Short takes on this week's news
Land Registry signs IBM to provide
e-security
The UK Land Registry has signed a three-year, multimillion-pound
contract with IBM to deliver a security solution for all of its
web-based services. The deal will include secure user access to the
organisation's website, document authentication and e-signatures
for electronic conveyancing.
www.computerweekly.com/220682
BEA Java virtual machine runs independent of
OS
BEA has developed a version of its JRocket Java virtual machine
that can be run without the need to install an operating system.
Liquid VM enables BEA and third-party Java Standard Edition
applications to run on Intel-based hardware using VMWare hypervisor
software.
Lancs police to deploy mobile data across
force
Lancashire Constabulary is to become the first UK police force
to deploy a force-wide mobile data system. Up to 3,500 police
officers will use mobile devices connected through Airwave Mobile
Applications Gateway Service and the national secure Airwave Tetra
digital communications network.
www.computerweekly.com/220679
Financial services IT managers doubt
delivery
Three-quarters of UK IT managers in the financial services
industry are concerned that their IT systems are not delivering
satisfactory results for the business, a survey of 300 IT managers
by research firm Vanson Bourne has revealed.
www.computerweekly.com/220664
UK firms to renew £7bn of outsourcing
contracts
UK companies will put almost £7bn of outsourcing contracts up
for renewal by March 2008, according to Morgan Chambers. The
consultancy's annual survey of 500 executives found that the
average contract value would be £28.5m.
www.computerweekly.com/220550
Euronext upgrades trading platform
Pan-European equities exchange Euronext has upgraded its IBM
Linux-based trading platform to improve response times and increase
throughput. The NSC Equities platform will go live in early 2007,
said Euronext.
www.computerweekly.com/220722
Oyster and Barclaycard to develop 'wave and
pay'
London's Oyster card is to combine with Barclaycard to offer a
"wave and pay" scheme in the capital within a year. The credit card
firm has signed a three-year agreement with TranSys, the consortium
that runs the Transport for London smartcard travel pass, to embed
the radio frequency Oyster functionality into its Barclaycard and
Barclays Connect Visa cards.
www.computerweekly.com/220659
Skandia deploys Tibco for real-time business
view
Skandia UK is to deploy a Tibco platform to provide a real-time
view of business events. The software is expected to enable the
financial services firm to cut time-to-market for new services,
streamline the administration of its distribution chain and
ultimately improve customer service levels.
www.computerweekly.com/220724
Bank signs £515m multisource IT contracts
ING has signed seven-year IT deals worth a total of £515m with
Accenture, Atos Origin, Getronics and KPN for the provision,
installation and support of the bank's desktops, laptops, printers
and telephones. Accenture will assume responsibility for
governance, service management and supplier management.
www.computerweekly.com/220723
Vista is last big Windows release, reckons
Gartner
Windows Vista will be the last major release of Microsoft's
Windows operating system, Gartner has predicted. The analyst firm
said the next generation of operating environments would be more
modular, with "more flexible updates to Windows and a new focus on
quality overall".
www.computerweekly.com/vista
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