Stories by Chris Kanaracus

Systems management, cloud services likely in Dell's software acquisition plans

Dell's formation of a new software group, which was announced Thursday, could be the forerunner to a string of acquisitions by the vendor, with some observers predicting a focus on systems management and cloud services provisioning.

SAP-SuccessFactors deal delayed as US regulators conduct investigation

SAP's US$3.4 billion purchase of cloud software vendor SuccessFactors has been delayed indefinitely while a U.S. regulatory body investigates the deal, an SAP spokesman confirmed Wednesday.

SEC investigating past JDA's past fiscal years, stock falls

JDA Software's stock is taking a hit after the supply-chain application vendor said Tuesday that it experienced a loss in the fourth quarter and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is requesting information about past fiscal years.

Salesforce.com yields to pressure over analytics pricing

Salesforce.com will include some new analytics capabilities at no additional cost with the Enterprise and Unlimited editions of its CRM (customer relationship management) software, following complaints from customers who argued that the features should have been used to fill long-standing gaps in the products' core functionality, not sold separately.

Oracle outlines plans for RightNow integration

Oracle executives on Tuesday gave a more detailed picture of their plans to integrate technologies gained through October's US$1.5 billion acquisition of RightNow, maker of cloud-based software for customer service through the Web, social networks and contact centers.

IBM buys Worklight for mobile software platform

IBM on Tuesday announced plans to buy Worklight, a move that will give it a range of cross-platform mobile application development technologies. Terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the first quarter, were not disclosed.

Infor revamps support services, heightens competition against SAP, Oracle

Infor has rebranded and revamped its software support offerings in a bid to cement its profile as a potential alternative to rivals like SAP and Oracle.

Salesforce.com launches Desk.com help-desk service

Salesforce.com on Tuesday unveiled a new SaaS (software as a service) help-desk application called Desk.com that can reach end users through social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Pentaho open sources 'big data' integration tools under Apache 2.0

BI vendor Pentaho is open sourcing a number of tools related to "big data" in the 4.3 release of its Kettle data-integration platform and has moved the project overall to the Apache 2.0 license, the company announced Monday.

Salesforce.com customers say new analytics should be included in core fees

Salesforce.com customers are sounding off about the fact that an upcoming Analytics Edition of the CRM (customer relationship management) software will have an additional price tag, saying that the functionality it includes should be part of their base subscriptions.

Oracle proposal would create single committee to oversee Java specs

If a new proposal by Oracle is accepted, oversight of Java technical standards will fall under the auspices of a single committee, rather than the current system, which has separate entities for Java EE/SE and ME.

SAP's HANA in-memory database will gain ability to run ERP this year

SAP plans to roll out support for the ERP module within its flagship Business Suite product family on the HANA in-memory database platform in the fourth quarter of this year, executive board member and technology chief Vishal Sikka said in an interview Wednesday.

Tibco adds geolocation to its Tibbr social platform

Tibco has added geolocation technology to its Tibbr enterprise social-networking platform, in a move that will allow companies to use physical spaces as "data hubs," or launching points for information delivery and collection.

Microsoft reveals launch date for next-generation SQL Server 2012

Microsoft has announced a March 7 online event for the launch of SQL Server 2012, the next generation of its database product.

Infor details mobile strategy, launches new apps

Infor on Monday announced details of its Motion mobility platform as well as the availability of two new mobile applications, Road Warrior and ActivityDeck.