Stories by Thomas Wailgum

SaaS's troubled adolescence: Three signs of immaturity

Just when you thought it was safe to jump into the SaaS waters, a new survey finds that IT and enterprise software decision-makers don't feel totally comfortable with SaaS-namely those nagging security, integration and data migration concerns.

What Star Wars Teaches Us About Career Management

It's been really difficult using the Force to convince your HR manager or boss to see things your way: Your threats of turning fellow workers to the Dark Side sound hollow and that Jedi mind trick you've been working on for the past six months doesn't seem to be getting you anywhere. Your big promotion? You might as well be working in the Spice Mines of Kessel.

What to ask before saying yes to SaaS, cloud computing

Not surprisingly, SaaS vendors have decided there's no time like the present to make a full court sales press. In a down economy with slashed IT budgets, when there's no tolerance for 18-month software implementations and the price tags of on-premise software from Oracle and maintenance fees for SAP applications are not falling, software-as-a-service and cloud computing offerings become more attractive options for businesses. Marc Benioff, the CEO of SaaS CRM vendor Salesforce.com, recently explained just why his flavor of the cloud computing model was best suited for today's troubled economic times. Forget big contracts with Microsoft, Oracle or SAP, and get beyond outdated hardware and software solutions, Benioff told CNBC in early October. Benioff said that Salesforce.com's "pay-as-you-go, elastic model" offers clients much more flexibility.

SAP unveils NetWeaver Business Process Management tool

At its Sapphire show in early May, SAP announced plans for the future release of two new tools: the Business Process Management (BPM) and Business Rules Management offerings, which will be added to its NetWeaver platform in the latter part of 2008.

Four migration lessons from Vista early adopters

What <a href="http://www.cio.com/article/343469/subject/Microsoft+Corporation">Microsoft</a>'s <a href="http://www.cio.com/article/343469/subject/Microsoft+Windows+Vista">Windows Vista</a> has lacked in rates of universal corporate adoption to date, the operating system has certainly made up for in widespread notoriety and critical press coverage.

SAP pays partners, goes after small, medium-sized businesses

In early April, SAP <a href="http://www.sap.com/usa/company/press/press.epx?pressid=9253">announced</a> a new referral and incentive program for its partners and nonpartners to drive small and midsize customers' business SAP's way. The move, paying for new software business, was a first for the German software giant, and it shows just how much thirst enterprise software vendors have for new customers in the SMB <a href="http://www.cio.com/article/177300/">business applications market</a>.

Business intelligence: A technology in tumult

No one can deny that the market for business intelligence applications is hot. An Aberdeen Group survey <a href="http://www.aberdeen.com/summary/report/sector_insights/4245-SI-on-demand-bi.asp">survey</a> found that the number-one technology spending item for companies was "reporting and analytics" in 2007.

They couldn't have done that! IT urban legends exposed

Urban legends have been with us since human beings started sharing stories. The best urban legends are dramatic, unbelievable and told with such frequency that recipients assume they have to be true. There are the historic "URGENT AND CONFIDENTIAL" lucrative business proposals from deposed Nigerian leaders, the horrifying heroin-contaminated hypodermic needle in the McDonald's ball play area and the albino alligators terrorizing New York City sewers.

Six enterprise application trends to watch in 2008

If 2007 was any indication of what's to come, the one thing companies using expensive enterprise applications-ERP, CRM and supply chain management systems-is that more change vendor alliances, pricing schemes and software innovation is on the way in 2008.