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MindTouch Deki: Kilen Woods release: Today, MindTouch Deki announces Kilen Woods, its latest and biggest release. In conversation with co-founder Aaron Fulkerson I learned that Deki is rapidly transforming itself from being a smart wiki into what Fulkerson calls the 'connecting tissue' between applications. Others might call it mashup environment, still others a means of...; Tags: Microsoft Corp., Mashup, Aaron Fulkerson, Management Option, Wiki, Collaboration, Supply Chain Management (SCM), Databases, Online Communications, Enterprise Software, Software, Data Management, Dennis Howlett; Blog posts 2008-07-23
Zuora: the future business model?: I recently caught up with Tien Tzou, CEO of Zuora, the billing management company that offers Z-billings, an on-demand service. In his opinion, the business model of the future will be subscription based and this brings challenges of its own. "Pricing is a much more complex...; Tags: Salesforce.com Inc., Billing, Dennis Howlett; Blog posts 2008-07-22
Apple chaos theory: I got a fairly lukewarm response to my excitement over Oracle putting applications on the iPhone. That should be no surprise to readers of Fortune which also poured cold water on the idea that iPhone's are going to be the next big thing in corporate gadgets: Companies in highly...; Tags: Apple iPhone, CIO, Theory, Information Technology, Apple Inc., Strategy, Management, Dennis Howlett; Blog posts 2008-07-21
Qik out of private beta: Over the weekend, Qik came out of private beta. Jennifer Leggio has all the technical details, along with some insights in Robert Scoble's outburst about how kyte.tv would kill off Qik and Flixwagon. One claim the company makes over at VentureBeat is that they have gotten latency...; Tags: Revenue, Advertisement, Business Model, Beta, Qik, Jennifer Leggio, Strategy, Management, Dennis Howlett; Blog posts 2008-07-21
SAP 'Mittelstand' customers upset at new maintenance charges: Following on from yesterday's announcement of a hike in SAP maintenance charges, the German title Computerwoche implies that the powerful 'Mittelstand' group in the German SAP user group are far from happy. Under the title: "Higher maintenance costs upset SAP customers ," Computerwoche interviewed Gunther Rheinhart, executive member of the...; Tags: Customer, SAP AG, Mittelstand, Gunther Rheinhart, Auto-renew, Software As A Service (SaaS), Workforce Management, Outsourcing, Emerging Technologies, Human Resources, It Operations, Business Operations, Outsourcing & Subcontracting, Dennis Howlett; Blog posts 2008-07-17

SAP pulls the trigger on higher support costs: SAP has announced that it plans to transition all customers to its new Enterprise Support offering from January 1st, 2009. SAP is pitching this as a service that adds customer value but in reality it means a cost increase. According to the press release, SAP will incrementally ratchet support costs...; Tags: SAP AG, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), Corporate Governance, Construction, Web Services, Middleware, Enterprise Software, Software, Business Operations, Corporate Law, Dennis Howlett; Blog posts 2008-07-16
Twitter going commercial?: According to Mike Arrington, there is a commercial play for Twitter in the works. During a conversation with Ev Williams, Twitter co-founder: MA: What is your revenue model? Do you know yet? Have you thought about it? EW: We've thought about it. We had...; Tags: Twitter, E-mail, Operational Accounting, Productivity, Processors, Online Communications, Finance, Semiconductors, Hardware, Components, Dennis Howlett; Blog posts 2008-07-16
Hammering at cost with open source: Irregular Bob Warfield riffs on Salesforce.com's decision to ditch Sun/Solaris in favor of Dell/Linux. In doing so, Bob makes the point that: ...for a SaaS company, the cost of service delivery is an absolutely critical factor. Once you have software that runs well and scales horizontally on cheap commodity...; Tags: Software, Salesforce.com Inc., Software-as-a-service, Oracle Corp., Open Source, Vinnie Mirchandani, Software As A Service (SaaS), Cloud Computing, Sales Force Management, Emerging Technologies, Sales, Dennis Howlett; Blog posts 2008-07-15
European telcos squeal: should we care?: One of the ongoing discussions among the Irregulars centers around telecommunications costs. Many of us travel internationally and bemoan the astronomical sic charges we're forced to pay by telecoms operators. Earlier today, I saw a statement from the GSMA, a global trade group for the industry arguing...; Tags: Mobile, Industry, Telephony, Text Messaging/SMS/MMS, Telecom & Utilities, Regulations, Telecommunications, Networking, Cellular Phones, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Online Communications, Government, Dennis Howlett; Blog posts 2008-07-15
Cruel to be kind: FastWork.tv revista: I was aware that talking about FastTalk.tv would get a degree of attention. That's because I have close links to SAP. What I could never know is the extent to which it might influence change. Robert Scoble invited me to review the latest show to assess whether it is better...; Tags: Robert Scoble, SAP AG, Sales Strategy, Branding, Podcasts, Groupware, Sales Force Management, Sales, Marketing, Internet, Enterprise Software, Software, Dennis Howlett; Blog posts 2008-07-14
Enterprise 2.0 looking more like 1.0?: As the hype and confusion over social networking and all things X2.0 accelerates, it seems that the PR/marketing techniques that dominated the late 1990's are back in fashion. Take this from an email and press release I received today: Email: "I thought you might be interested in...; Tags: Network, Enterprise 2.0, Social Networking, Public Relations, Online Communications, Marketing, Advertising & Promotion, Corporate Communications, Dennis Howlett; Blog posts 2008-07-14
First MISO, then GISMO, next GOAT?: Awhile back my Irregular chums came up with MISO as the acronym to describe the main enterprise players of the time: Microsoft, IBM, SAP and Oracle. We also quipped that could change to include Google and so with a little creative thought we ended up with GISMO. Last week's Apple...; Tags: Google Inc., Oracle Corp., Steve Gillmor, Apple Inc., 3G, Operational Planning, Advertising & Promotion, Cellular Phones, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Business Operations, Marketing, Dennis Howlett; Blog posts 2008-07-14
Oracle joins iPhone mania: Last night, Oracle released Business Indicators on iTunes. It is a free client for the iPhone that provides top level information from business intelligence applications. Oracle is trying to appeal to a broad range of business users and claims the following examples: "Contact center ...; Tags: Apple iPhone, Oracle Corp., Pricing, Taxes, Business Intelligence, Tools & Techniques, Free Trade, Monitors & Displays, Enterprise Software, Marketing, Financial Planning, Finance, Software, Data Management, Management, Hardware, Components, Dennis Howlett; Blog posts 2008-07-11
Houston we have a problem: Regular readers don't need me to repeat the oft held view that enterprise wide application implementation is often slow, cumbersome and expensive. But are we really getting anything out of it at the end of the day other than some marginal cost efficiency? Rather than throw brickbats at any particular...; Tags: Customer Service, Houston, Sam Lawrence, CIOs/CTOs, Product Marketing, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Marketing, Enterprise Software, Software, Dennis Howlett; Blog posts 2008-07-10
SAP's TV budget: more waste: Regular readers will know that I'm pretty hard on enterprise vendors, especially when I believe they are wasting customers' money. Last month for instance I dinged Oracle for wasting money on English language advertising at Madrid Barajas airport. This morning SAP gets my attention. They are sponsoring...; Tags: SAP AG, TV, Dennis Howlett; Blog posts 2008-07-08
Ticking bombs in enterprise land: I believe the enterprise software industry is heading for major problems. It started when I read Francine McKenna where she talks about what she sees as a doomsday scenario for at least one of the Big Four audit businesses. Francine's focus is on questioning the effectiveness of current methods for...; Tags: Software, Audit, Francine, Tools & Techniques, Financial Accounting, Management, Finance, Dennis Howlett; Blog posts 2008-07-07
As you sow...: Not quite off topic but something that cuts Oracle a break and shows us here at ZDN to be as capable as anyone of getting things messed up. Check this post from our mutual friend Jake Kuramoto.To selectively quote: A few things were wrong about this whole thing. First,...; Tags: Finger, Podcasts, Blogging, Advertising & Promotion, Internet, Marketing, Dennis Howlett; Blog posts 2008-07-04
Powerset's smarts are Microsoft's gain: Larry Dignan pours lukewarm water on Microsoft's acquisition of Powerset. Talking about Google's near monopoly in the search market, Larry says: Microsoft can reinvent search, but it's still running up a natural Google monopoly. The analogy here is Windows: Microsoft didn't have the best operating system on the planet....; Tags: Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., Powerset, Wiki, Document Management, Mergers & Acquisitions, Speech Recognition, Channel Management, Search, Enterprise Software, Online Communications, Software, Finance, Managerial Accounting, Investment, Emerging Technologies, Marketing, Dennis Howlett; Blog posts 2008-07-01
Oracle's BEA strategy: reassuring the market: Earlier today, Oracle outlined its strategy regarding the recently acquired BEA portfolio. If I hadn't known it was supposed to be a customer and partner webinar, I'd have thought we were listening to a more detailed re-run of the latest earnings call with Charles Philips talking...; Tags: BEA Systems Inc., Oracle Corp., Sales Strategy, Public Relations, Strategy, Sales, Marketing, Corporate Communications, Management, Dennis Howlett; Blog posts 2008-07-01
RightScale cloud management extends to MySQL: RightScale, which specializes in cloud computing management for the Amazon Web Services platform today announced support for MySQL Enterprise. The service, which goes live July 1, provides automated deployment, management and scaling, coupled with MySQL Enterprise premium-level support for large database applications. ...; Tags: MySQL, Cloud Computing, Databases, Storage, Open Source, Enterprise Software, Software, Data Management, Hardware, Dennis Howlett; Blog posts 2008-06-25