as SAP and Oracle, could continue to hamper it, according to observers.

“Microsoft’s biggest problem is its [sales] channel,” said Bruce Richardson, chief research officer at AMR Research.

Since it sells mainly through partners, the company does not have the close links with customers that rivals enjoy, he said, adding: “The good news is, it has a lot of people selling software; the bad news is, it loses its relationship with the customer.”

Revenues at Microsoft Business Solutions, one of the company’s seven business divisions, grew by only 5 per cent last year, to $793m, or 2 per cent of the company’s total revenues.

The former head of the unit, Doug Burgum, was moved to a new position as chairman of the division last week, and Microsoft said it was searching for a new executive to run the business.

The new CRM software – used by companies to manage their sales and marketing functions – has been closely linked to Office, which has 400m users around the world, said Brad Wilson, the Microsoft general manager responsible for the product. “All CRM users spend half their day in Office and Outlook,” he said

“It will appeal to anyone who wants to use CRM software but doesn’t want to learn anything beyond Outlook,” said Mr Richardson.

Friday, December 02, 2005

Supply and Demand Synchronization (Line56)

It can be attempted without great expense, as the case of Kawasaki Motors Corp., USA shows