Marc L. Songini

Just about all any business is looking for is a way to maintain precisely the right amount of product inventory or resources to supply a service and to know the highest possible price the market will bear for its products or services.

Enterprise software maker SAP AG has announced that it's shipping the U.S. version of its midmarket SAP Business One suite of applications.

Beset by ongoing losses and a probe by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, i2 Technologies Inc. hopes an upgrade of its supply chain management software will help it get back on track with users.

At Microsoft Corp.'s Convergence 2003 conference held recently in Florida, a half-dozen users expressed interest in a portal-style user interface that the software vendor is developing for its business applications. But some attendees said they're still looking for more functionality from Microsoft.

SAP AG is rolling out a beefed-up version of its enterprise resource planning (ERP) software aimed at users who are daunted by the prospect of buying and installing a full set of the company's applications.

Despite several years of technology evolution, rollouts of customer relationship management (CRM) software still pose challenges that are causing many companies to proceed with caution.

IBM Corp. is enhancing its WebSphere middleware technology in an effort to simplify the task of creating and monitoring data and business-process workflows through corporate systems.

SAP AG is readying an upgrade of its customer relationship management (CRM) software that officials said will deliver more industry-specific functions and increased ties to other applications.