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Samsung Shows Its Softer Side June 19, 2012 Today in international tech news: Samsung's new chief stresses software. Also: A Japanese man takes issue with Google's autocomplete function, filing a lawsuit claiming that the feature not only made him lose his old job, but also kept him from getting a new one; a deaf German blogger gains notoriety for using her lip-reading acumen to transcribe on-field banter; and more.

Pega SFA Update Homes In on Processes June 19, 2012 BPM provider Pegasystems has taken its various sales-related applications and vertical offerings in the category and created a comprehensive sales force automation application it is calling "Pega Sales Force Automation." This offering follows a marketing application that Pega built in a similar fashion in the marketing space.

Elements CRM for iOS Doesn't Stint on Functionality June 08, 2012 Ntractive, the developer of Elements CRM, a cloud-based CRM app for Macs only, has expanded its product line to include the iPad and iPhone. Ntractive is taking a different approach from other CRM vendors that have pushed their applications onto these devices, said CEO Justin Bartak.

What Does Microsoft Have to Do to Earn FOSSers' Respect? June 05, 2012 Microsoft may not have fully endeared itself into the FOSS rank and file with its recent attempt to hold hands with the open source community. Feelings are not unanimous regarding the commercial software giant's decision in April to front a company-owned subsidiary called "Microsoft Open Technologies."

Salesforce.com Chatter Unlocks Doors to Enterprise Collaboration May 25, 2012 Salesforce.com is adding more functionality to its Chatter tool -- in this case, real-time communication capabilities. The two new features soon to be available are Chatter Messenger and Chatter Screensharing. Chatter Messenger is an instant messaging application to be used within the Chatter application. When it launches as part of Salesforce.com's Summer release in a few weeks, it will give users live chat functionality.

Sapphire Now: It's a Mobile, Social, Cloudy, Collaborative World May 15, 2012 The Sapphire Now conference kicked off Monday in Orlando, Fla., with 60,000 customers, partners and employees of SAP participating, either at the conference facility or watching it online. The first day of the event offered the usual lineup of celebrity speakers -- corporate and otherwise -- with Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong featured in the morning and SAP Co-CEO Bill McDermott in the afternoon.

Zoho Boosts Its Social Enterprise Creds May 11, 2012 Zoho has enhanced its menu of offerings by incorporating social media into its customer support features. It has also added a Facebook social media integration point to its flagship application. The changes went live on Thursday, added automatically to the applications. These two developments are modest compared to the company's massive overhaul to its suite at the end of last year.

Making Customers the Object of Devotion May 07, 2012 The proliferation of customer service channels can be both a blessing and a curse. It can be a blessing in that companies now have more ways than ever to address customer needs and resolve customer issues, potentially leading to increased customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention. At the same time, the proliferation of customer service channels can be a curse.

Insidesales.com Aims to Keep Leads on the Front Burner May 04, 2012 Imagine walking into a department store on a Wednesday morning and spotting a pair of shoes you feel that you must acquire, or life will have no meaning. You excitedly ask the sales rep if you can try on a pair in your size and she says, "Sure, why don't you come back on Friday?" That deflating experience occurs all the time on the Web, said Ken Krogue, president of InsideSales.com.

Federal IT Managers Get New Tools for Hammering Out Innovations May 02, 2012 E-Commerce buzz words sound great in theory, but innovation often founders on the shoals of "getting there from here" as IT managers slog through the details of converting to new systems and programs. Federal agencies have been turning to shared services, data consolidation, commodity IT and, especially, the cloud. Directives to reform IT have been flying out of the OMB at regular intervals for the past 18 months.

Apple and Microsoft Take Heat for High Prices Down Under April 30, 2012 Today in international tech news: Lawmakers investigate why software and downloads are so much more expensive in Australia, a mobile network is lobbying to speed up the introduction of 4G in Britain, a wireless provider might try to block Skype in Sweden, and Tech In Asia looks at the inspiration for the Google Drive logo.

A New Day Is Dawning for the Technology Market April 30, 2012 Last week, I was at the Dell annual Industry Analyst Conference, and it suddenly struck me that we are looking at a very different technology market this decade. Apple is expected to slide, largely due to the firm's inability to replace Steve Jobs; the dynamic that created Microsoft is changing, and analysts are questioning the firm's relevance as Dell and HP ramp up their own software efforts. Dell, in particular, is doing some really interesting things.

Social Dynamx Turns CSRs Into Rock Stars April 30, 2012 Social Dynamx has just launched a new enterprise-class social customer care platform that will allow customer support and community management teams to identify, prioritize and handle millions of one-on-one customer social media conversations daily. As a subscription-based platform, it is designed to quickly identify relevant conversations and intelligently route them to the appropriate customer service agents.

SugarCRM 6.5 Adds Just a Touch of Sweetener April 27, 2012 SugarCRM has just debuted a controlled release of version 6.5 of its flagship open source CRM offering. In many ways, the release is an iterative change -- it does not represent the same major shift in functionality and user interface as version 6 did, when it was launched in 2010. In one key way, however, the new version is significantly different: The user interface is much more oriented to search technology.

Penetrating the Vast, Untapped Reaches of the CRM Market April 26, 2012 CRM is not a small market. Nor is it a niche sequestered away in a corner of the larger CRM market. CRM is a $13.045 billion industry in 2012, and it will grow to $16.694 billion in 2015, according to Gartner. No matter how you look at things, that's a lot of money. With a projected growth of nearly 30 percent in three years, it would be easy to assume that CRM has achieved significant penetration.

Tech Industry Coalition Seeks More Government Transparency April 24, 2012 President Obama initiated an Open Government program on his second day in office, pledging to make government information more accessible to the public. Three years later, that program has achieved significant success in many forums. However, the effort of making more federal information even more accessible is a continuing one that seems to get more challenging every year.

Kana Bridges CRM-Social Listening Gap April 23, 2012 Kana Software has introduced a new service experience platform that combines CRM functionality with BPM, knowledge management, analytics and social listening. The application is in fact the culmination of a few years' of effort by Kana to integrate these closely related feature sets, said Ajay Khanna, senior director of product marketing for Kana.

Windows Puts Microsoft 2 Steps Ahead, Xbox 1 Step Behind April 20, 2012 Microsoft reported higher than expected earnings Thursday, with Windows 7 license sales up despite the company's plan to release a new version of its desktop operating system later this year. The company's PC division gained 4 percent from a year ago, earning $4.6 billion in revenue. The gain was in part thanks to an uptick in businesses buying Windows 7 licenses, Microsoft said.

On Innovative Ways to Conquer the World April 16, 2012 One of my favorite lines from the original "Conan" movie came when he was asked "what is the best in life?" Conan's response: "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women!" Maybe I watch too many old movies, but I could swear I saw three companies channel Conan recently.

CDC Launches Pivotal for iPad April 16, 2012 CDC Software Corporation, an enterprise software provider of on-premises and cloud technologies, has just released Pivotal CRM for iPad, an application that enables users to access CRM information whenever and wherever they need it. "Today, CRM is going in two distinct directions," said Jason Rushforth, front office president for CDC Software.