Disappointing earnings reports this week from Hewlett-Packard and Dell were offset by more encouraging results from software makers, confirming forecasts for general trends in IT spending this year.

Businesses may need to let go of the old ways of doing things and start moving into the future of Cloud computing if they are to stay ahead of the game.

Zynga's initial public offering Friday, a raft of acquisition announcements this week from IBM, Salesforce and others, and some upbeat reports on the chip and hardware sector are putting a positive spin on year-end news for the tech sector.

Computer stocks sagged Friday morning in the wake of continuing economic worries and mixed financial news from hardware and software vendors this week.

Photos from the keynote event

Both tech vendors are aiming to change the rules of game for enterprise software. And while they're going about it with two different business models, the companies share some things in common.

Customer support VPs may have to manage a range of customer-facing functions such as order-taking, shipment expediting, installation and field service appointments, as well as technical or warranty support. Each of these functions should have direct access to the CRM system, but the specific information needed (and transactions performed) are quite different across these CS roles.

Mission Australia has rolled out 1,155 licences of Salesforce’s CRM Enterprise edition aimed at boosting the efficiency of its employment services unit.