Enterprise 2.0

EIC Squared: Soaring Google, Psystar mysteries, and Microsoft's Albany

In this week's EIC Squared podcast Larry Dignan and I discuss Google's uplifting quarter, the mysterious Mac clone, and Microsoft's hybrid software strategy.

Google made the market move, with a stellar quarter, which should give Microsoft even more incentive to bring Yahoo into its camp. With quarterly earnings season in full swing, Larry notes that international sales and a weak dollar are helping out U.S. technology companies.

The Mac clone from Florida-based Psystar continues to be shrouded in mystery. The site has been down and the company isn't processing orders, but it says it will … Read more

NetSuite finds a sweet spot with OneWorld

NetSuite has found a sweet spot for its on-demand business management software. Today, the company introduced OneWorld, which adds real-time management and consolidation capabilities for companies that are multinational or have multiple subsidiaries.

Targeting midsize companies, OneWorld is the biggest architectural change to NetSuite since its inception, according to company CEO Zach Nelson. "Within a single instance, you can effectively run multiple companies in real time. The subsidiaries have complete local control that automatically consolidates into any hierarchy they have in real time," he told me.

"OneWorld enables our customers to run their global businesses in real … Read more

Zoho enhances its CRM application for enterprises

On the heels of Salesforce.com integrating with Google Apps, Zoho on Wednesday announced enhancements to its Zoho CRM Enterprise Edition, adding role-based security administration, SSL support, integration with Zoho's spreadsheet, custom fields, and other features.

The cost of the Zoho CRM Enterprise Edition is $25 per user per month, with the first three users free of charge. The Zoho CRM Professional Edition is $12 per user per month.

In a blog post this week, Sridhar Vembu, CEO of Zoho parent company AdventNet, took issue with Salesforce's business model, noting that his competitor spends nearly eight times as … Read more

Eric Schmidt joins Marc Benioff in an assault on the old guard

In a dinner theater setting at the Four Seasons in San Francisco, Salesforce.com's Marc Benioff and Google's Eric Schmidt officially rolled out Salesforce for Google Apps, the integration of Google Apps, Gmail, Calendar, and Google Talk with the Salesforce.com platform, in 15 languages.

Benioff said one of the goals is to "get rid of the albratross of IT."

Benioff also has referred to Microsoft as a kind of albatross, the old guard of software holding on to the client/server past. Previously, Benioff described Microsoft a dinosaur: I think Microsoft is still a dinosaur. … Read more

Video: Plattner and Benioff on the future of enterprise software

At a Churchill Club event at the Computer History Museum in San Jose on April 3, Hasso Plattner, co-founder and chairman of SAP, and Marc Benioff, co-founder and CEO of Salesforce.com, debated the future of enterprise software. The debate was moderated by Quentin Hardy of Forbes.

I covered the debate here. Benioff challenged Plattner to run SAP's software on the salesforce.com platform. Plattner gave Benioff some counsel: "We have many things in common. Let me give you some advice, but you might not take it because you are younger: don't overestimate your platform."

Following … Read more

Salesforce.com's Benioff bests SAP's Plattner in debate

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Two titans in the enterprise software business faced off Thursday at a Churchill Club event at the Computer History Museum here, and a bit of history was made.

The sage, 64-year-old Hasso Plattner, co-founder and Chairman of SAP, and the upstart, 43-year-old Marc Benioff, co-founder and Chairman of salesforce.com, debated the future of enterprise software, fielding questions from Quentin Hardy of Forbes and the audience.

The history footnote of the evening came from Benioff, who challenged Plattner to build SAP applications on the Salesforce.com platform. "I want to figure out how to get SAP … Read more

Marc Benioff: From assembly programmer to software magnate

In this Super Techies interview, I talk with Marc Benioff about his career in the software industry. Benioff is the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Salesforce.com, which has led the business software-as-a-service revolution with its CRM-based platform. Salesforce.com is expecting to reach the $1 billion revenue threshold in its 2009 fiscal year, ending January 31, 2009.

In the interview, Benioff discusses his early work developing games for the TRS 80, Apple II, and Commodore 64, and his turn as a summer intern at Apple in 1984, coding in assembly language for the Macintosh.

Benioff also shares what he … Read more

Marc Benioff taunts the awakened dinosaurs

Charlie Cooper and I interviewed Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff last week. Following is part of the exchange, where I asked Benioff for his thoughts on Microsoft. He has called Microsoft a dinosaur, incapable of innovation, and a monopolist.

Disparaging large competitors is part of Benioff's marketing offensive. He has taken shots at SAP, Oracle, Siebel, and others, dismissing them as 20th century fossils who are making feeble attempts to adapt to Web and cloud computing.

His braggadocio has garnered Salesforce.com loads of attention since its inception nine years ago. What's somewhat mystifying is how competitors have … Read more

Zoho adds HR application to its Web suite

While Google receives lots of attention for its suite of Web applications, and Microsoft waits on the sidelines, Zoho continues to add new components to its Web suite.

The latest addition to the suite, which already includes modules for everything from documents and spreadsheets to CRM and wikis, is Zoho People, a human resource management application.

Zoho People, currently in beta, includes the usual HR functions for administrators and employees, with modules for organization, recruitment, forms, and checklists (work flow). In addition, Zoho Creator has been integrated within Zoho People, allowing users to customize the application.

Zoho People joins Zoho … Read more