IBM has introduced a new appliance designed to help organizations to communicate with millions of mobile devices and sensors around the world. The new offering is called IBM MessageSight and will be able to communicate with and gather information from devices varying from mobile phones and tablets to automobiles to house appliances. Read the rest of this entry »

In a recent analyst briefing with IBM, the software and hardware provider revealed the details of its continued efforts to expand its big “big data” offerings. The three major announcements revealed by IBM are key to the company’s efforts to consolidate its big data offerings and become the biggest player in the so-called big data space, but having to compete for the “big”gest piece of the pie with other major software giants and important niche players such as Oracle, Cloudera, Teradata, Microsoft, and SAP, it might not be as easy as it seems… Read the rest of this entry »

About the only thing that gets us more excited than analytics is predictive analytics, and so when we saw an IBM press release entitled “IBM Introduces Predictive Analytics Software and Services that Forecast Asset Failure,” we knew we had to ask some questions about a new IBM offering called Predictive Analytics Optimization (PAO). TEC went right to the source, and spoke with IBM’s director of business analytics strategy, Erick Brethenoux, to find out more. Read the rest of this entry »

Time and again it’s been shown that a sharp industry focus can help lesser known and smaller enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors remain relevant amid cutthroat competition. One such smaller vendor is VAI (Vormittag Associates, Inc.), a provider of ERP software in IBM’s ecosystem, which recently announced that Colonial Grocers has selected its S2K for Food software to improve inventory management processes, increase productivity and service levels, and gain insights and feedback from its vast customer and product data.

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Two new offerings will be added to IBM’s PureSystems family, the PureData System for Analytics and a smaller PureApplication System to accelerate cloud deployments.

The new PureData System for Analytics, powered by Netezza technology, will address large amounts of data at high speed to assist organizations in the analysis of large volumes of information. The PuraData System for Analytics will be a key player in IBM’s Big Data Platform. Read the rest of this entry »

Growing its already wide analytics product portfolio, IBM has announced a definitive agreement to acquire business analytics organization Star Analytics.

Star Analytics software comprises an interesting portfolio of applications for data integration and process and application automation, both on-premises and in the cloud. This helps organizations to simplify their processes and enables them to have a corporate analytics view of all their applications and processes and data, no matter their delivery mode. Read the rest of this entry »

IBM has announced IBM Security Intelligence with Big Data, an offering that combine big data analytics with security intelligence capabilities for addressing both internal and external cyber security threats. The solution aims to provide a comprehensive offering for security analysts to extend their capabilities in detection and prevention. Read the rest of this entry »

The IBM Connect 2013 Opening General Session peeked into what the future will bring for IBM’s clients and partners. The company will launch a new suite for human resources (HR), and new versions of the IBM Connections social business platform and the Customer Experience Suite.

A series of applications meant to create collaborative work environments (i.e., community builder, video conferencing, activity streams, document sharing, whiteboard collaboration, etc.), will be central to the HR software solution. Read the rest of this entry »

IBM announced a new cloud-based solution as part of its IBM SmartCloud for Social Businesses platform. The product includes new social networking features and a new collaboration and document-sharing tool—IBM SmartCloud Docs. The application accommodates the creation, storing, and co-editing of word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation documents, in real time. Read the rest of this entry »

With the introduction of PureData, IBM’s PureSystems family has a new way of dealing with large amounts of data with speed and intelligence to provide insights and support specific business goals.

These computing offerings, called “expert integrated systems” by IBM, have built-in expertise to reduce the cost and complexity of deployment and maintenance, so customers can expect to have an IBM PureData system up and running in 24 hours. Read the rest of this entry »

Part 1 of this blog series introduced VAI (Vormittag Associates Inc.) — an award winning software developer and an IBM Premier Business Partner. For more information, also see VAI’s profile in TEC’s Directory here.

The article described both the vendor’s genesis since its founding in 1978 and its current state of affairs. Part 2 will feature my recent conversation with VAI’s top management team.

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SOFTWARE SELECTIONS

Mid-sized refractory products manufacturer selects EnterpriseIQ ERP from IQMS
Industry tags: manufacturing
“The reasons why Riverside Refractories Inc. decided to replace its existing ERP system aren’t unique—the old legacy system’s inflexibility and inability to support manufacturing needs in the changing business environment had started impeding the company’s operations. The company selected an ERP solution from IQMS—its EnterpriseIQ ERP package designed for medium-sized businesses. This software was preferred over others for a few major reasons: ease of use and a ‘comfortable’ user interface; flexibility and capability to run on multiple hardware types; and a reasonable cost. And the last reason the company mentions is pretty interesting: lack of the usual sales pressure. This example clearly shows the importance of intangible and subjective factors during the software selection process.” — Aleksey Osintsev, TEC Analyst

Overview: IQMS EnterpriseIQ
Compare IQMS EnterpriseIQ head-to-head with other leading ERP solutions.

SYSPRO ERP selected by Hardy Machine and Design
Industry tags: manufacturing
“This company, which engineers, designs, and fabricates precise machine metal parts for clients in various industries, decided to replace its existing software because it lacked processes for cost tracking and had poor scheduling capabilities. After evaluating multiple systems, Hardy concluded that SYSPRO ERP was the best choice. Among other selection factors it cites three major ones: underlying cutting-edge Microsoft technology, a full range of functionality focusing on the metal machining industry, and a local software reseller to provide back-up and support.” — Aleksey Osintsev, TEC Analyst

“SYSPRO ERP replaced the Exact JobBOSS and Sage Peachtree combination at Hardy, specialists in oil and gas, aerospace, and health care industries, as the combined software was not providing good job cost data for individual jobs and had weak job scheduling capabilities. SYSPRO ERP outcompeted four ERP products for the new contract, one of which was SAP Business One by SAP Americas Inc. Hardy reported selected SYSPRO ERP because SYSPRO seems to be on the ‘cutting edge’ of Microsoft offerings; the software offers a full suite of capabilities focused on Hardy’s industries, and the local SYSPRO reseller offers excellent backup and support.” — P.J. Jakovljevic, Principal TEC Analyst Read the rest of this entry »

SOFTWARE SELECTIONS and GO-LIVES

Agricultural equipment manufacturer selects Abas ERP
Industry tags: manufacturing
“Canadian company Cadman Power Equipment Ltd., a manufacturer of special agricultural machinery and irrigation equipment has conducted an ERP selection project, and ERP from abas Business Software emerges the winner of this competition. The company was looking for a system as a single ERP package, without having to turn modules on or off, that would cover all the necessary operations. User interface had to be easy to navigate and quick to learn. Finally, the company wanted to purchase directly from the ERP developer,side-stepping integrators and VARs. Abas ERP was the best fit for these and other criteria.” — Aleksey Osintsev, TEC Research Analyst

Overview: abas Business Software
Compare abas Business Software with other leading ERP solutions!

Industrial electronics assemblies manufacturer chooses Epicor ERP to support its operations
Industry tags: manufacturing, electronics, high-tech
“IO Electronics, a UK-based assembler of comprehensive electronic components for various industries, such as defense and aerospace, petrochemical, automotive, and a few others, has an ambitious business growth plan that would require an adequate ERP-class software. The company selected the Epicor ERP system, with a long-term perspective. Unlike the existing inflexible system that has been in place for 10 years and which is limiting the company’s operations in many aspects, Epicor ERP will provide all required functionality and, as important, the flexibility and technical capability to grow along with its rapidly expanding business. Another notable consideration in selecting Epicor over five other ERP software vendors was the multiple additional features it offers within a standard package.” — Aleksey Osintsev, TEC Research Analyst

Overview: Epicor ERP
Compare Epicor ERP head-to-head with other ERP solutions!

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Despite my nearly two decades of covering the enterprise resource planning (ERP) market, every now and then I am still surprised to come across a lesser known and yet well run ERP software player. One such vendor is VAI (Vormittag Associates Inc.)–an award winning software developer and an IBM Premier Business Partner. Founded in 1978, VAI is headquartered on Long Island, New York, with US branch offices in Florida, California, and Illinois.

The vendor designs enterprise management software for IBM Power Systems, a platform that accommodates a number of popular operating systems (OSs). These software solutions allow VAI to offer a cost-effective business system to the midrange market. VAI’s solutions have always run on IBM midrange servers, and these multi-tier solutions run on multiple platforms in a variety of infrastructure configurations.

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Part 1 of this blog series analyzed a snapshot of the SAP HANA offerings’ achievements at the time of the product’s first anniversary in June 2012. SAP is now a de facto database provider that intends to become the #2 database vendor by 2015. The company’s recently unveiled real-time data platform combines the SAP HANA platform, Sybase data management offerings, and SAP BusinessObjects solutions for enterprise information management (EIM). The combination is being touted as an answer to handling the data abundance (the so-called “big data” phenomenon) with near-zero latency.

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