Webiplex: Another cool vendor you may not have heard of

What would you say about a product that could facilitate workflow and document management between various internal apps–HR, accounting, etc.– as well as handle optical character recognition/scanning for those nasty paper documents we were supposed to be rid of by now?

I would bet you’d be interested in something like that and, if so, you should check out Webiplex.

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Small security vendor eSet earns VAR raves

In a world where the big vendors race to get bigger (but not necessarily better), it’s nice to see innovative, smaller vendors gaining channel recognition.

eSet is one such vendor. The security specialist comes out of Bratislava, Slovakia, but with less exotic U.S. headquarters in San Diego. The company is gaining a good reputation for its anti-virus software and building a devoted cadre of VARs, many of which are weary of dealing with Symantec and other security software giants.
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Microsoft to pare back ERP VARs

At last, confirmation from Microsoft that it plans to cut the number of VARs offering its ERP lineups came last week from Bob Scott, who covered Great Plains software long before it morphed into Microsoft Dynamics GP.

 Jeff Edwards, Microsoft’s director of partner strategy, told Scott that there are now about 950 such partners in the U.S. while Microsoft needs just 300 to 400 stronger partners. Scott’s post came out Microsoft Convergence 2010 in Atlanta this week.

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Why project management should be on your radar screen

One of the toughest skills to teach anyone is how to be organized, how to keep projects running smoothly — according to deadline and according to the ever-changing expectations of clients. When I talk to technology solution providers about the keys to their success, there are several different themes that repeat, including their focus on building project management discipline. Continued »

Two separate surveys show SMBs investing again for innovation, not just cost savings

Two separate surveys offer insight into second half buying priorities among small and midsize businesses across the United States.

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Top takeaways from Hewlett Packard APC 2010

Hewlett Packard’s big partner confab kicks off in earnest in an hour or so with a keynote by Stephen DiFranco, Lynn Pendergrass, Randy Seidl, Stephen DeWitt. But here are some takeaways from morning meetings.

1: Most HP execs so far have been coy about if and how the Oracle-Sun data center hardware push will affect the market. HP has, however, just hired a Sun vet, John Cammarelli,  to head HP Canada.

Overall, HP still seems very focused on Cisco for now. Continued »

OS/2 mostly gone, but not forgotten

If you think no one cares about IBM OS/2, the mostly defunct operating system, publish a story on it and wait for the email.

OS/2, for all its faults and foibles, still generates a ton of interest.

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Microsoft updates Dynamics CRM Online

Among new features flowing into Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online are tools to help hook it up with the company’s new Dynamics GP 2010  and Microsoft’s nascent Azure cloud; support for new languages; and a discount for Dynamics GP customers to get CRM Online at $19 per user per month.

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Microsoft plugs away on SQL Azure

Microsoft is chipping away at SQL Azure, trying to bring it to full parity with on-premises with the company’s on-premises  SQL Server 2008 R2.

“We have the principal of symmetry to guide us. We’re moving quickly to move all SQL Server features into SQL Azure,” Ted Kummert, senior vice president of Microsoft’s business platform division told reporters on a conference call Wednesday announcing the near-availability of SQL Server 2008 R2. Continued »

CompTIA shows some Linux love

In the category of “you’ve coming a long way baby,” CompTIA and the Linux Professional Institute (LPI) are getting together to create a standardized Linux certification program.

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