News

Customer relationship management (CRM)

• July 21, 2021 21 Jul'21

  SAP Q2 2021: revenue down 1%, 600 new S/4 Hana signups

  SAP has reported second-quarter 2021 revenue of €6.669m, down 1% on the same year-ago quarter. Cloud revenue has increased by 11% to €2.276bn, just over one-third of the total, and 250 customers claimed for new Rise with SAP package in the quarter

• July 07, 2021 07 Jul'21

  Clara Shih, CEO, Salesforce Service Cloud on the shape of post-pandemic service work

  Salesforce Service Cloud CEO Clara Shih has returned to the supplier after a period as a founder CEO and sees the future of contact centre and field service with relatively fresh eyes

• June 24, 2021 24 Jun'21

  Salesforce declares AWS partnership to enable intelligent applications

  Salesforce and Amazon Web Services have declared a ‘strategic partnership’ that is claimed to enable the easier creation of artificial intelligence-infused applications

• June 03, 2021 03 Jun'21

  Sapphire 2021: Klein vaunts rebooted Ariba business network as sustainability driver

  At the virtual Sapphire 2021 conference, SAP CEO Christian Klein trumpeted the supplier’s procurement network, Ariba, as the core of a revamped global engine for promoting sustainable economic growth

• May 26, 2021 26 May'21

  Disabled travellers promised better train journeys by Passenger Assistance app

  An app developed by UK startup Transreport for the Rail Delivery Group aims to improve train travel for disabled passengers

• May 07, 2021 07 May'21

  Monmouthshire County Council digitises HR with Zellis cloud

  Monmouthshire County Council is using a cloud HR system from Zellis as part of its digital transformation programme, aimed at being lean and agile

• April 27, 2021 27 Apr'21

  Leaky Azure storage account puts software developer IP at risk

  Source code for multiple products was left exposed in an unsecured Microsoft Azure cloud storage account, say researchers, but attributing responsibility for the error has proved difficult

• April 21, 2021 21 Apr'21

  EMEA business leaders out of touch with employees’ needs in new hybrid workplace

  Research finds more alignment with staff is needed for firms to address the new hybrid world of work but nearly half of businesses plan tech investments to further improve the workplace experience

• April 08, 2021 08 Apr'21

  Inside Microsoft’s industry cloud strategy

  Microsoft dives deeper into its industry cloud strategy and what it means for enterprises in the Asia-Pacific region

• April 07, 2021 07 Apr'21

  Unpatched SAP applications are target-rich ground for hackers

  Report from SAP and cyber threat research company Onapsis warns that hackers are attacking mission-critical SAP business applications that contain unpatched vulnerabilities

• April 06, 2021 06 Apr'21

  Bank BJB Syariah taps DevOps

  Indonesia’s Bank Jabar Banten Syariah is adopting DevOps and microservices to speed up delivery of applications

• March 23, 2021 23 Mar'21

  Why collaboration is the next driver in enterprise software

  Use of enterprise collaboration tools has exploded during the pandemic. Now they are expanding their remit into the realm of enterprise systems

• March 23, 2021 23 Mar'21

  Home Office completes transfer of all business apps to Oracle Cloud

  Home Office has completed its deployment of Oracle’s Cloud Applications suite to all its functions across 35,000 staff, ahead of other government departments

• March 11, 2021 11 Mar'21

  Oracle Q3, 2020-21: Revenue growth of 3% backdrop to Ellison attack on SAP

  Chairman and CTO Larry Ellison launches competitive attack on SAP as Oracle’s third-quarter results show revenue growth of 3%

• March 11, 2021 11 Mar'21

  IFS ramps up single-platform cloud delivery as it bids ERP adieu

  Business applications supplier shifts fundamentally to cloud infrastructure while sloughing off enterprise resource planning as it rebrands

• March 09, 2021 09 Mar'21

  How biotech firm Luminex manages field service

  Technicians at Luminex work remotely, but their schedules, spare parts for repairs and customer site visits need to link to tech support and the CRM

• February 11, 2021 11 Feb'21

  Benioff projects future of work onto Salesforce’s ‘Cloud 3.0’

  Salesforce is unveiling a vision of the future of work based on what it calls ‘Cloud 3.0’, with ‘Hyperforce’ – a rearchitecting of the Salesforce CRM platform to run on public clouds

• February 11, 2021 11 Feb'21

  Verizon Business, Deloitte gain retail edge with 5G

  Operator’s 5G and mobile edge compute technology, coupled with IT consultancy’s retail industry and solution engineering experience, aims to improve store operating efficiency and enhance the customer experience

• February 10, 2021 10 Feb'21

  Helpdesk meltdown due to absenteeism, low morale and increased workload

  Remote working has put a strain on the helpdesk, and there is a backlog of unresolved tickets that is taking days to clear

• February 02, 2021 02 Feb'21

  Liverpool City Council upgrades to cloud-based contact centre

  An 8x8 integrated cloud PaaS contact centre with voice, team chat and meetings support is helping to drive the council’s digital agenda

• January 20, 2021 20 Jan'21

  How Globe Telecom is doubling down on cloud

  The largest mobile operator in the Philippines has moved its legacy systems to the cloud and there is more to come as it looks towards deploying cloud radio access networks and cloud-native applications

• January 18, 2021 18 Jan'21

  Nottinghamshire uses citizen engagement tools to inform residents

  Nottinghamshire Council is seeking to expand Granicus integrations after success in using its communications services to keep citizens informed during pandemic

• January 08, 2021 08 Jan'21

  British Gas tackles omnichannel customer correspondence

  Utility firm hopes to map out customer communications to help deliver a better customer experience and improve the business

• January 03, 2021 03 Jan'21

  Covid-19’s impact on the retail supply chain

  The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed gaps in the ability of retailers to mitigate supply chain imbalances

• December 17, 2020 17 Dec'20

  Guide Dogs data strategy navigates path to organisational view

  Guide Dogs CIO Gerard McGovern is mapping out a data strategy that is aimed at taking the charity from an individual to an organisational view of data

• December 03, 2020 03 Dec'20

  Dreamforce 2020: Hyperforce shifts Salesforce to public cloud

  Salesforce COO Bret Taylor announced “Hyperforce” during Marc Benioff’s opening keynote at the virtual version of the supplier’s 2020 Dreamforce event in San Francisco

• December 02, 2020 02 Dec'20

  Salesforce confirms rumoured Slack acquisition on eve of Dreamforce 2020

  Salesforce has announced a $27.7bn stock and cash acquisition of Slack ahead of the virtual iteration of its Dreamforce 2020 event

• December 02, 2020 02 Dec'20

  CIO interview: Danny Attias, chief digital and information officer, Anthony Nolan

  Digital transformation takes on a whole new purpose when it's helping to save lives – but leading IT for a charity also has its satisfying technology challenges

• November 26, 2020 26 Nov'20

  Robots taking jobs, but creating careers

  Robotic process automation developers tell Computer Weekly about the job they never expected to be doing

• October 27, 2020 27 Oct'20

  SAP Q3 2020 results: revenue down 4%, cloud silver lining hailed

  SAP’s third quarter 2020 results stated a 4% year-on-year reduction in revenue, with an 11% increase in cloud revenue lightening the gloom

• October 26, 2020 26 Oct'20

  BT brings out RCS business messaging to UK customers

  Telco announces that platform based on next generation of rich mobile messaging is now through early-stage pilots and is available for businesses to enhance customer experience

• October 12, 2020 12 Oct'20

  Software AG caught in double extortion ransomware hit

  Data stolen from prominent German software company by Clop ransomware gang appears on the dark web

• September 29, 2020 29 Sep'20

  Oracle OpenWorld 2020: Miranda – business model changes are driving turn to cloud

  Steve Miranda, who leads Oracle applications development globally, spoke to Computer Weekly ahead of his keynote at the virtual version of OpenWorld. Supply chain management and customer experience are vectors where improvements are being made, he ...

• September 28, 2020 28 Sep'20

  Case Study: Douglas and Gordon uses video to make house searching safer

  Estate agent Douglas and Gordon has made videos of prospective properties to make it safer and easier for house hunters to find their new home during the coronavirus pandemic

• September 22, 2020 22 Sep'20

  The inside story of Taiwan’s AI whizz

  Not content with his stellar achievements in artificial intelligence, Chih-Han Yu wanted to create an impact with his work and formed one of Taiwan’s most important unicorns

• September 14, 2020 14 Sep'20

  Fintech Pledge launched to strengthen UK’s financial technology sector

  The Fintech Pledge initiative is designed to foster closer collaboration between banks and fintechs so that the UK can continue building a globally competitive fintech ecosystem

• September 11, 2020 11 Sep'20

  Small businesses projected to add £1.8tn to global GDP growth by 2024

  Small Business Digital Maturity research finds nearly three-quarters of global small businesses surveyed are accelerating their digitisation rates to address Covid-19 challenges and respond faster to the new normal of remote working

• September 03, 2020 03 Sep'20

  Insurers accept they were slow to adopt digital

  Insurance companies know they must prioritise digital investment and are planning in-house development to help make up lost ground

• August 27, 2020 27 Aug'20

  Asda trials platform for customer parcel updates

  Retailers Asda is trialling delivery management from tech platform Sorted to provide customers who have ordered clothing online with a better customer experience

• August 26, 2020 26 Aug'20

  Salesforce Q2 2020: Benioff says crisis will speed growth

  Salesforce announces 29% year-on-year revenue growth for the second quarter, and grieves for Dreamforce 2020

• August 19, 2020 19 Aug'20

  Vodafone builds smart enterprise on SAP S/4 Hana

  Holger Grewe, group head of corporate transformation, and Ignacio Garcia, CIO corporate systems, at Vodafone, convey how SAP S/4 Hana has been purposely implemented as part of an ongoing smart enterprise transformation

• August 11, 2020 11 Aug'20

  Hospitality sector is failing on contact-tracing obligations

  Cyber security experts urge the government to do more to help small hospitality businesses improve their contact-tracing data-handling practices

• August 04, 2020 04 Aug'20

  Nordic enterprises look for SAP price reductions as they navigate Covid-19

  Businesses in the Nordics are using SAP Cloud Platform to address Covid-19 challenges and are also seeking price reductions

• July 31, 2020 31 Jul'20

  Labour Party is latest victim of Blackbaud ransomware attack

  Widening Blackbaud data breach ensnares the Labour Party as the cloud software firm continues to duck questions about its behaviour

• July 27, 2020 27 Jul'20

  SAP Q2 2020 results: SAP partially divests Qualtrics as positive results posted against Covid crisis

  SAP has announced a positive set of second-quarter 2020 results, hot on the heels of a declaration that it will spin out online survey business unit Qualtrics by way of an initial public offering in the US

• July 15, 2020 15 Jul'20

  HSBC chooses AWS for public cloud business operations

  HSBC will use a cloud platform from Amazon Web Services across its business operations to accelerate its public cloud use

• July 14, 2020 14 Jul'20

  Recon vulnerability puts thousands of SAP customers at risk

  Users of multiple SAP products including S4/HANA should apply the security update as soon as possible to protect their systems

• July 13, 2020 13 Jul'20

  How SingEx is bracing itself for disruption

  Singapore’s SingEx started its digital transformation journey a few years ago and has already pivoted its approach to cope with new challenges brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic

• July 08, 2020 08 Jul'20

  Interview: Mayank Prakash, global consumer CIO, and Daljit Rehal, CDO, Centrica

  Two of energy giant Centrica’s tech bosses talk to Computer Weekly about the impact of the Covid-19 coronavirus lockdown and the importance of company culture, innovation and using technology to make life easier for customers

• July 08, 2020 08 Jul'20

  Swisscom taps Hitachi to improve network-based customer service

  Pentaho product helps business customer service reps of Switzerland’s largest telecommunications company and leading IT services provider provide better, faster service through centralised hub

• June 05, 2020 05 Jun'20

  Businesses develop apps quickly to manage disruption of Covid-19

  Healthcare companies, insurers, government agencies and big tech companies have used technology from Pegasystems to develop apps to manage the disruption caused by coronavirus

• May 29, 2020 29 May'20

  Salesforce Q1 2020: 30% growth, Benioff sees ‘new normal’ by 2021

  Salesforce announces 30% year-on-year revenue growth for the first quarter, and displays Covid-19 crisis alleviation activities

• May 29, 2020 29 May'20

  UK fintech investment reaches record high

  Huge increases in UK fintech investment over the past three years has seen the sector explode, but most of the activity is still concentrated in London

• May 27, 2020 27 May'20

  PropertyGuru touts 3D virtual viewings with StoryTeller

  Southeast Asian property portal PropertyGuru rolls out new capability in its FastKey platform that lets developers showcase properties to prospective buyers through 3D visualisation

• May 14, 2020 14 May'20

  CenturyLink digitally revamps sales framework

  The difficulty of navigating information silos during the sales process and high customer churn prompted CenturyLink to adopt new digital tools that get the right information to the right sellers

• May 07, 2020 07 May'20

  SAP extends indirect licensing related programme to end of 2021

  User groups extend cautious welcome to SAP’s extension of its Digital Access Adoption Program

• April 21, 2020 21 Apr'20

  Klein takes sole command of SAP as Q1 results show Covid impact

  As Christian Klein becomes sole chief executive officer, SAP announces total revenue of €6.521bn for the first quarter, up 7% on Q1 2019

• April 16, 2020 16 Apr'20

  St Albans council integrates systems in effort to streamline processes

  The council of St Albans has implemented a unified digital platform to streamline how citizens interact with its services, as well as its own decision-making processes

• March 31, 2020 31 Mar'20

  Gartner: Top-performing companies understand CX

  Those businesses that measure customer experience, either through surveys, real-time analytics or the use of artificial intelligence, are more profitable

• March 19, 2020 19 Mar'20

  IT Priorities 2020: ANZ firms to spend more on cyber security

  Over half of respondents in Australia and New Zealand plan to invest more in cyber security, especially in key areas such as data loss prevention

• March 04, 2020 04 Mar'20

  IT Priorities 2020: UK business applications investment in AI gathers steam

  Artificial intelligence intensifies as an investment area for UK IT buyers, while cloud delivery is coming to ERP as well as other applications

• February 28, 2020 28 Feb'20

  CIO interview: Ian Cohen, chief product and technology officer, Addison Lee

  At taxi and transport company Addison Lee, technology is focused around customer experience before worrying about datacentres, servers and what elements make up the IT infrastructure

• February 12, 2020 12 Feb'20

  Accenture’s tech vision draws inspiration from Black Mirror

  Last year’s “Bandersnatch” Black Mirror episode on Netflix highlights a new opportunity for business, according to Accenture

• February 04, 2020 04 Feb'20

  Australia’s NAB taps AI to create brand voice

  Using Amazon’s artificial intelligence smarts, National Australia Bank has developed a unique brand voice that will greet customers who dial up its contact centre

• January 31, 2020 31 Jan'20

  Australia’s Iconic Hotels taps cloud for speed and cost savings

  The independent hotel operator in the Australian Capital Territory has saved IT manpower and costs by moving from an on-premise hospitality management system to a cloud-based application

• January 27, 2020 27 Jan'20

  LV= rolls out smart speaker skill

  General insurance firm says customers will receive answers to commonly asked questions by invoking the skill on Alexa or Google Home Assistant

• January 15, 2020 15 Jan'20

  Case study: How Trainline keeps customers satisfied

  The Trainline is encouraging customers to discover cheaper rail fares for the same journey with its AI-enabled SplitSave option

• December 27, 2019 27 Dec'19

  Top 10 business applications stories of 2019

  The steady incursion of artificial intelligence into enterprise software was a major theme behind Computer Weekly’s in-depth stories in this area in 2019

• December 10, 2019 10 Dec'19

  APAC IT leaders lay out priorities for 2020

  Robotic process automation and data analytics are among the top priorities for IT leaders in the Asia-Pacific region in the new year

• December 05, 2019 05 Dec'19

  London mayor Sadiq Khan opens Salesforce’s Ohana floor

  Opening coincides with Salesforce announcing $1.25m funding for education charity Ark and a Pathfinder training programme

• December 02, 2019 02 Dec'19

  UKISUG 2019: Qualtrics unknown to 43% of SAP customers

  On the opening day of its annual conference, the UK and Ireland SAP User Group unveils member research showing scant awareness of Qualtrics, and continuing slow adoption of S/4 Hana

• November 22, 2019 22 Nov'19

  Obama at Dreamforce 2019: Leaders orchestrate the conversation

  Former US president Barack Obama spoke in a fireside chat with Salesforce co-founder Marc Benioff at Dreamforce 2019. He cautioned on the dangers of the information age and offered some advice for business leaders

• November 21, 2019 21 Nov'19

  HSBC builds API digital platform with MuleSoft to forward open banking

  At Dreamforce 2019, HSBC announced the building of a digital platform with Salesforce MuleSoft to forward open banking opportunities

• November 20, 2019 20 Nov'19

  Dreamforce 2019: Benioff puts data centre stage as protestors disrupt speech

  Salesforce founder and co-CEO outlines data integration and data visualisation product vision underpinned by MuleSoft and garnished with Tableau

• November 15, 2019 15 Nov'19

  Businesses move key applications off public cloud to save costs

  A new study has shown that while many enterprises are able to keep public cloud costs under control, spending can quickly escalate

• November 15, 2019 15 Nov'19

  How Slack is going beyond messaging in enterprise play

  Deeper integrations with business applications and data residency support are part of Slack’s broader strategy to penetrate deeper into the enterprise

• October 29, 2019 29 Oct'19

  How Aussie Broadband is improving service levels with automation

  Australian telco Aussie Broadband has improved customer service though automation, even with a lean team and a growing subscriber base

• September 25, 2019 25 Sep'19

  Executive interview: Speed is cloud apps benefit, says Oracle’s Miranda

  In a Q&A with Computer Weekly at Oracle Open World 2019, applications head Steve Miranda discussed the supplier’s approach to cloud applications, digital assistants and machine learning

• September 12, 2019 12 Sep'19

  How Zendesk plans to crack the enterprise market

  Zendesk has been courting enterprises by billing itself as a customer experience software company and is leaning on its design smarts to stand out among bigger rivals

• September 12, 2019 12 Sep'19

  Oracle Q1, 2019-2020: revenue flat, cloud progress vaunted

  Oracle’s first quarter 2019-2020 results show revenue growth to be flat, but executives claim cloud headway and vaunt progress on autonomous database uptake. Co-CEO Mark Hurd takes leave of absence on health grounds

• August 28, 2019 28 Aug'19

  APAC is epicentre of the experience economy

  The experience economy is emerging in the Asia-Pacific region, but to succeed, enterprises will need to understand both operational and experience data

• July 24, 2019 24 Jul'19

  Salesforce teams up with Alibaba in foray into China

  The cloud applications giant is tapping Alibaba’s footprint in e-commerce and cloud in an effort to expand its business in the Greater China region

• July 18, 2019 18 Jul'19

  SAP Q2 2019: US-China trade war takes toll

  SAP’s second-quarter 2019 financial results indicate cloud revenue at 26% of total, and 600 new customers for S/4 Hana. The US-China trade war has adversely affected results

• July 03, 2019 03 Jul'19

  One-third of people prefer instant reply from chatbot about finances to waiting for human reply

  Consumers are warming to being supported by chatbots when it comes to financial services, but firms in the sector face hurdles to achieve true end-to-end automation

• July 01, 2019 01 Jul'19

  The Great Eastern way to digital transformation

  Regional insurance company Great Eastern has rolled out a new digital platform to better serve customers while morphing its DNA from the inside out

• June 25, 2019 25 Jun'19

  Big companies face extinction unless they use IT better

  Better use of IT could add £100bn to the British economy, says a CBI report into UK big business

• June 19, 2019 19 Jun'19

  How AirAsia streamlined its customer service

  Integrating multiple customer touch points with Salesforce has enabled Asia’s leading low-cost carrier to shorten waiting time and improve customer service

• June 18, 2019 18 Jun'19

  Tableau sticking to data mission under Salesforce

  Tableau President and CEO Adam Selipsky told the company’s European user conference in Berlin that Salesforce acquisition will not affect its mission of “seeing and understanding data”

• June 10, 2019 10 Jun'19

  Salesforce buys Tableau to add self-service analytics to CRM

  Salesforce is set to buy business intelligence data visualisation pioneer Tableau as it seeks to amplify its customer analytics capability

• June 10, 2019 10 Jun'19

  Whittard spills the tea about its use of technology

  CFO and IT manager of British hot beverages brand Whittard explains the firm’s recent investment in technology ahead of the business’s expansion into China

• June 06, 2019 06 Jun'19

  Co-op pushes to make customer care teams more co-operative

  The Co-op operates in market segments ranging from funeral care to food, and its customer service strategy was disparate until it adopted Salesforce

• May 16, 2019 16 May'19

  How Open University went from bespoke IT to vanilla SAP

  It’s hard convincing users their business processes are a dud. But this is what Chris Youles, chief information officer of the Open University, needed to do to transform the organisation

• May 08, 2019 08 May'19

  Sapphire 2019: McDermott dubs Qualtrics ‘elixir for cultural change’

  At SapphireNow 2019 in Orlando, Florida, CEO Bill McDermott said the gap between what consumers expect and get makes up a $1.6tn economic problem addressed by SAP’s Qualtrics acquisition

• April 24, 2019 24 Apr'19

  SAP Q1 2019 results: 400 more S/4 Hana sign-ups, €1.5bn in cloud

  SAP’s first-quarter 2019 financial results indicate cloud revenue at 26% of total, and 400 new customers for S/4 Hana. Senior executive losses, restructure and Qualtrix acquisition cost bite into profit

• April 07, 2019 07 Apr'19

  APL Logistics fast-tracks global shipments with cloud

  The Singapore-based supply chain firm has moved its transport management system and other business applications to the cloud, while keeping its ‘secret sauce’ on-premise

• March 29, 2019 29 Mar'19

  Middle East countries accelerate quantum computing research

  Gulf countries must invest in quantum computing research to ensure they continue to to remain digital pioneers

• March 27, 2019 27 Mar'19

  Salesforce opens AI research outfit in Singapore

  Cloud-based software giant Salesforce will train up to 100 postgraduate students over three years in artificial intelligence technology

• March 15, 2019 15 Mar'19

  StepChange uses Pegasystems to power digital efficiency drive

  Charity StepChange, which helps people manage debt problems, has developed a modern IT system to help double the number of people it can support

• March 12, 2019 12 Mar'19

  Nationwide uses natural language processing to discover what annoys customers

  SAS has run a proof of concept at building society Nationwide, using artificial intelligence and natural language processing to determine how to improve customer correspondence

• February 25, 2019 25 Feb'19

  SAP Malaysia MD Duncan Williamson talks up the ‘experience economy’

  In a world where consumer experience can make or break a business, companies need to continuously reinvent themselves to stay relevant