Marc L. Songini

Looking to woo customers from competitors such as Ariba Inc., Oracle Corp. outlined changes to its supply chain portfolio that it says will help customers operate more leanly, comply with legal regulations and manage risk.

While many companies are still testing large-scale wireless CRM projects, Stamford, Conn.-based mailing systems vendor Pitney Bowes Inc. is an experienced practitioner. The US$4 billion company set up its first wireless system in the late '90s. Since then, it has deployed a second-generation system for 250 field service employees in its Document Messaging Technologies division, which sells high-end inserter mailing systems.

PeopleSoft Inc. is giving a boost to its asset management applications aimed at helping manufacturers make the most of their operations.

PeopleSoft Inc.'s effort to migrate former J.D. Edwards & Co. customers to a new license and maintenance pricing model has some users bristling, especially those saying they face substantially higher costs.

Microsoft Corp. this week announced an upgrade of its Great Plains ERP suite that's designed to be easier to use and more tightly integrated with the company's Office and end-user portal software.

Microsoft Corp. in August plans to add features to its CRM software that are designed to offer users tighter integration with Office 2003.

Plunging deeper into the hosted applications market, Siebel Systems Inc. is launching a set of vertically focused customer relationship management offerings to be delivered via subscription

IBM Corp. is offering users a taste of its next-generation DB2 Universal Database, which contains 200 self-management, performance and development enhancements.