Platforms and Technology

This week at the Microsoft Connect() 2015 conference there were many new features and updates Microsoft Azure and rest of the Microsoft developer stack. Among these updates was the announcement of the all new Azure Storage Explorer being added to the set of Azure SDK tools. The Azure Storage Explorer is a stand-alone application that […]

The 2015 Midwest Business & IT Executive Summit is underway, and this year’s speakers are focused on analytics, big data, cloud, cybersecurity, ERP, HCM, and customer experience. The summit, hosted by the Central States Oracle Applications User Group (CSOAUG), brings together executives, managers and business leaders to share information on business and technology best practices, […]

If you are a Yammer customer, you will know that the identity and directory synchronization has been separate from the rest of Office365. This means that you need separate servers and software installations to sync users from your on-premises AD and provide SSO capabilities to Yammer. If you are unsure about this configuration, check out […]

“The CPM suite market is shifting toward cloud-based solutions that deliver a shorter time to value and improved ease of use.” – Gartner If there’s any doubt that corporate performance management (AKA enterprise performance management, or EPM) has a future in the cloud, think again. Most of the buzz from industry and corporate events has […]

At a recent user conference, I was asked, “why do I need DRM in my organization?” A very interesting question with both a short and long answer. Let’s cover the short answer first… DRM (Data Relationship Management) provides organizations the ability to centralize the governance of enterprise dimensional master data while ensuring the data is […]

As a consumer, I like electronic payments because they make my life easier and they save me an extraordinary amount of time. As a retailer, electronic payments make it easier for people to buy from you with the touch of a button, thus growing the bottom line. Electronic payments are designed to make the buying […]

On a call with Microsoft this morning, they referenced this public case study. I thought it was a really nice example of using a multitude of Azure services to innovate their business – Machine Learning, Mobile Services, IoT Hubs, and Dynamics AX. Check out the video below and the full description here – https://customers.microsoft.com/Pages/CustomerStory.aspx?recid=12792

Several years back, the IT research and advisory firm Gartner came up with the phrase “Lean Portal.” The term was invented to draw contrast to the traditional portals of the time, which were generally regarded as complex, expensive, and bloated with unnecessary features. Lean portals, by contrast, are those that are quick to implement, utilize modern web […]

WebCenter 11g (11.1.1.8 and earlier) provides two distinct ways to build portals – portal builder and portal framework. The first approach relies on the pre-build “portal builder” application to construct portals (previously called “spaces”) primarily through a web-based administrative interface, while the latter relies on developers to design, configure and deploy their own custom Oracle ADF portal […]

Every developer knows that builds are an integral piece to the Application Lifecycle. Using an automated build and testing process will help speed the time to market for your application. Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server offers a number of features to help with this process. To use Team Foundation Build for automated building and testing […]

This year’s 2015 Midwest Business & IT Executive Summit will be held on Thursday, November 19th at the Chase Park Plaza hotel in St. Louis, MO.  This annual conference features the latest Business & IT solutions including Analytics, Big Data, Cloud, Cybersecurity, ERP, HCM & Customer Experience. Regional business leaders and government organizations will be […]

With the shift towards hybrid cloud architecture and the exponential growth of mobile applications it is essential to establish an integration strategy that supports new computing models that include on-premises, cloud and mobility. Legacy middleware has a monolithic architecture, proprietary components, complex operating environments and expensive licensing. A dated integration style greatly slows mobile development […]