Stories about: Ariba

With Google's recent launch of its App Engine, and with the likes of IBM and Amazon having staked claims, cloud computing is clearly a major development in the IT landscape. The benefits are obvious, enabling enterprises to scale rapidly with a level of performance previously available to only the largest companies -- all without adding equipment, software or staff.

Cloud computing is all the rage. "It's become the phrase du jour," says Gartner senior analyst Ben Pring, echoing many of his peers. The problem is that (as with Web 2.0) everyone seems to have a different definition.

The world of business software continued its inexorable march toward Total Consolidation in 2007. If IBM was off the mark in 1943 when it (supposedly) predicted a world with only five computers, it might have better luck today with a similar prediction about the software industry.

Want a great job at a hot startup? Of course, you do. And there haven't been this many opportunities since the dot com bubble burst. Just ask Renaud Laplanche, CEO of LendingClub.com in California: "You're in the driver's seat. So think about the place you'd like to work at for the next few years and choose wisely," he says.

If there was any question about whether the ERP market was in turmoil, the recent shakeup in senior management at ERP stalwart SAP that pushed out rising star Shai Agassi should have answered it.

Every year, US$30 trillion dollars of trade in goods and services is shifted across the globe through a computerized supply chain. Buyers and sellers can access the web on their laptops, key in a given consignment number and find out what it contains, where it is and when it will arrive.

Every year, US$30 trillion dollars of trade in goods and services is shifted across the globe through a computerized supply chain. Buyers and sellers can access the web on their laptops, key in a given consignment number and find out what it contains, where it is and when it will arrive.

If you've ever wondered which conceptual shower the great business process management (BPM) idea came down in, the chances are you are not alone. Julian Bajkowski and David Margulius report

Lately it seems the moon and the stars are perfectly aligned for BPM -- the tools and methodologies for modeling, developing, and maintaining enterprise business processes. Scores of vendors now offer BPM software, which provides the means to analyze, optimize, and automate business procedures, from procurement workflows to insurance underwriting.

Nothing gets the attention of a room full of network start-up executives quite like a senior IT official from a huge company such as Bank of America.

No one believes Patrick Grady at first. Why should they? He comes out of nowhere, radiating confidence, claiming his company, Rearden Commerce, has pulled off the IT coup of the new century. His triumph: a working b-to-b marketplace, fronted by an ultracustomizable application and based on SOA (service-oriented architecture). Delivered through the browser, Rearden's EBS (Employee Business Services) is capable of automating the purchase of many everyday services, including shipping, conferencing, meals, entertainment, and even travel.