Help Desk
Giga, 1/20/04: BMC Purchases Magic: Growing SMB Market, Continued Remedy Independence
John Ragsdale
Is BMC’s purchase of Magic Solutions from Network Associates a simple bid for market share, or is BMC going to begin targeting midmarket companies?
Since Magic Solutions and Remedy appeal to different markets (midmarket vs. enterprise, respectively), there is little overlap in prospects and little danger of any forced migration to a single product in the future. BMC/Remedy plans to continue funding Magic to capture revenue from the lucrative small to medium-size business (SMB) market. Current Magic customers should notice no change in support policies and product delivery schedules. Large Magic customers and those needing more robust asset and change management should evaluate the Remedy platform and consider migrating to the enterprise-class solution, taking advantage of special pricing to convert.
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IT Management
Computerworld, 1/23/04: Rendition Networks upgrades network configuration software
TrueControl 3.0 provides new Software Center functions to manage OS updates
Story by Matt Hamblen
Rendition Networks in Redmond, Wash., has announced TrueControl 3.0, an update of its network configuration control software.
The new version, which was announced Wednesday, provides new Software Center functions to manage operating system updates for network devices across an entire network, company officials said. With the new functions, IT managers can provide automated deployments of new operating systems.
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Collaborative Technologies
Infoworld, 1/23/04: Google eyes social networking with Orkut
Company seen moving beyond information-gathering niche
By Stacy Cowley
Orkut.com aims to create friends-of-friends links among its users. "The main goal of our service is to make the social life of yourself and your friends more active and stimulating. The community site allows friends to virtually come together, find common interests, share relevant information, and organize social events," the site says in its mission statement.
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IBM
The New York Times, 1/25/04: Big Blue's Big Bet: Less Tech, More Touch
By STEVE LOHR
PEOPLE tend to underestimate Samuel J. Palmisano, the chairman and chief executive of I.B.M. It's not just that he is an I.B.M. lifer, who joined Big Blue more than 30 years ago and rose through the ranks, while the famous names of the computer industry are mostly entrepreneurial founders - Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Andy Grove, Larry Ellison, Scott McNealy.
There is also the understandable comparison with Mr. Palmisano's predecessor, Louis V. Gerstner Jr. A respected outsider, whose résumé included RJR Nabisco, American Express and McKinsey & Company, Mr. Gerstner was recruited in 1993 to resurrect a fallen corporate icon. He saved the day, became a celebrity chief executive and wrote a best-selling book about the turnaround. Mr. Gerstner's manner was formal, sometimes curt; his brilliance was obvious, his comments concise, and he led from the front.
Mr. Palmisano, who is 52, is very different, from his body language to his conversation. Where Mr. Gerstner marched down a hall, Mr. Palmisano ambles. Ask him a question, and the reply often includes an informal digression or two. Tall, beefy and relaxed, he looks every inch the former college football lineman he is.
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Microsoft
C|net, 1/23/04: Microsoft sets date for Office revamp
By David Becker
Microsoft announced on Friday that it expects to release the first major update for Office 2003 in late June.
Office 2003, the latest version of the company's market-leading productivity package, was launched in late October amid considerable fanfare about its new capabilities, which allow the software to serve as a broad tool for consuming and manipulating corporate data.
Microsoft typically waits about six months after a major product release to put out the first service pack (SP1), a collection of previously released bug fixes and updates. The late June target for releasing SP1 for Office 2003 would put it slightly behind that pattern, but the new Office has been subject to relatively few bugs in its first three months.
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