Microsoft Keeps the Pressure on IBM's Notes, Domino
by Alex Woodie

Microsoft rained on IBM's annual Lotusphere parade this week when it unveiled a free suite of tools for migrating Lotus-loving users to its own collection of communication and collaboration tools, anchored by Exchange, Office, and Sharepoint. While the Microsoft Transporter Suite for Lotus Notes won't be available for weeks, that didn't stop the software giant from cranking up its anti-Notes FUD volume knob to 11 and relentlessly beating its unified communications drum.READ MORE >

IBM Lotus Adds Handles to Information Overload
by Dan Burger

IBM Lotus has every intention of using Britney Spears. Not as a spokesperson, for God sakes, but as an example. Spears dominates the social networking phenomenon like Big Blue wishes it could. Specifically, Lotus wants to apply social networking to business processes and team collaboration efforts. Not that Britney doesn't mean business, but IBM has very different ideas about putting social networking tools into the hands of business professionals in organizations around the world. READ MORE >

Symantec Expands Performance Management Software
by Alex Woodie

Symantec this week announced an enhancement and a new addition to its application performance management (APM) software. The new offering, called the Application Service Dashboard, works with the software giant's i3 suite to give IT managers a bird's eye view of how multi-tier applications are behaving, while a new release of Insight Inquire gives managers availability and performance information specific to Web applications. READ MORE >

Salesforce.com Reports AppExchange Milestone
by Alex Woodie

CRM software as a service (SaaS) pioneer Salesforce.com last week reported that it has reached a milestone with AppExchange, a program it launched more than a year ago to help third-party developers and customers write and sell programs that plug into the Salesforce.com service. READ MORE >