IBM and SAP Ink Agreement to Develop Their First Joint Software Product
IBM and SAP have announced plans to deliver their first joint software product codenamed " Atlantic" that will integrate IBM Lotus Notes software with SAP Business Suite. The combined efforts to create " Atlantic" will result in a new style of applications that present information and data in the context of users familiar with the Lotus Notes desktop. This will make it easier for users to do their jobs and greatly enhance the return on investment that companies have made in their SAP applications.
Providing workers with access to critical business information in this intuitive, easy-to-use interface will enable timely, more informed business decisions. All types of employees can benefit from increased business analysis, information capabilities and the power to run their business operations directly from their Lotus Notes desktop.
"We're creating a richer collaboration environment," said Michael Rhodin, general manager, IBM Lotus Software. "Businesses are looking to find better ways to collaborate and manage their business processes. This IBM-SAP solution addresses both challenges in one seamless package for millions of users."
"Lotus has been an innovator in collaboration for 20 years. This agreement is a great example of how SAP enables our customers to empower their users by providing easy access to SAP business processes and data through productivity tools and user interfaces of their choice," said Vishal Sikka, CTO, SAP. "Furthermore, it reaffirms the strong commitment we have to our partnership with IBM."
For more than 35 years, IBM and SAP have collaborated to bring joint customers cutting-edge solutions to improve business efficiency at more than 13,000 client sites for their millions of users. Currently planned for inclusion in the first release of roject "Atlantic" is support for SAP workflows, reporting and analytics, and the use of roles from within the Lotus Notes client. In addition, tools are planned to be included to provide the ability to extend and adapt these roles and capabilities, as well as leverage additional collaborative and offline capabilities inherent in Lotus Notes and Domino products. The initial release is planned to ship in the fourth quarter of 2008 and will be sold by both companies.
Contact www.ibm.com/software/lotus/notes/atlantic
Webroot Delivers SaaS Perimeter Security for SMB Market Webroot, a leading security provider for the consumer, enterprise and SMB markets, has released Webroot E-Mail Security SaaS. Targeted at small- to medium-sized businesses that want easier to manage perimeter security, Webroot's new security SaaS solution delivers better protection, lower total cost of ownership and better value than perimeter security appliances or software.
"At enterprise class levels security and security management is difficult and complex and therefore often unfulfilled. This is especially true in SMBs with limited security resources. SaaS solutions re-define perimeter security by eliminating the pain and cost of hardware and software management," said Mike Irwin, COO, Webroot. "With better manageability, better protection and overall better value, our SMB customers can now focus on their mission-critical projects while we provide them with enterprise-class security 24x7x365."
Webroot E-mail Security SaaS is the result of Webroot's November 2007 merger with Email Systems, a leading SaaS security provider in the UK. Email Systems, now Webroot, protects more than 1,500 businesses and 2.5 million email boxes worldwide with this award-winning e-mail management, protection and compliance solution. When integrated with Webroot AntiSpyware Corporate Edition with AntiVirus end-point protection, companies can now have a multi-layered approach to security that provides a powerful and more effective alternative to the traditional hardware or software based perimeter solutions. Unlike appliances or software-based perimeter security, Webroot's e-mail security service is never out of date and uses up to five different antivirus and two different spam filtering engines.
"Webroot is easy to work with and has great channel ethics, consistently aligning with our founding principle of providing customers the best of breed services that address their ever-changing IT requirements," said Bob Stevens, CEO, Blended Systems. "We are excited about increasing our solution offerings and revenue opportunities with Webroot E-Mail Security SaaS. Offering greater security protection, more function and more service options make it a compelling offering to our customers."
Contact www.webroot.com
SmartTurn Secures $5 Million in Series A Funding SmartTurn Inc., the leading On-Demand Inventory and Warehouse Management System (WMS) provider, has received its Series A financing led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Emergence Capital Partners. The $5 million capital will be used to strengthen and accelerate development and new customer acquisition initiatives.
SmartTurn's customers span many industries including wholesale and distribution, manufacturing, and 3 rd Party Logistics Providers (3PLs). Customers who run legacy, paper-based, or accounting based inventory systems benefit most from SmartTurn, with immediate improvements in warehouse performance and real-time
inventory visibility. SmartTurn customers report gains in putaway, storage, picking and shipping accuracy that translate directly into higher customer satisfaction levels and improved cash-to-cash cycle times.
Both NEA and Emergence Capital view SmartTurn as an exciting addition to their investment portfolio. " SmartTurn has introduced a very powerful solution while delivering advantages the industry has never offered before with software-as-a-service (SaaS). Our investment in Salesforce.com demonstrated how an On Demand leader can reshape a market, and SmartTurn has the same opportunity to create a step change in the inventory and WMS market," said Gordon Ritter, General Partner, and Emergence Capital Partners.
Contact www.smartturn.com
CFO Strategies Selected to Join Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program CFO Strategies, Inc. has been selected to join the Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program. Stewarded by the Emerging Business Team (EBT) at Microsoft Corp, the program is designed to connect high-potential startups committed to the Microsoft platform to an extensive support network that provides access to Microsoft's people and programs, guidance on future direction, and support to accelerate their success. CFO Strategies is the innovator of SOX Compliance Manager, a next-generation business solution designed to simplify Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.
Microsoft is committed to serving as a valuable technology and business partner for emerging startups and their investors. Companies are selected to join the program based on their innovation, marketability, growth potential, funding, platform decision and strategic importance to Microsoft. These companies receive customized engagement plans designed to support their software development and increase market visibility.
"Microsoft is pleased to be working with CFO Strategies to deliver a comprehensive compliance solution to public companies," said Rodney Bowen-Wright, Director of Business Development at Microsoft. "The combination of SOX Compliance Manager and the platform capabilities of the 2007 Microsoft Office system provides a well-rounded business tool that will help our mutual customers satisfy their Sarbanes-Oxley compliance requirements."
Contact www.cfostrategiesinc.com
Pillar Data Systems Supports Oracle VM Server Virtualization Environments
Pillar Data Systems is supporting Oracle VM, the server virtualization software, Oracle recently announced. Oracle VM server virtualization software supports both Oracle and non-Oracle applications. Oracle VM offers scalable, low-cost server virtualization that is up to three times more efficient than existing products from other vendors. Key Oracle products including Oracle Database, Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle Applications are certified with Oracle VM.
"Pillar is uniquely positioned with Oracle VM, since our Axiom storage system was designed to easily handle multiple applications with multi-tenancy characteristics," said Mike Workman, CEO and Chairman, Pillar Data Systems. "Companies looking to virtualize their Oracle Database 11 g and Oracle Application Server pools on a consolidated platform will be able to leverage Pillar's unique Quality of Service functionality for tiered storage. This brings a dynamic and flexible platform to manage customer SLAs for Oracle Applications."
A member of the Oracle PartnerNetwork, Pillar already has published several Validated Configurations as part of the Oracle Unbreakable Linux program, and will extend that support to include Oracle VM. This allows improved storage resource utilization, a highly available architecture and enhanced interoperability with Oracle Real Application Clusters. The powerful combination helps customers drive maximum storage efficiency in Oracle and non-Oracle environments.
Together, Oracle VM and Pillar's virtualization of tiered storage will provide a highly flexible, scalable, and efficient architecture for Oracle Applications. The strength of the Pillar Axiom lies in its ability to separate and prioritize the performance requirements for Oracle Application Server or Oracle Database 11 g running on each Oracle VM, and allows the system to expand storage capacity or performance in line with the user's dynamic requirements.
Contact http://www.pillardata.com
Small- and Mid-Sized Customers Deploying SuccessFactors
SuccessFactors, Inc. is seeing continued adoption of the SuccessFactors Performance and Talent Management suite, Professional Edition, by small businesses that are looking to engage their employees and automate a wide variety of employee performance processes, including goal management, performance reviews and compensation management.
Ping Identity is a leading provider of secure single sign-on solutions for Internet applications. The company selected SuccessFactors' Professional Edition as the centerpiece of its employee review process, citing goal alignment as a driver for staying competitive in its fast-growing industry. With a rapid deployment, Ping Identity implemented SuccessFactors to maximize productivity and increase both engagement and retention of its employees.
SuccessFactors remains committed to supporting the latest industry standards, including Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), a highly secure industry standard for online access. This support served as another key element in Ping Identity's selection of Professional Edition. This standard enables SuccessFactors' customers to single sign-on to the system at any time from any location with a standard Web browser.
"When we looked for SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) providers for performance management, security was an essential element of the evaluation," said Jeremy Rudel, vice president of finance for Ping Identity. "We're pleased with our decision because of SuccessFactors' demonstrated ability to provide all of the necessary security procedures to safeguard our employees' personal information."
Paul Albright, chief marketing officer and general manager of SMB for SuccessFactors, said, "Small and mid-size companies continue to flock to SuccessFactors for easy-to-use performance management solutions that energize and motivate employees and help businesses increase productivity. We continue to hear how our software positively impacts the way customers are running their businesses, which serves as true validation for what we're building."
Contact www.successfactors.com
FLEXnet Removes Manual Mayhem from License Generation & Activation
Macrovision has released a new version of its FLEXnet Operations software that provides software producers with additional automation capabilities and a more secure process for entitlement and license management. The software simplifies and speeds the license lifecycle activities of generating, activating, renewing and returning software licenses, which can reduce support costs, facilitate faster revenue recognition, and improve customer satisfaction.
For software producers, including those at hardware manufacturing companies, manual license management can prove not only daunting but damaging to their ROI. Producers want to go to market with new and updated products quickly and efficiently, a goal that slows with manual licensing. And if a merger or acquisition is added to the mix, producers are faced with newly acquired products and disparate license technologies that manual efforts can't accurately or easily manage.
Macrovision's FLEXnet Operations reduces the pain of manual licensing and brings automation to the entire entitlement and license lifecycle. Producers can discard tedious, costly manual processes and use the back-office operations capabilities to automatically create and manage their product packages, entitlements and licenses.
Today, the new version of FLEXnet Operations 11.5 delivers enhanced automation capabilities that result in a faster, more seamless licensing experience that can lower support costs for both producers and their customers.
Contact http://www.macrovision.com
CiRBA Raises $12 Million with Sigma Partners CiRBA Inc., a leader in Data Center Intelligence software, has raised $12 million in its second round of institutional funding led by Sigma Partners. Existing investors including Edgestone Capital Partners and others also participated in the round. The funding will enable CiRBA to further accelerate growth on a global scale, with investments in sales, marketing and product development.
"CiRBA is uniquely positioned to help organizations realize their plans around data center virtualization. As almost every company today takes on this transformation, it is becoming very clear that the complexity of these initiatives and the resulting ongoing management challenges necessitate the kind of powerful analytics that only CiRBA provides," said John Mandile, Managing Director of Sigma Partners and new member of CiRBA's Board of Directors.
CiRBA's software enables organizations to optimally transform data centers toward more virtualized infrastructure, and then powers the ongoing management of these more dynamic environments. CiRBA is the only solution that combines sophisticated cross platform data
acquisition with an analytics engine that simultaneously optimizes against all configuration, workload and business constraints to proactively manage next generation data centers.
Contact www.cirba.com
Unisfair Receives $10 Million in Series B Funding
Unisfair, the leading provider of virtual events, has received $10 million in Series B funding led by Norwest Venture Partners and joined by existing investor Sequoia Capital. Unisfair, which includes Cisco, Cognos and IBM among its customers, will use the funds for product development and to further strengthen sales and marketing operations.
Demand for Unisfair virtual event technology solutions grew substantially in 2007 as the number of virtual events hosted by Unisfair customers grew 350 percent. Enterprises have seen significant return on investment results from leveraging Unisfair's virtual demand generation and virtual recruiting software-as-a-service solutions.
"Virtual events will have a significant impact on the way companies conduct business, bringing them greater returns without the need for travel," said Shmil Levy, Partner, Sequoia Capital. "Unisfair is the recognized leader of virtual events for businesses. With its proven technology and growing customer base, Unisfair is on a path of continued success and leads the market in this important category."
"In our virtual events and virtual business environments, we are taking the most advanced technology and adding the most business-applicable aspects of Web 2.0 and social networking to create a product that pragmatically solves a variety of real-world business challenges, from cost-effective marketing to recruiting," said Guy Piekarz, CEO of Unisfair. "Teaming with Norwest and Sequoia gives us the resources to bring our offering to a larger audience and to continue delivering the product innovation our customers have come to rely on."
Unisfair has powered over 400 virtual events for enterprise clients including Cisco Systems, IBM, Cognos, and Quest Software; and for media clients including Nielsen, Tech Target, CMP, Rogers Publishing and Penton Media.
Contact www.unisfair.com
Adchemy Lands $19 Million Investment Adchemy, Inc., a next-generation online customer acquisition technology company, has secured $19 million in funding led by Mayfield Fund with additional investments from Hellman & Friedman, LLC., and existing investor August Capital. Founded in 2004, Adchemy develops software that is revolutionizing the world of online customer acquisition by combining advanced scientific algorithms with Web data to target, engage and qualify customers.
The online advertising market grew by 50 percent from 2006 to 2007 and in the first six months of 2007 generated $10 billion in revenue in the United States, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau. Adchemy is building on this market momentum with its current product, Adchemy Actions, and a new product to be released in the spring of 2008.
"The market for online advertising is witnessing a gigantic shift today as consumers and marketers mine the potential of the Web," said Murthy Nukala, founder and chief executive officer of Adchemy. "As the economics of online advertising move from a cost per impression or cost-per-click to a cost-per-action model, marketing departments transform from cost centers into revenue hubs. This is a profound shift and we are singularly focused on being a strategic partner to Chief Marketing Officers across all of their customer acquisition programs."
Contact www.adchemy.com
VersionOne Unveils New User Interface, Free Open Source Tool Integrations
VersionOne, an Agile project planning & management tool provider, announced a major upgrade to its award winning V1: Agile product suite. Headlining the upgrades is a simpler, more intuitive user interface. The new interface focuses on simplifying the overall user experience, making it easier to learn and use the application, while providing “1 click” access to key Agile process functionality. Other major enhancements in Release 8 include the industry’s first Intelligent Release Forecaster tool and a set of free open source tool integrations building on VersionOne’s strategy of plug-n-play integration into existing environments.
“We are always seeking ways to help our customers simplify the delivery of software. Our new interface ensures simplicity of use for all users - from the developer who only wants to see his or her work to the “power user” needing to leverage the broadest array of functionality,”
said Robert Holler, Chief Executive Officer. “All key functionality is one click away, making the application much easier and more effective to use than a bunch of spreadsheets,” said Holler.
VersionOne’s unique Intelligent Release Forecaster tool enables teams to do “what if” analysis as part of the ongoing planning process. A project manager is able to input key parameters of the project, such as velocity, to accurately forecast the release delivery date with confidence. This is especially important to project managers in enterprise organizations demanding ongoing status and forecasting of delivery schedules.
Release 8 includes a set of free software integrations building on VersionOne’s strategy of providing simple to use, plug-n-play integrations. The integrations include data sharing and updates with the leading development tools JIRA, Bugzilla and HP Mercury’s Quicktest Pro. Also included is an integration with Eclipse, the most widely used open source integrated development environment (IDE). This integration allows developers working in Eclipse to view and update their work without ever leaving the IDE.
VersionOne provides all integrations as open source software via the VersionOne community site. Interested customers and partners can download the source code to further customize integrations for their unique environment. Also available are existing integrations with tools such as Visual Studio, Subversion and FitNesse. Unlike other Agile tool providers there are no hidden charges for use of the integrations, providing a much lower total cost of ownership of a VersionOne solution.
Contact www.versionone.com |
