Infrastructure

Companies are asking for more functionality in portals, says BEA Systems Inc., but Web-enabled enterprise applications are making portal software vendors work harder for their money.

Cisco Systems Inc. and IBM Corp. on Tuesday announced that they will integrate a number of their respective products in an effort to simplify the deployment of cutting-edge networking technologies in the enterprise.

Dell Inc. plans to unveil three new Axim personal digital assistants Tuesday, adding the Bluetooth short-range wireless networking technology to its PDAs for the first time.

When outdoor equipment retailer REI wanted to boost in-store sales, the company looked to its Web site. In June 2003, REI.com launched free in-store pickup for customers who ordered online. The logic behind that thinking: People who visit stores to collect their online purchases might be swayed to spend more money upon seeing the colorful displays of clothing, climbing gear, bikes and camping equipment.

Three months after scrapping an effort to integrate its e-commerce, content management and integration software into one suite of products, Microsoft Corp. has decided to forge ahead with another major release of its e-commerce server software, which it expects to release in early 2006.

Altiris Inc. this week introduced an upgraded version of its help desk software that's designed to cut down on support calls by automating fixes and letting end users help themselves.

A recent survey indicates that Canadian e-commerce spending is on the rise

Before Bombardier Aerospace even decided to implement SAP AG software last August, the Montreal-based aircraft manufacturing company knew it would need an integration platform to make the deployment seamless across its mission-critical applications.