Software

Open-source groups in India are assisting the Indian government's program to distribute productivity software for free in the country, even though the software being distributed includes some proprietary software.

Microsoft Corp. fleshed out its road map for transitioning customers to 64-bit computing and unveiled updates to several of its management and server products at its IT Forum 2005 conference in Barcelona on Tuesday.

In the words of Yossi Sheffi, director of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics: "Resilient companies communicate obsessively." Guess who doesn't.

CA Inc. is introducing a new integration platform in its latest Unicenter release, following the software industry trend in placing standards and services at the heart of its systems management suite.

Microsoft Corp. next month will begin shipping the first major update of its Great Plains enterprise resource planning (ERP) suite since the software was rebranded under the Dynamics moniker. The new software, called Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0, will be generally available in English-language versions on Dec. 19, with versions in other languages to be released in the first quarter of 2006, a Microsoft executive said.

Open Source Development Labs Inc. (OSDL) is to launch its online patent commons reference library Tuesday. The group hopes it will give users more confidence about using open-source software by allaying some concerns about the possibility of patent litigation.

Companies are manoeuvering more and more to use embedded business intelligence to help frontline workers make decisions that affect operations. But embedding BI data into the processes for these users often involves more cultural challenges than technical issues, said users during a panel discussion at Computerworld's Business Intelligence Perspectives conference in Scottsdale, Arizona.

It may conjure up images of The Matrix, but its creators say an intelligent robotic device being developed by a group of Canadian companies to inspect water pipe systems has the potential to generate significant cost savings for water system operators, and ensure safer water for Canadians.