The Ellison-Benioff Standoff Continued Last Week at Oracle OpenWorld

By Kelly Indrieri
While they may share a billboard on 101 and exhibit at each other's events, Larry Ellison and Marc Benioff still can't help but take digs at each other whenever there's an opportunity.

I attended last week’s Oracle OpenWorld and was in the audience for Larry Ellison's introduction of Oracle’s ‘Cloud in a box', Exalogic. I have to say, I agree with Benioff. ‘Cloud in a box?’ Sounds like an oxymoron to me. Yes, we all know, Mr. Ellison, that salesforce.com runs on servers. But isn't the business benefit of public cloud computing NOT having to have the box in the first place, but really to let someone else handle your IT?

Can you have the best of both worlds or is it just an attempt by Oracle to get into the cloud market? Whatever is at the heart of their public but friendly standoff, I think both companies know that Oracle and salesforce.com aren't going anywhere because they both add business value. So lets stop the bickering, gentlemen, and recognize the value in what you both deliver to the IT and business community. Maybe consider calling a truce...at least until December’s Dreamforce, of course.
Like this article? Digg it!

The Nitty-Gritty of a Twitter Tangle

By Ana Embry
With so many Twitter tools available for managing followers, I find myself wondering which tool will work best for someone like me who is fairly new to Twitter. I researched some of the tools out there and want to share with you some of my favorites. Here are a few trustworthy tools that will take the headache out of managing followers, whether you have 50 or 5,000.

Twittangle - This is a free service that allows users to untangle the possible mess of having numerous followers, allowing an easier engagement and a less stressful experience. It will show all of your followers and allow you to tag and move them into particular lists. Twittangle then compiles a custom timeline for those followers.
FRIENDorFOLLOW – FRIENDorFollow is a free and quick tool that shows which of your friends actually follow you back. You simply plug in your username and it does all the work for you.
Future Tweets – Want to plan a Tweet for the future? This service does just that. While it doesn’t help manage your followers it engages them during peak and/or quiet viewing hours. You can set Tweets up to a year in advance for product launches, tradeshows or whatever the case. The only drawback to compiling too far in the future is unplanned changes, and the opportunity for timely responses to any conversation started with followers after hours.
Co-Tweet - This beta tool is often used for companies that may have more than one user, such as a social media team or a trustworthy few that collaboratively contributes to the Twitter feed. The clever part of co-Tweet is that it also monitors ‘who Tweeted what.’ This is critical for those who may be looking into which person receives the most re-Tweets, or wants to collaborate as a team on the strategy that is working the best.
Splitweet - An optimal choice for individuals or companies that have more than one account to manage, one main twitter and another for tech support, per se, and allows you to update in one simple step and report for each account, brand or user. The concept is similar to TweetDeck.

Happy Twittering!

Like this article? Digg it!

"Sustainable is Attainable”

By Danielle Salvato
This week, Kulesa Faul launched our sustainability initiative to shrink our ecological footprint by reducing our impact and bettering our business and community.

As a team, we are proud to announce that we have started taking solid, yet simple, steps to become a “green” (excuse the cliché) company. We are committed to change our everyday behavior by reducing the impact of what we consume, reusing what we already have and recycling everything we can. Yesterday, our team met to develop the Kulesa Faul green vision, mission statement and actionable pledges. We’ve already begun changing our every day behavior by taking on the necessary steps of acknowledging what we consume and how we can decrease our ecological footprint.

We, as a team, have pledged to:
1. Reduce our use of non-renewable resources.
2. Recycle 100 percent of recyclable materials.
3. Promote sustainable behavior in our community.

And even though it is never easy to change bad habits, we are taking steps forward to do our part to make the business world, our community and lives a better place for generations to come. Please join us in this effort to make a difference. What do you pledge?
Like this article? Digg it!