At the IFS World Conference 2012 in Gothenburg, Sweden, it was interesting to notice that Microsoft was the diamond sponsor of the conference, while IBM and Oracle were platinum sponsors.

Currently, IFS Applications runs solely on Oracle database, while the presentation (client) side and prepackaged business intelligence (BI) are Microsoft-centric (the IFS Web client also supports Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome browsers). Where IFS offers more openness and choice is in the middleware/app server layer by supporting IBM WebSphere, Oracle Weblogic, and Red Hat’s JBoss products based on the Java Enterprise Edition standards. Microsoft Windows, Unix, and Linux are supported OS platforms. Read the rest of this entry »

After having announced the launch of a number of cloud mobile apps, and in keeping with the mobility theme, IFS announced the new IFS Touch Apps Partner Program at the IFS World Conference 2012 in Gothenburg, Sweden. The program, which is aimed at delivering new smartphone apps to IFS customers, will officially launch on November 15, 2012, and five partners have already signed on. Read the rest of this entry »

Mobile computing (mobility) has been the major theme of the ongoing IFS World Conference 2012 in Gothenburg, Sweden. Given that the sales of smartphones and tablets have recently exceeded the sales of PCs, this path of discussion is logical. IFS has embarked on the following three-step path to workforce mobilization:

• Reach—when people are out of office, reach them via notifications, reminders, etc.
• Act—enable transactional users to use full ERP suite remotely via IFS Touch Apps for smartphones and tablets, in the same manner as when they are in the office. The look-and-feel will be the same as using IFS Enterprise Explorer on the desktop, with the addition of “touch” capabilities for tablets.
• Transform—with the input of professional ERP users and roles (e.g., road warriors), IFS hopes to transform some industries’ best practices via mobile devices (e.g., field service tasks)

At the conference, IFS launched seven new smartphone apps in the IFS Touch Apps series. Read the rest of this entry »

IFS, the global enterprise applications company (whose World Conference 2012 is currently taking place in Gothenburg (Sweden), announced that Merrill Technologies Group (MTG), a leader in the machining, fabricating, and systems integration fields, has selected IFS Applications as its new enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. Read the rest of this entry »

High-level enhancements in TeleStaff 2.8 were announced by Kronos last week—Microsoft database compatibility, bidding, reporting, and data consolidation. It is worth pointing out the performance of Kronos TeleStaff and the (less talked about) public sector workforce management suite since Kronos’ May 2011 acquisition of PDSI and the TeleStaff product. Read the rest of this entry »

QAD is arguably the first enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendor with a built-in full-fledged business process management (BPM) system (Savvion BPM) within its development platform, Progress OpenEdge. Indeed, SAP NetWeaver PI is mainly about process-based integration (and Pegasystems, IBM BPM, and IDS Scheer by Software AG often complement those capabilities for, say, case management or rules-based processes), while Microsoft SharePoint has some workflow management capabilities and is mostly good for document-based processes. Needless to say, BPM is about much more than system-centric integration, portals, and document management. Read the rest of this entry »

Now that Emptoris and Ariba are gone as independent spend management software suite vendors (acquired by IBM and SAP respectively), is SciQuest trying to take their place? The company may indeed have those aspirations, based on its 2011 acquisition of AECsoft for Supplier Information Management (SIM), Supplier Diversity, and Sourcing Technology, and the recent 2012 acquisition of Upside Software for its leading Contract Management capabilities. Most recently, SciQuest acquired Spend Radar LLC, a rapidly growing provider of easy-to-use and flexible spend analysis software. Read the rest of this entry »

Under the terms of the newly announced partnership with Rosslyn Analytics, Differentia Consulting, one of the United Kingdom’s largest technology consultancies and QlikTech’s largest UK partner, will develop QlikView apps using Rosslyn Analytics’ cloud-based RAPid enterprise data enrichment platform for clients in the UK and Ireland and their associated global affiliates. 

The important bit here is that Rosslyn has brought QlikView business intelligence (BI) visualization into the cloud using the RAPid platform.  Read the rest of this entry »

A few weeks ago I discussed Deltek’s journey from its founding in 1983 until its recently announced impending delisting from NASDAQ and going private under Thoma Bravo’s ownership, for the second time in its history. The article presented some opposing views on what this acquisition might mean for Deltek, its customers, and partners.

In light of the company’s recent quarterly results and the upcoming Deltek Insight 2012 user conference in mid-October 2012, this post features my conference previews discussion with Patrick Smith, Vice President, Corporate Marketing and Communications at Deltek.

Read the rest of this entry »

There is nothing earth-shattering in this announcement— just common-sense enhancements according to user requirements. Still, there is at least some psychological importance in Aptean showing initiative and taking the first concrete product roadmap steps post CDC Software–Consona Corporation merger. Read the rest of this entry »

Infor today announced that DeltaValve has implemented Infor PLM Discrete, adding to DeltaValve’s existing deployment of Infor SyteLine ERP system. 

In the discrete product lifecycle management space (PLM) space, Infor is not necessarily a best-of-breed stand-alone solution. In fact, it’s quite late to the pure-play PLM party (as opposed to the differentiating capabilities it offers in the process PLM space with Optiva PLM). Read the rest of this entry »

Arena PLM is moving further into the area the company is good at, and leveling the playing field for smaller hi-tech/electronics firms to be able to play with big boys. Read the rest of this entry »

While the tagline didn’t really tickle my fancy, it’s evidence that Dassault Systèmes’ novel go-to-market approach is apparently by industry. Within each industry, there are multiple “experiences”—software packages that address specific business needs, if you will.  Read the rest of this entry »

In addition to the KANA Express announcement, another major announcement was made at the recently held KANA Connections 2012 conference. This time the customer is from the public sector, for which KANA offers the Lagan suite of products, including Lagan Express, based on Trinicom’s technology for midsize organizations. The city of Winnipeg (Canada) has selected the brand new Lagan Mobile application for citizens, offering residents the ability to access information and request city services from their mobile devices. Read the rest of this entry »

Salesforce Chatter, Jive Software, Saba People Cloud, Microsoft Yammer, etc. are getting some company. TIBCO’s tibbr is only 18 months old but already used by a million people in 104 countries, 56 percent of them on smartphones. Users can mark their affinities (likes), post updates, and handle files in TIBCO’s social offering. With tibbr, users can follow anything and support everything, while corporate IT departments control issues such as security, entitlements, scale, etc. Read the rest of this entry »