Michael Hickins

Microsoft (Quote) and Ford (Quote) unveiled an in-car system called Sync that lets customers access a variety of digital products, such as cell phones, handheld computers, portable music players and other USB-based storage devices. The product, based on Microsoft Auto software, allows customers to use voice commands for accessing contacts and performing other functions. Ford’s contributions to […]

IBM (Quote) believes that it can turn its brand of product lifecycle management (PLM), sitting atop its Websphere platform, into a dominant enterprise planning hub in the manufacturing sector. IBM is attempting to expand the traditional definition of PLM (define) into a holistic approach encompassing product design, production, after-sales and end-of-life information processing. The application vendor is […]

Google (Quote) is taking yet another popular feature and retooling it for the enterprise. The Mountain View, Calif.-based search giant took Blogger out of beta last week, introducing features that are intended to appeal to business users. One such feature is added privacy settings, giving users the ability to restrict access to their blog postings. Users […]

Internetnews.com editors provide an early roadmap for tech’s direction in 2007. Google (Quote) says its mission is to organize all the world’s information and make it accessible and useful to everyone. Now well on its way to accomplishing that goal on the consumer Web, the search giant will increasingly turn its attention to the business Web […]

Microsoft (Quote) today announced a multi-million dollar settlement with French disk replicator MPO Group. The French company admitted that its Thai subsidiary inadvertently relied on a fake Microsoft licensing agreement, and then replicated thousands of Microsoft server software disks in violation of Microsoft’s copyrights and trademarks. Also as part of the settlement, MPO acknowledged that it […]

Traditionally, enterprises have used PLM (define), usually in engineering-centric industries like automotive and aerospace, to create component lists that are then used by ERP (define) systems to generate bills of materials. Increasingly, however, companies are using PLM to improve collaboration between engineers and to support the design process. The game IBM (Quote), as well as its […]

As Microsoft goes, so goes the country? If a new report from IDC is to be believed, Microsoft (Quote) will ship more than 90 million units of Vista throughout the world next year, 35 million of which will go in the United States. The fact that Microsoft stands to earn $4 billion in revenues from Windows […]

Microsoft (Quote)  has introduced its revamped e-mail server, Exchange Server 2007. While this launch is getting far less attention than the more vaunted launches of its Vista operating system and Office 2007 productivity suite, the deployment of this application may have more far-reaching consequences than the other two products combined. Microsoft considers the new Exchange […]

NEW YORK — Microsoft (Quote) CEO Steve Ballmer rang in a new Vista at Nasdaq headquarters here Thursday, announcing the shipment of the company’s updated operating system and the first new significant release since Windows XP in August 2001. “This is the biggest launch in our company’s history by far,” said Ballmer, who acknowledged delays in […]

A Ventana Research study of 488 companies indicates that a majority of companies plan to implement some type of BI service in the next 12 months. But a preponderance of those respondents believe they lack expertise in SOA to make those plans a reality. While 81 percent of respondents said that SOA is important “to […]