Articles by Erika

The European Union is taking aim at Microsoft again, with its antitrust regulatory arm alleging on Friday that the U.S.-based software giant is breaking European anticompetitive rules by tying Internet Explorer to Windows. Such a link harms competition, undermines product innovation and reduces consumer choice, said the European Commission.

Finding business value in Software as a Service implementations is a perennial topic of discussion, no matter how established the SaaS business model becomes. In part, that's because it's more a business than a tech issue, and companies tend to focus more on features and functionality during the procurement process, Rick Kotermanski, chief technology officer for Summa, told CRM Buyer.

There is plenty to like about cloud computing, but there are also plenty of reasons to be wary. Part 1 of this two-part series suggests that it's not all about simplifying and cutting costs. Companies considering cloud services should take a sober look at some of the potential drawbacks before taking the leap Lower total cost of ownership and littl...

Salesforce.com has rolled out another cloud offering -- this time for the service space. Called "Service Cloud," the bundled applications, which include integrated social networking tools, are built on the Force.com platform. Service Cloud allows users to create an online community for up to 250 customers, set up a contact center with up to five a...

There are plenty of figures to show the efficiencies and cost savings that cloud computing can deliver, but here's one you're unlikely to hear during a sales pitch: The benefits of cloud computing are not linear with a project's progress. That means if you only complete about 80 percent of the project, you can't expect 80 percent of the expected b...

Google is launching a reseller recruitment drive that could herald a shift in the way the company markets its products. Google has used resellers in the past -- the partners it inherited along with the Postini acquisition, for example. Now, though, it is hoping to recruit "a very large number" of resellers of all sizes for its Google Apps Premier ...

Like every chief executive before him, President-elect Barack Obama will be making personal sacrifices as he assumes the role of U.S. president. He won't be able to stroll down a beach without the world watching. He will likely worry over how his daughters will adjust to living in a fishbowl. He may end his term, or terms, with a lot more gray in his hair than he would have picked up as a senator. He will almost certainly have to give up his beloved BlackBerry. Past presidents probably can't relate to the pain that's going to cause...

Merrill Lynch once forecast that the cloud computing market would reach an eye-popping US$160 billion by 2011, a prediction that mostly drew skepticism. While sizing up the expectations for a nascent tech market is equal parts art and science, there are growing indications that $160 billion may indeed prove to be accurate. In increasing numbers, e...

Cloud computing may still be in its infancy, but Google, Amazon and IBM -- as well as other large vendors -- have rolled out cloud services at almost breathtaking speed. Indeed, it might appear these tier one vendors already have the multibillion dollar industry sewn up. That is not true, of course. Any new industry undergoes shifts before it offi...

Microsoft is making Windows 7 available as a public beta on an unlimited basis following a surge in demand that crashed the site after it first posted the code Microsoft had originally planned to roll out the Windows 7 public beta on a limited basis; initially, it was to have become available to the first 2.5 million users for a period beginning la...

Microsoft will be providing mobile search to Verizon's huge customer base under a new partnership agreement that Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer have publicly confirmed -- Seidenberg in remarks at a Citigroup conference and Ballmer at the Consumer Electronics Show. The deal is a coup for Microsoft, given that Verizon is...

A year ago, AOL decided to consolidate its various advertising platforms -- Advertising.com, Tacoda and Quigo -- on one Web page. Platform-A was born, followed by a fully integrated sales force and, more recently, a newly designed home page. Since the redesign, advertising click-through rates on the primary 300 x 250 ad banner rose 30 percent, acc...

A year ago, AOL decided to consolidate its various advertising platforms -- Advertising.com, Tacoda and Quigo -- on one Web page. Platform-A was born, followed by a fully integrated sales force and, more recently, a newly designed home page. Since the redesign, advertising click-through rates on the primary 300 x 250 ad banner rose 30 percent, acc...

A year ago, AOL decided to consolidate its various advertising platforms -- Advertising.com, Tacoda and Quigo -- on one Web page. Platform-A was born, followed by a fully integrated sales force and, more recently, a newly designed home page. Since the redesign, advertising click-through rates on the primary 300 x 250 ad banner rose 30 percent, acc...

India's IT outsourcing industry received a shock Wednesday with the news that Satyam Computer Services ex-chairman Ramalinga Raju had falsified corporate earnings and assets. Raju inflated the cash on the company's balance sheet by nearly US$1 billion, overstated September 2008 quarterly revenues by 76 percent and profits by 97 percent, according ...

If you are a regular visitor to the multi-faith Web siteBeliefnet, or if you subscribe to its e-mails, you may have noticed the site is becoming a little more playful. Something new -- a quiz or prayer tool or connection to a social networking site -- is introduced every month. However, the word CTO Jason Rodriguez uses to describe these offerings...

Logitech is retreating from its fiscal 2009 forecast and preparing to trim about 15 percent of its global workforce in preparation for what is looking to be a grim retail year. The Switzerland-based company employs 9,000 workers and manufactures mice, webcams and other computer peripherals. Demand for such devices has taken a nosedive as both comp...

Part 1 of this two-part series on the tech job landscape points to some of the areas least affected by the glacier overrunning other sectors of the U.S. economy If history were a reliable guide, a job hunter would stay as far away from the telecom field as possible. Ten years ago, telecoms could not hire enough people to keep up with the demand. Th...

High-tech job seekers should take heart. Despite the daily onslaught of grim economic news, the need for skilled information technology staff remains stable, according to the Robert Half Technology IT Hiring Index and Skills Report, released earlier this month. Twelve percent of chief information officers polled in the survey said they planned to ...

The legions of online activists who mobilized to help Barack Obama win the White House were expected to return to their normal routines after the election, but they apparently did not get the memo. Rather, this group seems intent on remaining active as the new administration takes shape,for the most part using the same networking techniques that l...