Highlights and lowlights from this year's show: Cloud talk eclipsed by real-life rain, too many #oow09 tweets, not enough specifics about Fusion or Java plans, and an action-packed visit by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Both tech vendors are aiming to change the rules of game for enterprise software. And while they're going about it with two different business models, the companies share some things in common.
Impressions from Oracle's annual get-together: Ellison disses IBM; Where are Fusion Apps?; Charles and Safra on Red Stack integration.
How do Salesforce.com, Workday, NetSuite and others respond to unplanned outages? With the type of honesty and transparency that is critical to the future of cloud computing. Watch and learn, Big ERP.
Oracle's annual gathering will have some foxes in the hen house and many recession-weary customers. Can Larry Ellison possibly top his recent rant on cloud computing? Will there be more answers than questions on the Fusion Apps Suite?
Carmine Gallo, a communications coach who has counseled many executives on how to give great presentations, examines Steve Jobs' gifted public-speaking skills and offers CIOs useful tips for their own presentations.
It's a pretty slow business week when Xerox's $6.4 billion proposed acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services dominates the news.
Steve Berg knows what intense pain feels like: The man has been Tasered, in fact-not because he ran afoul of the law, but as VP of IT at Taser International he's partaken in a corporate rite of passage. "It's the worst five seconds of your life," he says. "You cannot move."
What company wouldn't want the endorsement of Oprah Winfrey? You get your cupcakes, book or moisturizer talked up on her TV show or, even better, get chosen as a "Favorite Thing."
<em>Stock Options</em>: The extravagant bait that lures many a tech exec from one company to another. The financial object that signifies power and exalted status. The type of monetary cushion that can make for a smooth retirement or impulsive purchase of a beach house on the Pacific.
According Jon Reed, ERP consultant, author and SAP analyst, there is no shortage of SAP ERP upgrade advice available to companies and IT departments today. One problem: "Most of this advice, as truthful as it is, has reached the point of cliche," Reed writes in a new report on SAP ERP upgrades.
I tend to equate the salaries of celebrity CIOs (an oxymoron, I know) with the compensation packages of today's professional athletes: They're all seemingly excessive and incomprehensible to most salt-of-the-earth people. HP CIO Randy Mott, for instance, took home more than US$28 million in compensation in 2008, while New York Yankees' slugger Alex Rodriguez earns $15,856 every time he sees a pitch, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Apparently the everpresent cloud computing marketing messages aren't working quite well enough: Tech buyers still have major concerns regarding cloud-based benefits and security issues, many of which have not eased during the past year.
Union Pacific, the railroad company that transports chemicals, coal, food, minerals and automobiles in and around 23 Western U.S. states, has had two workhorses that toiled tirelessly for the past four decades: the diesel locomotive and the IBM mainframe.
Wondering why your company's staffers are using only a fraction of the software features and functionality that your bounteous enterprise software offers?