Dan Muse

To help management service providers (MSPs) address the need to develop trust and confidence among prospective customers, the Concord, Mass.-based MSP Association today announced that four MSPs have implemented the best practices defined in the Service Management Quality Initiative (SMQI), which the association launched in January (see MSP Association Ups Industry Standards.). Carolyn Ruech, executive […]

Joining other industry standards groups, ACORD (the Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development) — an insurance industry organization — today announced that it is appointing a representative to OASIS Universal Business Language (UBL) Technical Committee. Formed last October, the goal of the OASIS UBL committtee is to define a set of XML building blocks […]

If two certifications from two industry giants is good, than one joint certification from those two companies should be better, faster and cheaper. That’s the thinking behind the Joint Certification Program for service providers, which Microsoft Corp. and Compaq Computer Corp. announced today. The one-stop program, which will be managed by Compaq Global Services, is […]

Users of sophisticated enterprise resource planning (ERP) software are looking for ways to make information and transactions captured in back-end systems available to more people using standards-based Web services architecture. Products like SilverStream eXtend Composer Connect for SAP, announced today, are designed to do exactly that — help companies repurpose critical SAP business functions for […]

In its brief existence, Intuit’s QuickBase has been aimed at small business users who needed a way to share information without resorting to e-mailing spreadsheets and other documents back and forth. According to Intuit, QuickBase has also found a following within corporations. Two years after the launch of the Web-based service, QuickBase is officially entering […]

Executives and owners of growing businesses want a snapshot look at real-time information, according to Jim LaBelle, vice president of marketing at NetLedger, the San Mateo, Calif.-based ASP that produces the Oracle Small Business Suite. To meet that need, the company announced today the addition of the Executive Dashboard to the software service. The feature […]

The positive ASP hype is long gone; the negative implications are fading away. And the future for ASPs and application management service providers is looking bright, according to two reports by market research firm IDC. In Worldwide Application Service Provider Forecast, 2002- 2006: The Future of Software as a Service IDC reports that the economic […]

Even when it comes to monitoring networks, systems and applications, a picture paints a thousand words. At least that’s the thinking behind SilverBack Technologies’ InfoCare 3.0, which the Billerica, Mass.-based company will announce on Monday. SilverBack describes InfoCare 3.0’s new Web-based Dashboard as the “industry’s simplest user interface for monitoring networks, systems and applications.” Aimed […]

The advent of Web services will lead application developers to adopt a client/services model, predicts the Yankee Group, a Boston-based research firm. These next-generation applications promise to offer the best of local and centralized computing worlds. The client/services arthitecture will take advantage of local computer power, ubiquitous connectivity and Web services to create a richer […]

In a deal that will help both companies expand their business models, Intranets.com and Terra Lycos announced today a partnership that’s designed to offer Lycos’s Communities and Small Business site members intranet services. Subscribers to the new service will be able exchange documents, share information, create schedules and calendars and have discussions. Under the terms […]

Portera, a Web services provider that specializes in professional services automation (PSA), announced today that it has joined the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I). The WS-I was formed just last month to help accelerate the development and deployment of interoperable Web services across a variety of platforms, applications and programming languages. The group’s prestigious list […]

Accounting ASP Intacct today unveiled its Supporting Documents application. As its name implies, the Supporting Documents application lets accountants and their clients access not only their financial data but also the underlying (i.e., supporting) documentation. The Supporting Documents application is designed to give users the capability to upload business document files into the Intacct accounting […]