Enterprise Headlines and Excerpts, First Half of January 2011

The home of enterprise software and solutions

2011 has gotten off to a very interesting start inthe world of enterprise

software and solutions. Headlines and summaries follow, but so far we’ve seen an announcement that Eric Schmidt is stepping down from his role as CEO of Google,that HP is turning over a substantial fraction of its board under the new leadership of Ray Lane and Leo Apotheker, Wipro’s co-CEO’s have resigned, Steve Jobs is taking a medical leave of absence from Apple, Microsoft has gotten more aggressive in the CRM space, SAP had a very strong Q4, and a number of Microsoft executives have left the company. With SAP’s surprisingly strong showing in Q4, and many other signs of improvement in the business climate, 2011 could be a much stronger year for enterprise software and solutions.

• #Oracle patching fewer database flaws as it adds more products
  They have apparently reassigned their priorities and are choosing not to fix all the database vulnerabilities that are reported to them. It appears that they are losing some of the DBMS focus and are getting spread too thin on other stuff.”Oracle did not respond to a request for comment on the reason for releasing six database patches.
• Cool #InfoGraphics: An Illustrated View of #SAP SPS 18 (via @InFullBloomUS)
  It’s mind-boggling that the SAP Enterprise software is so big that the last round of updates had 13,349 notes/changes! I can totally understand the need for Panaya’s simulations and analysis for IT managers trying to manage implementing these updates. Panaya has a fantastic service that can evaluate the impact of each update package (support package stack) for their clients’ unique and different installations of SAP.
• #SAP Support Package Stacks Have Never Looked so Sexy – An Illustrated View of SPS 18
  One of the advantages of running a SaaS solution here at Panaya is that we can run aggregate analysis across hundreds of projects. Think “Google Trends” for SAP Support Package Stacks. We ran our simulation over hundreds of different instances to determine the typical impact areas and other stats. The goal is to help you plan towards your implementations.
• Big Bang At #Google: Larry Page To Replace Eric Schmidt As CEO On April 4
  Eric Schmidt will assume the role of Executive Chairman, focusing externally on deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership–all of which are increasingly important given Google’s global reach. Internally, he will continue to act as an advisor to Larry and Sergey.
• Official #Google Blog: An update from the Chairman
  As Executive Chairman, I will focus wherever I can add the greatest value: externally, on the deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership that are increasingly important given Google’s global reach; and internally as an advisor to Larry and Sergey.
• #Google Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2010 Results and Management Changes
  Eric has clearly done an outstanding job leading Google for the last decade. The results speak for themselves. There is no other CEO in the world that could have kept such headstrong founders so deeply involved and still run the business so brilliantly. Eric is a tremendous leader and I have learned innumerable lessons from him.His advice and efforts will be invaluable to me as I start in this new role. Google still has such incredible opportunity–we are only at the beginning and I can’t wait to get started.
• Day-to-day adult supervision no longer needed!
  [Tweet by Eric Schmidt of #Google ]
• 4 #HP directors step down after Hurd scandal
  The five incoming members of HP’s board are: Shumeet Banerji, CEO of Booz & Company; Gary Reiner, formerly of General Electric (GE, Fortune 500); Patricia Russo, former CEO of Alcatel-Lucent (ALU); Dominique Senequier, CEO of AXA Private Equity; and Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay (EBAY, Fortune 500).
• #HP Shakes Up Board, Adds Meg Whitman as Director
  Insight on the changes to Hewlett Packard’s board, with Ray Lane, HP chairman.
• Eric Schmidt’s Days at #Google Always Seemed Numbered
  Schmidt wound up playing a critical role in Google’s development, including driving the move to the company’s odd, but ultimately successful, IPO in 2004 — an experience he wrote about for HBR. He tended to be more cautious than the co-founders (Schmidt, for example, tried to find a compromise with China in Google’s row with Beijing over censorship, while Brin, in particular, took a harder line). But he played an active role in growing the business, and in presenting the company’s public face — in Washington, at Davos, and beyond.
• #Wipro Computer-Services Chiefs Quit After Sales Miss Estimates
  Wipro Ltd., India’s third-largest software exporter, replaced the co-heads of the company’s main computer-services business after posting sales that missed analysts’ estimates.T.K. Kurien will take over as the chief executive officer of the information technology business, Wipro’s largest, from next month after Girish Paranjpe, 52, and Suresh Vaswani, 51, resigned as joint CEOs, the company said in a statement today. BillionaireAzim Premji remains chairman and managing director.
• #Microsoft, #HP selling $2M data warehouse appliance
  HP Enterprise Data Warehouse Appliance is available this week starting at nearly $2 million, which does not include the price of Microsoft software, HP and Microsoft said. The big appliance, advertised as 200 times faster and 10 times more scalable than traditional SQL Server deployments, will include at least two racks of servers and storage, built around the HP ProLiant DL980 systems. Microsoft’s SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse will be licensed separately.
• Univa forks #Oracle ‘s #OpenSource #Sun Grid Engine
  Grid Engine is not a priority for Oracle and is dying of neglect. Univa is a company that has an OEM license from Sun, which transferred over to Oracle, for the Grid Engine product, and it makes a living selling and supporting Grid Engine and extensions to the product. Univa wants Grid Engine to be extended and improved in ways thathelp HPC customers. And so, the company will be working with other Grid Engine community members to put together a new distribution and offer support on that as well as prior Grid Engine versions.
• Univa Acquires #OpenSource #Oracle #Sun Grid Engine Expertise
  Univa, the data center optimization company, today announced that the principal engineers from the Sun/Oracle Grid Engine team, including Grid Engine founder and original project owner Fritz Ferstl, are joining Univa. The company will immediately offer superior engineering support for Grid Engine versions already installed and will publish a Univa version of Grid Engine before the end of Q1 2011. Univa will concentrate on improving Grid Engine for technical computing and HPC use cases in addition to promoting the continuity of the Grid Engine open source community.“The first step to data center optimization is effective sharing of systems and workload distribution, and now Univa provides the leading resource management system as a primary element in our optimization stack”

  As part of this announcement, Mr. Ferstl has been appointed Chief Technology Officer and will direct Univa’s technology strategy as well as lead the company’s growing EMEA business.

• #Salesforce.com unfazed by #Microsoft #CRM
  That’s a snapshot of history–not a social app for today’s mobile, open world,” the company said in a statement.
• CalPERS computer system over budget, late
  A troubled state computer system is not unusual. It’s more like the norm. As early as 1973, three years before Apple sold its first computer kit, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office issued a report on failed state computer systems.“Many of these efforts have been characterized by cost and schedule overruns, user dissatisfaction and operational problems which have resulted in either major modification or abandonment,” the analyst said nearly four decades ago.
• #Microsoft Dynamics #CRM Poised for #Cloud Battle
  Dynamics CRM online is yet another aggressive foray the Redmond software giant is making into the cloud space. Microsoft is repeatedly hitting home three key factors of its new CRM online service, undoubtedly to distinguish it from competing CRM offerings from Salesforce.com and Oracle. These factors are:* The delivery of a familiar experience to sales, service, and marketing user via a next-generation native Microsoft Outlook client, browser, and mobile devices.
  * An intelligent experience through real-time dashboards, inline business intelligence, and guided process dialogs.
  * A connected experience through Windows Azure integration, cloud development, and Microsoft SharePoint capabilities through the new Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace; all as waysfor customers and partners to configure and tailor Microsoft Dynamics CRM to meet specific business needs.

  Microsoft is not being subtle in its attempts to snatch market share away from Salesforce.com and Oracle. Customers o

• #Microsoft launches #cloud -based #CRM software to take on #Salesforce.com and #Oracle
  in a move to glean customers from Saleforce and Oracle’s Siebel, Microsoft is offering up to $200 per user for eligible customers who migrate to Dynamic CRM Online until June 30.
• Steve Jobs takes medical leave from #Apple
  At my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health. I will continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company.I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for all of Apple’s day to day operations. I have great confidence that Tim and the rest of the executive management team will do a terrific job executing the exciting plans we have in place for 2011.
• #SAP Realigns Global Field Organization
  SAP Veterans Sanjay Poonen @spoonen, José Duarte, Eric Duffaut, and Robert Enslin Lead Realigned Field Unit;Robert Courteau Appointed President of SAP North America; Franck Cohen Named President of EMEA
• #SAP Revenue Soars, Beating Expectations
  For the full year, SAP achieved its margin targets and beat its own sales guidance. SAP had guided for 2010 software and software-related service revenue to rise by between 9% and 11%, but it rose by 13% from the EUR8.2 billion posted in 2009.Its operating margin was 30.5%, within expectations of between 30% and 31%, but up from 27.4% in 2009. SAP guides on a non-IFRS basis and at constant currencies.
• #Google Closed 2010 with 66.6% Search Share
  Google ‘s share was up from 66.2 percent in November. Microsoft grew search share to 12 percent from 11.8 percent, while Yahoo, whose search and search ads have been powered by Bing since August, dropped to 16 percent from 16.4 percent.
• Ballmer makes it to year 11 as #Microsoft CEO
  Increasingly, many, including me, are wondering how many more years he’ll continue in that role.
• Mobile App Growth Challenges IT Managers in 2011: Survey
  An overwhelming majority of the 250 IT managers polled (90 percent), said they will implement new mobile applications this year, with almost a quarter (21 percent) looking to introduce 20 or more applications into their organization. Almost a third(30 percent) of those surveyed said they expect to be supporting anywhere from 5 to 19 different mobile operating systems or platforms by the end of this year; 58 percent pegged the number at one to four and 8 percent said a whopping 20 or more.
• #SAP #Sybase Survey Finds #Mobile Enterprise Apps Poised To Take Off In 2011
  90% IT Managers Surveyed will implement New Mobile Applications in 2011; 21% Look to Introduce 20 or More Mobile Applications into their OrganisationSybase, Inc., an SAP company (NYSE: SAP) and industry leader in enterprise and mobile software, has released the results of a new survey by Kelton Research highlighting that this year 90 per cent of IT managers surveyed are planning to implement new mobile applications and nearly one in two believe that successfully managing mobile applications will top their priority list. As a result both hosted and on-premise mobility solutions powered by a strong mobile enterprise application platform are valuable options for businesses to seriously consider in 2011.
• IT salaries creeping up in 2011, mood mostly positive
  But senior-level IT executives are expecting the biggest pay raise as we move into 2011 — a 5.3% increase.Mid-level IT executives, meanwhile, predict a 4.5% pay raise in 2011, and IT managers a 4.1% increase.

  Broken out by industry, senior IT executives’ IT salaries in the financial services sector
  increased by 15.2% in 2010 to $152,437 compared to 2009, and these executives expect a 4.4% pay hike in 2011. On the other end of the spectrum, IT salaries for senior IT executives in health care saw their pay drop by 7.3% to an average $142,686 in 2010.
  The government sector was not a good place to be as far as IT salaries for mid-level IT managers. Compared to 2009, their salaries dropped by 7.3% in 2010 to $109,278.

• IT salary survey reveals mixed levels of satisfaction
  Overall, midlevel IT executives saw the largest increase in their 2010 pay compared with 2009, although the average raise was still less than 5%. Nonetheless, the uptick put the average salary for midlevel IT executives at $121,979, while senior IT executives, with an average 1.7% raise, inched upward to $148,380. IT managers saw the smallest salary increase in 2010 — .3% — for an average pay of $95,000.
• #ERP Failures and Lawsuits: It’s Not Just For the Tier I ERP Vendors
  Over the years, it seems as if SAP and, to a lesser degree, Oracle take a majority of the hits in the media for high profile failures and lawsuits. Waste Management, Hershey’s, the Shane Company, Overstock – all of these examples are well-known companies that blamed their new ERP systems for their difficulties, and the solutions are all provided by Tier I ERP vendors such as SAP and Oracle in these examples. However, as we published in a blog last year, Tier I ERP vendors aren’t the only ones with failures and lawsuits on their hands. For example, just a few weeks ago, a jury awarded pet food maker Sunshine Mills a $61M award against Ross Systems, a division of CDC Software, which was its Tier II ERP vendor.
• #Oracle Critical Patch Update Pre-Release Announcement – January 2011
  The highest CVSS 2.0 Base Score for vulnerabilities in this Critical Patch Update is 10.0 for Audit Vault of Oracle Audit Vault, JRockit of Oracle Fusion Middleware, Solaris of Oracle Sun Products Suite and WebLogic Server of Oracle Fusion Middleware.
• #Oracle Issuing 66 Patches
  Oracle is planning on Tuesday to release 66 security patches affecting hundreds of products, according to a notice posted on its website.
• Is #Microsoft Azure Suitable for Startups?
  There are still open questions about Azure. It’s not ruled out as a platform. It has potential for considerable success. The question is its comparison to other offerings on Amazon or Rakspace. For now, those offerings are more popular and should continue to be so for at least the year ahead.
• Results of the #SAP Community Network (SCN) Satisfaction Survey
  The survey results show that you, our members, feel very positive overall about the value of SCN. They provide insight into who you are, why you go to SCN, where you spend your time, and what you value the most.
• #SAP Announces Record Fourth Quarter 2010 Software Revenue
  # IFRS software revenue: approximately €3.26 billion (2009: €2.61 billion), an increase of around 25% (around 16% at constant currencies).
  # IFRS software and software-related service revenue: approximately €9.78 billion (2009: €8.20 billion), an increase of around 19%. Non-IFRS software and software-related service revenue: approximately €9.85 billion (2009: €8.21 billion), an increase of around 20% (around 13% at constant currencies).
  # The Company’s full-year 2010 Non-IFRS software and software-related service revenue growth rate of around 13% at constant currencies exceeds its previously published outlook range of 9% – 11%.
  # IFRS total revenue: approximately €12.45 billion (2009: €10.67 billion), an increase of around 17%. Non-IFRS total revenue: approximately €12.52 billion (2009: €10.68 billion), an increase of around 17% (around 11% at constant currencies).
  # Non-IFRS operating income: above €3.9 billion. Non-IFRS operating margin: approximately 31.5% (2009: 27.4%), or approxim
• False alarm: #Microsoft -led group is still buying #Novell #patent s ( #Apple #Oracle)
  “This is a purely procedural step necessary to provide time to allow for review of the proposed transaction,” a Microsoft representative said in response to a TechFlash inquiry about the withdrawal of the plan from German regulators. The company provided no further details or comment about the reasons for the step.
• #Microsoft Organized Consortium Withdraws Filing in Germany ( #Oracle #Apple #EMC #Patent)
  Attachmate is voluntarily withdrawing its HSR Act notification form, effective December 31, 2010 and intends to re-file for the same transaction on or about January 3, 2011. The effect of this re-filing will also be to extend the waiting period under the HSR Act to a date 30 days from the date of the re-filing, unless earlier terminated or extended by the DOJ requesting additional information from the parties.Presumably the withdrawal in Germany is similar.
• Cincinnati Zoo hopes to boost revenue with new software
  The #IBM #Cognos #BI software allows management to obtain detailed information on who came to the zoo, how much they spent while visiting and where they spent it, according to an IBM (NYSE: IBM) press release. IT can then tailor marketing packages to specific audiences.
• Baynote raises $13M to generate more relevant links with an ever-watchful eye ( #SAP)
  “Every user is being silently watched, and we end up creating peer groups across sites,” said Jack Jia, founder and chairman of Baynote. “And then you are basically guided by those like-minded peer groups to get some better links and results.”…On top of the funding, Baynote has snagged former SAP executive vice president Doug Merritt as the company’s new chief executive. The company’s revenue has grown between 70 and 120 percent each year since it was founded in 2005, and grew 75 percent last year. The funding is going to be used for typical growth strategies like developing new tools for web developers and expanding the company’s sales force, Jia said.
• Doug Merritt ( #SAP)
  Before joining Baynote, Doug held multiple executive titles at SAP, most recently as EVP Global On Demand Applications, where he was also a corporate officer and member of the Executive Council for SAP AG. Doug’s other positions at SAP include EVP Premier Customer Network (2009-2010) and EVP Business User Applications (2005-2008).Previously, Merritt served as executive vice president of the Premier Customer Network for SAP. The Premier Customer Network (PCN) division is responsible for selling to, servicing, and partnering with SAP’s most elite and strategic customers.

  Prior to his roles focusing on Go-To-Market execution, Merritt was a senior Product leader for SAP. Merritt was the “founder,” EVP and general manager of the Business User Application category for SAP, in addition to serving as the president of SAP Labs. He was responsible for creating and driving the business user application category, which includes the governance, risk, and compliance suite and analytical applicati

• #Microsoft, #Apple, #Oracle, #EMC Consortium Plan Withdrawn ( #Patent)
  Early in December Microsoft, Apple, EMC and Oracle notified the German regulator that they planned to form CPTN Holdings with a view to purchasing 882 of Novell’s patents. But the filing was withdrawn (Rücknahme) on Dec. 30. No reason was given for the withdrawal by German authorities, but it is likely voluntary as authorities would not yet have had time to investigate the proposal.
• #Oracle Lawsuit Not Slowing Support Provider #RiminiStreet Momentum
  Rimini Street’s “sales booking backlog” stood at $220 million by the end of the year, and the average contract term grew from nine to 11 years.Rimini Street also retained more than 95 percent of its clients, and customer satisfaction rates were 99 percent, according to the announcement. It reports having more than 400 customers, including 25 members of the Fortune 500.

  Plans remain for the company to deliver previously announced new services, including support for Oracle’s E-Business Suite, it adds. Rimini Street is also mulling a potential IPO (initial public offering) in 2012.

  Rimini Street pledges that customers will save at least 50 percent on their support bills. However, its customers do not receive all the benefits of vendor-provided support, such as product upgrades. It caters to customers with older, stable systems and little desire for new features.

  Each Rimini Street client, in authorizing the company to act on its behalf, “warrants to Rimini Street that it has the righ

• #RiminiStreet Reports Record Fourth Quarter and Record Full-Year 2010 Results
  The Company over-achieved its new client contract sales target in the fourth quarter, completing more than 30 transactions and exiting the quarter at more than 200 percent of plan. For the quarter, the Company delivered a record $47 million dollars in sales bookings. Fourth quarter sales bookings were an 87-percent increase in sequential quarterly bookings, and a 68-percent increase on a year-over-year basis.Fourth quarter revenue was more than $7 million, a 37-percent increase on a year-over-year basis and a new company quarterly revenue record.
  …
  Rimini Street has signed nearly 400 total clients, including 25 of the Fortune 500 and 11 of the Global 100. The Company now supports client operations in more than 60 countries, with the capability of supporting clients in nearly 200 countries. The Company has approximately 180 employees in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific regions.

  Other notable Rimini Street 2010 achievements include:

  * Announced Oracle E-Business S

• #Google founder Larry Page buys 193-foot yacht for $45m second-hand
  Page, who is worth an estimated $15billion, bought the boat from New Zealand brewing heir Sir Douglas Meyer.
• The six useful things you can do with analytic #BI technology
  Ultimately, there are six useful things you can do with analytic technology:* You can make an immediate decision.
  * You can plan in support of future decisions.
  * You can research, investigate, and analyze in support of future decisions.
  * You can monitor what’s going on, to see when it necessary to decide, plan, or investigate.
  * You can communicate, to help other people and organizations do these same things.
  * You can provide support, in technology or data gathering, for one of the other functions.
• Business requirements and the elegant art of ‘no’
  Many organizations expect IT to deliver successful results despite ambiguous and contradictory business goals and requirements. Although rational minds know this inevitably leads failure, we still repeat the same negative patterns. To break this dysfunctional cycle of angst and pain, IT and the lines of business must jointly establish shared expectations on their respective roles and responsibilities.
• Analysts predict #SAP trends for 2011
  Now that 2011 is here, we called some SAP analysts and asked them what they saw coming for SAP and its customers in the coming year From acquisitions to the future of HANA and Business ByDesign, here’s what they had to say about SAP trends, in their words.
• #Intel Announces New #Patent Cross License Agreement with #NVIDIA
  Under the transaction, Intel receives a license to NVIDIA’s patents subject to the terms of the agreement. NVIDIA receives a license to Intel’s patents subject to the terms of the agreement, including that x86 and certain other products are not licensed to NVIDIA under the agreement. Intel and NVIDIA have also exchanged broad releases for all legal claims, including any claims of breach of their previous license agreement. Intel will pay NVIDIA $1.5 billion over the next 5 years
• The process of a #Gartner Magic Quadrant
  Every vendor then gets a fact-check review; they get a copy of the MQ graphic, plus the text we’ve written about them. They’re entitled to a phone call. They beg and plead, the ones who are clients call their account executives and make promises or threats. Vendors are also entitled to escalate into our management chain, and to the Ombudsman. We never change anything unless the vendor can demonstrate something is erroneous or unclear.MQs also get management and methodologies review — ensuring that the process has been followed, basically, and that we haven’t done anything that we could get sued for. Then, and only then, does it go to editing and publication. Theoretically the process takes four months. It consumes an incredible amount of time and effort.
• Introduction of #Oracle Financial Analytics for #SAP Extends Intelligence to SAP Financial Accounting
  Available today as a part of Oracle BI Applications Release 7.9.7, Oracle Financial Analytics for SAP helps financial and executive teams to improve cash flow and profitability by extending complete financial analysis to SAP systems while dramatically reducing the complexity and costs of integrating information from SAP.
• #Oracle Goes After #SAP with New Business Intelligence App
  “Today’s announcement by Oracle highlights both the size of the SAP financials customer base and the opportunity that SAP is already realizing today by delivering packaged analytical applications dedicated to the finance line of business. SAP is the market leader for BI, EPM and analytic applications, as per leading industry analysts including Gartner and Forrester, and has more than twice the share of Oracle in core financial applications. As we’ve seen over the past three years — where more than 1,500 customers have replaced non-SAP solutions in these application areas with SAP’s own analytic offerings — we’re confident customers will continue to choose SAP over Oracle, especially as SAP’s proven, market-tested solutions come with best-in-class integration to SAP, with pre-built content and expertise, and are available to customers today.”
• Muglia’s e-mail to the #Microsoft troops: ‘I’m moving on to new opportunities outside of Microsoft’
  We’ve led the industry while facing tough competitors, most notably Linux, VMware, and Oracle. We succeeded by focusing on the simple idea that our customers make smart decisions, so we need to provide the best solution for everything our customers want to do with our products.
• #Microsoft server and tools chief heads for exit
  That will likely mean that Microsoft promotes from within. And you can bet that the server and tools president role will be broken up, with someone leading cloud and someone else heading server and tools.
• #Microsoft Previews Next-Generation #ERP: Advanced model-driven layered architecture for Microsoft Dynamics AX “6” improves developer experience.
  Significant new innovations in Microsoft Dynamics AX “6” include the following:
  •A unique model-driven, layered architecture that accelerates software development, requiring less coding than building from scratch and easing maintenance and upgradability. This allows developers to build high-value functionality quicker and better.
  •Pre-built interoperability with the Microsoft Application Platform, including Microsoft SQL Server2008 R2 and Visual Studio 2010, and other Microsoft technologies such as Microsoft Office 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint 2010. This allows developers to spend less time on technical integration and compatibility, and increases the breadth of developer resources available to ISVs.
  •A unified ERP solution with pre-built capabilities for five industries and 38 countries, providing a rich foundation that allows ISVs to rapidly expand their solutions to new verticals and geographies.
• Is #Salesforce.com Wrong to Love #Ruby?
  While it is understandable that Salesforce.com wants to expand its reach as a development platform, it should also be clear that there is no quick fix. Salesforce.com won’t be able to quickly expand its reach to support a much wider set of business applications without a much bigger object model to track all kinds of business activity. And Ruby or any other language won’t make that happen.
• Viola Private Equity Invests $7 Million in #Zend Technologies ( #PHP #OpenSource)
  Viola Private Equity and Zend Technologies today announced that Viola made a growth equity investment of $7 million in Zend. Viola’s investment adds to the Company’s previous internal round raised from its existing investors, including Greylock Partners, Index Ventures, Azure Capital Partners, Intel Capital, SAP Ventures and others, which was announced in May 2010. All together the financing round amounts to $16.5 million.
• Dan’l Lewin emerges as influential advocate for #Microsoft in Silicon Valley
  Fortunately for Microsoft, Lewin’s tact has gone a long way to mending a relationship with the region’s technology community that turned poisonous in the 1990s. Now Lewin is trying to take that good will a step further through an ambitious program called “BizSpark” that offers free Microsoft products and services to entrepreneurs.The goal is to cast Microsoft in a role that would have been unthinkable a decade ago: A startup’s best friend.

  “This is the stuff I anticipated doing when I got here 10 years ago,” Lewin said. “I’m a big believer that this company has a lot to offer startups.”

• HRM #EnSW Vendor Consolidation Fairy Tales
  There was a ton of consolidation in the HRM software and services market during 2010, and 2011 is off to a roaring start with SumTotal’s acquisition of GeoLearning. There’s a lot more to come, and speculation is already rampant about:
• Research Report: Rethink Your Next Generation Business Intelligence Strategy
  # Application and business process centric. These solutions take an application or business process centered approach based on applications such as ERP and CRM. Optimization for apps data and processes best suits organizations when more than a majority of their business information resides in a few data sources. Sample vendors include Epicor, Lawson, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle and SAP Business Objects
  # Pure play best of breeds. These solutions provide deep capabilities in a subset of data types, visualization and reporting paradigms, BI approaches and styles, and deployment deployment options. Pure play best of breeds deal well with multiple data sources and support data heterogeneity. These solutions often address the data integration (DI) issues head on. Sample vendors include Actuate, BIRST, Information Builders, MicroStrategy, myDials, PivotLink, Proferi, and QlikTech.
  # Strategic BI platforms. These solutions seek to build a comprehensive approach to supporting data types, v
• #Oracle Enterprise #Cloud Summit
  During this full-day event, cloud experts will share real-world best practices, reference architectures, detailed customer case studies, and more. You’ll learn how to transform IT into a superior service provider with a strategy and roadmap for building,deploying, and managing an enterprise cloud.Attend the Oracle Enterprise Cloud Summit to learn how to:

  * Build a state-of-the-art cloud architecture
  * Leverage your existing IT investments
  * Optimize your IT management processes

• Silicon Valley Crackup: #Oracle & #HP Killing 25-Year Alliance?
  But the link to that page detailing happier days is now as dead as a doornail—and that also seems to be the still-unofficial but nevertheless accurate description for the one-time sprawling and mutually beneficial partnership that HP and Oracle enjoyed for close to three decades.While neither company would confirm that a formal breakup has occurred, top-level executive changes at the formerly close partners have sparked such tension and harsh words between the two companies that each has begun preparing for a near-term future as head-to-head competitors instead of close collaborators.
• #Apple ’s Jobs takes symbolic salary; COO gets raise
  Apple said in the filing that it opposes the CEO succession proposal, calling it unnecessary and pointing out that it could lend rivals an advantage by publicizing the company’s plans. In addition, it would “micro-manage and constrain the actions of the board,” the company said.
• #Oracle leader wants to bring sailing to the people
  The America’s Cup has long been an elite regatta, but when framed by Alcatraz Island and the Golden Gate Bridge, it will become a sport for the masses.
• #Microsoft demos future Windows version running on #Intel and #ARM chips (video)
  IIf these ARM-based rivals can succeed in the market with their chips, they could break Intel’s near-monopoly on Windows PCs. And if Microsoft can do it, Apple probably can too.
• #Amazon Web Services adds premium support tiers
  Amazon Web Services on Thursday rolled out two premium support tiers and announced a 50% price cut on existing premium plans, heightening competition with rivals like Rackspace and making a clear overture to enterprises that wish to run their operations in the cloud.A new Bronze support tier is aimed at software developers, a core constituency of AWS over the past several years. It provides business-day support with 12 hour to one-business day response times, and costs $49 per month.
• #SAP in licensing deal with #patent #TROLL giant
  Intellectual Ventures said Thursday that Walldorf, Germany-based SAP acquired the right to access the firm’s patent portfolio “for defensive use.”
• Hume Steps Down From #SAP Channel Chief Post
  [H[er departure comes as the software company is reorganizing its indirect sales and channel operations.
• #Salesforce.com Acquires Dimdim
  Dimdim has created critical real-time communication technologies such as presence, messaging and screen sharing. With the acquisition, salesforce.com gains Dimdim’s real-time communication technologies, along with a team of world-class developers experienced in building cloud-based collaboration services. Salesforce.com will use the acquisition to bring new real-time communication capabilities to theChatter collaboration platform, mirroring the proven Facebook model of combining collaboration and communication into an integrated service.
• #SAP Wins New Trial Over $139 Million It was Ordered to Pay Versata in 2009
  U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Everingham in Marshall, Texas, said today that testimony during the 2009 trial on damages was incorrect in light of recent unrelated appeals court rulings that limited how damages should be calculated. He set a new trial for April 25.The damage award was based on the entire market value of SAP products, which SAP said was unfair because it resulted in what it called an excessive award. SAP, in an Oct. 6, 2009, filing, argued that the largest amount supported by the evidence is $2.03 million. Walldorf, Germany-based SAP is the world’s biggest maker of business-management software.
• #Salesforce.com Acquires Dimdim For $31 Million
  Features from Dimdim will be integrated into the next major version of Chatter, Benioff said. That new version will either be announced or rolled out in August at the company’s annual customer meeting, he said.The San Francisco-based company launched Chatter in June, offering features reminiscent of Facebook and Twitter for corporate collaboration. Chatter is Salesforce’s first product marketed through a company, rather than just to the sales or customer service departments that are the company’s traditional customer targets.
• #Oracle Completes Acquisition of ATG
  Oracle can now provide best-in-class cross-channel CRM, Retail and Commerce that enables unified marketing, merchandising, service and ordermanagement, supply chain, and a seamless, personalized customer experience.
  To communicate product strategy for the combined Oracle and ATG products, the company will host a webcast presentation, which will be available beginning at 9:00am PT on January 6, 2011.
• Will Ellison get last laugh?
  If Ellison moved the team to San Jose, he could immediately share a building with the Sharks. San Jose would also offer plenty of sponsorship revenue and an increased TV market that would boost media revenue.
• Larry Ellison Might Buy New Orleans Hornets And Move Them To San Jose
  And the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose television market is the sixth-largest, which would provide a substantial increase in media revenue and make it possible to launch a regional sports network with other sports teams in the area.
• #HP Marketing Chief Michael Mendenhall Said to Be Replaced by #SAP ‘s Wohl
  Wohl plans to start at HP on Jan. 18 and will relocate to California, one person familiar with the matter said. He will inherit Mendenhall’s public relations responsibilities but not his marketing role, this person said.While Wohl confirmed he is leaving SAP, he declined to answer questions about his role at HP.
• Hurd on the Street/Please Hurd, Don’t Hammer ‘Em
  In August, Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd resigns following an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment brought against him by a former company contractor. A month later, he snags a job at HP rival Oracle, which trots him out during a company earnings call to proclaim his new employer the market leader.
• Ellison Taunts HP CEO a Second Time
  With Oracle’s high-profile trade secrets case against SAP scheduled to begin in a few days, Larry Ellison mercilessly slags former SAP chief and newly appointed HP CEO Léo Apotheker.
• HP CEO to Oracle: Here’s Looking at You, Kid–-Suntory Time!
  Oracle hires process servers to subpoena former SAP Chief Léo Apotheker. But Apotheker, who’s just begun his new gig as CEO of Hewlett-Packard, manages to keep himself far beyond their 100-mile reach by traveling to Japan.
• Consider This a Down Payment on Next Week’s Ass-Whupping…
  In early November, the Oracle-SAP trial kicks off. Oracle is the first to draw blood when SAP agrees to pay it $120 million for attorneys’ fees before arguments even begin.
• Cirque du Larry
  Hewlett-Packard describes Oracle’s efforts to subpoena CEO Léo Apotheker to testify in its trial against archrival SAP as “an effort to harass” him and “interfere with his duties and responsibilities.” SAP calls it a “PR sideshow.” Circus sideshow is probably more apt.
• Oracle Attorney: You May Say that I’m a Dreamer….
  Unable to subpoena HP CEO Léo Apotheker to testify live in its case against SAP, Oracle opts not to show his videotaped deposition and instead leaves the former SAP chief’s role in the case to jurors’ imaginations.
• Okay, Who’s Going to Tell Larry He Lost the Over/Under on the SAP Damages Award?
  Billions or millions. That was the central question in the Oracle vs. SAP case, and in the end, the jury determined its answer to be billions. For the theft of Oracle’s intellectual property by its shuttered TomorrowNow division, SAP is ordered to pay Oracle $1.3 billion.
• Gets Us Closer to the $4 Billion Number Larry Really Wanted…
  In court papers filed in early December, Oracle demands SAP pay it $212 million in interest on top of the $1.3 billion in damages it was awarded in the lawsuit between the two companies.
• Larry Ellison: Behind the Kimono
  The high point of Bloomberg Television’s “Game Changers” feature on Larry Ellison: A photo of Oracle’s Art of War-quoting, shower-rock-bathing samurai CEO in his favorite kimono.
• Some Help Desks Get Little Support
  The typical IT organization spends about $478 per year on help desk operations for every personal computer supported by the organization.
• Constellation’s Research Outlook For 2011
  Organizations held hostage by high and useless software maintenance contracts will lead a massive backlash (@rwang0). Organizations faced with market pressures to create strategic differentiation amidst the burden of legacy systems will need to find a way to pay for innovation. Software maintenance fees will come under attack as user groups and leading organizations will spearhead efforts to renegotiate existing enterprise software vendor contracts. Existing software vendors caught off guard will suffer through a PR disaster that will cost them significant future sales. Third party maintenance vendors will continue to emerge to combat vendor-lock in and maintenance hegemony.
• Ross Systems Lawsuit Another Costly Case of Mismatched #ERP Expectations
  It appears to be a case of mismatched expectations. This is a problem in many software implementations. However, resulting problems can quickly get out of hand and really blow up with ERP since it involves so many critical business processes, a large number of which relate directly to revenue-generating activities.
• According to 2FA: #Oracle Wants to ‘Have One’s Cake and Eat It Too!’
  “They stole the software, now they don’t want to pay for it. They took over 10,000,000, $40 watches and hocked them for $1. Now they want to pay us $1. Taking just $10 million from Oracle is a reward for their bad behavior, frankly. I think taking our intellectual property is a two-edged sword. For Oracle, it means they have access to all our engineering output. The other side of that sword is running an irrational risk by taking our software. That’s a risk I certainly would never, ever undertake,” said Greg Salyards, 2FA Technology’s President and CEO, using Mrs. Safra Catz’s and Mr. Larry Ellison’s previous quotes.
• 2FA Technology, LLC Plaintiff v. Oracle Corporation…and Passlogix, Inc…Defendants
• Rival Demands $110 Million from #Oracle ( #TROLL)
  A year later, Oracle announced that it had acquired Passlogix, for $42 million – an acquisition that increased Oracle’s market capitalization by more than $1 billion, according to the complaint.
• Larry Ellison’s 10-Point Plan For World Domination ( #Oracle)
  Applications Business Grew 20%–And new Fusion apps are coming. Oracle’s planning a slow rollout of its long-delayed Fusion apps this year, but Ellison was bullish about the prospects those products will have in the context of Oracle’s overall strategy: “Next is our commitment to protecting customer’s investment in their existing Oracle technology, whether it’s PeopleSoft, Siebel, JD Edwards, or E-Business Suite, and then make this huge investment. I think coming down the runway very quickly next calendar year we’re going to be talking a lot about Fusion. We’ve got this new generation of applications by the way that runs on-premise and in the cloud, in the public cloud—as well as private clouds on-premise—or public clouds. Nobody has this.
• Senator Yee Applauds Selection of San Francisco as Host City of the America´s Cup
  “This is an exciting day for our city,” said Yee. “Today´s news demonstrates what is possible when we all work together. The Mayor, the Board of Supervisors, and the San Francisco state and federal legislative delegations worked diligently to see this day come to fruition. Hosting this prestigious event should mean billions of dollars for our region and our state.”
• Chrome finishes 2010 with 10 percent share ( #Google #Microsoft #OpenSource #Apple)
  Chrome’s gains have come largely at the expense of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, whose usage share has been dropping for years, but there’s also a ray of hope for Redmond. IE9, which embodies Microsoft’s ambition to build a cutting-edge browser once again, is showing signs of real adoption with usage that grew from 0.4 percent in November to 0.5 percent in December, according to new statistics from Net Applications.
• Using #ERP to Increase Sales
  Truly understanding the thought process driving a transaction can inspire IT to develop technology that generates new revenue, says Alan Webber, an analyst at Altimeter Group. Even simple IT capabilities can have big results. “It’s critical for CIOs to understand how customers think.”
• #IBM unleashes #Cognos and then uploads it into the #Cloud
  The main focus of Cognos 10 is the user. IBM has talked long and hard about how it was responding to customer demands for more functionality and, more importantly, a better User Experience (UE). Making any software work the way the user wants is the Holy Grail for any software vendor and maybe IBM has finally seen the light.
• Enterprise apps find a space on consumer devices ( #Apple)
  In a survey of 1,100 of its enterprise customers, mobile connectivity management provider iPass found that 13% already have iPads in use — mainly brought in by employees — and 27% expect iPads and similar devices to replace the laptop as their primary computing device.Another poll of 1,600 IT buyers, by ChangeWave Research, found that 14% of companies plan to buy employees some form of tablet for work. And, at least initially, organizations seem to be eschewing the typical enterprise-targeted devices from Hewlett-Packard and Research in Motion in favor of devices made for the consumer market, notably the iPad.
• #Cassandra vs #MongoDB vs #CouchDB vs #Redis vs #Riak vs #HBase comparison ( #NoSQL #Hadoop #OpenSource)
  But the differences between “NoSQL” databases are much bigger than it ever was between one SQL database and another. This means that it is a bigger responsibility on software architects to choose the appropriate one for a project right at the beginning.
• Battle of #NoSQL Stars: #Amazon SDB vs Mongoid vs #CouchDB vs RavenDB ( #OpenSource)
  This video dives into the target audiences and differences in NoSQL storage, how to implement them and what this NoSQL thing is all about. It discusses how SQL has limits when you get to web-scale and how NoSQL bypasses these limits. It shows an example application deployment using Rails 3 and Mongoid to see how CRUD differs from your MySQL and Postgres installs.
• Software Industry New Year’s Resolutions ( #SAP #Oracle #HP #Infor #Salesforce.com)
  One more for SAP: To give customers a clear and complete story on the future of NetWeaver. Recent announcements and presentations have referenced a flurry of versions and flavors of the middleware stack to the point of confusion.
• 2011 tech preview: A tour through tablets, mobile, hardware, software and #cloud
  HP will acquire Citrix, BMC Software and Teradata in 2011.
• #SAP, #Sybase, and the Future of Enterprise Mobility
  Simply put, we want to become the mobile ecosystem’s preferred platform, enabling channel partners, developers, and IT departments to step up and transform the enterprise. As a new member of the SAP family, I look forward to working with you, our customers and partners, to propel us into this bright new era. I encourage you to join us at the SAPPHIRE NOW conference this spring, where we will show off our new apps and the Sybase Unwired Platform software developer kit.
• Buffing Up The Crystal Ball
  The #Oracle E-Business Suite extended support wave will continue to roll through the mostly-unaware set of customers. 11i moved off of Premier Support in 2010. R12.0x moves to Extended Support on February 1, 2012. Still, I don’t think 2011 is the year that customers will begin to realize just what has happened to their ERP systems (although Oracle and the user groups have been sounding the trumpet until their faces turned blue). I personally think that happens in 2012 (the fee waiver for 11i Extended Support expires, R12.0x rolls into Extended Support, and the Extended Support warning bell begins to chime for R12.1.x – that’s a “triple witching hour”).
• Members of San Francisco’s ‘workingman’s sailing club’ thrilled about landing America’s Cup race
  For the first time in decades, the public will have free, front-row seats for weeks to watch the America’s Cup series of races. Unlike nearly every other America’s Cup race that has been set in open water with viewing only from a spectator boat and on special cable channels, viewers in San Francisco will be able to line up along city streets, parks and piers from the Golden Gate Bridge to Treasure Island to watch the 72-foot catamarans fly by.”This will make for the greatest spectacle in international
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  sailing,” said Ray Thomas, the Golden Gate Yacht Club’s vice commodore.
• AmCup 2013: Oracle kicks Newport’s tires to sweeten SF deal
  One Sailing World writer was absolutely correct when he suggested early on that the Newport negotiations were being used as a wedge by Ellison’s group to inspire SF to try harder to fulfill BMW Oracle Racing’s wishlist.
• Ellison picks San Francisco to host 2013 America’s Cup
  The Californian city saw off American rival Newport and an unnamed Italian site to be chosen by Larry Ellison, whose Oracle team won in 2010.Racing will be in San Francisco Bay and visible to spectators from the Golden Gate Bridge and other landmarks.
• 34th America’s Cup is coming to San Francisco Bay
  Budget problems prevented San Francisco from paying an upfront fee to win the bid, so lawmakers offered the organizers rent-free access to waterfront property near the Bay Bridge where they can repair piers and build the needed facilities.