Features

• What to expect at SAP's Sapphire

  SAP's Sapphire conference kicks off next week in Orlando, setting the stage for the company to sell customers on its visions for cloud-based applications, in-memory computing and mobility.

• 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.

• Questions SAP should answer during its Q4 earnings call

  As it has in the past, SAP spilled the beans a bit early on its fourth-quarter and year-end performance with the release of preliminary results last week. Now the vendor is about to do a full announcement along with the usual conference calls with press and analysts.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• Analyst, SAP dispute over reported support discounts reveals murky picture

  SAP and a financial analyst are at loggerheads over a recent report by the analyst, which said that a handful of customers had received substantial discounts on their software maintenance renewals.

• HP-Autonomy fraud allegations fallout: The winners and losers

  Hewlett-Packard's bombshell revelation that it would take a US$8.8 billion non-cash writedown after allegedly discovering major accounting fraud related to its Autonomy business unit has rocked the tech world.

• SAP-Sybase: What to expect in the first 90 days

  Now that SAP's roughly $US6 billion acquisition of Sybase has gained clearance from European regulators, it may not be long before the deal is finalised. With that in mind, users and partners of the companies have much to consider during the next few months, analysts say.

• SAP aims to acquire forecasting software vendor SAF

  SAP plans to buy SAF Simulation, Analysis and Forecasting, a Swiss developer of retail forecasting software.

• SAP adds Web services to Business ByDesign

  Users of SAP's Business ByDesign on-demand ERP (enterprise resource planning) suite now have "one-click" integration with a range of third-party Web services such as Google's search engine and news and financial feeds such as Business Wire and Hoover's.

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  SAP wants to help microcredit groups manage loans

  SAP hopes to help lower the cost of managing loan portfolios for organizations offering microcredits as part of a partnership announced Wednesday with French nonprofit group PlaNet Finance.

• eBeef: RFID from birth to plate

  Computers determine the quality of meat on your dinner plate, long before it turns up on the doorstep of your butcher, and the increasing uptake of technology in the meat industry means armers across the country are liberating themselves from the global financial crisis, the ravages of drought and other environmental problems.