pest control servics plano firm Safe Pro Pest Control is very honored to serve our Plano, TX pest control customers with very high quality products and exceptional personal services that are unparallelled by larger firms. You get will get the direct attention you require aside from the sterile, large firm coldness. To McKinney, Texas pest company Safe Pro Pest control, supplying great pest service means that we take the time to listen and offer individuals with the knowledge about the unwanted, pests, rodents, or termites in and around their house and business. This Allen, TX pest control company works with you every step of the process to insure you are not just fully satisfied, but that we eliminate undesired pests on your property. See our site at http://safepropest.com and we are confident you’ll discover the information provided on our web site regarding the company, the services we provide and some different pest control knowledge useful. We are looking forward to filling all your pest control needs. The expertise provided by The Waxahachie Law Firm concerning the areas of estate planning, business law, personal injuyr, probate, retirement, wills, and trusts, does allow us the freedom to take a comprehensive approach in regard to your situation to facilitate us avoiding mistakes commonly made by other professionals. As an asset protection planning law firm, the areas that our expertise touches on come together to facilitate the growth and protection of wealth for our clients, their families, and their businesses.
We provides services to a broad spectrum of individuals and businesses with a base of our home offices in Waxahachie, Texas, we work with and represent clients throughout Ellis and Dallas County, including but not limited to: Ovilla, Waxahachie, Midlothian, Red Oak, Ferris, Glenn Heights, DeSoto, Ennis, Duncanville, Lancaster, Cedar Hill, Mansfield, Grand Prairie, Dallas. Reverse Craigstlist software just imagine it. It produces the power to quite literally attract thousands of qualified leads in just a few minutes by searching for data from advertisements on craigs list. This very simple to use reverse craigslist software can allow a chance to quite literally take you business to the highest level. You may pick what niche you are aiming at as well as specific geographical areas, literally push a button, sit back, and watch the leads come in. You then can send an e-mail to these leads or manage them, save, export, and more. There are many companies now developing versions of reverse craigslist software and data mining software today.
There is more involved in making money than just the income - you need to be bringing in money as effectively as possible given your outgoings. A simple and frequently neglected aid to doing so is performance management software.
Business optimization requires comprehension of the specialties and weak areas of its staff; where is their best work done? How can you adjust your system to accentuate their strengths and suppress their weaknesses? This is the crucial question. The core issue has always been in identifying and metricizing this data. Determining and tracking development through employee evaluation on its own can turn into a huge hassle. First, you set up employee evaluation techniques to evaluate and track the work carried out by each staff member. If you are employing established approaches, your next step is the manual assessment of the vast amount of raw data points you have gathered simply to be able to study further progress and set objectives. Using performance appraisal software you can be confident that this preliminary work is taken care of and you need only look at the different analyses to find what the right goals for this employee would be. It also makes charting the employee’s development much simpler. Yielding as it does more accurate information for less time invested, this is of course a major saving on its own. It’s of course also possible simply to use the software to keep track of raw information like performance reviews and to make your own assessment. Performance management software doesn’t just work for staff. You can also use the software to study your clients and suppliers. For example, when looking at suppliers you can demonstrate their weak points like poor delivery times, bad damage records, etc. Turning our attention to clients and affiliates, you can determine who who is your best seller of any given product or service if there are payment issues, which client has the highest loss percentage, and the solutions to other questions. Using this information you can customize your ordering and selling habits to increase profits and cut costs. To add to this, it’ll be easier to plan marketing campaigns because you’ll have a clear view of your ideal demographic.
Performance management software can study your suppliers to save money and watch your market to customize plans and boost your profits. It also makes staff performance management quicker and far more effective when motivating employees through definable goals decidedly. There doesn’t seem to be any upper limit when leveraging performance management software.
The current state of the economy requires that profit can most simply be raised by reducing overhead, not a growth of income. Which brings us to the benefits of business performance management software.
It’s common knowledge that an efficient company tailors its workflow to the abilities of each member of staff in order to get the best out of them. The trouble has always been in finding and metricizing this information.
To look at just one facet of this — for example, employee performance — defining their progress and being able to track it is a significant hassle. First, you use employee performance appraisal reviews to evaluate and keep track of work carried out by each staff member. Analyzing this data is next. After all, before it’s ready to use determining goals and tracking further progress it’s crucial to know what the pure data actually tells you. When using performance appraisal software you can be confident that this preliminary work is done for you and you only need to look at the different analyses and factors to know what an appropriate set of goals for this worker would be. It also makes keeping track of the worker’s advancement much less effort. In this way you remove a significant demand on your time and probably also find yourself with more accurate information into the bargain. It’s of course also possible simply to use the software to keep track of raw data like performance review forms and to examine these items yourself.
performance appraisal software doesn’t just work for staff. It can also be worth studying suppliers and clients to better reduce costs by precision buying. Knowing the suppliers that offer the better quality and best priced products can cut costs significantly.
Clients are measured on their own set of metrics, and once again this information can be used to streamline your systems and help your bottom line. This information is useful in minimizing expenses and boosting profits. To add to this, it’ll be simpler to plan marketing campaigns because you’ll have a clearer understanding of your market and the location of your best target audience. Performance appraisal software lets you watch your sources so you can reduce costs and analyze the market to customize plans and increase your profits. It also streamlines the process of managing employee performance and helps set precise targets for your workers. All things considered, it’s clear that the potential of this system is endless and depends exclusively on your ability to use what you learn.
BizCom Web Services Inc announced improvements to the company’s hosted Office Communications Server R2 with Live Meeting. The enhancement will allow clients to invite unnamed users into their Live Meetings. The invited users will no longer be limited to the users from the client’s own domain.
Live Meeting is Microsoft’s version of web conferencing software that allows clients to host scheduled and ad hoc meetings from their Office Communicator of from the Outlook 2007. Office Communications Server R2 (OCS) provides enhanced eCommunication flexibility to client businesses. Having the ability to host meetings with other users apart from those under one’s domain will reduce the client’s dependence on third party web conferencing vendors. With this new setup, businesses can host meetings from Live Meeting and invite other users such as other clients and vendors through Outlook 2007, BizCome Web Services President Mark Wiener explains.
The company’s hosted OCS 2007 R2 will deliver streamlined communications so every member in an organization will be able to reach the right person using the applications that they frequently use. The Live Meeting add-on will allow users to invite other people to participate in meetings, share desktops and utilize video and audio conferencing tools such as the ability to record the minutes and details of the meetings. According to BizCom Web Services VP for Technology, the new offering for hosted OCS 2007 R2 with Live Meeting offers the ability to improve productivity easily. Clients will be able to slash down the energy costs while maintaining operational control. With the add-on, they need not invest in additional internal infrastructure or managed hosting to improve their business communications.
All Fort Worth home inspectors from TexInspec are dedicated to providing you with total peace of mind by helping you understand the condition of your new house. TexInspec Fort Worth house inspectors offers Dallas home inspection services to not only Dallas but to over 100 surrounding communities. The Dallas and Fort Worth home inspectors from TexInspec know the stress that can be involved in moving, selling, and buying. Lancaster law firm The Hale Law Firm, P.C. serves individuals and businesses from our home offices in Waxahachie, Texas, Cedar Hill Law Firm The Hale Law Firm enjoy working with clients throughout Ellis and Dallas County, including: Red Oak, Waxahachie, Midlothian, Ovilla, DeSoto, Glann Heights, Ennis, Ferris, Cedar Hill, Lancaster, Duncanville, Grand Prairie, Dallas, Mansfield. Reverse Craigstlist software just imagine it. You can have ability to literally develop thousands and thousands of targeted leads in just a matter of minutes by parsing through info from ads on craigs list. This very simple reverse craigs list software can provide a chance to take you operations to the next level. You just select which niche you are targeting and which specific geographic areas, push a button, sit back, and watch the leads come in. After this you then can make direct contact to these leads or save, export, manage them, and more. There are many different types of reverse craigs list software as well as data mining software on the market today. Discover this version for one of the most reasonably priced and easy to use reverse craigs list software on the market today. If you need leads, find qualified leads, and very tergeted leads, you will want to check out the best reverse craigslist software available.
Since December 2005 we are talking about Microsoft CRM version 3.0. In the case of established corporate business we usually deal with such legacy environment as IBM Lotus Notes Domino (predecessor of all the modern CRM applications as well as legitimate generic CRM platform), integration with Microsoft (such as MS SQL Server) and non-Microsoft database platforms and applications: Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle Financials and custom Oracle databases, IBM AS/400 and RS6000 DB2 applications, SUN Java II EJB (as eCommerce front and back ends). Microsoft CRM should be integrated with existing applications and there is no way to simply switch all the corporate ERP to become Microsoft Windows workshop. Let’s look at Corporate MRP for large corporation and how Microsoft CRM 3.0 could contribute and be a part of its computer environment.
• Sales Module. You should probably begin with simple. If you are facing sales department reshaping (from computerization standpoint) - you can apply all your MCSE skills and knowledge to install, integrate (with MS Exchange, Active Directory, custom MS SQL databases) and train Sales people to use MS CRM as their sales automation software. It is pretty intuitive: you register Sales Lead, then move it to the Opportunity (where you can create a quote), then move it to Account/Customer and then you can use MS CRM Outlook client to print Sales Quote with Microsoft Mail Merge technology (MS Word format template with your company logo and quotation lines). If you start with Sales module - the investment (MS CRM software license cost) will be optimized/minimized - all the other departments will be working with their “legacy” CRM applications, such as Siebel, SalesLogix, Lotus Notes Domino, custom CRM systems, etc.
• MS CRM Security. Security comes one of the firsts when we are talking about corporate environment. In MS CRM you have two conceptions: Owning and Sharing CRM objects. You can share object with unlimited number of groups, the drawback of sharing - shared object (Lead, Opportunity, Account, Contact) doesn’t show in my Leads, my Opportunities, my Accounts, etc. as well as in MS CRM Outlook client calendar
• Integration with Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0/Microsoft Great Plains. Microsoft CRM 1.2 had Microsoft Great Plains CRM integration tool, utilizing BizTalk behind the scenes and our company used it to move MS CRM Customers and Orders into our Accounting - Microsoft Great Plains 8.0. With the version 3.0 of Microsoft CRM and Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0 we see that Scribe Software is the champion with the integration between the two - however Scribe Software dictates the price for its integration tool
• Integration with IBM Lotus Notes Domino. This was relatively long story. Both Microsoft Business Solutions and Lotus Software were reluctant to recognize and support Microsoft CRM Lotus Notes Domino connector, written and supported by Alba Spectrum Technologies, beginning with MS CRM 1.2 and Lotus Notes 6.0 (when Java agents were introduced for IBM Lotus Domino). Then, when Microsoft Business Solutions lost Microsoft CRM sales to such client as Caterpillar in LATAM to Saleslogix CRM - Microsoft in Sao Paulo changed its position. Now Alba Spectrum connector is recognized by Microsoft and is on the way to be recognized and recommended by IBM as well. One of the main reasons to keep utilizing both CRM solutions: Lotus and Microsoft - to optimize software licenses cost - IBM Lotus licenses (used in Legal, Production/Manufacturing, Customer Support) and Microsoft CRM licenses (used in Sales & Marketing departments)
• International Considerations. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is preferred Microsoft Business Solutions CRM worldwide, however Microsoft Dynamics AX (Microsoft Axapta) and Microsoft Dynamics NAV (Microsoft Navision/Navision Attain) have their own CRM modules. Integration between Microsoft Great Plains exists, plus integration with Navision and Axapta is and will be available through third parties. If you are Multinational corporation with manufacturing facilities in Latin America, Brazil, Africa, Asia, Australia - and you would like to use one of MBS ERP products in your headquarters: Axapta, Navision, Great Plains or Solomon (Microsoft Dynamics SL). Localization question is relatively simple for Microsoft CRM 3.0 - it is easily translated to Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, German, French, Russian, Polish, Chinese, Dutch, Japanese, etc.
• Competition. We already mentioned Oracle E-Business Suite. From SAP - you should consider SAP Business One with its CRM module and integration with Microsoft Office/Outlook (this is not related to Mendocino SAP mySAP SAP R/3 or SAP all-in-One project with Microsoft - SAP Business One has its own original integration with MS Office)
Please do not hesitate to call or email us: USA 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918 help@albaspectrum.com
Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com, http://www.greatplains.com.mx, http://www.enterlogix.com.br ) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally.
We are serving USA Nationwide: CA, IL, NY, FL, AZ, CO, TX, WI, WA, MI, MA, MO, LA, NM, MN, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Francisco, Denver, Seattle, Boston, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, Dallas, San Diego, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Minneapolis, Washington, Baltimore, New Orleans, Austin, Kansas City.
Microsoft Dynamics ERP product family consists of Microsoft Dynamics GP (former Microsoft Great Plains, Great Plains Software eEnterprise/Dynamics/Dynamics C/S+), Microsoft Dynamics AX (former Microsoft Axapta), Microsoft Dynamics NAV (former Microsoft Navision), Microsoft Dynamics SL (Solomon), Microsoft Dynamics CRM (former Microsoft CRM). In this small article we will be reviewing Microsoft Great Plains and its Spanish version, available and used in Argentina.
• Microsoft Dynamics GP, NAV & AX. All three are translated to Spanish and ready to be deployed in Argentina. Historically both Great Plains Software and Navision Software had marketing plans in Buenos Aires back in 1990th, prior to their acquisition by Microsoft. To consider international market - Microsoft seemed to be promoting Navision Attain / Navision on emerging markets, beginning at 2003 (when Navision made very hard time for Great Plains resellers/VARs in such countries as Brazil, Russia, Poland, Czech Republic), then in 2004/2005 (East Europe), 2005/2006 (LATAM/Brazil) Microsoft Business Solutions / Microsoft Dynamics subdivision of Microsoft decided to localize Microsoft Dynamics AX - Axapta for the same markets.
• Microsoft Dynamics GP/Great Plains. This ERP was architectured by Great Plains Software (Fargo, North Dakota) in the earlier 1990th as one of the first graphical Accounting/MRP packages - Great Plains Dexterity programming language and development tool was intended to isolate ERP from the specifics of computer graphical and database platforms. As for the GPS Dynamics in Argentina - it was translated to Spanish (Dexterity string resources) for versions 5.0, 6.0 and higher
• Great Plains Dexterity Customizations. Dexterity chunks were very elegant customization mechanism for earlier versions of Great Plains Dynamics up to the point when Microsoft Great Plains migrated and established itself as reliable Microsoft SQL Server 6.0, 7.0 and 2000 ERP application. When this happened - Great Plains Dexterity became mixed with SQL scripting and stored procedures, which made former Dexterity database independence and transferability principle irrelevant.
• Great Plains Accounting. You can still find clients in LATAM who run GPA - it is no more supported (support ended in 2002) by Microsoft Business Solutions, if you need support - you should contact VAR, such as Alba Spectrum. Who has access to legacy GPA support database
• Ctree & Btrieve/Pervasive SQL Legacy. The last version of Microsoft Great Plains, which was still supporting these platforms was Great Plains 7.5. Microsoft Business Solutions stopped Pervasive and Ctree/Faircomm support in December 2004. We know that this voluntary step left a lot of local clients in Argentina without the support options and lead to several mid-size businesses scandals.
• Competition. From the high end or functionally rich ERP applications Great Plains meets the competition from Oracle E-Business Suite/Oracle Applications/Oracle Financials and SAP R/3/mySAP/SAP-All-In-One. Also GP is facing the competition from Microsoft Axapta and even partially from Microsoft Navision. From the low end - or simple functionality ERPs Microsoft Dynamics GP is competing with SAP Business One (to be introduced in Argentina in 2006/2007). Plus you should consider locally developed ERP solutions
Please do not hesitate to skype us: albaspectrum email us: help@albaspectrum.com
Andrew Karasev is Great Plains consultant at Alba Spectrum Technologies (http://www.albaspectrum.com, http://www.greatplains.com.mx, http://www.enterlogix.com.br) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, MS CRM, Oracle Financials, SAP Business One and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally.
We are serving LATAM: Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Chili, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico
Open Source Software (OSS) is software that is available under a special license that allows everyone to access the program code as well as the executable program. This means that anyone is able to edit the program code and therefore customise the software for their own needs.
This ability to access the source code is protected by the license under which the software is released. There is a great many Open Source licenses, but they all have one thing in common, they protect the right of the user of the software to access and modify it in any way they desire.
This ability to modify applications is in direct contrast to the Closed Source Software model. In Closed Source only the creator of the application has access to the source code, and therefore, only the creator is able to modify the application.
Being able to change the way an Open Source Software application operates is critical in many business environments. No two businesses are identical and therefore it is unlikely that any one piece of software will satisfy the needs of all potential users. Without the ability to modify their software a company is restricted in its operations by that software.
While it is true that no two businesses are identical, it is also true that there are a great many common business practices that are repeated across organisations. These common practices can be well served by “standard” software. The remaining practices, those that are different from competitors are, typically, the ones that give a business an advantage in the marketplace.
Since these non-standard practices are key to the organisations success it is critical that any software solutions adopted by the company also support these non-standard processes. It is in this need to adapt software to a companies specific needs that makes Open Source Software attractive. Since the company has access to the source, the application can be freely adapted to suit the unique requirements of each user.
Who Pays for Open Source Development?
The ability to customise software is critical to allow an organisation to continue to improve their business processes, but how does a company afford to pay for such customisations?
One of the side effects of allowing any user access to the source code is that the cost of acquiring the software in the first instance is massively reduced. In most cases the source code is available for no cost. This enables the user to divert resources normally allocated to pay software license fees into enhancing the software.
A successful Open Source Software project has a large community of software developers. Many of these developers work as independent contractors and can be employed to customise the software, alternatively, if a company has internal developer resources, they can leverage those skills to perform the customisations.
Does it Really Work?
This all sounds fantastic, but does it really work? Are there Open Source Applications in use in the real world?
Here are a few facts to convince you that it most certainly does work:
- Around 70% of web sites are served by the Open Source Apache HTTPD server.
- In a 2002 survey it was found over 31% of UK and nearly 42% of German companies were using or planning to use OSS.
- In 2001, Debian (an Open Source Operating System), contained over 55 million lines of code and was estimated to have consumed over 14,000 person years in development time. That is a development cost of around 1.89 Billion Dollars (US) yet it is still available with no license fees.
Looks like Microsoft Great Plains becomes more and more popular, partly because of Microsoft muscles behind it. Now it is targeted to the whole spectrum of horizontal and vertical market clientele. Small companies use Small Business Manager (which is based on the same technology - Great Plains Dexterity dictionary and runtime), Great Plains Standard on MSDE is for small to midsize clients, and then Great Plains serves the rest of the market up to big corporations.
If you are developer who is asked: how do we convert our old system data for initial Great Plains setup - read this and you will have the clues on where to look further.
Great Plains Integration Manager - this is rather end-user tool - it is very intuitive, it validates 100% of business logic, brings in/updates master records (accounts, employees, customers, vendors. etc.) brings in transactions into work tables. The limitation of Integration Manager - it does use GP windows behind the scenes without showing them - so it is relatively slow - you can bring 100 records for ongoing integration - for one-time conversion/integration you are probably OK with IM. By the way you can program Integration Manager with VBA.
eConnect - it is type of Software Development Kit with samples in VB.Net. Obviously the development environment should be Visual Studio.Net. eConnect will allow you to integrate master records - such as new customers, vendors, employees, etc., plus you can bring transactions into so called Great Plains work tables (eConnect doesn’t allow you to bring open or historical records - you need to post work records in Great Plains, the same limitation applies to Integration Manager above). eConnect is rather for ongoing integration. It was initially created for eCommerce application integration to Great Plains.
SQL Stored Procedures. Obviously you have unlimited control and possibilities with SQL queries. You need to know Great Plains tables structure and data flow. Launch Great Plains and go to Tools->Resource Description->Tables. Find the table in the proper series. If you are looking for the customers - it should be RM00101 - customer master file. If you need historical Sales Order Processing documents - they are in SOP30200 - Sales History Header file, etc. Do not change existing tables - do not create new fields, etc. Also you need to realize that each GP table has DEX_ROW_ID - identity column. For ongoing integrations - sometimes it is good idea to use inbound/outbound XML in the parameters - then you can deploy web service as a middle party between two systems.
Data Transformation Services (DTS) - Good tool for importing your third party data into staging tables in GP - then you can pull them in using either stored procs of Integration Manager. You can also deploy this tool for EDI export/import.
Great Plains Dexterity Conversion Utilities. If your legacy data sits in old Dexterity customization on Ctree/Pervasice.SQL/Btrieve - you can create custom Dexterity conversion utility, which will read the table in Ctree/Btrieve and will move it to SQL based new custom Dexterity table. In this scenario - you need Dexterity customization upgrade as well. (Great Plains Dexterity - is programming language and technology of former Great Plains Software - Microsoft Great Plains is written in Dexterity)
MS Access - if you are doing one time conversion and your legacy has old ODBC compliant platform - you can use MS Access to create linked tables there - or import into MS Access.
SQL Linked Servers - you can do direct SQL queries to other ODBC compliant platform via SQL Linked Server (including ORACLE, UNIDATA, Pervasive SQL, Ctree, etc) - you may need to familiarize yourself with OPENROWSET command in Transact SQL. This is also good option if you need cross-platform Crystal Report - pulling data from SQL Server and third party databases on the same report.
MS Excel - yes - sometime you can use it for legacy data massage before feeding it into Great Plains.
Warning - do not place existing GP tables into Replication! - you will have upgrade issues.
Happy converting! if you want us to do the job - give us a call!
About The Author
Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies - USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, based in Chicago, California, Arizona, Minnesota, Texas, Florida, New York, Washington, Georgia, Canada, UK, Australia and having locations in multiple states and internationally (www.albaspectrum.com), he is CMA, Great Plains Certified Master, Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer. You can contact Andrew: andrewk@albaspectrum.com
Does Microsoft Have any Real Competition? Copyright (c) 2003 Gregory S. Diehl In a word, yes.
And I think they are about to get more.
Microsoft primarily dominates in operating systems and office productivity software.
Windows is going to be the dominant OS for some time. But I think things will get much more interesting with the Novell/SuSE merger. The giant IBM was already behind Linux. (People forget that if IBM’s software division were a separate company, it would be number two only to Microsoft.) Now, they face the challenge from a company that knows how to market to the enterprise, which Red Hat does not. SuSE gets the channels and business partners it needs worldwide; Novell can assure its survival beyond NetWare as a competitor to the hated Microsoft. (Novell feels about as strongly about the folks from the Northwest as Sun does.)
And speaking of Sun, they are aggressively pushing StarOffice as an alternative to Microsoft Office. It offers file compatibility, so anyone on a budget may want to at least consider it. Corel is also hanging in there with WordPerfect and other products, and Novell has GroupWise. So there is at least a little competition in office productivity, although admittedly not much. StarOffice is now available in the retail channel, so that may change.
With Sun and IBM pushing Java/J2EE as the platform for Web services, .NET is getting all the competition it can handle. For dynamic Web publishing (updating from a database) I seem to see at least as many pages with .jsp (Java Server Pages) or .php (Hypertext Preprocessor) as I do .asp (Active Server Pages, from Microsoft) on the file name. (If you’ve ever wondered what those strange things were that were not .htm or .html, that’s it!)
There are two areas where Microsoft is not even close to first place.
Most Web servers are Apache running under Linux, not Microsoft’s Internet Information Server on a Windows box.
In the database arena, Microsoft really faces stiff competition. IBM is still number one with DB2, and Oracle is close behind. While SQL Server 2000 is much more robust and enterprise-ready than its predecessors, it is still in third place. (Albeit a tighter third place with the scalability and other features of SQL Server 2000.) On the charts with a bullet is MySQL, the Linux of the database world that is gaining more market share in enterprises not needing the features of a DB2 or Oracle.
So, does Microsoft have competition? Yes, even in areas of near-monopoly, there is at least some competition.
About the author:
Gregory S. Diehl has almost 35 years experience in applying technology to solve business problems and expand opportunities. He has worked as a systems analyst, programmer, technical writer, Web developer and numerous other roles. A Master CIW Designer, he is currently starting a Web design and development firm in Las Vegas. http://www.gsdweb.net
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