Features

• SAP's first quarter: The key questions

  SAP will announce its first-quarter 2013 earnings on Friday, a report that will get heavy scrutiny from company watchers. Here's a look at some of the more important topics that should come up during SAP executives' conference calls with press and analysts on Friday.

• Oracle takes apparent step toward standardizing on a single chip design

  Oracle's unveiling of a batch of servers based on new Sparc processors marked what some analysts think is a step toward an expected standardizing of the vendor's two families of Unix servers onto a single chip architecture.

• Oracle's strategies to get real-world verdict at Collaborate user event

  Oracle's sprawling annual OpenWorld conference doesn't kick off until September, but next week the Oracle user group-backed Collaborate event will be held in Denver.

• Marketo IPO may spark suitors, including Salesforce.com

  Cloud-based marketing automation vendor Marketo's plans to raise up to $75 million in an initial public offering, which were revealed this week, could influence larger companies to acquire the company, including Salesforce.com and SAP.

• Oracle faces 'dilemma' with its Fusion Applications

  Oracle spent years developing its next-generation Fusion Applications and finally put them into general availability nearly a year-and-a-half ago, but some new evidence suggests that it's been less than successful at enticing customers to move up.

• SaaS in 2013: Companies and trends to watch

  As 2013 begins, the SaaS (software as a service) market is set to heat up even more, as well as potentially undergo a number of key shifts. Here's a look at a series of key SaaS vendors and trends to watch as the year unfolds.

• Google's antitrust settlement means few changes

  The U.S. Federal Trade Commission's antitrust settlement with Google will create few changes in the way the company operates, both critics and fans of the deal said.

• SAP in 2013: Five things to watch

  It was a typically busy year for SAP, with the company making headlines for strong sales of its HANA in-memory database, high-profile acquisitions and aggressive moves into cloud computing.

• Why Oracle bought Eloqua, and what it means for the market

  Oracle surprised many tech industry observers by announcing Thursday it would pay US$871 million for marketing automation software vendor Eloqua. The move seemed a bit unlikely given the amount of sales and marketing software Oracle already had.

• Six questions raised by Oracle's Q2 earnings announcement

  Oracle's second-quarter earnings announcement beat expectations in some respects, but also raised a number of interesting and in some cases, unanswered questions. Here's a look.

• 11 predictions for enterprise software in 2013

  The end of each year sparks an occasion for rumination on the past, as well as a longing gaze into the future. We shined up our crystal ball, rubbed our chin for a while, and sought opinions from industry analysts on what the future holds for the enterprise software market.

• 2012: The year in quotes

  Some of the most memorable IT-related quotes were uttered in courtrooms this year, which involved a steady stream of legal challenges about intellectual property. In no particular order, these are some of the comments that stuck with us as 2012 winds to a close.

• The year in enterprise software: Seven key takeaways

  It's been a busy and transformative year for enterprise software. We dug through our story archives, talked to industry experts and put on our thinking caps to come up with this list of key events and emerging trends from 2012, all of which are set to have a lasting impact on the industry.

• The scariest US software project horror stories of 2012

  Sure, plenty of enterprise software projects go just fine and end up giving customers all the things vendors promise: lower operating costs, streamlined operations and happier users.

• In a symbolic shift, IBM's India workforce likely exceeds U.S.

  It has been widely expected over the past year or two that IBM's India workforce was on track to exceed its U.S. workforce, if it hadn't exceeded it already.