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Etelos, a provider of open source hosted Web 2.0 applications, has released a beta version of a CRM tool designed to work with Google Apps, a commercial suite of office applications Google introduced last week. The Etelos product is integrated into Google's platform. The application, called "CRMforG...

While much has been written on how vendors can get the most out of their analyst relations strategies -- both in blogs and in my book -- little has been written about how technology buyers can maximize their use of advisory firms. Jim Zimmerman, in his blog, Analyst Perspectives, presents this issue...

Six to eight weeks. That's about what it seems to take to get an on-demand solution up and running these days. This information comes from an analysis of nine on-demand vendors that we surveyed for our annual WizKids report which will be out this week. What's good about that time interval is that ...

Oracle has agreed to buy BI heavyweight Hyperion Solutions for $3.3 billion in cash. The move follows SAP's acquisition of BI vendor Pilot Software last month, illustrating the trend among ERP providers to enhance their operational backbone products with performance management, a subsector in the bu...

As it does every year, Beagle Research has investigated emerging technologies and developments in the CRM space, singling out for accolades a handful of leading companies in its report -- aptly named "CRM WizKids." This year, the report highlights eight winners: Cast Iron Systems, Centive, Echopass,...

Small businesses have typically shied away from complex software deployments. CRM, for instance, still has a low penetration rate in this end of the market despite the number of offerings from such firms as Microsoft, Salesforce.com, FrontRange, Sage and others. These firms' evangelization efforts h...

2007 enterprise software budgets are showing a 10 percent year-over-year increase, according to a recent Forrester Research survey, with software-related spending expected to account for 30 percent of the total. Companies are looking to spend that money on improving integration between applications,...

For years, vendors have argued the merits of click-to-call versus click-to-chat, but most analysts now agree that both solutions are an effective means of reaching out to Web site visitors to engage them in conversation. There is little doubt that nearly any company with a Web presence can see posit...

Tiny computer chips with myriad applications -- from scanning concert tickets to tracking the family dog to monitoring travelers as they cross international borders -- are shrinking, and have now have caught up with the imaginations of science fiction and spy novel writers. Japanese electronics make...

SAP has purchased business intelligence vendor Pilot Software for an undisclosed sum. The newly acquired functionality will sit on top of the NetWeaver platform, thus allowing SAP customers to integrate their applications into it, Sanjay Poonen, senior vice president and general manager of analytics...

Internet search leader Google unveiled its latest set of online business tools Thursday, aiming to snare a bigger piece of the enterprise market dominated by Microsoft. Google already has at least one player onboard: IP telephony firm Avaya. Avaya, a top provider of Internet phone switchboards for b...

Genesys has introduced a major upgrade to its contact center product line, the Genesys 7.5 Customer Interaction Management Platform, and also released VoiceGenie 7.1, which offers built-in support for video contact centers. The contact center application builds upon several earlier developments Gene...

You don't have a lot of technology resources inside your company. In fact, just getting your office printer to work all the time seems like a monumental challenge. Investing in technology, whether it's new software or hardware, means dealing with a lot of stuff that just may not work like you expect...

I got a lot of mail on the piece I wrote last week about retail data collection. The mail ran two to one in support, but it was still interesting to gauge the reactions of those who think the notion of collecting data like ZIP codes, drivers license numbers and the like is kosher. Let me say again ...

The newly released American Customer Satisfaction Index provides fresh data illustrating consumers' growing love affair with e-commerce. The e-commerce industry registered a score of 80 on ACSI's 100-point scale -- less than a percentage point away from its all-time high score of 80.8 in 2003, accor...