Short takes from this week's news
Oracle buys telecoms software group
Oracle is to buy Swedish communications software firm HotSip,
just a day after snapping up open source software company
Sleepycat. HotSip produces telecommunications infrastructure
software and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) enabled applications
for IP telephony, presence, messaging and conferencing on converged
networks.
Threshers deploys apps service provider
service
Drinks retailer Threshers has signed up for an application
service provider service from Fujitsu Services to help it move from
managed stores to a franchise model. Fujitsu Services will provide
a managed Epos service designed to give franchisees access to
sophisticated Epos, stock management, customer relationship
management, web management and pre-accredited chip and Pin
applications.
M&S begins RFID trial for 42 of its
stores
Marks & Spencer has started a radio frequency identification
tag trial in six stores. It plans to deploy RFID tags in a total of
42 stores by the end of April. The deployment covers men's suits
and casual trousers and is the clothing retailer's second trial of
the tagging technology after a nine-store pilot of the same
products in 2004.
Leeds council to build £1.8m contact centre
Leeds City Council is to build a £1.8m multimedia IP contact
centre based on the Avaya Communication Manager IP telephony
platform. The centre is designed to improve customer access to the
council by providing residents with a wider choice of communication
methods, including e-mail, voice and the web. It is being developed
by Sabio, a contact centre services and solutions company.
Orange targets small business with portal
Small businesses are the target of a new mobile application
portal from telecoms service provider Orange. The Business Mobile
Applications portal allows small firms to download programs such as
CRM, sales force automation and project management, tailored for
mobile use. Software and support are provided through partners, and
the applications are designed to run on a range of mobile devices
provided by Orange.
RSPCA to implement open source systems
The RSPCA plans to implement a range of Novell Linux-based
applications, including Open Enterprise Server, GroupWise 7,
Zenworks 7 and RSync. These will cover 15 animal centres and four
wildlife centres throughout the UK. The investment in open source
will increase RSPCA staff productivity and reduce costs, said Chris
Rolfe, the charity's network manager.
CSA's flawed IT systems given stay of
execution
The government will not be rushed into pulling the plug on the
Child Support Agency's flawed IT systems, John Hutton, the work and
pensions secretary, told MPs last week. CSA chief executive Stephen
Geraghty told MPs that if IT supplier EDS failed to deliver
promised improvements by the end of 2007, the government could
withhold £17m in payments or take ownership of the system.
Microsoft fights ECover anti-trust ruling
Microsoft is still fighting the European Commission over its
threat to fine it £1.42m a day over its non-compliance with the
commission's 2004 anti-trust ruling. Microsoft claims the
commission is ignoring evidence it made available to the body late
last year, but the commission says this evidence came in late and
after it had made its compliance orders to the company.
Cern grid computer breaks speed record
The world's largest grid computer, run by the scientists at the
Cern laboratory in Switzerland, has seen sustained transfer rates
of a gigabyte per second - among the fastest seen on a permanent,
international grid using scientific data. The LHC Computing Grid is
being used to manage the data from Cern's Large Hadron Collider
particle accelerator, which will eventually produce 15 million
gigabytes of data per year.
John Lewis to deploy staff smartcards
The John Lewis Partnership is launching a smartcard programme
for its 63,000 staff using Siemens technology. Miles Knapman,
project manager for the programme, said the deployment would
provide "a solution that supports a variety of card technologies
and allows us to combine these in whatever way we want on
individual cards without having to re-key information about
cardholders that is already in our HR system".