Articles by Erika

Return on investment figures for a Software as a Service implementation can be surprisingly difficult to generalize. One measure often cited in the industry is that one year is a reasonable period in which firms can expect to see a project deliver returns, with the larger-sized investments bringing home results faster than smaller-cost deployments ...

2006 was the last year e-commerce vendors introduced new functionality to their Web sites that were visible to consumers, such as better search features and click-once-to-buy shopping carts Coincidentally or not, it was also the last time aggregate customer satisfaction with online retailers registered 75 on a 100-point scale in the annual Holiday ...

At least two studies have shown that cell phone use while driving quadruples the risk of an accident Now, a new study reveals the negative impact cell phones have on traffic -- even when no accident occurs....

The U.S. government is putting plans into motion to help consumers who have analog TVs continue to receive broadcasts on Feb. 17, 2009 -- the date when most television stations are scheduled to start sending digital signals exclusively. Without taking special steps, those relying on analog broadcasts will find their screens have gone dark On Tuesda...

2008 may be the year the outsourcing function or process in a business becomes as standardized and mainstream as, say, accounting or human resources Outsourcing, of course, has been an integral part of the global economy with countless firms handing off to third party providers their contact center operations, payroll, manufacturing and even resear...

It is difficult to avoid the talk of a potential recession in 2008. Even firms whose product set or market niche are well suited for tight times don't like the thought of slow sales and bleak economic forecasts RightNow Technologies, an established Software as a Service CRM vendor, is one of those companies. Greg Gianforte, CEO, president, chairman...

Today's libraries are definitely not the same places where today's senior citizens did their homework after school. Indeed, according to the results from a study conducted by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Pew Internet & American Life Project, today's seniors -- and even many baby boomers -- probably wouldn't recognize half the resources available to patrons...

John Roberts, chairman and CEO of SugarCRM, is no stranger to the proprietary software that delivers most of the CRM functionality in the market today The Washington, D.C.-native moved to Silicon Valley in his twenties and spent 12 years in the "trenches" as he puts it, developing products for enterprise vendors. Then, like all good open source dev...

Now general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Brad Wilson's career trajectory has allowed him to deliver CRM to the market from many different vantage points -- and levels of resources Wilson began at HP as a database software architect, moving into product management and marketing after a few years. He then moved to a startup company that was eve...

Mike Betzer was working for MCI several years ago when he realized that if the company could use the Internet as a front end, it could leverage the software in the data center and develop a network-based application that could be sold to other companies doing essentially the same thing that MCI did in-house As it happened MCI, in the midst of being...

Not too long ago, advice to keep a CRM implementation simple would have focused around due diligence for the application (you never buy a complex product unless absolutely necessary). It would have focused on negotiating the best deal with a systems integrator (these costs can add up quickly unless the contract specifies otherwise). Most of all, it would have focused on a clear needs assessment driving the application (buying too many bells and whistles when they aren't necessary is a sure path to overly complicated implementation and a frustrated user base)...

NetSuite has sold 6.2 million shares to investors in a Dutch auction this week, raising a healthy US$161 million The haul from its long-awaited initial public offering came in spite of -- or perhaps because of -- its moving target price. NetSuite ultimately debuted at $26 per share after jumping from a target price of $13 to $16 per share to a targ...

Malware is replacing Google text ads with ads from another source, according toBitDefender. The virus, Trojan.Qhost.WU, is using the host's file to redirect the initial query sent to the Google Adsense servers to a malicious host, according to an advisory issued by the firm The host's file is the first step in the name/IP (Internet protocol) transl...

The latest version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM -- 4.0, formerly code-named "Titan" -- is complete and released to manufacturing. In other words, the long-awaited application has shipped from Microsoft's engineering group and is now available from electronic download for new and existing customers The feature set in the product is largely the same as ...

NetSuite is going to the market for its proposed initial public offering (IPO) with high hopes: The company has upped its estimated price range for the second time this week. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it expects its IPO target price to be between US$19 to $22. On Tuesday, it raised its price range to $16 to $19 from an earlier target of $13 to $16...

Facebook has named three individuals and a Canadian porn company as defendants in a federal lawsuit it filed earlier this year in the Northern District of California, which accused unnamed people and companies of unlawfully accessing its servers After two Canadian Internet service providers provided information in response to subpoenas, the social ...

Genesys is expanding its feature set with the cash acquisition of Informiam, a customer service performance management software provider The new addition will enhance the company's reporting and analytic capabilities. Financial terms of the acquisition of the privately held company were not released. Informiam, which is based in Atlanta and has a r...

Several years ago when Salesforce.com burst onto the CRM scene it was difficult to imagine how the upstart firm could make a dent in the space. At the time, the gorilla in the room was Siebel and the thought of an Internet-based application -- an experimental delivery mode then -- besting the deeply entrenched, feature-rich iconic CRM provider was laughable...

Cognos has wasted little time in rolling out an integration map for its newly acquired analytics best of breed vendor, Applix The deal, which closed at the end of October, is bringing to Cognos -- itself in a pending US$5 billion acquisition by IBM -- financial performance management capabilities....

Will movies be as successful as TV shows and videos have been in moving to the Web? Paramount Pictures is betting yes, with the forthcoming launch of what it claims will be the first studio-backed feature film to make its debut online Coming to the Web on Dec. 19, "Jackass 2.5" is an hour-long film -- including original footage and unseen outtake...