Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Mobiwire: sueddeutsche.de Google Handy-Dienst vor dem Start - Computer

Mobiwire: sueddeutsche.de Google Handy-Dienst vor dem Start - Computer

FT.com / Companies / Media & internet - Saga gets hip with a zone for silver surfers

FT.com / Companies / Media & internet - Saga gets hip with a zone for silver surfers

Saga gets hip with a zone for silver surfers
By Ben Fenton

Published: October 31 2007 02:27 | Last updated: October 31 2007 02:27

It is not so much a cool internet community as a hip replacement for a social life: today, maturity’s riposte to Facebook comes of age.

If you want to get in with the gin crowd, it seems you should sign up for Saga Zone, which even in its secretive trial stages has enthralled thousands of silver surfers.

On Wednesday night, “zoners” will not be sending each other virtual vampire masks or Hallowe’en superpokes like Facebook friends. They are more likely to be swapping recipes for pumpkin soup.

But that does not mean customers of Saga, the ­insurance-to-holidays group owned by the Permira, CVC and Charterhouse private equity houses, are the shrinking violets of the web. Alongside the forums discussing topics such as “over-wintering begonias”, there are groups for “mature dating” or debating the relative sexual allure of pouches and thongs. When Zoners discuss “contacting my ex”, they are not proposing a seance.

Already, 13,000 of the 650,000 Saga magazine subscribers have signed up to the trial Zone and this vast database of experience is well ahead of its youthful counterparts in innovation.

“Very early on we had a virtual party,” Rupert Miles, chief executive, publishing, said. “About two dozen zoners arranged to ‘meet’ on­line. The girls got to­gether first to ‘dress up’. Everyone was allowed a virtual guest – Helen Mirren was popular with the men and George Clooney for the ladies – and just spent a few hours gassing about nothing, as you would at a party.”

The Saga Zone has already had its first “flashmob”, a meeting organised online, but held in real life. It was conducted, however, at a comfortable hotel in Malta.

May Murray, a 64-year-old zoner from Glasgow, said: “It has certainly expanded my social life. I switch it on every single morning. I think my children, who are in their 40s, are quite envious and would like to join, but they can’t because they are too young.”

The generation gap strikes again.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

FT.com / In depth - Excerpt: Wikinomics, by Don Tapscott and Anthony D Williams

FT.com / In depth - Excerpt: Wikinomics, by Don Tapscott and Anthony D Williams

Excerpt: Wikinomics, by Don Tapscott and Anthony D Williams
Published: October 11 2007 15:01 | Last updated: October 11 2007 15:01

This was one of six books shortlisted for the 2007 FT/Golman Sachs business book of the year award. Read the shortlist, plus synopses, reviews and judges comments. You can also vote on the best business book ever, as selected by top CEOs and other experts.

Call them the “weapons of mass collaboration.” New low-cost collaborative infrastructures—from free Internet telephony to open-source software to global outsourcing platforms—allow thousands upon thousands of individuals and small producers to co-create products, access markets, and delight customers in ways that only large corporations could manage in the past. This is giving rise to new collaborative capabilities and business models that will empower the prepared firm and destroy those that fail to adjust. The upheaval occurring right now in media and entertainment provides an early example of how mass collaboration is turning the economy upside down. Once a bastion of “professionalism,” credentialed knowledge producers share the stage with “amateur” creators who are disrupting every activity they touch. Tens of millions of people share their news, information, and views in the blogosphere, a self-organized network of over 50 million personal commentary sites that are updated every second of the day.2 Some of the largest weblogs (or blogs for short) receive a quarter of a million daily visitors,3 rivaling some daily newspapers. Now audioblogs, podcasts, and mobile photo blogs are adding to a dynamic, up-to-the-minute stream of person-to-person news and information delivered free over the Web.--

Individuals now share knowledge, computing power, bandwidth, and other resources to create a wide array of free and open-source goods and services that anyone can use or modify. What’s more, people can contribute to the “digital commons” at very little cost to themselves, which makes collective action much more attractive. Indeed, peer production is a very social activity. All one needs is a computer, a network connection, and a bright spark of initiative and creativity to join in the economy. These new collaborations will not only serve commercial interests, they will help people do public-spirited things like cure genetic diseases, predict global climate change, and find new planets and stars. Researchers at Olson Laboratory, for example, use a massive supercomputer to evaluate drug candidates that might one day cure AIDS. This is no ordinary supercomputer, however. Their FightAIDS@home initiative is part of the World Community Grid, a global network where millions of individual computer users donate their spare computing power via the Internet to form one of the world’ most powerful computing platforms.

These changes, among others, are ushering us toward a world where knowledge, power, and productive capability will be more dispersed than at any time in our history—a world where value creation will be fast, fluid, and persistently disruptive. A world where only the connected will survive. A power shift is underway, and a tough new business rule is emerging: Harness the new collaboration or perish. Those who fail to grasp this will find themselves ever more isolated—cut off from the networks that are sharing, adapting, and updating knowledge to create value.

This might sound like hyperbole, but it’s not. Consider some additional ways ordinary citizens can now participate in the global body économiqe. Rather than just read a book you can write one. Just log on to Wikipedia—a collaboratively created encyclopedia, owned by no one and authored by tens of thousands of enthusiasts. With five full-time employees, it is ten times bigger than Encyclopedia Britannica and roughly the same in accuracy.4 It runs on a wiki, software that enables users to edit the content of Web pages. Despite the risks inherent in an open encyclopedia in which everyone can add their views, and constant battles with detractors and saboteurs, Wikipedia continues to grow rapidly in scope, quality, and traffic. The English-language version has more than a million entries, and there are ninety-two sister sites in languages ranging from Polish and Japanese to Hebrew and Catalan.

Or perhaps your thing is chemistry. Indeed, if you’re a retired, unemployed, or aspiring chemist, Procter & Gamble needs your help. The pace of innovation has doubled in its industry in the past five years alone, and now its army of 7,500 researchers is no longer enough to sustain its lead. Rather than hire more researchers, CEO A. G. Lafley instructed business unit leaders to source 50 percent of their new product and service ideas from outside the company. Now you can work for P&G without being on their payroll. Just register on the InnoCentive network where you and ninety thousand other scientists around the world can help solve tough R&D problems for a cash reward. InnoCentive is only one of many revolutionary marketplaces matching scientists to R&D challenges presented by companies in search of innovation. P&G and thousands of other companies look to these marketplaces for ideas, inventions, and uniquely qualified minds that can unlock new value in their markets.

Media buffs are similarly empowered. Rather than consume the TV news, you can now create it, along with thousands of independent citizen journalists that are turning the profession upside down. Tired of the familiar old faces and blather on network news? Turn off your TV, pick up a video camera and some cheap editing software, and create a news feature for Current TV, a new national cable and satellite network created almost entirely by amateur contributors. Though the contributors are unpaid volunteers, the content is surprisingly good. Current TV provides online tutorials for camera operation and storytelling techniques, and their guidelines for creating stories help get participants started. Viewers vote on which stories go to air, so only the most engaging material makes prime time.

Finally, a young person in India, China, Brazil, or any one of a number of emerging Eastern European countries can now do what their parents only dreamed of by joining the global economy on an equal footing. You might be in a call center in Bangalore that takes food orders for a drive-through restaurant in Los Angeles. Or you could find yourself working in Foxconn’s new corporate city in the Schenzen province of China, where a decade ago farmers tilled the land with oxen. Today 180,000 people work, live, learn, and play on Foxconn’s massive high-tech campus, designing and building consumer electronics for teenagers around the globe.

For incumbents in every industry this new cornucopia of participation and collaboration is both exhilarating and alarming. As New Paradigm executive David Ticoll argues, “Not all examples of self-organization are benign, or exploitable. Within a single industry the development of opportunities for self-organized collaboration can be beneficial, neutral, or highly competitive to individual firms, or some combination of at least two of these.” Publishers found this out the hard way. Blogs, wikis, chat rooms, search engines, advertising auctions, peer-to-peer downloading, and personal broadcasting represent new ways to entertain, communicate, and transact. In each instance the traditionally passive buyers of editorial and advertising take active, participatory roles in value creation. Some of these grassroots innovations pose dire threats to existing business models.

Publishers of music, literature, movies, software, and television are like canaries in a coal mine—the first casualties of a revolution that is sweeping across all industries. Many enfeebled titans of the industrial economy feel threatened. Despite heroic efforts to change, they remain shackled by command-and-control legacies. Companies have spent the last three decades remolding their operations to compete in a hypercompetitive economy—ripping costs out of their businesses at every opportunity; trying to become more “customer-friendly”; assembling global production networks; and scattering their bricks-and-mortar R&D organizations around the world.

Now, to great chagrin, industrial-era titans are learning that the real revolution is just getting started. Except this time the competition is no longer their arch industry rivals; it’s the uberconnected, amorphous mass of self-organized individuals that is gripping their economic needs firmly in one hand, and their economic destinies in the other. “We the People” is no longer just a political expression—a hopeful ode to the power of “the masses”; it’s also an apt description of how ordinary people, as employees, consumers, community members, and taxpayers now have the power to innovate and to create value on the global stage.

For smart companies, the rising tide of mass collaboration offers vast opportunity. As the Goldcorp story denotes, even the oldest of old economy industries can harness this revolution to create value in unconventional ways. Companies can reach beyond their walls to sow the seeds of innovation and harvest a bountiful crop. Indeed, firms that cultivate nimble, trust-based relationships with external collaborators are positioned to form vibrant business ecosystems that create value more effectively than hierarchically organized businesses.

For individuals and small producers, this may be the birth of a new era, perhaps even a golden one, on par with the Italian renaissance or the rise of Athenian democracy. Mass collaboration across borders, disciplines, and cultures is at once economical and enjoyable. We can peer produce an operating system, an encyclopedia, the media, a mutual fund, and even physical things like a motorcycle. We are becoming an economy unto ourselves—a vast global network of specialized producers that swap and exchange services for entertainment, sustenance, and learning. A new economic democracy is emerging in which we all have a lead role.

............................................................................................................................................

Reproduced by permission of the publisher.

Monday, October 29, 2007

sueddeutsche.de Zeitung und Internet Wir brauchen eine Debatte - Kultur

sueddeutsche.de Zeitung und Internet Wir brauchen eine Debatte - Kultur

Nicht das Internet ist der Feind des Journalismus, sondern das Kalkül. Vom Pulsschlag des Textes: Ein Plädoyer für ein Jahrzehnt des Qualitätsjournalismus.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Facebook Wins Big as Microsoft Validates Social-Platform Value

Facebook Wins Big as Microsoft Validates Social-Platform Value

The emerging social-platform wars ratcheted up a notch when, in a long-awaited development, Microsoft struck a deal to invest $240 million in Facebook.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

ECM-Anbieter tummeln sich im Sharepoint-Umfeld

ECM-Anbieter tummeln sich im Sharepoint-Umfeld

Microsoft Office Sharepoint 2007, kurz MOSS, ist die neue Version der Portal-Software aus dem Hause Microsoft, die im Vergleich zur Vorgängerversion, die noch unter dem Namen Sharepoint Portal Server lief, erhebliche Fortschritte gemacht hat. Auf Grund der massiven Weiterentwicklung positioniert Microsoft selber den MOSS jetzt als ECM-Plattform.

Nimmt man die Definition zu ECM von AIIM, so stellt man fest, dass der derzeitige MOSS mit den Hauptkomponenten Capture, Output, Delivery, Store und Preserve nichts zu tun hat. Bei den Managementkomponenten deckt er die Bereiche Dokumenten-Management, Records-Management, Web-Content-Management sowie schwerpunktmäßig Collaboration ab.

Der Einsatz von Sharepoint-Lösungen scheint sich auszubreiten, es ist eine deutliche Zunahme der Nachfrage im Markt zu spüren, obwohl die Microsoft Lösung bekanntlich einige Lücken aufweist. Gleichzeitig haben immer mehr ECM-Hersteller Produkte im Angebot, die diese Lücken, zumindest im Bereich der Archivierung, zu schließen versuchen. Dieser Artikel versucht einen Überblick über vorhandene Lösungen, offene Punkte und weitere Möglichkeiten der Integration mit Sharepoint zu geben.

FT.com / Companies / IT - Subprime boost for Autonomy

FT.com / Companies / IT - Subprime boost for Autonomy

Subprime boost for Autonomy
By Maija Palmer, Technology Correspondent

Published: October 24 2007 03:16 | Last updated: October 24 2007 03:16

Mike Lynch, chief executive of Autonomy, said the search and archiving company could see a boost to business next year if financial services groups started facing litigation over their exposure to US subprime home loans.

The company provides software that helps companies retrieve e-mails and other electronic records and said its systems were often used by companies preparing for lawsuits. Autonomy increased its exposure to the legal market earlier this year with the $375m acquisition of Zantaz, which supplies nine of the world’s top 10 law firms.

Mr Lynch said the company had won new customers “all along the financial services chain” who were preparing for litigation related to the subprime problems. The company also supplies software to the New York Stock Exchange and the Serious Fraud Office.

“It’s an ill wind that doesn’t blow someone some good,” said Mr Lynch.

However, shares in Autonomy fell 44p to 911p as it reported third-quarter results in line with estimates.

Revenues were up 49 per cent at $89.6m for the three months to the end of September, while pre-tax profits rose 38 per cent to $18.3m.

Roger Phillips, analyst at Evolution Securities, cut the stock from “add” to “reduce” and said: “There were no horrors in this. Autonomy have repeatedly beat expectations and this time they are in line. But the stock is just too expensive – to maintain the valuation you need constant outperformance.”

Autonomy also announced the acquisition of Meridio for £20m ($40m) in cash and shares.

FT Comment

●Autonomy shares have doubled over the past year and trade at 50 times this year’s earnings estimates – well above the rest of the software sector. It is natural for the market to worry about whether this is justified and panic at any sign of weakness. Autonomy’s revenues rely on selling big licences to big companies and this may slow in a downturn, while eventually it may face market saturation. However, there is little sign of that yet and in spite of there being little in the latest results to propel the shares higher, Tuesday’s correction looks overdone.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

Interwoven to Boost E-Marketing Capabilities With Optimost

Interwoven to Boost E-Marketing Capabilities With Optimost

Acquiring Optimost will enable Interwoven to add marketing-friendly multivariable testing and Web optimization techniques to its content management offerings.

FirstSpirit 4: Neue Version des Content-Management-Systems zeigt Größe

FirstSpirit 4: Neue Version des Content-Management-Systems zeigt Größe

e-Spirit hat mit FirstSpirit 4 die neueste Version seines Content-Management-Systems veröffentlicht. Kern der Entwicklungsarbeit ist die konsequente Ausrichtung auf die wachsenden Anforderungen im Content-Management-Markt...

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Nuxeo releases version 5.1 of its open source ECM platform with a focus on SOA, scalability and support - Nuxeo open source ECM

Nuxeo releases version 5.1 of its open source ECM platform with a focus on SOA, scalability and support - Nuxeo open source ECM

The updated platform provides a powerful and flexible infrastructure that meets the needs of large scale enterprises investing in SOA, with first implementations in the media, energy and defense sectors.

Paris, 18 October 2007 - Nuxeo, the pioneer and leader of open source ECM (Enterprise Content Management), announces Nuxeo Enterprise Platform 5.1, a new version of its ECM platform. This release is largely distinguished by its service-oriented architecture (SOA), scalability and flexibility. A high level of support is also available - delivering enterprise-grade functional & technical support, certified software patches and updates, and management tools that are available during every stage of the application lifecycle.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Web 2.0 Goes Mainstream

Web 2.0 Goes Mainstream

NEW YORK
Mainstream Internet users are employing simple tools to personalize their Web experiences, though they are skipping some of the popular totems of Web 2.0, according to a newly released survey.

Avenue A/Razorfish, the digital agency owned by Microsoft, released research that shows some Web 2.0 staples such as video sharing and personalized Web pages have gone mainstream.

The e-Spirit Company GmbH ist jetzt eine Aktiengesellschaft

The e-Spirit Company GmbH ist jetzt eine Aktiengesellschaft

Neue Rechtsform unterstützt Expansion in internationale Märkte / Bilanz 2006: Umsatz steigt um 80 Prozent

The e-Spirit Company GmbH zieht mit einer 80-prozentigen Umsatzsteigerung eine überaus positive Bilanz für 2006 und stellt die Weichen für das kommende Geschäftsjahr: Der Hersteller des Content-Management-Systems FirstSpirit änderte die Rechtsform und firmiert nunmehr als Aktiengesellschaft. Den Vorstand der e-Spirit AG haben Jörn Bodemann und Christoph Junge übernommen.

Mit der Änderung der Rechtsform verfolgt e-Spirit die gesicherte Fortführung des Unternehmenswachstums der vergangenen Jahre. Ebenfalls stützt der Schritt die nachhaltige Produkt- und Geschäftsentwicklung. Das Dortmunder Unternehmen blickt auf ein erfolgreiches Geschäftsjahr 2006 und ein sehr gutes erstes Halbjahr 2007 zurück. In 2006 konnte der Umsatz im Vergleich zum Vorjahr um 80 Prozent gesteigert und die Mitarbeiterzahl um 10 Prozent erhöht werden. Insgesamt haben sich allein in 2006 über 20 namhafte Großunternehmen für FirstSpirit als Content-Management-Plattform entschieden. Eine Fortsetzung dieses Trends zeichnet sich für 2007 bereits ab.

Dazu der Vorstandsvorsitzende der e-Spirit AG Jörn Bodemann: "Der Wechsel der Rechtsform sowie die damit einhergehende Umfirmierung wird dazu beitragen, die für unsere Geschäftsentwicklung nötige finanzielle Flexibilität zu gewährleisten. Neben den nationalen Geschäftsbeziehungen haben sich auch unsere internationalen Aktivitäten im vergangenen Jahr weiterentwickelt. Wir wollen diese Internationalisierung mit den Möglichkeiten einer Aktiengesellschaft noch schneller umsetzen."

Jörn Bodemann ist langjähriger Geschäftsführer des Unternehmens. Der diplomierte Informatiker bleibt weiterhin für die Geschäftsbereiche Unternehmenskommunikation, Vertrieb, Professional Services sowie Produkt- und Geschäftsentwicklung verantwortlich.

Als zweites Vorstandsmitglied ist Christoph Junge für die Geschäftsbereiche Finanzen und Recht zuständig. Er ist damit Mitglied des Vorstands bei der adesso AG und bei der e-Spirit AG.

Als Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats wurde das adesso-Vorstandsmitglied Michael Kenfenheuer berufen.
11.10.2007, e-Spirit AG

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

» Gartner’s top 10 technologies for 2008: SOA precursors; fabric computing; Real world Web; WOA | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com

» Gartner’s top 10 technologies for 2008: SOA precursors; fabric computing; Real world Web; WOA | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com

Gartner outlined its top 10 strategic technology areas for 2008 and many roads lead to service oriented architecture.

Day optimiert SAP-Integration

Day optimiert SAP-Integration

Marktführer für Content-Integration baut Unterstützung für SAP NetWeaver Portal aus

Day Software, ein Anbieter von Global Content Management Software und Content Infrastructure Software, gab heute bekannt, die Content Mangement Plattform Communiqué um eine Integration mit SAP NetWeaver Portal 6.0 erweitert zu haben. Mit der bisher schon verfügbaren Anbindung an SAP R/3 durch den Einsatz von BAPI-Connectoren (Business Application Programming Interface) sowie RFCs (Remote Function Calls) bietet Communiqué eine umfassende Content Management Lösung für die SAP-Umgebung. Mit Days Unterstützung für SAP NetWeaver Portal können Unternehmen ihre geschäftskritischen Inhalte und Funktionalitäten mühelos in die Umgebung ihres SAP NetWeaver Portals integrieren.

SAP NetWeaver Portal ist eine Plattform, die es Unternehmen ermöglicht, umfangreiche Business-Anwendungen zu erstellen. Aufgrund von Offenheit, Flexibilität und Anpassungsfähigkeit vertrauen weltweit führende Unternehmen auf SAP NetWeaver als Grundlage für ihre unternehmensweite, Serviceorientierte Architektur (Enterprise SOA).

Days erweiterte Funktionalitäten bieten Out-of-the-Box-Portlets, die es ermöglichen, verwalteten Content, der dynamisch mit dem SAP NetWeaver Portal verbunden ist, über iViews anzuzeigen. Die Präsentationsfunktionalität wird unterstützt durch den Einsatz von iViews, Themes und External Facing Portals. Darüber hinaus stehen Integration in die Portal-Navigation sowie TREX-Suche zur Verfügung. Day erhöht den Wert des verwalteten Contents durch Unterstützung von Mehrsprachigkeit, Inter-Portlet-Kommunikation, Content Sharing und Personalisierung. Eine nahtlose Integration in das Portal-Framework wird durch die Unterstützung von LDAP und Single Sign-On ermöglicht.

Mit Days Technologie erhalten Unternehmen Zugriff auf ihre wertvollsten Informationen und Dokumente für ihre spezifische Geschäftstätigkeit, ihre Prozesse, Produkte und Kunden, die zuvor in herstellerspezifischen Repositorys lagerten. In Zusammenarbeit mit führenden Unternehmen wie EMC, IBM, SUN und Oracle hat Day den Industriestandard für Content-Zugriff JSR 170 initiiert und vorangetrieben. Unter der Leitung von Days CTO David Nüscheler wurde auch JSR 283 (Version 2.0 des Content Repository für Java Technology API) erfolgreich für den Public Review freigegeben. Diese nächste Version des Standards wird dazu beitragen, die Kompatibilität zwischen Content-Anwendungen und Repositorys zu verbessern.
09.10.2007, Günther Kanzler, Day Software

Monday, October 08, 2007

Saturday, October 06, 2007

Google Ups Enterprise E-Mail Stakes With Free Hygiene Services

Google Ups Enterprise E-Mail Stakes With Free Hygiene Services

Postini spam-, virus- and content-filtering services will be available to enterprise Gmail users at no additional cost, demonstrating Google's rapid rate of innovation and willingness to sacrifice revenue for market share.

Thursday, October 04, 2007

SOA-ready: Intrexx Xtreme mit Web Service Modul

SOA-ready: Intrexx Xtreme mit Web Service Modul

Nachdem der Portal und Application Builder im letzten Release schon ein komplettes Prozess Management Modul eingepflanzt bekommen hatte, kommt Intrexx im neuen Release 4.0 nun mit einem Modul zur Orchestrierung von Web Services. Damit lassen sich noch smartere Anwendungen für das Intranet erstellen. 75 fertige Applikationen zur sofortigen Nutzung sind ebenfalls auf DVD enthalten.

The ECM Suites Report from CMS Watch

The ECM Suites Report from CMS Watch

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Trends: Day and FileNet, reunited...under IBM

Trends: Day and FileNet, reunited...under IBM

Demystifying the Gartner ECM Magic Quadrant | The Intelligent Enterprise Blog

Demystifying the Gartner ECM Magic Quadrant | The Intelligent Enterprise Blog

Demystifying the Gartner ECM Magic Quadrant


Posted by Alan Pelz-Sharpe
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
10:34 AM


Inclusion in the Gartner Magic Quadrant (MQ) is believed by vendors to have a very positive impact on sales. In the 2007 MQ for Enterprise Content Management, published late last month, it's clear that little (in Gartner's view) has changed in the ECM world. Well, we beg to differ: 2007 has been a period of major change! And so rather than harping on perceived weaknesses in this highly influential document, let's point out where the analysis in the CMS Watch ECM Suites Report differs from Gartner's.

1. CMS Watch recognizes that there are valid and increasingly plausible and popular open source options for ECM making an impact on the market as a whole. Alfresco, Nuxeo, Knowledge Tree, Jahia and InfoGrid are all credible options. Yet not even a mention of Alfresco (which has been almost ubiquitous in the press this year) has made the Gartner report.

2. We see regional richness and diversity among ECM suppliers around the globe. Examples include the impact of NewGen in India, Asia and the Middle East, and Saperion in Europe. Neither vendor gets a mention in the MQ.

3. We don't grade vendors on the size of their revenue, rather on their viability and the quality of their products. Many vendors make less than $20 Million a year (a criteria for inclusion in the MQ), yet are profitable, stable and produce very high-quality products.

4. We differentiate vendors by scenarios, i.e., by where its product would be best suited. For example Cimage, Spescom and Formtek (only Cimage is included in the MQ) might all be prime candidates in an Engineering DM situation. Vendors have both domain expertise and products that have been designed to excel in some situations but not others. We think it's important that you know those differences and are able to compare like-for-like products before selecting a shortlist based on vague concepts such as "leadership and vision."

There are other things about this report that baffle us, like why SAP is included in it (when even the report itself states that they do not have an ECM Suite) when others that do sell ECM Suites, such as those we mention above, are excluded. It may seem unfair to pick on another analyst firm — and, for the record, the authors of this particular report are all experts we have great respect for — but the importance of the MQ in the buying process is so huge that it demands a critical assessment and evaluation.

If there is a problem to identify, it is likely a business model that hinges on such charts, and a public's demand for ever simplified information, along with the vendors' addiction to getting the "right" placement in the chart. It is both the beauty and the curse of the MQ that it dramatically simplifies a marketplace. But ECM tools and choices are far from simple. In short, buyers of ECM beware.

Alan Pelz-Sharpe is a principal analyst at CMS Watch. Write him at aps@cmswatch.com

Microsoft's Software + Services Offerings Target Google

Microsoft's Software + Services Offerings Target Google

Microsoft's Software + Services enterprise offerings are a response to Google's and others' push toward Web-based office applications.

Monday, October 01, 2007

FT.com / Home UK / UK - End of an era in Germany as Stoiber steps aside

FT.com / Home UK / UK - End of an era in Germany as Stoiber steps aside

End of an era in Germany as Stoiber steps aside
By Hugh Williamson in Berlin

Published: October 1 2007 03:00 | Last updated: October 1 2007 03:00

An era in German politics ended at the weekend when Edmund Stoiber exited national politics, leaving the future of wealthy Bavaria in the hands of the country's toughest law-and-order -politician.

Mr Stoiber, premier of the southern German state since 1993, was central in building one of Europe's most powerful regional economies, attracting thousands of hi-tech, engineering and media companies and reducing unemployment to half the national average.

Delegates from his Christian Social Union gave him a warm send-off at a weekend congress in Munich even though his departure - first announced in January - was tinged with anger. He was forced to step down earlier than planned after mishandling a scandal and alienating many CSU members.

The 66-year old urged the party to remain the "flag-bearer" in Germany of conservative, pro-family values.

Mr Stoiber - who in national elections in 2002 came within 6,000 votes of toppling former chancellor Gerhard Schröder - is due to take up an unpaid post heading European Union efforts to cut red tape.

He will be replaced as premier by Günther Beckstein, Bavarian interior minister since 1993, who is well known for his regular calls for tougher security laws and tighter controls on -foreigners.

Mr Stoiber handed leadership of the CSU to Erwin Huber, the Bavarian economics minister, who won a rare election run-off for the post, fending off bids from Horst Seehofer, national farming minister, and Gabriele Pauli, whose anti-Stoiber campaign in January triggered his exit.

A smooth political transition in Bavaria is crucial for Angela Merkel, German chancellor, and her Christian Democrats - the CSU's larger sister party - if she is to win re-election in 2009. The CSU regularly gains more than 50 per cent of votes in Bavaria, compared with 30-40 per cent for the CDU, but support dipped this year after the turmoil over Mr Stoiber's departure.

The chancellor praised Mr Stoiber at the CSU congress, but will be relieved that one of her most powerful political irritants has stepped aside.

Mr Beckstein - due to be elected premier on October 9 - promised "continuity" with Mr Stoiber's mix of liberal economic policy and arch-conservative social values.

In the short term any changes will be more in style than substance. Despite his tough image Mr Beckstein has a more genial, inclusive approach than the austere Mr Stoiber, who lacks Bavaria's famous joviality. Mr Huber, a former tax inspector seen as competent but uncharismatic, promised to retain the CSU's absolute majority, in place since 1962, in state elections next year.

In the longer term the two men - rivals until a few months ago - may struggle to maintain Mr Stoiber's impressive record. His decisions in recent years to sell off most of the state's assets and introduce long-term austerity measures leave them with only limited room for manoeuvre. Mr Stoiber's pledge, only days before stepping down, that Bavaria would help build a high-tech rail link from Munich airport to the centre of the regional capital could also prove costly.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

FT.com / Companies / Telecoms - Nokia takes big step into mobile content

FT.com / Companies / Telecoms - Nokia takes big step into mobile content

Nokia takes big step into mobile content
By Robert Anderson in Stockholm and Paul Taylor in New York

Published: October 1 2007 19:44 | Last updated: October 1 2007 23:55

Nokia, the world’s largest mobile telephone manufacturer, is to take a giant step into the fast-growing mobile content and services market by acquiring Navteq, the leading provider of digital map information, for $8.1bn in cash.

Nokia, which is trying both to diversify away from handsets and offer customers more reasons to buy its handsets, will pay $78 in cash for each Navteq share, a 34 per cent premium to the price a month ago when takeover speculation started to push the shares higher.

The deal is the biggest in Nokia’s latest spending spree. In recent months, the Finnish handset maker has announced plans to acquire Loudeye, a digital music company, for $60m, Twango, a social networking community, for a reported $100m, and Enpocket, a mobile marketing company, for an undisclosed sum.

Analysts suggested the price was expensive, given that TomTom, the market leader in car navigation devices, recently agreed to pay €1.8bn ($2.6bn) for Tele Atlas, the number two in the digital map market.

However, they noted that Nokia might have been forced to raise its offer to outbid potential buyers, rumoured to have included both Google and Microsoft.

To justify the price, analysts suggested Nokia would have to work hard to ensure that Navteq retained its customer base.

Nokia believes location and content services will be key in future mobile services, allowing users to find restaurants and locate friends nearby in real time, while providing opportunities for targeted advertising.

US-based Navteq, which was founded 22 years ago and is headed by chief executive Judson Green, has 3,000 employees and reported revenues of $582m last year, creates the digital maps and content that power GPS navigation and location-based devices in cars, on websites, mobile phones, and for governments and businesses.

Nokia will finance half the acquisition, expected to be completed next year, from its €8.3bn cash pile and half from loans.

Nokia’s shares on Monday closed down €1.54 at €26.23.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007