Stories by Mike Heck

First look: Microsoft Office 365

Microsoft might not be the first name you think of when considering enterprise cloud offerings. But then again, the company does handle 10 billion Hotmail and Windows Live messages a day and has a 15-year history of deploying and managing massive data centers.

Review: Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

In November, we gave SharePoint 2010 beta a test drive. Now, we put the shipping product through its paces and find that Microsoft has delivered a multi-purpose tool that delivers a bigger bang because of its tight coupling with Office 2010.

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 (beta)

Based on our hands-on testing of the public beta of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, this product allows IT departments to run applications such as enterprise search, content management, collaboration and business intelligence on a single platform.

Review: SharePoint Server 2010 beta pulls it all together

Microsoft's SharePoint Server 2010 is a significant improvement over SharePoint 07, providing IT execs with multiple ways to streamline their infrastructure and cut costs.

Cisco TelePresence 500: Full collaboration

More affordable midrange telepresence systems, such as offerings from Polycom and LifeSize systems, offer fine picture and audio quality, along with usability. But in the overall product continuum, Cisco TelePresence System 500 is the most economical system that gives you the full experience of telepresence rooms.

Telepresence shatters communication barriers

Well before the current world financial crisis struck, organizations have sought inventive ways to engage in face-to-face meetings without the need to travel. Companies have turned to services such as Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro, Cisco WebEx, Citrix GoToMeeting, and Microsoft Live Meeting as a means for workers in multiple locations to share presentations and otherwise collaborate.

Palm Treo Pro & debut of IE Mobile 6

On March 15 the Sprint Palm Treo Pro officially goes on sale, and I've been testing a production unit for the past few weeks. It's basically the same Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone as the unlocked Treo Pro that I tested in late 2008. But the addition of Microsoft's new mobile browser makes this release notable.

New Day dawns for Web CMS

Day Software may be best known for its CRX (Content Repository Extreme) Java Content Repository. But after testing the general release of its Communiqué 5.1 (CQ5) modular CMS, I think it's time to get reintroduced to the rest of what the company offers. This notable Web content manager will impress business users with drag-and-drop page design, in-context content editing, and a component library that includes Flash elements, form builders, and Google Gadget support. And it will impress IT with a nice complement of enterprise bells and whistles -- from integrated BPM to hot backup, disaster recovery, and clustering capabilities.

Palm Treo Pro: A sweet Windows smartphone

The BlackBerry, iPhone, and T-Mobile G1 may be the kings of smartphone cool, but if you ask me, they all share one big shortcoming: They don't run Windows Mobile.

Open-source Drupal turns pro

As we've seen time and again, in an increasing number of enterprise software categories, open source has become a promising alternative to commercial software. But there's no free ride.

HP grooms iPaq for business

There are enough smartphone choices to make you dizzy. Yet in the business world, it arguably comes down to RIM's BlackBerry and select Windows Mobile-based devices -- with the strong possibility of Apple's 3G iPhone stealing some of their thunder.

Telligent server spurs collaboration

There's little argument that Telligent's Community Server can stand up to the rigors of hosting public-facing communities. This product is the force behind some of the biggest and most visible blogs on the Net, including MySpace, the National Football League, and National Geographic. An equal number of clients -- the likes of Dell, GlaxoSmithKline, and Ernst & Young -- use this platform for business-to-business and business-to-consumer communities.

Xythos Enterprise Document Management Suite 7.0

We have watched Xythos mature impressively over the years, starting as a highly usable, economical document manager through Version 6.0, then broadening its appeal with records management. Enterprise Document Management Suite (DMS) has now reached Version 7.0, and with the number bump comes some important enhancements.

Jive Software's social enterprise portal

If the many business-oriented blog and wiki solutions are starting to look like one big blur, you're not alone. Most "Web 2.0 collaboration" vendors give you a departmental wiki that works about the same as the rest, but doesn't handle large enterprise deployments or connect with information in other parts of your organization. About a year ago, Jive Software successfully brought a lot of attention to the enterprise social networking category with Clearspace and Clearspace X, collaboration and community platforms, respectively, that provided unusual scalability and usability -- plus they integrated blogs and wikis across the business.

Product review: Sutus Business Central SB-200

Sutus started shipping Business Central in November 2007 and is already making waves with this unified communication solution. Although it primarily competes on price and easy administration, there are other advantages for small-office owners.