News

News

• May 13, 2019 13 May'19

  Lenovo powers new ThinkPad series with AMD Ryzen Pro processors

  Lenovo brings AMD CPUs to its ThinkPad portfolio. AMD Ryzen Pro processors will appear in the T495, T495s and X395 ThinkPads, available in May and June.

• May 10, 2019 10 May'19

  University of Alaska to lay off 95% of HR staff, upgrade tech

  The University of Alaska's approach to modernizing its HR department began with the elimination of nearly all of its HR positions. It's part of a move to shared services to make IT more efficient.

• May 09, 2019 09 May'19

  Avaya revenue dips as company entertains potential buyout

  Avaya revenue missed the mark in the second quarter amid operational missteps and rumors of a private buyout. The company said it was considering financial maneuvers as significant as selling itself.

• May 09, 2019 09 May'19

  Acquia-Mautic acquisition underscores open source model

  Holding to the strategy of building a digital experience platform based with open source roots, Acquia acquires Mautic, an open source marketing automation cloud.

• May 09, 2019 09 May'19

  New compliance controls added to Microsoft Teams PowerShell

  Microsoft Teams PowerShell now gives IT administrators the ability to restrict communications between employees, a significant expansion of the app's tools for regulatory compliance.

• May 09, 2019 09 May'19

  Rise of headless CMS: Businesses move away from traditional WCM

  Traditional web content management dominates the market, but as mobile and voice channels become increasingly important, companies opt for headless content management.

• May 08, 2019 08 May'19

  SAP, OpenText broaden partnership with cloud integrations

  SAP reveals deeper cloud partnerships with content management vendor OpenText as both legacy platforms entice long-term clients off on-premises systems and into the SAP cloud.

• May 08, 2019 08 May'19

  Workplace by Facebook gets user interface overhaul

  A planned overhaul of the Workplace by Facebook user interface will streamline notifications and prioritize groups and chats.

• May 08, 2019 08 May'19

  Act-On launches Adaptive Web, AI-based personalization tool

  Adaptive Web, an AI marketing software tool by Act-On, makes real-time content suggestions to increase user web engagement without the direct aid of a marketer.

• May 08, 2019 08 May'19

  U.S. will begin collecting data for pay equity analysis

  The Trump administration has failed to block an Obama-era pay reporting rule. Employers of more than 100 workers will have to submit data to U.S. authorities by Sept. 30.

• May 08, 2019 08 May'19

  Einstein Analytics for Financial Services enhances banking CX

  Salesforce's new analytics tools for financial services follow AI advancements from IBM Watson and Acquia upgrading customer experiences in retail banking and wealth management.

• May 08, 2019 08 May'19

  New Microsoft Fluid Framework features real-time editing

  Microsoft's new software development kit, Fluid Framework, provides users with real-time editing that can be used across applications and with a variety of formats.

• May 07, 2019 07 May'19

  Salesforce announces Pardot Business Units, coming this summer

  Pardot Business Units, an automated marketing platform, provides large companies with a way to coordinate and personalize marketing efforts across the business.

• May 07, 2019 07 May'19

  Oracle's CX strategy points toward real-time responses

  As data increasingly becomes key to an effective CX implementation, Oracle's CX strategy points to what technology it's focusing on to win over corporate customers.

• May 06, 2019 06 May'19

  ICMI co-founder on contact center technology trends

  Contact center technology stacks now include pervasive AI and CX-oriented tools, enabling agents to do a better job more efficiently, said ICMI co-founder Brad Cleveland.

• May 03, 2019 03 May'19

  ERP upgrade sought job efficiency, not job loss

  Protecting jobs, not replacing people with automation, was an ERP system upgrade requirement by the Industries for the Blind and Visually Impaired. It wanted efficiency without job loss.

• May 03, 2019 03 May'19

  Cloud Skype phones require firmware update by July 1

  Businesses face a July 1 deadline for updating the firmware and permissions of cloud Skype phones.

• May 03, 2019 03 May'19

  Google launches CallJoy small-business phone service

  Google has launched CallJoy, a new cloud-based phone service that provides small businesses with automated phone agents for customer service for $39 per month.

• May 03, 2019 03 May'19

  IBM marketing automation sell-off represents market shift

  IBM divests itself of marketing automation tools, but they will likely live on as the new parent company combines them with other acquisitions to incubate a new integrated CX stack.

• May 02, 2019 02 May'19

  Impartner PRM integrates with Microsoft Dynamics 365 for sales

  Impartner's collaboration with Microsoft delivers Impartner PRM for Microsoft Dynamics 365, a PRM sales software that gives users immediate access to direct and indirect sales data.

• May 02, 2019 02 May'19

  Hertz app causes legal pain for Accenture developers

  Hertz e-commerce system for consumers at the center of $32 million suit; analysts looking at the detailed complaint spread plenty of blame over both parties.

• May 02, 2019 02 May'19

  Users press for more Slack security, compliance features

  Users want more Slack security and compliance controls in the Standard and Plus subscription tiers.

• May 02, 2019 02 May'19

  Delays, change orders blow up ERP project budget for school district

  ERP projects are notorious for cost overruns and delays. That was the experience of the Manatee School District, which ran into major problems.

• May 01, 2019 01 May'19

  New capabilities enhance Acquia Cloud security

  Acquia's new security and compliance competencies for the Acquia Cloud aim to reduce operational resources, increase data protection and simplify user innovation.

• May 01, 2019 01 May'19

  Unify Square adds Slack, Zoom, FB to IT management software

  Unify Square will add support for Slack, Zoom and Workplace by Facebook to its IT management software. The vendor previously worked exclusively with Microsoft apps.

• May 01, 2019 01 May'19

  Infor launches new CRM mobile app for CloudSuite

  Meeting mobile needs is key for Infor, which just released its Infor CloudSuite CRM Mobile application for iOS users. The app will provide access to important information on the go.

• May 01, 2019 01 May'19

  MS Valuation Hits Trillion Dollar Mark

  On April 30, with a stock value at the market close of $130.60 per share, MS valuation hits trillion dollar mark. Now the question is: can MS stay there?

• April 30, 2019 30 Apr'19

  Epicor iScala 3.3 brings new productivity features to SMB ERP

  Epicor's newly released iScala 3.3 SMB ERP software update includes new reporting and analytics features, a revamped user interface and expanded localizations.

• April 30, 2019 30 Apr'19

  Online scheduling platforms open new channel for customers

  New customer-centric tools book demos in Salesforce at a customer's bidding, automating processes that took multiple email messages and forms -- sometimes losing leads in the process.

• April 29, 2019 29 Apr'19

  Big firms hire fast, and fire more

  Larger firms are more efficient at hiring than smaller firms, according to new data. But they also exceed other firms in the percentage of workers who are involuntarily separated.

• April 26, 2019 26 Apr'19

  Salesforce pitches Einstein for HR AI use

  Salesforce is trying to gain HR's interest in the prediction services added to its Einstein platform. The vendor says it's not trying to become an AI systems provider, but it sees opportunity in HR.

• April 26, 2019 26 Apr'19

  Slack revenues show enterprise growth ahead of public listing

  Slack revenue reached $400 million in fiscal 2019, with 575 large businesses contributing 40% of the total. The startup will begin selling stock publicly later this year.

• April 26, 2019 26 Apr'19

  To avoid ERP implementation failure, start with clearly defined requirements

  Companies can avoid litigation caused by unsuccessful ERP implementations by defining requirements at the start of a project, according to ERP consultant Brooks Hilliard.

• April 25, 2019 25 Apr'19

  Upgraded Salesforce Sales Cloud features boost productivity

  With AI enhancements, the new cohort of Sales Cloud features will minimize busywork and increase productivity of sales reps, according to Salesforce.

• April 25, 2019 25 Apr'19

  Slack Workflow Builder enables no-code customization

  Slack Workflow Builder gives users templates for creating automated messages and forms in Slack. The product launched in beta this week.

• April 25, 2019 25 Apr'19

  Slack-Zoom partnership takes on Cisco, Microsoft

  The new Slack-Zoom partnership will focus on advancing Zoom calling and meetings in Slack, potentially making the collaboration app a stronger rival to Cisco and Microsoft.

• April 25, 2019 25 Apr'19

  Salesforce buys Salesforce.org: What that means for customers

  Salesforce.com bought Salesforce.org. Nonprofit Cloud customers mull changes they hope to see now that all Salesforce products are under one umbrella.

• April 24, 2019 24 Apr'19

  Slack integration links chats and email

  A new Slack integration will give users the ability to receive and reply to Slack chats through email, which remains a cornerstone of enterprise communications.

• April 24, 2019 24 Apr'19

  CDP Institute releases customer data platform certification

  While waiting for Salesforce to release a customer data platform and for Adobe to perfect its newly released CDP, RealCDP certification aspires to validate CDPs available today.

• April 24, 2019 24 Apr'19

  CDP vs. DMP: Vendors battle for marketers' budgets

  Customer data platforms and data management platforms have overlapping features, as vendors vie for marketers' IT budgets. It may not matter, as Adobe and Salesforce join Oracle in the game.

• April 22, 2019 22 Apr'19

  10 Citrix Synergy 2019 sessions to attend

  This year's Citrix Synergy in Atlanta will host a variety of sessions for attendees. Before you attend in May, craft a session schedule that fits your needs.

• April 22, 2019 22 Apr'19

  BlackBerry Messenger to shut down, paid version available

  The original encrypted BBM app will no longer be available as of May 31 as BlackBerry and Emtek go their separate ways, though the subscription enterprise version is now available.

• April 19, 2019 19 Apr'19

  Diversity in hiring a key to eradicating AI bias

  HR is turning to AI systems to help rank and sort job candidates. But the systems like these are mostly designed by men, who may unknowingly encode their own biases.

• April 19, 2019 19 Apr'19

  Latest Windows 10 update issues cause more freezing problems

  This news brief details the additional issues around the April 9 Windows 10 update as well as provides a look at Microsoft's Edge browser, built using Google's open sourced web browser Chromium.

• April 18, 2019 18 Apr'19

  Epicor debuts EVA, an AI virtual assistant for ERP

  Epicor users will soon be able to talk to or text their ERP systems through Epicor Virtual Agent, a new AI-based voice command UI that promises to improve productivity.

• April 18, 2019 18 Apr'19

  Zoom IPO demonstrates power of freemium pricing

  The Zoom IPO on Thursday demonstrated the strength of the video collaboration market and validated the strategy of freemium pricing.

• April 18, 2019 18 Apr'19

  As baby boomers exit, AR and VR tools help to capture their expertise

  Demand for virtual and augmented reality tools is soaring, and the need to capture expertise from retiring baby boomers may be why.

• April 17, 2019 17 Apr'19

  Salesforce adds OCR, translation, AI app builder to Einstein platform

  Salesforce enables no-code AI app development, as well as optical character recognition, translation and services to extend Einstein predictive modeling tools into external apps.

• April 17, 2019 17 Apr'19

  Cisco brings Webex controls to G Suite for business

  A Webex add-on will give users the ability to manage the settings of Webex meetings within G Suite for business. It's the latest in a series of integrations between Cisco and Google.

• April 16, 2019 16 Apr'19

  Infor launches Infor CloudSuite for customer management

  Infor has released the Infor CloudSuite CRM cloud-based application, a program for companies to track customer lifecycles, sales and marketing analytics.

• April 15, 2019 15 Apr'19

  Del Monte Foods makes SAP ERP migration to AWS

  Thanks to an acquisition, Del Monte Foods' IT had both on-premises and hosted systems, which proved costly and inflexible. It has since moved its IT systems to AWS.

• April 15, 2019 15 Apr'19

  AI sales forecasting tools soothe sales-marketing rivalries

  Sales forecasting vendors such as Clari extend reach into enterprise marketing, leveling the data and, with AI, solving an old problem: conflicting numbers on quarterly forecasts.

• April 15, 2019 15 Apr'19

  With the new Windows 10 OS update, trust but verify

  The latest Windows 10 update, scheduled for late May, will give installation controls back to IT admins. In this Q&A, Dave Sobel talks about why that's important.

• April 14, 2019 14 Apr'19

  MCT1903 Misnomer Not Available

  Though some enterprising Windows-head found a file named MediaCreationTool1903.exe, it's a MCT1903 Misnomer not available to the public just yet, as a bit of DISM inspection shows. It will be ready ...

• April 12, 2019 12 Apr'19

  HR budgets remain flat in the face of growing expectations

  HR departments are facing increased expectations on a flat budget. To advance, they need to reallocate HR budgets to support digital initiatives, The Hackett Group reported.

• April 11, 2019 11 Apr'19

  G Suite for business adds enterprise voice, IT controls

  Google released an enterprise phone system and plans to add new IT controls to G Suite for business in an effort to attract larger companies.

• April 11, 2019 11 Apr'19

  Google Cloud for Retail debuts, Contact Center AI makes inroads

  Google takes on cloud competitors by making an AI-rich home for online and bricks retailers with new suite. Also: Google Call Center AI extends to Genesys, Avaya, Salesforce, more.

• April 11, 2019 11 Apr'19

  Mitel partners with Talkdesk for cloud contact center

  Mitel this month will begin selling the Talkdesk cloud contact center under the brand MiCloud Connect CX. The companies are working to integrate their UC and contact center products.

• April 10, 2019 10 Apr'19

  Reimagined customer experience mobile apps driving new sales

  Mobile and lightweight web apps aren't new. But digital teams driving demand generation is new, thanks to marketing automation platforms that can personalize the pitch.

• April 09, 2019 09 Apr'19

  Slack-Office 365 integrations link email, calendar, documents

  The latest Slack-Office 365 integrations include calendar syncing and an add-on for exporting email messages from Outlook to Slack.

• April 08, 2019 08 Apr'19

  As quit rate soars, employee flight risk gets attention

  Economic growth is encouraging employees to look for other jobs. The quit rate is the highest it's been in 15 years. HR is now trying to identify employee flight risks.

• April 08, 2019 08 Apr'19

  Alfresco CMS now using AI, ML to pull, organize data

  A new Alfresco CMS module uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to allow users more specific organization and use of their data stored across multiple documents and devices.

• April 08, 2019 08 Apr'19

  Microsoft releases Dynamics 365 Nonprofit Accelerator update

  A newly released second version of Dynamics 365 Nonprofit Accelerator doubles the size of the CDM and allows better management of all user data for nonprofits.

• April 08, 2019 08 Apr'19

  Data breach legislation proposes jail time for CIO, HR execs

  Sen. Elizabeth Warren takes a swing at corporate negligence in new legislation that may create jail risk for the C-suite. The bill is unlikely to advance, however.

• April 05, 2019 05 Apr'19

  Microsoft Teams media bypass comes with limitations

  Microsoft Teams media bypass for direct routing customers is now available, but the configuration may be less beneficial to enterprises than an equivalent feature in Skype for Business.

• April 05, 2019 05 Apr'19

  Salesforce Classic nearing end of life, but not dead yet

  Salesforce's Lightning UI debuted three years ago, and the vendor stopped adding features to its predecessor, Classic. Customers cling to Classic, despite a big push for Lightning.

• April 05, 2019 05 Apr'19

  LogMeIn Bold360 updates improve chatbot customer experience

  LogMeIn Bold360 features new tools that will improve customer experience by streamlining communication, allowing agents to solve problems quickly, and managing bot involvement.

• April 04, 2019 04 Apr'19

  MS Backs Off Forcing Updates

  In a surprising but welcome move, MS Corporate VP for Windows Mike Fortin announces that, starting with the next feature upgrade, MS backs off forcing updates on users. All I can say is: "Hooray!"

• April 04, 2019 04 Apr'19

  Symphony app brings online meetings to mobile phones

  The Symphony app for iOS now supports audio and video meetings. The team collaboration vendor's Android client will get the feature this summer.

• April 04, 2019 04 Apr'19

  Windows Defender ATP coming to Mac OS with new name and features

  Windows Defender is coming to Mac OS along with a new name. The new Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection is also getting new threat vulnerability management features.

• April 04, 2019 04 Apr'19

  Oracle promises NetSuite performance gains at SuiteWorld

  NetSuite customers will get a lot of the same tech that Oracle customers on other platforms are getting. This includes Oracle Autonomous Database and its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure service.

• April 03, 2019 03 Apr'19

  Amazon Alexa for Business adds skill blueprints

  Amazon Alexa for Business now provides companies with templates for programming custom voice commands.

• April 01, 2019 01 Apr'19

  Digital transformation projects will fail without the right culture

  Companies that want to experience digital transformation success should focus more on culture and less on technology, according to a panel at the recent Digital Transformation Conference in Boston.

• March 29, 2019 29 Mar'19

  PDP Gaming alleges Poly copied its logo

  The gaming accessories company PDP Gaming has sued Poly in federal court, alleging the Plantronics-Polycom merger copied PDP's logo.

• March 29, 2019 29 Mar'19

  Adobe-Microsoft-SAP Open Data Initiative gains momentum

  It wasn't a marketing scam announced last year: An alliance takes clearer shape, as Adobe, Microsoft and SAP cooperate on a common data model for ERP, CRM and marketing automation.

• March 29, 2019 29 Mar'19

  Windows 10 security breach highlights third-party vulnerabilities

  The recent Windows 10 PC security breach brought on by third-party software from a Chinese tech company raises concern about the security strength of third-party providers.

• March 29, 2019 29 Mar'19

  New Oracle Eloqua features, integrations collect actionable CX data

  New integrations and updates for Eloqua, Oracle's B2B marketing tool, emphasize the importance of actionable data in delivering a positive customer experience.

• March 29, 2019 29 Mar'19

  Sabre outage puts its 99.995% uptime goal in question

  An airline reservation system outage created long lines for travelers and raised questions about whether Sabre's uptime goals are achievable. They may not be.

• March 29, 2019 29 Mar'19

  Win10 1809 Designated for Broad Deployment

  About one month before the next feature upgrade would typically appear, MS finally proclaims Win10 1809 designated for broad deployment. 'Bout time!

• March 27, 2019 27 Mar'19

  6 must-know customer experience technology trends

  Our customer experience technology trends survey of 250 North American tech buyers and influencers reveals that the CRM to CX migration is well underway.

• March 27, 2019 27 Mar'19

  Cisco's collaboration unit mum on Webex Teams adoption

  Cisco's collaboration unit has declined to provide statistics on the use of Webex Teams, even as rivals Slack and Microsoft Teams have attempted to demonstrate momentum for their apps.

• March 27, 2019 27 Mar'19

  Relax, Adobe Marketo still plans to support Salesforce customers

  Marketo VP Matt Zilli discusses what's next for the marketing automation platform, especially in regard to what devoted Marketo customers who use Salesforce CRM can expect.

• March 27, 2019 27 Mar'19

  DocuSign Agreement Cloud digitizes contract management

  DocuSign's Agreement Cloud includes its classic e-signature tools, as well as new products and integrations to help customers digitize the agreement management process.

• March 27, 2019 27 Mar'19

  AdDuplex Tells Interesting 1809 Story

  In publishing its latest release distribution numbers, Latvian software company AdDuplex tells interesting 1809 story -- namely, that for every 1809 user, there are 2.5+ users running 1803 or some ...

• March 27, 2019 27 Mar'19

  HR SaaS adoption is slower than expected

  HR departments continue to rely on hosted or on-premises platforms for management systems. It may not be by choice. Many want to move to HR SaaS, but doing so isn't easy.

• March 27, 2019 27 Mar'19

  Adobe Experience Platform unites Magento, Marketo, customer data

  Adobe makes a play for customer experience leadership by adding Magento- and Marketo-based clouds and building it on the Adobe Experience Platform foundation to unify the data.

• March 25, 2019 25 Mar'19

  Oracle CEO Mark Hurd sees no reason to fear ERP AI

  AI will create more jobs than it will destroy, Oracle CEO Mark Hurd said. One area that may be improved by AI is customer service, which suffers from high turnover in call centers.

• March 25, 2019 25 Mar'19

  Ivanti Cloud offers device info, real-time data analytics

  Ivanti Cloud hopes to break down IT siloes by combining IT operations and security teams. The platform includes key features like device prescription and real-time updates.

• March 22, 2019 22 Mar'19

  Achieve UC success with strong user adoption strategies

  Unified communications is not just about the technology; it's about the people, too. IT leaders at Enterprise Connect share their tips on how to support end-user adoption.

• March 22, 2019 22 Mar'19

  AWS DCX Competency vets cloud customer experience partners

  The AWS Digital Customer Experience Competency for content management, e-commerce, service and marketing automation certifies partners for infrastructure and security to create cloud CX.

• March 22, 2019 22 Mar'19

  New Lifesize conferencing systems bring 4K video to huddle rooms

  Lifesize's latest Icon video conferencing systems are designed to meet the challenges presented by smaller, ad hoc meeting spaces, like the huddle room.

• March 21, 2019 21 Mar'19

  Contact center AI trends take center stage at Enterprise Connect 2019

  Several vendors at Enterprise Connect 2019 focused on contact center AI innovation and virtual agents. But are businesses actually ready for the technology?

• March 21, 2019 21 Mar'19

  Oracle makes its ERP financials smarter -- and talkative

  At its user conference in Las Vegas, Oracle demonstrated how voice can now be used to conduct complex business actions, including financial ERP transactions.

• March 21, 2019 21 Mar'19

  Microsoft to support cloud meetings with on-prem Skype for Business

  Microsoft bows to customer demand to keep on-premises Skype for Business for calling and messaging, while using Teams only for cloud meetings.

• March 21, 2019 21 Mar'19

  Windows Virtual Desktop enters public preview

  The highly anticipated release of Windows Virtual Desktop will provide a cloud-based desktop and app virtualization service, integrated with Office 365 ProPlus and built on Azure.

• March 21, 2019 21 Mar'19

  Adobe Experience Platform likely to get boost, Adoption Scoring debuts

  Adobe Experience Platform (formerly Adobe Cloud Platform) focus of Summit, as analytics, AI and open-data initiatives with Microsoft and SAP converge.

• March 20, 2019 20 Mar'19

  Fuze and Samsung partner to bring mobile UCaaS to the frontline

  Mobile UCaaS is the focus of Fuze and Samsung's new partnership. The providers are working to expand the use of collaborative communications for remote and customer-facing industries.

• March 20, 2019 20 Mar'19

  Polycom Trio integrates with Alexa for Business

  Poly, the new name for the merger of Plantronics and Polycom, has added Alexa for Business to voice-activate meetings on the Polycom Trio conference room phone.

• March 20, 2019 20 Mar'19

  SAP's vision for full SuccessFactors HCM-Qualtrics integration could take years

  SuccessFactors HCM customers have access to workplace data that gives them a sense for what's happening, such as an employee exit. The recently acquired Qualtrics tech could help reveal why something is happening, but SAP's vision for a complete ...

• March 19, 2019 19 Mar'19

  Zoom Phone cloud PBX expands features, partnerships

  Zoom Phone works with desk phones from Polycom and Yealink and integrates with contact center products from Five9 and Twilio.