Articles by Erika

Swix has enhanced its original application, Swix Analytics -- a dashboard that tracks ad campaigns and subsequent user engagement across 20 social media communities -- with a new product that tracks the returns those campaigns are delivering. Swix Social Marketer, currently available in beta, is embedded in the original dashboard once a client sig...

Dismayed by the prospect of Google acquiring a key service provider in the travel industry, online traveler providers have banded together to formalize their opposition to the deal. In July, Google announced a US$700 million agreement to acquire ITA Software, a company that provides airline travel software and counts among its clients airlines suc...

Adobe has released version 2.5 of Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite, which delivers more interactivity, as well as three new solution accelerators and a batch of new mobility features. The rollout is significant from a big picture perspective, Chris Ethier, group manager of LiveCycle product marketing for Adobe, told CRM Buyer....

Venture capital group Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has launched a US$250 million fund aimed specifically at startups that are developing social applications and services. Other investors in the "sFund," as it's called, include Facebook, Amazon, Zynga, Comcast and Liberty Media There are 10 U.S.-based KPCB partners working on the fund: Chi-Hua C...

At the beginning of July, MicroStrategy rolled out MicroStrategy Mobile -- a platform designed to allow companies to extend their on-premise business intelligence application to the mobile environment The following day, VHA, a provider of supply chain management services to reduce healthcare costs, rolled out its own iPhone app built using MicroSt...

IBM is continuing its steady march to build out its cloud computing bona fides, this time with the rollout of new security offerings and an expansion of its cloud-based development tools with an emphasis on Windows The larger point, said Harold Moss, IBM's emerging technology and cloud computing Architect, is to provide Big Blue's customer base wit...

One almost has to pity Facebook. Less than a month after it rolled out user enhancements that were lauded even by privacy advocates, it is back in the doghouse, facing a class action lawsuit and testy inquiries from two members of Congress The problem once again is privacy. Many of the most popular applications on Facebook have been transmitting id...

Global corporate spending on IT is entering a new cycle, characterized by lackluster or modest growth and, at the same time, new opportunities with new technologies. So said research firm Gartner at its annual Symposium/ITxpo, held this week in Orlando, Fla. From a 30,000-foot view, the growth story is a modest one. Global businesses will spend ab...

Aplicor has unveiled Cloud Suite 7.0, a beta version of an integrated CRM and ERP offering Development of the new product, which uses Microsoft Silverlight technology to power its interactive features, was based in part on feedback from the Aplicor EAC collaborative community. The end result is a wholesale rip-and-replace of all the business applic...

Bantam Live principal John Rourkeremembers well one of the first glimpses the tech industry got of what was possible with real-time activity streams for the corporate environment. He was sharing the stage with a Salesforce.com executive at an industry event focusing on that subject in 2009. They weren't talking about Salesforce.com's now popular Chatter networking application, though. Rather, the center of attention was Bantam Live -- a social CRM and collaboration app whose backbone is its activity feed.

Microsoft announced a new price point for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2011 at Convergence 2010 Europe, which kicked off Thursday in London. When it is generally released at the beginning of next year, it will be available for US$34 per user, per month, for the first 12 months of service That price seriously undercuts the competition, according t...

NetSuite is planting a stake in the Asia Pacific market, with the launch of its first partner conference in the region this week The conference, SuiteCloud APAC 2010, involves more than 60 channel partners, independent software vendors and developers. It is a roving show for NetSuite, with stops in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney, and Manila. ...

Hulu is expected to file a prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission for its initial public offering by the end of the year. It believes it can raise US$200-$300 million, according to an unnamed source in a Reuters report. The final decision to move forward is expected to be made in November, the source said. If it does happen, the I...

CRM applications for the pharmaceutical vertical are complex andhighly tailored for this unique space. Building a comprehensive mobileCRM app that takes into account the varying needs of a pharma rep,therefore, would be a major undertaking Antenna Software, which offers a mobile CRM app called "Antenna AMPPharma Sales," skirted that issue by buildi...

Facebook rolled out a package of new user tools Wednesday that stunned onlookers -- and not just because it had been widely expected that Facebook would make some kind of mobile phone announcement. Rather, it was the fact that Facebook introduced new tools with no crisis or controversy brewing in the background....

Google has responded to Oracle's lawsuit alleging that it infringed on its Java patents by going on the offensive. Oracle has made an about-face on its support for open-source licensing, Google maintains in a response filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Before Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems, Google notes, it w...

Facebook is holding an invitation-only press event on Wednesday. Thebrief announcement -- that is, the prelude to the actual event -- hasthrown the social media and blogosphere rumor mills into overdrive. What,the burning question is, will Facebook announce? Much of the speculation has centered around the phone that itallegedly is developing. If n...

For years, Verizon Wireless has fielded complaints from customersabout mistaken data charges This Sunday, the carrier announced it was providing a rebate totalingUS$90 million to be distributed to the estimated 15 million customers hit by thesecharges. Most of the customers reportedly were clipped for $2 to$6, which will be credited to their bills...

Sales Simplicity Software, a sales automation, CRM and e-marketingapplication for the builder, developer and senior-living industries,discovered an untapped need among its customers when it rolled out thefirst mobile version of its application about a year ago The way the new home sales process works is that builders show prospective plans to custo...

SugarCRM has rolled out OEM Platform Edition, a new product for its software vendor anddistribution channel. The release doesn't further SugarCRM's opensource-based functionality. Rather, the company is repackaging the latestversion of Sugar 6, which came out this summer, ina format and with tools that will allow partners to enhance itwith their own customizations, white label it, and then resell it...