Next Microsoft Dynamics leader named
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Technologist Microsoft has drafted R&amp;D chief Satya Nadella to take over from Doug Burgham as head of the company's growing Business Solutions unitâ¦
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Computer Associates International Inc.  CA.N on Tuesday named former IBM software sales head John  Swainson as president and chief executive, seven months after  Sanjay Kumar stepped down amid an accounting scandal.
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(InfoWorld) - Salesforce.com is drawing particular attention to the analyticsÂ customization capabilitiesÂ it plans to offer in the next version of its hosted CRM (customer relationship management) software, known as Salesforce Winter '07. At an event due to take place Wednesday in London, Marc Benioff, the vendor's chairman and chief executive officer, is expected to preview analytics and dashboard mash-up capabilities as part of his "Future of Software" presentation. The announcement is part of a gradual run-up to the release of Winter '07, theÂ 21st generation of the on-demand CRM software, which is due to become generally available in the fourth quarter of this year. Analytics is loosely defined as the analysis of data contained in a company's enterprise applications to help highlight potential business trends. Being able to spot such trends early can help firms improve the speed and quality of their decision-making. Other CRM players including Microsoft, Oracle, and SAGÂ are increasingly placing more emphasis on their respective analytics offerings as key product differentiators. For instance, Oracle announced last month that it would add more real-time predictive analytics to its business intelligence, middleware, and applications afterÂ acquiring intellectual property assetsÂ from Sigma Dynamics. While the main theme of the current version, Salesforce Summer '06 which debuted in July, was integration between Salesforce.com's CRM offering and third-party products, the watchword for Winter '07 is "unlimited customization," according to Ariel Kelman, the vendor's director of AppExchange product marketing. Since Salesforce.com officially went live with AppExchange in January, a network to host third-party and custom applications and integrate them with Salesforce.com's CRM software, the vendor has seen plenty of demand for analytics offerings, he said. In Salesforce Winter '07 users will have the ability to fully componentize the on-demand CRM application's analytical dashboards so that they can mash up or bring together components of different vendors' business intelligence (BI) software which they can then share and manage. Users will be able to engage in a wide range of BI activities which can be displayed on their dashboards within Salesforce including supply chain analysis, complex what-if scenarios and profitability analysis. Business Objects is Salesforce.com's first BI partner to participate in an analytics mash-up between its Crystal Xcelsius data visualization offering and the hosted CRM software's dashboard framework, Kelman said. Other BI partners expected to support the mash-ups number around 13 initially and will include open-source player JasperSoft, he added. Analytics, e-mail marketing and sales tools have been the most popular offerings on AppExchange since January, but Kelman is already starting to see a second wave of component categories gaining more and more user interest. This next wave is around human resources, financials and IT tools, he said, along with project management, bug tracking and quality assurance. Although Salesforce.com remains focused on supplying hosted CRM, its AppExchange network continues to expand its capabilities to provide all kinds of business components, not just those with strong ties into CRM. Other features for Winter '07 include a new user interface based on Ajax or asynchronous JavaScript and extensible markup language, a hook-in to Cisco Systems' computer telephony integration option and full support for IBM's Lotus Notes collaboration software.
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Microsoft said Friday it had named Craig Eisler to head the Macintosh Business Unit, replacing Roz Ho, who had spent seven years with the division and spearheaded much of the Redmond company's recommitment to the platform.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft hopes to better meet the back-office needs of smaller businesses with a new take on enterprise resource planning (ERP) software called Dynamics Entrepreneur Solution. The software will provide smaller organizations with finance, purchasing, and sales and marketing software. It's aimed at companies employing up to 49 staff and tops out at five concurrent users, according to Barb Edson, director, Microsoft Dynamics. Along with other ERP companies, Microsoft is looking for ways to attract startups that are starting to outgrow entry-level accountancy software like Intuit's QuickBooks and are in search of more sophisticated applications on which to run their businesses. Based on Microsoft's existing Dynamics NAV ERP applications, Entrepreneur can be seen as a stepping stone to the full-blown Dynamics NAV as a company expands its business. Microsoft said that Entrepreneur itself was more than just a scaled-down version of Dynamics NAV and had been specially developed for small businesses, particularly in terms of cutting back on the need for users to heavily customize the software. Priced at â¬795 ($1,086), Entrepreneur is set to make its debut in Europe as part of a phased worldwide rollout of the software. The product will initially be available in September in Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, and the U.K., Microsoft announced Tuesday at its Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) in Denver. As with Microsoft's other back-office applications, the software will be provided by the vendor's partners. Microsoft also announced new software to make another one of its ERP families of products, Dynamics AX, accessible from mobile devices. Costing $495 per client access license, Dynamics AX Mobile Sales software is shipping this month. The product enables salespeople to remotely place and track orders, query sales histories and manage advertising campaigns from their Windows Mobile-based devices. The software includes Microsoft Dynamics Mobile Development Tools, which customers and partners can use to build additional mobile offerings based on Dynamics. At the same time, Microsoft announced an intensification of its existing relationship with Motorola Inc. to allow their joint partners to create Dynamics-based applications for some Motorola mobile computers. Adding mobile extensions to Dynamics AX is just the start, Edson said. The overall plan is to also extend Microsoft's other Dynamics ERP families so that those families of applications can be accessed by mobile devices. As yet the company is not commenting publicly on when such capabilities will become available for Dynamics GP, NAV and SL, she added. The software giant also made a number of other Dynamics announcements at the WPC event, notably releasing initial pricing,Â product and rollout details for its Dynamics Live CRM service. Microsoft also pledged to invest $20 million in initiatives over the coming year to act as inducements to its Dynamics partners. The programs include investments in training and education for technical sales staff and new hires at Microsoft partners along with financial rewards for partners completing a process to certify their add-on applications for Dynamics ERP or customer relationship management (CRM) software. Â
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Microsoft this week has appointed Mogens Elsberg as the new head of its Navision enterprise applications business, in charge of leading product strategy and managing partner relationships.
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Two weeks ago, Microsoft tested its "four toolsets for interoperability" message on the public and the press, which included an interview with BetaNews. That message has apparently been given the green light, as Corporate VP for Emerging Business Dan'l Lewin fired a shot across the bow last Thursday, in a blog posting directed toward Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen.
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Pyxis Technology, the DFM (design for manufacturability) routing  company, announced today that Phil Bishop, most recently president and  CEO of Celoxica Holdings plc. (AIM:CXA), has been named president and  CEO of Pyxis Technology.
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The new facility, Microsoft's sixth, will open in July. The lab will be led by Jennifer Tour Chayes, marking the first time a woman has been tapped to lead one of the company's research centers.
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Troubled business software company Computer Associates International Inc. reportedly has selected longtime IBM executive John Swainson as its new chief executive.
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Microsoft's  founder is expected to detail the company's plan for computer management software and announce a long-awaited Windows update tool.
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Microsoft gives added titles and responsibilities to more than a dozen executives, naming some new leaders in its Windows, Windows Mobile and Windows Live efforts. Three previously reported departures are confirmed.
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Listen up Microsoft is turning to the telecoms sector for leadership of its global services operations in the wake of veteran Rick Devenuti's departure.â¦
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By Brier Dudley, Seattle Times  May 24--Excerpts from the blog   Directions on Microsoft analyst Rob Helm speculated that Friday's reorganization of a key part of Microsoft positioned Jeff Raikes to become Microsoft's chief executive someday.
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As Microsoft Corp.   Chairman Bill Gates prepares to step back from the company he  founded, the task of finding new sources of growth for the  world&#039;s largest software company falls to Chief Executive Steve  Ballmer.
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Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) today announced the appointment of Steve  Schuckenbrock to lead the company's global  services organization. As senior vice president of global services, Mr.  Schuckenbrock will report to CEO Kevin Rollins and serve as a member of  the Dell Global Executive Management Committee.
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Microsoft Chief Software Architect Bill Gates said the key for simplifying system management lies in the company's Dynamic Systems Initiative, which he described as a long-term vision that needs broad industry cooperation.