• SugarCRM Bolsters Development, Admin Features with Version 6.3

  November 8, 2011 Alex Woodie

  SugarCRM last week unveiled a new release of its popular open source customer relationship management system. With Sugar 6.3, users gain new administrative controls, better integration with third-party apps, and the capability to benefit from more open collaboration with the broad Sugar development community. The SugarCRM Open+ Developer Program was started in late 2010 to provide more collaboration and a tighter feedback loop with customers and the Sugar business partner community that writes add-ons. As an open source project, SugarCRM estimates there are 30,000 Sugar developers around the world, and more than 1,000 extension projects on SugarForge. Since the

  …

  Read more

• Kronos Launches New InTouch Time Clock

  November 8, 2011 Alex Woodie

  Kronos kicked off its KronosWorks conference in Orlando, Florida, yesterday with the launch of InTouch, a new time clock platform that features a color touch screen, Internet cloud connectivity, and the capability to run applications for employees outside of common punch-in and punch-out times. The InTouch time clock is a relatively small device, with a seven-inch color LCD touch screen. Employees can clock-in and clock-out using any of the popular methods, including smartcards or biometric identification. The device prevents employees from punching outside of scheduled start and stop times, and also provides an attestation feature to allow employees to sign

  …

  Read more

• Fun With IBM i Software Pricing

  November 7, 2011 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Last week, as I was building the Power 7 motor comparison monster table to see how the pricing on the new Power7 Gen 2 machines, announced on October 12, stacked up to the prior Gen 1 machines, I kept thinking about the sticker shock that comes with that IBM i 7.1 license fee. No matter how you try to massage it or rationalize it, IBM i represents somewhere between 65 percent to 85 percent of the cost of a base configuration of activated processors and systems software running on it. Even when you add in memory, storage, and other peripherals

  …

  Read more

• JD Edwards Solution Edition Fights Oracle

  November 7, 2011 Dan Burger

  David Ziolkowski has a unique view of the IBM i installed base. He works almost exclusively with companies running the JD Edwards ERP software. His employer, Sirius Computer Solutions, is IBM‘s largest business partner in the reseller channel. His clients are deeply entrenched in their IBM i environments, but because of Oracle‘s ownership of JD Edwards, they are caught in the crossfire of two competitors trying to some extent to be cooperative. To hear Ziolkowski tell it, Oracle’s chances of making inroads to the IBM i users he works with are slim. His confidence is rooted in

  …

  Read more

• Profits Boom As Magic Software Snaps Up BluePhoenix AppBuilder Biz

  November 7, 2011 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Earlier this year, when IBM i development tool maker Magic Software Enterprises turned in some explosively growing financials, we commented that the company, which was flush with cash, might soon be on the prowl for acquisitions because of that hoard. And indeed it was. Last week, Magic Software shelled out $17 million to acquire the AppBuilder product line and customer base from BluePhoenix Solutions. While it is perceived as being mostly a vendor of IBM mainframe development tools, BluePhoenix sells tools that work on other platforms. The AppBuilder workbench is a code generator that can spit out code for

  …

  Read more

• Mad Dog 21/21: ARMs To Fare Well

  November 7, 2011 Hesh Wiener

  Steve Jobs was such a captivating promoter of inventions that his products reshaped our thinking, defining or redefining products we once thought we fully understood. At his best, Jobs was almost too good. If Picasso were God all fish would be flounders. But the computer industry, like nature, fosters diversity. Apple‘s smart clients, the iPhone and iPad, are iconic devices built around systems-on-a-chip (SoCs), but they are not the only important applications of this technology. Servers, too, can be made from compact, efficient, and inexpensive SoCs. And they will prove to be exceedingly disruptive. Two examples that have been

  …

  Read more

• Flexera to Tag Apps on IBM i for Usage Monitoring, License Audits

  November 7, 2011 Alex Woodie

  Flexera Software, the developer of the InstallShield and InstallAnywhere utilities that guide software installations on practically every PC and server on the planet–including those running IBM i–is ramping up a new software tagging initiative. The plan involves embedding XML-based software tags into the applications installed with Flexera’s utilities and then providing software asset management tools to enable customers to more effectively track their application usage and cope with vendor licensing audits. There are two arguments in favor of software identification (SWID) tags: one from the organizations that buy and use software and the other from the vendors that develop

  …

  Read more

• TUG Night School Matches Enthusiasm with Capability

  November 7, 2011 Dan Burger

  At the end of another grind-it-out day in the IT department, several of the RPG programmers were having a conversation. One mentioned that he had to go to school that evening and he wasn’t really looking forward to it. The others, sensing an opportunity to give him a hard time, asked why he dreaded going to school. “Well, I’m tired and I’d much rather go home and crash,” the nearly truant night school student said. “Those aren’t good reasons,” the others shot back. “So why don’t you guys give me some good reasons why I should go?” the first guy

  …

  Read more

• U.S. Unemployment Rate Inches Down, IT Sector Adds Jobs

  November 7, 2011 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The job situation in the United States has improved in the past three months, but the growth in the workforce is still not sufficient to keep up with population growth, much less make much of a dent in the unemployment rate, which remains stubbornly at high levels. On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly snapshot of the American workforce based on surveys of employers and of the unemployment rate based on surveys of households. The household data showed that the unemployment rate ticked down one measly tenth of a point, to 9 percent by the end of

  …

  Read more

• Arrow Electronics ECS Unit Keeps Humming In Q3

  November 7, 2011 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Last week, we told you all about how the IT distribution business of master reseller Avnet did in the third quarter, and this week, it is time to take a gander at what is up with its rival Arrow Electronics, which is also a big distributor of IBM systems, storage, and software. In the quarter ended in September, the Enterprise Computer Systems group at Arrow grew by 26 percent, to $1.54 billion, and it even managed to grow its operating income by 51.4 percent to $53.7 million. The electronics components distribution business, which is larger at $3.65 billion, grew

  …

  Read more

Previous Articles Next Articles