Thursday, May 31, 2007

FT.com / In depth - Google moves to take on Microsoft

FT.com / In depth - Google moves to take on Microsoft

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

FT.com / Technology - Words – the final frontier

FT.com / Technology - Words – the final frontier

Words – the final frontier
By Ade McCormack

Published: May 30 2007 10:25 | Last updated: May 30 2007 10:25

It is well known within scientific circles that Star Trek was in fact a series of promotional videos for future technologies. As the following quotation suggests, Star Trek displayed great prescience in predicting how the language of new technologies was likely to evolve:

“The core elements are based on FTL nanoprocessor units arranged into 25 bilateral kelilactirals with 20 of those units being slaved to the central heisenfram terminal. Now this is the isopalavial interface, which controls the main firomactal drive unit . . . The ramistat kiloquad capacity is a function of the square root of the intermix ratio times the sum of the plasma injector quotient.”

It may also explain why senior executives have been known to mumble: “Beam me up Scottie,” when exposed to people that display all the characteristics of a Monte Carlo random buzzword generator.

This is a problem, given the important role IT has to play in business today. Poor communication across the business-IT department boundary is the most pernicious form of IT value-damping.

My view is based on more than two decades of experience, both as a technologist and as an IT value advisor. Until technology becomes sufficiently pervasive to obviate the need for humans in both the creation of new IT systems and the support of existing systems, humans will continue to be a major cause of IT related problems.

First, let us dwell on the underlying issues:

Geek chic: The IT industry has its roots in science and, on day one, those in IT were indistinguishable from scientists. Subsequent advances in technology have in effect dumbed-down the skills needed to be a technologist.

Despite that, they have retained the “scientist” mindset and so display many of the associated traits. Communicating effectively with lesser intellects (ie users) unfortunately is not one of them. To the outside world the IT department can seem like an exclusive club, where users are not welcome.

The feral nature of some technologists can also lead to pack behaviour, which results in younger techies mimicking the behaviour of the “alpha technologist”. So the ability to confuse users is passed down from generation to generation.

Tensions: Tensions between the IT department and users underpin the evolution of the IT industry. In essence there is an ongoing dispute over who controls the IT assets. Much like a restaurant where the customers (users) are constantly vying to bring in their own food and cooking utilities, and the staff (IT department) are insistent that all the cooking is done in the kitchen using restaurant produce.

This leads to mutual suspicion and ultimately a breakdown in trust. Some technologists will use jargon as a form of verbal chaff to confuse and disorient the users; a technique that gives the technologists a sense of power over their “adversaries”.

Emotional Intelligence: Traditionally, IT people generally have high IQs. Anyone who has ever argued with a techie will have felt the full brunt of their logic.

But sometimes it is not smart to be right. Business people generally recognise the wisdom in not alerting the boss to the fact that he is an idiot – or one’s partner that they should lose some weight. Many technologists fail to understand this perspective.

As well as being a little too direct at times, the problem manifests itself through a lack of empathy or emotional intelligence. Such technologists happily talk to users as if they are also technologists and so make no allowance for the fact that they do not understand technical jargon. The lack of an empathy gene leads to jargon-rich communications from the IT department.

Technology vendors: The battles raging in the IT industry are often literally a war of words. If one technology company can be seen to be associated with a given buzzword then this makes subsequent marketing easier.

Hence the marketing departments of many technology vendors spew out new terminology in the hope that some of it will stick to the market. This often results in technologists confusing each other, sometimes by accident and sometimes to assert the techno-pack pecking order.


An overall lack of standards in the IT industry in respect of terminology has led to many synonyms and homonyms. This has a lubricating effect on miscommunication both within and across the IT department sand bags. Perhaps this is where industry regulatory efforts should be focused?

The business implications of obfuscating terminology are profound. The resultant sub-optimal use of IT leads to poor cost management across the business, reduced competitive advantage, poor business decision making and in the extreme, prison for board members.

Support industries such as IT recruitment and training are similarly left in a state of confusion. Their buzzword bewilderment leads to poor talent acquisition and inappropriate development, which in turn leads to poor IT value realisation.

So what can be done to reverse the IT industry’s “speaking in tongues” condition? Here are a few suggestions:

Ensure the CIO is user-centric in mindset and so at least acknowledges this problem. Ideally the CIO’s remuneration needs to be index-linked to user-happiness. Consequently, smart and financially motivated CIOs will address this issue as a priority.

Recruit only business-literate IT staff. The propeller-head nerdie geeks need to be fast-tracked to extinction. Where such people are critical to your organisation, ensure that they are kept away from users. The HR director needs to be aware of their role in this.

Challenge IT staff on their use of IT jargon. Highlight that if they have any interest in building systems that actually help the business, they must use language that is rich in user terminology and light on technology jargon.

By the time a technologist reaches maturity, the technobabble condition is irreversible. We need to address this problem while our future technologists are at school and university. The teachers and professors have a critical role to play in this respect.

Many organisations get around the issue by using business/systems analysts to patrol the demilitarised zone that sits between the user and IT communities. Organisations that have happy users and a very low analyst to technologist headcount are ahead of the curve. In my view, analysts are a workaround and in an efficient business-IT ecosystem they would have no place.

Technobabble is at best a symptom of technology staff indifference to the plight of users and at worst a political tool for keeping the users in check.

Either way it is unacceptable. Technobabble reflects poorly on the IT industry and diminishes the value that the sector might deliver to both business and society. Nothing less than genetic reprogramming will address this and so a cultural overhaul is required.

As we have seen, Star Trek recognised the problem, and as the extract below highlights, it recognised that some technologists are beyond recovery:

Captain Kirk: “You’d make a splendid computer.”

Mr Spock: “That is very kind of you, Captain!”

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

Thursday, May 24, 2007

With Popfly, Microsoft Enters 'Mashup' Tool Market

With Popfly, Microsoft Enters 'Mashup' Tool Market

With the alpha version of Popfly, Microsoft joins its competition in creating tools that will help move "mashup" technology from a "cool" Web developer hobby to a business value enabler.

Gartner beschreibt die zehn wichtigsten Technologien - Produkte + Technik - computerwoche.de

Gartner beschreibt die zehn wichtigsten Technologien - Produkte + Technik - computerwoche.de

FT.com / Companies / IT - Microsoft plays down Yahoo move

FT.com / Companies / IT - Microsoft plays down Yahoo move

Microsoft plays down Yahoo move
By Chris Nuttall in San Francisco

Published: May 24 2007 01:59 | Last updated: May 24 2007 01:59

Microsoft has played down reports that it could acquire Yahoo, saying agreeing to buy the Aquantive online advertising company for $6bn last week has given it all it needs.

Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s chief advertising strategist, told the Goldman Sachs Internet Conference in Las Vegas in answer to a question on whether the search engine company had assets that could assist the software giant: “From where we are today, I think we have all the pieces.”

FT.com / Companies / IT - Microsoft plays down Yahoo move

FT.com / Companies / IT - Microsoft plays down Yahoo move

Microsoft plays down Yahoo move
By Chris Nuttall in San Francisco

Published: May 24 2007 01:59 | Last updated: May 24 2007 01:59

Microsoft has played down reports that it could acquire Yahoo, saying agreeing to buy the Aquantive online advertising company for $6bn last week has given it all it needs.

Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s chief advertising strategist, told the Goldman Sachs Internet Conference in Las Vegas in answer to a question on whether the search engine company had assets that could assist the software giant: “From where we are today, I think we have all the pieces.”

It emerged earlier this month that Microsoft had made a tentative takeover approach for Yahoo.

But on Friday, Microsoft agreed to pay $6bn incash for Aquantive – more than four times the size of its previous largest acquisition.

Mr Mehdi hinted that Microsoft would makemuch smaller bolt-on acquisitions in future to fill inany gaps in its internet offerings.

“There are other small pieces that we’re in the process of getting to as well, organically or otherwise,” he said.

He added that the Aquantive deal put Microsoft in a strong position to serve display advertisements on websites targeted to users’ interests and behaviour.

He said this kind of advertising was growing faster than the text-based kind that appears with search results on services such as Google’s.

Google has agreed to pay $3.1bn for DoubleClick, whose technology serves display advertisements.

Microsoft is objecting to the deal on antitrust grounds, arguing that it would give Google 80 per cent of the market.

A merger or partnership with Yahoo could have given Microsoft access to the Silicon Valley company’s own advertising technologyas well as its extensive content from a network of websites.

But Microsoft’s sites, including the MSN network, already boast the largest internet audience withhalf a billion visitors a month and with the Aquantive acquisition it will offer advertising services to sites outside its network. This is something it has not yet attempted, apart from a relationship with the Facebook social networking site.

A combined Microsoft and Yahoo would still trail Google significantly in search.

Google had 55 per cent of all search queries in the US in April, according to Nielsen NetRatings, compared with 22 per cent for Yahoo and 9 per cent for MSN/Windows Live.

Mr Mehdi said Microsoft was planning new features for its search service that would give Google a “run for their money”.

He said it was necessary to “do something big and bold and different” to try to displace the market leader.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

destinationCRM.com: Enterprise Content Management Is Growing

destinationCRM.com: Enterprise Content Management Is Growing

The market is expected to grow as enterprises seek to consolidate the vast amounts of unstructured data in word processing, spreadsheets, and other formats, according to a report

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Enterprise Content Management mit Open Source – Praktische Ansätze fĂĽr Alfresco

Enterprise Content Management mit Open Source – Praktische Ansätze fĂĽr Alfresco

Die Dokumenten-Management-Lösung Alfresco schickt sich dank offener Architektur und leistungsfähiger Schnittstellen an, kommerziellen Systemen in vielerlei Hinsicht das Wasser zu reichen. Ein Beitrag von Heiko Robert, Director ECM dmc digital media center GmbH, mit freundlicher Unterstützung des T3N Magazin.

FTD.de - Medien+Internet - Nachrichten - Web-Duo bekämpft Microsoft

FTD.de - Medien+Internet - Nachrichten - Web-Duo bekämpft Microsoft

Eine Allianz mit dem Mietsoftwarepionier Salesforce soll Google den Einstieg in das Geschäft mit Software als Webservice erleichtern. Im Visier haben die beiden kalifornischen Konzerne den Erzrivalen Microsoft.

FT.com / Companies / Media & internet - Google’s goal: to organise your daily life

FT.com / Companies / Media & internet - Google’s goal: to organise your daily life

Google’s goal: to organise your daily life
By Caroline Daniel and Maija Palmer

Published: May 22 2007 21:08 | Last updated: May 22 2007 21:08

Google’s ambition to maximise the personal information it holds on users is so great that the search engine envisages a day when it can tell people what jobs to take and how they might spend their days off.

Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, said gathering more personal data was a key way for Google to expand and the company believes that is the logical extension of its stated mission to organise the world’s information.

Asked how Google might look in five years’ time, Mr Schmidt said: “We are very early in the total information we have within Google. The algorithms will get better and we will get better at personalisation.

“The goal is to enable Google users to be able to ask the question such as ‘What shall I do tomorrow?’ and ‘What job shall I take?’ ”

The race to accumulate the most comprehensive database of individual information has become the new battleground for search engines as it will allow the industry to offer far more personalised advertisements. These are the holy grail for the search industry, as such advertising would command higher rates.

Mr Schmidt told journalists in London: “We cannot even answer the most basic questions because we don’t know enough about you. That is the most important aspect of Google’s expansion.”

He said Google’s newly relaunched iGoogle service, which allows users to personalise their own Google search page and publish their own content, would be a key feature.

Another service, Google personalised search, launched two years ago, allows users to give Google permission to store their web-surfing history, what they have searched and clicked on, and use this to create more personalised search results for them. Another service under development is Google Recommendations – where the search suggests products and services the user might like, based on their already established preferences. Google does not sell advertising against these services yet, but could in time use them to display more targeted ads to people.

Yahoo unveiled a new search technology this year dubbed Project Panama – which monitors what internet users do on its portal, and use that information to build a profile of their interests. The profiles are then used to display ads to the people most likely to be interested in them.

Autonomy, the UK-based search company is also developing technology for “transaction hijacking”, which monitors when internet surfers are about to make a purchase online, and can suggest cheaper alternatives. Although such monitoring could raise privacy issues, Google stresses that the iGoogle and personalisation services are optional.

The Information Commissioner’s Office in the UK said it was not concerned about the personalisation developments.

Earlier this year, however, Google bowed to concerns from privacy activists in the US and Europe, by agreeing to limit the amount of time it keeps information about the internet searches made by its users to two years.

Google has also faced concerns that its proposed $3.1bn acquisition of DoubleClick will lead to an erosion of online privacy.

Fears have been stoked by the potential for Google to build up a detailed picture of someone’s behaviour by combining its records of web searches with the information from DoubleClick’s “cookies”, the software it places on users’ machines to track which sites they visit.

Mr Schmidt said this year that the company was working on technology to reduce concerns.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

Monday, May 21, 2007

FT.com / Companies / US & Canada - Microsoft ready for a strategic upgrade

FT.com / Companies / US & Canada - Microsoft ready for a strategic upgrade

Microsoft ready for a strategic upgrade
By Chris Nuttall in San Francisco

Published: May 21 2007 03:00 | Last updated: May 21 2007 03:00

Consolation prize or prize capture? Microsoft's $6bn acquisition of online advertising company Aquantive on Friday was a secondary target, but may prove to be a source of primary growth in the future.

The software giant turned its attention to Aquantive after it lost out to Google in a bid for Aquantive's rival, DoubleClick. Google will pay $3.1bn in that deal, almost half as much as Microsoft is paying.

This is the parsimonious Redmond company's biggest ever buy - costing more than four times its previous record, the $1.45bn paid for Danish software company Navision in 2002.

But cash-rich Microsoft can easily afford the 85 per cent premium it has paid and the acquisition had become a strategic imperative - the online ad business is expected to be worth $40bn in 2007 and is growing at 20 per cent a year, a rate that makes its core software business seem becalmed.

"We have walked away from some transactions over the last few years because we have considered they haven't been strategically important enough to pay a premium for," said Chris Liddell, chief financial officer, on Friday.

The Seattle company is key in that it provides a complete advertising solution for Microsoft's ambitions to sell and profit from advertising beyond its own network of websites. It also enables it to stay in touch with market leader Google.

"Google has significantly more advantages than Microsoft," says Shahid Khan, a partner at Interactive Broadband Consulting.

"If you go back, it started selling, using its own ad-serving technology, then it built a sales force and started selling on other people's websites, and then expanded to print and radio. Now DoubleClick gives it even more technology, better integration with ad agencies and publishers and the best platform overall."

Microsoft has been way behind, admitting as much in making anti-trust complaints that Google combined with DoubleClick will have 80 per cent market share for serving online ads.

It only recently developed its own ad-serving technology and, apart from a partnership with the Facebook social networking site, has confined its business to its own network of sites such as MSN and Windows Live.

"We are new in the advertising business but we have made a lot of investment," says Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft's chief advertising strategist. "We have the biggest audience for an ad network - half a billion users visiting our properties every month. To this point, we have really not run advertising for other companies except Facebook . . . now we will."

Mr Mehdi says Aquantive has bigger revenues and profits than DoubleClick and offers the best ad tools.

Tim Vanderhook, chief executive of the SpecificMedia online ad network, agrees Aquantive's Atlas tool for advertisers is a superior product offering. "Microsoft has paid up to catch up. I was really surprised that DoubleClick was the initial prime target, it's only an ad-serving technology, it doesn't have a division that buys or sells online media [like Aquantive]," he says.

In seeking a more complete solution through Aquantive, Microsoft is following Google in trying to build a broad platform that can serve as a one-stop shop for advertisers trying to reach specific audiences across a range of media.

Shahid Khan cites Microsoft's earlier acquisition of Massive, which serves in-game advertising, and Google's moves to sell TV advertising. He believes mobile advertising networks will be the next acquisition targets as the big players spread their offerings to advertising on cellphones.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

FTD.de - Medien+Internet - Nachrichten - Microsoft startet teure Verfolgungsjagd

FTD.de - Medien+Internet - Nachrichten - Microsoft startet teure Verfolgungsjagd

Die Übernahme kommt einem Geständnis gleich: Mit dem 6 Mrd. $ teuren Kauf der Online-Werbefirma Aquantive gibt der weltgrößte Softwarekonzern Microsoft zu, dass seine eigene Technologie nicht ausreicht, um im Online-Werbemarkt zu Google aufzuschließen.

Gartner Says Worldwide Enterprise Content Management Software Market Will Reach $4.2 Billon in 2010

Gartner Says Worldwide Enterprise Content Management Software Market Will Reach $4.2 Billon in 2010

Gartner Says Worldwide Enterprise Content Management Software Market Will Reach $4.2 Billon in 2010

STAMFORD, Conn., May 21, 2007 —

Due to the increasing need for companies to manage content at the enterprise level, the worldwide enterprise content management (ECM) software market is expected to grow more than 12 percent per year through 2010, from $2.6 billion in 2006 to more than $4.2 billion in 2010, according to Gartner, Inc. In 2007, worldwide ECM revenue is projected to total $2.9 billion, a 12.8 percent increase from 2006 (see Table 1).

The vast majority of the information a company has is unstructured data residing in word processing documents, presentations, rich media files, spreadsheets and other file formats. Companies must make this content available to workers, business partner’s customers, and applications across the organization to automate business processes, increase efficiency, reduce costs and repetitiveness, make employees more effective and gain competitive advantages.

“For many organizations, unstructured content is fundamentally out of control,” said Tom Eid, research vice president for Gartner. “Employees are creating all types of content for internal and external use with delivery through both formal and informal channels (such as wikis and blogs). While some of this business-specific content is now being managed through insurance claims processing, loan origination, case management and Web content management, the vast majority of this content is not being managed as an enterprise asset.”

Table 1
EnterpriseContent Management Software, Worldwide, 2006-2010 (Millions of Dollars)

2006 2,614.4
2007 2,949.3
2008 3,316.8
2009 3,755.2
2010 4,248.3

Total Software Revenue

Source: Gartner (May 2007)

Gartner analysts said many factors will shape the ECM market over the next several years. Vendors and the individual technology markets from which they come will continue to consolidate. The quality, performance and ease of use of software products will improve. ECM offerings will split into two tiers: broad, platform-based solutions will tackle heavy-duty chores, such as focusing on process-centric and mission-critical documents, such as compliance efforts, while streamlined basic content services (BCS) offerings will appeal to companies that need only entry-level functions, such as document security and library services.

“In many instances, it is appropriate to have BCS and ECM technologies being used together,” Mr. Eid said. “BCS will increase the adoption of ECM technologies. As more content is created, more content will need to be managed. As the content becomes more valued, it will become more of a corporate asset that is managed in a more comprehensive manner through ECM offerings.”

Additional information is available in the Gartner report “Forecast: Enterprise Content Management Software, Worldwide, 2006-2011, Update,” This report examines the state of the worldwide enterprise content management software market and looks at what trends are developing, and includes a full forecast for the market. The report is available on Gartner's Web site at http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?ref=g_search&id=505618&subref=simplesearch.

Friday, May 18, 2007

FT.com / Companies / Media & internet - Microsoft makes $6bn ‘bet’ on Aquantive

FT.com / Companies / Media & internet - Microsoft makes $6bn ‘bet’ on Aquantive

Microsoft makes $6bn ‘bet’ on Aquantive
By Chris Nuttall in San Francisco

Published: May 18 2007 13:54 | Last updated: May 18 2007 23:15

Microsoft on Friday announced the biggest acquisition in the software company’s history, buying online advertising company Aquantive for $6bn and making what it described as a “big bet” on its own long-term growth.

The move – the largest deal in the advertising industry – continued the frenzy of interest in online advertising, coming a day after WPP bought 24/7 Real Media in a deal that valued the group at $649m. It also follows Google’s deal to buy DoubleClick for $3.1bn and Yahoo buying the RightMedia advertising exchange outright for $680m.

Microsoft has traditionally focused on small deals to acquire new technologies. The most it had paid previously was $1.45bn for the Danish software company Navision five years ago.

But Microsoft has been desperate to match Google’s advertising muscle and reportedly failed in an earlier multi-billion dollar bid for DoubleClick. It offered $66.50 a share for Aquantive, an 85 per cent premium to its closing price on Thursday.

Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft’s platform and services division, said: “It is a big bet on advertising monetisation for the long-term growth of the company and this is a significant step forward.” He said the online advertising market would be worth $40bn this year and was growing at 20 per cent a year.

The acquisition means Microsoft will market its services to the wider internet.

Aquantive includes Avenue A Razorfish, one of the largest interactive advertising agencies. Tim Vanderhook, chief of the Specific Media online advertising network, said: “I think this will be sold off; it doesn’t really fit with Microsoft’s strategy and they can get a huge chunk back of the $6bn they paid.”

Microsoft has raised antitrust objections to Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick, which gives the search giant a strong grip on the growing online display advertising market. But Brad Smith, Microsoft general counsel, said Aquantive was complementary to Microsoft’s business and should not face any such objections, as it would promote competition.

Mr Johnson said the Aquantive deal would help Microsoft seize a significant opportunity in delivering services to a range of devices such as PCs, phones, game consoles and emerging media such as internet television.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

Thursday, May 17, 2007

FT.com / Companies / IT - Blink, and there's another million

FT.com / Companies / IT - Blink, and there's another million

Blink, and there's another million
By Emiliya (edited by) Mychasuk

Published: May 17 2007 03:00 | Last updated: May 17 2007 03:00

Joining the ranks of the newest young paper millionaires in the media sector is the 29-year-old running the video search portal called Blinkx, Sri-Lankan born Suranga Chandratillake.

The £114m listing of Blinkx on Aim will deliver him a paper worth of about £2.7m, based on his holding of 4.5m options.

Mr Chandratillake started at the age of eight when his father, a professor of nuclear chemistry, brought home a second-hand BBC computer to play with.

"The BBC computers at the time had no games on them, so the only way I got anything out of it was to write bits of code myself," Mr Chandratillake says.

He went on to study computer science at Cambridge and, while still at university, wrote risk- balancing algorithms for Morgan Stanley and founded a technology company, Anondesign, with friends.

At the age of 23 he joined Autonomy, the search software company, and by the time of his 25th birthday had become the US chief technology officer.

After three years at Autonomy, in 2004 he founded Blinkx. The company used Autonomy's search technology in exchange for giving Autonomy an option.

Mike Lynch, founder and chief executive of Autonomy, says Blinkx reminds him of the early days when he founded Autonomy in 1996, when he was only a few years younger than Mr Chandratillake. Mr Lynch went on to become theUK's first internet billionnaire.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

Microsoft Patent Claims Pose No Immediate Risk for Users

Microsoft Patent Claims Pose No Immediate Risk for Users

Microsoft claims that a variety of open-source software projects violate its software patents. A general trend toward more aggressive patent licensing tactics is on the horizon.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Saturday, May 12, 2007

FT.com / Companies / IT - Autonomy to fund growth with £70m share placement

FT.com / Companies / IT - Autonomy to fund growth with £70m share placement

Autonomy, the Cambridge-based search software company, is planning to raise an estimated £70m from a share placement.

It indicated that the money from the placement of 9.5m new shares would not be earmarked for acquisitions but used to fund growth and for "general corporate purposes".

Google geeft toe dat het wil concurreren met Microsoft - Personal Computer Magazine

Google geeft toe dat het wil concurreren met Microsoft - Personal Computer Magazine

Google heeft eindelijk officieel toegegeven dat het met Microsoft wil concurereren in de softwaremarkt. Het was al langere tijd duidelijk, maar Google wilde het voorheen niet expliciet zeggen.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Microsoft/Yahoo Rumors Are No Surprise

Microsoft/Yahoo Rumors Are No Surprise

Forrester Research: Can Salesforce.com Reinvent Content Management?

Forrester Research: Can Salesforce.com Reinvent Content Management?

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The enterprise content management market is in tremendous flux with IBM's acquisition of FileNet, the introduction of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, and Oracle's acquisition of Stellent. Clearly, the industry's biggest vendors see a huge opportunity. Now salesforce.com has entered the fray with the acquisition of Koral and looks to redefine content management software as a service (SaaS) in the same way it redefined customer relationship management (CRM). The new offering, Salesforce Content, will be initially offered as a standalone collaborative document management system and will be optionally bundled with salesforce.com's CRM solutions. It is only the second application offered by the SaaS leader and will test the vendor's ability to move beyond its CRM roots and become a true infrastructure provider.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Microsoft - Week of 05/10/2007 (Northern Light)

Microsoft - Week of 05/10/2007
When Microsoft reported its earnings last month it drew some surprises; Vista, the company's new operating system, is selling well. Until the announcement, most of the news about Vista, and Microsoft in general, reported its problems and predicted its negative impact. It seems that in this Microsoft has had the last laugh. But as with any empire, there is a dark side. Microsoft trails its online rivals Google and Yahoo! and is well aware that it needs to make some headway in this area. Its need to do so was evidenced by recent talks between Microsoft and Yahoo! Talks were over quickly, but the fact remains that while Microsoft may keep moving ahead, its work is cut out.

If earnings reports are indicative of a company's strength Microsoft appears to be doing well; on April 26 the company posted a 65 percent rise in quarterly profit. While the projections of the company for 2008 are only at the midpoint of analyst projections, the rise was enough to send shares of the company up five percent. "The strength of Vista is really driving this," Kim Caughey, an analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group, told Reuters. This piece of news was a surprise to many, and not just those in the press and analyst communities. According to Reuters, Chris Liddel, Microsoft Chief Financial Officer, said consumer sales of Vista surpassed even the company's own expectations by $300 million to $400 million. Apart from the standard Microsoft bashing Chief Executive Steve Ballmer's February statement that some analyst estimates for Vista sales were "overly aggressive," had led to concerns.

According to BusinessWeek, "while some corporate customers still opt for the predecessor Windows XP when they buy new computers, for software compatibility reasons, a remarkably large number are taking the new operating system." That 'remarkably large number' amounts to 85 percent of its current operating system's sales. Given all the negative hype that is likely a surprise, but even more so when it is pointed out that Vista is selling more robustly than XP did at the same time in its life cycle. Contrary to popular expectation, Vista appears to be paying off; the Client Division which consists mainly of Windows sales for PCs reached $5.3 billion. This of course is good news to Microsoft, Windows and Office account for more than half of Microsoft's total revenue and a majority of its profits. Benjamin J. Romano of the Seattle Times put it well, "The report served to quiet some grumbling about the new operating system's performance and acceptance, and it seemed to assure investors that the cash cows are safely in the pasture."

Though the new operating system and Office suite may represent cash cows, Microsoft's online search presence may be best referred to as a dog. Microsoft comes in a distant third, behind Google and Yahoo! Vista sales make Microsoft happy; its search performance does not. According to BusinessWeek, "At the end of January Chief Financial Officer Christopher Liddell expressed dissatisfaction with the company's search engine growth. 'We lost market share' . . . We are clearly not happy with that.'" The dissatisfaction expressed by Liddell was over a few numbers: As of March 1, growth on Microsoft's search site was up 2.5 percent; Yahoo!'s 29 percent and Google's 40.6 according to Nielsen/Net Ratings. Also while Google boasts 53 percent of searches, and Yahoo! follows with 23 percent, Microsoft stalls at 9 percent.

In early March Christopher Payne, the corporate vice-president in charge of Windows Live Search left the company and it is still being kept quiet as to why. BusinessWeek states that at that time, "Concerns over leadership of the division resurfaced," and that, "his replacement faces a tall order." As they look for a replacement Microsoft will also be looking for a solution. Knight Ridder reports that, "Beyond having enormous resources to spend on battling Google and Yahoo, Microsoft has a valuable roster of popular Web services and sites that can direct search traffic to the Live Search site." Microsoft will attempt to leverage this roster and encourage users to execute more searches; it will embed search into its instant messenger client as well as on its online sites. "If we got all of these people to do one search a day, that would be a big bump for us," says Whitney Burk, Microsoft's public relations manager for competitive strategy. In an unusual approach Microsoft will also try to woo users via financial incentives. According to Network World, "In an apparent attempt to boost its disappointing Web-search market share, Microsoft is giving financial incentives to large corporate customers whose employees use Microsoft's Live Search engine . . . In exchange for their employees' Live Search usage, Microsoft is providing 'service or training credits' to these customers." Justin Osmer, senior project manager for Microsoft's Live Search group, says, "We know it's an uphill battle, but we're in it for the long haul." That long haul has also directed Microsoft to look for some shortcuts.

According to the Wall Street Journal, "Recent talks between Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. over how to band together betray increasing unrest at Microsoft over how to compete with Google Inc. and get in step with the booming online-advertising market." When word of discussions between the two companies broke last Friday various sources tossed about numerous scenarios; however those might best be discussed at a later time, when the two companies are still talking. (Word of the talks ending arrived on the heels of word that they had begun.) Still, the scenario surrounding the talks is noteworthy. The Wall Street Journal stated that "Microsoft's online division could be heading for a shake-up, say people familiar with the situation. Failure by the Redmond, Wash., company to make better headway against Google in Internet search, combined with Microsoft losing a deal to Google last month to buy online-advertising specialist DoubleClick, has spurred Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer to consider new action, these people say." The Financial Times has similar thoughts, "The talks have been prompted by an acceleration in the shift of audience and advertisers online, and Microsoft’s failure to build effective search engine and online advertising arms of its own, say analysts and industry executives." And while the point is moot, now that talks are over, it is interesting to note the view that even Yahoo! couldn't help Microsoft. On this Forbes notes, "Microsoft's money-losing online business posted sales growth of just 10.9 percent last quarter. Yahoo! does make money, but last quarter its sales rose a mere 9 percent, excluding traffic acquisition costs."

A company as big a Microsoft with fingers in as many pots will have both victories and its defeats; both can come hand in hand.

FTD.de - Management - Business Wissen - E-Mail-Archivierung: Gesetzliche Anforderungen erfĂĽllt?

FTD.de - Management - Business Wissen - E-Mail-Archivierung: Gesetzliche Anforderungen erfĂĽllt?

E-Mails sind schnell versendet und empfangen. Für sie gelten aber dieselben gesetzlichen Anforderungen wie für alle Geschäfts- und Handelsbriefe. Doch in vielen Unternehmen fehlen die organisatorischen Regelungen und technischen Voraussetzungen für die richtige Archivierung.

Was sind Geschäftsbriefe oder Handelsbriefe?

Im ersten Schritt gilt es zu klären, was die Geschäfts- oder Handelsbriefe sind, für die gesetzliche Aufbewahrungspflichten gelten. Das ist im Handelsgesetzbuch geregelt: Alle, die ein Geschäft vorbereiten, abwickeln, rückgängig machen oder abschließen. Beispielsweise:


- Angebote,
- Auftragsbestätigungen,
- Lieferscheine,
- Korrespondenz zur Projektabwicklung,
- Rechnungen,
- Rückgängigmachung oder Kündigungen.

Uninteressant sind Werbesendungen, Prospekte und Angebote, die zu keinem Geschäftsabschluss geführt haben.


Alle ausgehende Post muss aufbewahrt werden

Monday, May 07, 2007

PORTOLAN bietet Portal der neuesten Generation - PortoWeb 2.0

PORTOLAN bietet Portal der neuesten Generation - PortoWeb 2.0

FT.com / Companies / US & Canada - Evolution of the internet opens doors for Microsoft

FT.com / Companies / US & Canada - Evolution of the internet opens doors for Microsoft

Evolution of the internet opens doors for Microsoft
By Richard Waters

Published: May 7 2007 03:00 | Last updated: May 7 2007 03:00

A coming shift in the dynamics of the internet advertising business, as the momentum starts to shift away from the keyword-based systems used by search engines, is one of the biggest factors behind Microsoft's takeover approach to Yahoo, according to industry executives and analysts.

Microsoft has shown few signs yet that it is even starting to win back any ground lost to Google in search, despite heavy investments over the past three years to build its own search engine and keyword advertising system.

Friday, May 04, 2007

FT.com / Comment & analysis / Editorial comment - The case for an independent media

FT.com / Comment & analysis / Editorial comment - The case for an independent media

The case for an independent media
Published: May 4 2007 22:46 | Last updated: May 4 2007 22:46

“You are in the field to defend the public interest, the financial truth for investors and the funds that should support the widow and the orphan,” said Clarence Barron, proprietor of The Wall Street Journal from 1902 until 1928. The founders of many media companies left trusts and special voting powers to protect such journalism, but with profits hurt by a shift to digital media, those structures are under siege.

Reuters, a financial information provider and the world’s largest news agency, has received an approach. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation has bid for Dow Jones, owner of the Journal. Rebel investors, meanwhile, are demanding change at the New York Times Company.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

AUTONOMY WINS MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR CONTRACT FROM UK MINISTRY OF DEFENCE

AUTONOMY WINS MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR CONTRACT FROM UK MINISTRY OF DEFENCE

Business Research Engine: Document Information

Business Research Engine: Document Information

Microsoft has been beating the Live.com software-as-services drum for 18 months now, and has now delivered some of the most significant products and services under that banner to date. Silverlight, Microsoft's answer to Adobe's Flash player, is getting backing from .NET, the company's application development platform.