Hinted at during Microsoft Convergence 2013 back in March, the Microsoft Dynamics team has finally announced the availability of Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft Dynamics GP on Windows Azure through Microsoft partners. This means that Microsoft Dynamics GP and NAV customers can now work with their local Microsoft partners to get their business solutions in the cloud, and know that their solution is hosted on a secure enterprise-class cloud infrastructure. This arrangement also opens new opportunities for partners to offer new deployment options to their customers without having to build the infrastructure required to host a cloud solution.

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VISI Incorporated, a provider of data center solutions, announced that it has signed a three-year agreement with Rockler Companies to provide ReliaCloud services for Rockler Companies, Inc. The ReliaCloud services provide a virtualized, outsourced production server environment for Rockler. Read the rest of this entry »

A major announcement at the PTC Live Global 2013 conference was that PTC Creo design and analysis applications will soon be available and supported in a Virtual Desktop environment. In design and manufacturing environments today, corporations need to have the ability to get global teams up and running quickly in new locations, and they need all teams to be able to easily access the latest software installation by updating from a single server. Virtualization of PTC Creo design and analysis applications can help IT managers accomplish this. Read the rest of this entry »

As my colleague Bob Eastman reported in a blogpost earlier today, SAP plans to acquire hybris, a vibrant and widely recognized leader in e-commerce technology with the choice of on-premises or cloud deployment, as enterprises around the world struggle with the customer experience for businesses and consumers across an ever-growing number of delivery channels, devices, and touch points. The combination of industry-leading enterprise solutions from SAP with the multi-channel commerce solutions of hybris should provide enterprises with the enhanced data and tools necessary to optimize margins and customer loyalty.

As mentioned in TEC’s report from the NRF 2013 conference, today’s consumers and businesses demand a seamless brand and shopping experience across all channels. The e-commerce technology market is experiencing rapid growth as businesses adapt to changing customer behaviors that seamlessly cross Web, mobile, store, contact center, and other points of engagement. Big data, cloud, mobile, and social technologies only heighten demand for innovative commerce solutions needed for managing consistent customer engagement.

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As part of its TECHED 2013 event in New Orleans, Microsoft has announced offerings to address the new needs of enterprise IT. On its path towards being cloud-first, Microsoft is releasing new offerings to enhance its cloud, data management, and application development services, as well as launching a new release of its flagship Windows product.

Microsoft Cloud, hybrid and versatile
With regard to server and cloud offerings, Microsoft has introduced key IT solutions: Windows Server 2012 R2, System Center R2, and SQL Server 2014. These products will be available by late June and are set to reinforce the integration between an organization’s in-house and third-party datacenters and Microsoft Azure, enabling users to work seamlessly with a cloud or hybrid solution as required. Read the rest of this entry »

As part of Microsoft’s TECHED Conference in New Orleans, Satya Nadella President of Server & Tools Business at Microsoft, sent an internal mail to all Microsoft employees, which has been shared on the official Microsoft blog. The mail sheds some light on Microsoft’s new offerings shares details regarding where Microsoft is in its ongoing cloud-first focus strategy. Read the rest of this entry »

Rootstock Software is a provider of cloud manufacturing and supply chain management (SCM) applications that integrate “out of the box” with native sales and accounting apps by salesforce.com and FinancialForce.com. This integration seems to have recently helped Rootstock ERP be selected by a couple of new customers.

Recently, the vendor announced that Sanergy, a social enterprise in Nairobi, Kenya that makes hygienic sanitation affordable and accessible in urban slums, has chosen Rootstock ERP to support its manufacturing facility in Nairobi. More recently, Rootstock announced that Ideal Power Converters (IPC), a developer of disruptive electronic power converter solutions, has chosen Rootstock ERP to be implemented at its Austin, Texas facility. IPC is committed to the rapidly growing power conversion markets of renewable energy, electrical energy efficiency, smart grids, and electric vehicles.

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Demand Management Inc. has been very busy as of late, with a recent flurry of new products and features. In a series of press releases, Demand Management has recently announced the availability of the Demand Solutions platform as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering; configurable workflows that provide alerts for exceptions and escalations; a new predictive lead time capability; and new industry-specific business intelligence capabilities. With more press releases in the past five weeks than in all of 2012, TEC decided we should check in with Demand Management’s president, Bill Harrison, to find out what this is all about. Read the rest of this entry »

A year ago Intuit acquired Demandforce, an online marketing and communication product, to bolster offerings that help small businesses attract and retain customers. Intuit recently celebrated several Demandforce milestones, not the least of which is that Demandforce has helped Intuit’s Small Business Group achieve 17 percent revenue growth for the quarter over this time last year.

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E2open, a provider of cloud-based solutions for collaborative execution across global trading networks, recently announced the addition of E2 Rapid Resolutions to extend E2open’s flagship E2open Business Network with cross-network prescriptive analytics for decision support. More than 35,000 trading partners, with over 108,000 unique registered users, currently participate in the E2open Business Network, which allows participants to access and share data and execute business processes in a secure and real-time manner. The network also provides collaboration tools and analytics so that E2open customers can make more informed and efficient decisions.

E2 Rapid Resolutions leverages E2open’s cloud-based network and process layers, as well as common integration and data models for continuous monitoring, earlier detection, and faster resolution of supply chain disruptions. With faster, more intelligent responses, companies can reduce lead times and costs. In combination with E2 Process Management, which identifies current and projected exceptions across the network using predictive analytics, E2 Rapid Resolutions performs single-sweep operations to measure the scope and impact of such disruptions.

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Earlier this month, TIBCO announced the launch of its new Integration Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) called TIBCO Cloud Bus. The new subscription-based integration platform will enable users to undergo extensive and complex integration projects, and migrate applications and workload to the cloud, at, as TIBCO states, lower costs and with drastically lesser deployment times.

According to TIBCO, the Cloud Bus enables users to have the freedom to start their projects within minutes and only pay for what they consume, while at the same time having the freedom to choose and move across cloud infrastructure offered by partners that meet TIBCO’s and its customers’ needs and demands. Read the rest of this entry »

On the heels of SAPPHIRENOW 2013, SAP issued the announcement that it would simplify its organizational structure and create a single research and development (R&D) organization to oversee innovation across the company. The new structure is expected to enable SAP to accelerate innovations powered by the SAP HANA platform for existing and new products, drive a cloud-first approach for the development of line-of-business (LoB) applications, increase SAP’s leadership in mobility, and further accelerate the company’s go-to-market for the cloud and the recently launched SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud service.

This move included a series of changes among the SAP Executive Board and SAP Global Managing Board, detailed in the accompanying press release. The most prominent nugget of news was the departure of Lars Dalgaard, former SuccessFactors CEO and founder, from the board to pursue investment opportunities. SAP also hosted a conference call for media and analysts (the call transcript can be read here).

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Plex Systems, the enterprise resource planning (ERP) provider of the Plex Manufacturing Cloud (formerly Plex Online), has announced its collaboration with Insequence Coporation, provider of manufacturing sequencing technology. The joint capabilities should improve the process of delivering components to the manufacturing supply chain in an efficient fashion.

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Autodesk recently signed a definitive agreement to acquire Tinkercad, an easy-to-use browser-based 3D design tool. The addition of Tinkercad to Autodesk is aimed at helping broaden the consumer-oriented Autodesk 123D family of apps and supports Autodesk’s vision to help anybody (students, makers, and designers) imagine, design, and create anything. The acquisition will also revive the Tinkercad service and community, despite a previously announced shutdown by its founders and creators. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the major themes at the recently held SuiteWorld 2013 conference was that NetSuite has been aggressively building a cloud partner ecosystem, the Autodesk alliance being one resounding example. During the conference, automated mobile workforce management (WFM) and optimization solutions provider ClickSoftware Technologies announced that it has partnered with NetSuite to build the ClickSoftware SuiteApp using NetSuite’s SuiteCloud Computing Platform.

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