News

Business applications

June 19, 2014 19 Jun'14
BBC sets up expert group of cloud controllers

The BBC has set up a central group of IT, security and user communities to manage its purchase and use of cloud computing
June 19, 2014 19 Jun'14
BlackBerry makes small profit in light of internal shakeups

BlackBerry has achieved a net profit of $23m with revenue of $966m in three months from May until the end of March 2014
June 18, 2014 18 Jun'14
CIO interview: Mark Bramwell, head of IT, Wellcome Trust

The world’s largest medical charity is shifting its technology focus to improving ways of working
June 18, 2014 18 Jun'14
Lush cleans up on data with QlikView

Cosmetics retailer Lush has reduced wastage and made its shops more profitable through using QlikView business intelligence software

June 18, 2014 18 Jun'14
Don’t let bean counters determine your cloud strategy, says Bank of England CIO

John Finch, the CIO of the Bank of England, warns users to be wary of financial promises made by cloud providers
June 18, 2014 18 Jun'14
Use of geographical information systems increases

Remote management and analytics overlaid with geospatial data is being used to manage real-world networks
June 18, 2014 18 Jun'14
Case study: How eBay uses its own OpenStack private cloud

eBay runs one of its most crucial workloads – its website – on an OpenStack private cloud platform developed by itself
June 18, 2014 18 Jun'14
Interview: John Swainson, president of Dell Software

Dell Software president John Swainson's aims to make Dell Software a $5bn business
June 18, 2014 18 Jun'14
Coca-Cola bottler seeks to put mission-critical systems on the cloud

Coca Cola bottling company is moving the company’s mission-critical workloads, including ERP systems on to the cloud
June 17, 2014 17 Jun'14
Kemp Little lawyers offer tips for public cloud journey

Cloud CIOs need to have a “sense check” while planning their public cloud strategies, say technology lawyers

June 16, 2014 16 Jun'14
Travel group Expedia aims to predict your holiday plans

Travel group Expedia is developing technology that will predict the needs of its customers before they call about their travel plans
June 12, 2014 12 Jun'14
Blackberry promises re-focus on enterprise

Until the release of the Blackberry Z10 the company’s main focus had been providing enterprise security
June 12, 2014 12 Jun'14
HSBC makes executives responsible for application consolidation

In the next few weeks, senior executives at HSBC globally will have KPIs to reduce the number of applications they run
June 12, 2014 12 Jun'14
$39bn worldwide shift to SAP cloud, HCL research reveals

Nearly $40bn of SAP installed software will move to the cloud in the next two years, suggests research from IT services firm HCL Technologies
June 12, 2014 12 Jun'14
CIO Interview: Betfair's Michael Bischoff on making IT ready for Fifa World Cup

Michael Bischoff, the CIO of bookmaker Betfair, talks about the challenges in readying the IT for Fifa World Cup betting
June 12, 2014 12 Jun'14
Can Salesforce.com re-engineer business IT?

With 1.5 million developers and a new focus on industry solutions, is Salesforce.com a business platform?
June 12, 2014 12 Jun'14
80% of UK CIOs cite significant gap between business needs and IT delivery

80% of IT decision-makers in the UK feel there is a significant gap between business needs and IT delivery – the highest in Europe
June 11, 2014 11 Jun'14
Adoption of cloud-based communications grows

Improving economic conditions and exposure to technology is driving the uptake of cloud-based communications applications
June 11, 2014 11 Jun'14
Tesco Bank launches current account on off-the-shelf platform

Tesco has launched a current account four years after implementing its core banking platform
June 11, 2014 11 Jun'14
Larry Ellison lifts the lid on Oracle's in-memory database

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has taken the wrappers off the company’s in-memory database, trumpeting its 'real-time' performance capability.
June 11, 2014 11 Jun'14
EE drives mobile phone deals with CRM software implementation

Mobile phone operator Everything Everywhere claims a 400% increase in phone deals after rolling out customer relationship management software
June 10, 2014 10 Jun'14
How the FBI is using technology to put customers first

Businesses and public sector organisations are under pressure to use technology to put the needs of customers first
June 10, 2014 10 Jun'14
HP launches new products for software-defined datacentres

HP has launched networking, HPC, storage and converged infrastructure products
June 10, 2014 10 Jun'14
Engineering firm fined for using unlicensed Autodesk software

Project Options has been fined £16,000 by the Business Software Alliance, following an online tip-off
June 09, 2014 09 Jun'14
Home Secretary Theresa May unveils datacentre in Maidenhead

Home Secretary Theresa May has opened a multi-million-pound extended datacentre, owned by UK cloud firm iomart
June 06, 2014 06 Jun'14
Microsoft could be the biggest SaaS player, says FBR analyst

Microsoft could be the biggest SaaS player in the world in two years, says FBR analyst, backing CEO’s vision for Office 365
June 06, 2014 06 Jun'14
CIO interview: Sheridan Hindle co-operates to replicate IT benefits

Few IT heads can say that, among their responsibilities, they manage a top-level domain. But Midcounties' Sheridan Hindle can
June 05, 2014 05 Jun'14
UK airports lead move to cloud services

UK airports are at the vanguard of using cloud to develop innovative services, says Gatwick CIO.
June 05, 2014 05 Jun'14
MPs accuse MPA of disguising Universal Credit in a “veil of secrecy”

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has accused the Major Projects Authority (MPA) of disguising the troubled Universal Credit programme in a “veil of secrecy” by not providing a rating on its current status
June 05, 2014 05 Jun'14
Decision-makers rely on intuition over analytics

Business leaders are more likely to trust their intuition than rely on business intelligence dashboards
June 04, 2014 04 Jun'14
Sapphire 2014: Plattner restates radical, in-memory computing future

SAP's Hasso Plattner restates his case that enterprise applications face a radical future, based on in-memory computing
June 04, 2014 04 Jun'14
VMware CTO hits back at AWS tool to manage virtual machines

VMware CTO Chris Wolf warns users against being fooled by tools disguised as hybrid cloud management as AWS launches administration portal
June 03, 2014 03 Jun'14
Sapphire 2014: SAP CEO McDermott declares war on ‘complexity’ and sets Fiori free

Bill McDermott, SAP CEO, devoted his opening keynote at Sapphire 2014 to declaring war on business process “complexity”
June 03, 2014 03 Jun'14
High availability strategy key to saving costs, says Sungard AS

The cost of IT downtime is extremely high for businesses – but must all systems and applications be highly available all the time?
June 02, 2014 02 Jun'14
Computer Weekly European User Awards for Enterprise Software: Shortlist 2014

See who made the shortlist for the Computer Weekly European User Awards for Enterprise Software 2014
June 02, 2014 02 Jun'14
Interview: Infor’s president Duncan Angove talks strategy

Duncan Angove is part of an ex-Oracle senior management team that has reset Infor's strategy in recent years
June 02, 2014 02 Jun'14
AWS and Microsoft ‘overwhelmingly top contenders’ of IaaS Magic Quadrant, says Gartner

Gartner’s IaaS Magic Quadrant places AWS and Microsoft in the Leader quadrant, and Google and IBM in the Visionaries quadrant
May 30, 2014 30 May'14
Software-defined everything will change datacentre design, function and price

Datacentres of the future will not be populated with products that perform individual functions as software-defined everything makes hardware irrelevant
May 30, 2014 30 May'14
Highways Agency selects Lockheed Martin for application refresh

The Highways Agency has signed a two-year contract with Lockheed Martin to modernise its applications.
May 30, 2014 30 May'14
Why European Commission wants cloud standards and policies in Europe

Cloud is key to stimulate growth and create jobs in Europe, but needs a single cloud market, easy policies and cloud standards, says EU
May 30, 2014 30 May'14
Microsoft and Salesforce bind SQL deal and Office 365 integration

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella demonstrated the company’s new found openness with a strategic alliance with Salesforce.com.
May 30, 2014 30 May'14
IT supplier insolvencies fall for first time as economy recovers

Technology companies have reached a turning point as insolvencies fall for the first time in 2014
May 29, 2014 29 May'14
BSkyB retunes IT to ready-for-anything datacentre quad

British broadcaster BSkyB has based its IT on four core datacentres that are resilient, interconnected, energy-efficient and cloud-ready
May 28, 2014 28 May'14
HR cloud transfusion at NHS Blood and Transplant

The NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) organisation has brought together its scattered HR department with a single point of contact
May 28, 2014 28 May'14
CIO interview: Ian Cohen, CIO, Jardine Lloyd Thompson

Running a programme to transform the business is the wrong way to go about change, according to Ian Cohen, CIO at insurance broker JLT
May 28, 2014 28 May'14
Cloud and datacentre warnings for CIOs

As cloud computing enters mainstream, datacentre and cloud experts warn CIOs about IT trends that are too big to ignore
May 28, 2014 28 May'14
Case study: Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust deploys e-observation technology

Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust is deploying mobile observation technologies to monitor patient health
May 28, 2014 28 May'14
NHS shared services aims to end paper invoicing

NHS Shared Business Services hopes to eradicate paper invoicing by implementing an e-invoicing system that will be free for suppliers to use
May 23, 2014 23 May'14
Business Objects use increases among SAP users, but Hana uptake low

More UK and Ireland SAP customers are using Business Objects now than even two years ago, but only 15% are using Hana
May 23, 2014 23 May'14
Case study: Concur fuels growth with Couchbase

Expense management company Concur has used NoSQL database supplier Couchbase to further its growth
May 22, 2014 22 May'14
Salesforce.com opens UK datacentre to support data sovereignty

Cloud CRM company Salesforce.com has announced its first UK datacentre, which is also its first in Europe
May 22, 2014 22 May'14
Case study: Startup Versarien moves to SAP cloud

Engineering startup Versarien created an enterprise resource planning system following the acquisition of Total Carbide
May 21, 2014 21 May'14
Swale Heating emulates head office in national expansion

SE England based Swale Heating emulated its head office IT set-up in the Midlands when it expanded through a major contract
May 20, 2014 20 May'14
HP debuts Orchestrated Datacentre to automate IT operations and delivery

HP launches its Orchestrated Datacentre service suite to help the IT department deploy the full stack and automate IT delivery and management
May 20, 2014 20 May'14
Workers fail to make best use of technology, says Dave Coplin

Microsoft chief envisioning officer Dave Coplin cites a YouGov survey of office workers deluged with data despite tools to mitigate the flood of information
May 19, 2014 19 May'14
AWS revenues exceed $1bn per quarter, but Microsoft growing faster

Total AWS revenues are now well in excess of $1bn per quarter, almost a third of the total cloud revenues for the quarter estimated at $3.5bn
May 19, 2014 19 May'14
SAP certifies core business apps to run on Microsoft Azure

From June, users of SAP Business Suite software, Business All-In-One solution, SAP Mobile Platform, SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise and Hana platform will be able to run them on Azure
May 19, 2014 19 May'14
CIO interview: Brad Dowden, Adecco

The UK operation of global recruitment company Adecco has transformed its IT infrastructure to make it more agile in the face of increasing competition from small firms
May 16, 2014 16 May'14
Why did GPs turn their back on Choose and Book?

NHS England has scrapped its £356m outpatient booking system, Choose and Book, which was largely ignored by doctors
May 16, 2014 16 May'14
CIO interview: Adecco UK sets global model

The UK operation of global recruitment company Adecco has created an IT infrastructure to make bit more agile in the face of increasing competition from small firms
May 15, 2014 15 May'14
Economy boost means IT must start delivering true business value

With rising IT budgets, business must prioritise IT projects that deliver the best return on investment, according to analyst Ovum
May 15, 2014 15 May'14
Justifying the business case to update Oracle eBusiness Suite

To justify the upgrade cost needed to move to Oracle eBusiness Suite Release 12, IT departments need consider how the implementation can deliver value.
May 14, 2014 14 May'14
Tech Mahindra heading to top tier

Indian IT services company Tech Mahindra has reported over $3bn sales for its latest financial year and increased its profits by over 38%.
May 14, 2014 14 May'14
SuiteWorld 2014: Omni-channel goes beyond retail, says Zach Nelson

NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson told delegates at the SuiteWorld 2014 conference in San Jose, California, that omni-channel transcends retail
May 13, 2014 13 May'14
Glyndebourne opera house migrates to Google Apps

Glyndebourne opera house recently migrated more than 200 employees to Google Apps for applications such as mail, business workflow and storage
May 12, 2014 12 May'14
NHS to scrap £356m outpatient booking system

NHS England is to scrap its £356m Choose and Book outpatient appointment booking system
May 07, 2014 07 May'14
HP pumps in $1bn in open source and hybrid cloud services

HP will invest $1bn over the next two years on cloud-related products including an investment in OpenStack and is launching HP Helion too
May 06, 2014 06 May'14
SAP’s innovation champion Sikka departs

Vishal Sikka, the SAP executive most closely associated with the supplier’s innovation drive with the in-memory database Hana, has resigned
May 02, 2014 02 May'14
RBS splits problem systems to reduce IT risks

RBS has split the IT system behind its high-profile outages into three to reduce the risks of a single failure impacting operations
May 02, 2014 02 May'14
Addressing security and privacy on the industrial internet

The smart grid and smart meters are part of the wider industrial internet, which will offer insight into people’s life at home. What are the security implications?
May 01, 2014 01 May'14
Co-operative Bank report reveals challenge of legacy IT replacement

A report into the £1.5bn losses at Co-operative Bank reveals numerous failures in a project to replace core banking systems
May 01, 2014 01 May'14
GDS working to secure Google Apps for government

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is in talks with CESG, the IT security arm of GCHQ, to get approval for using Google Apps within government.
May 01, 2014 01 May'14
IT glitch causes delays at UK Border Force

Passengers at several UK airports and ferry ports have been facing long delays at passport control due to an IT problem
April 30, 2014 30 Apr'14
Software developers suffer as IT companies endure rising insolvencies

Increase in the number of IT insolvencies expected as the economy improves
April 30, 2014 30 Apr'14
SDL turns to cloud HR to join up businesses in 40 countries

The technology is central to the company’s strategy to integrate formerly autonomous businesses in 38 countries into a single operation
April 28, 2014 28 Apr'14
CW500: Why data analysts need a soft edge to make the most of hard data

The ability to present data in ways that make sense to business leaders is at the heart of analytics
April 28, 2014 28 Apr'14
Fiat and Chrysler to integrate separate IT systems

Car manufacturing group Fiat and Chrysler have contracted IBM to integrate their separate IT infrastructures into a single global operation, following the companies coming together after Chrysler applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
April 25, 2014 25 Apr'14
Cloud service boost powers Microsoft third-quarter earnings

Microsoft has posted net earnings of $5.66bn, down $500m on the same period last year.
April 24, 2014 24 Apr'14
Barclays bank launches investment app

Barclays bank has launched an app for investment companies to give them access to content to support their investment decisions.
April 24, 2014 24 Apr'14
Businesses face Oracle applications support timebomb

Organisations still running Oracle E-Business Suite release 11.x have less than a year to move to the 12.x release. But many have yet to start
April 17, 2014 17 Apr'14
IBM hardware struggles, with first quarter earnings a fifth lower than last year

IBM reports 21% drop in first quarter revenue as it continues to "take actions to transform parts of the business"
April 17, 2014 17 Apr'14
Is the PRA dream of ripping and replacing banking IT feasible?

The head of UK financial services regulator the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) said it would be bold for banks to strip down and rebuild IT, but is this just a pipe dream?
April 17, 2014 17 Apr'14
SAP declares 8% revenue growth in EMEA

SAP has declared 8% revenue growth in the EMEA region for the first quarter of 2014, “despite uncertainties in the CIS due to the Crimea crisis”.
April 17, 2014 17 Apr'14
Google grows, but less than last year

Google reported a slowdown in its business for Q1 2014 compared with 2013.
April 16, 2014 16 Apr'14
Q&A: SAP's Mike Ettling discusses SuccessFactors cloud HR strategy

Computer Weekly talks to Mike Ettling, global head of cloud and on-premise HR at SAP, about the company’s strategy for its SuccessFactors cloud HR technology
April 11, 2014 11 Apr'14
Co-op Bank plans to 'fix the fundamentals' and invest in IT

The Co-operative Bank intends to invest in IT systems following a troubled year
April 11, 2014 11 Apr'14
NHS Legal Services department adopts voice recognition

NHS Wales Legal and Risk Services uses speech recognition software to accelerate correspondence processes and cut payroll costs
April 10, 2014 10 Apr'14
XP end of life levels PC shipment decline, says Gartner

PC shipments are still in decline, but the fall in PC sales in the first quarter of 2014 is not as steep as those seen in the last seven quarters, says research firm Gartner
April 10, 2014 10 Apr'14
Lack of business and IT engagement led to BBC DMI failure, say MPs

The BBC’s £100m Digital Media Initiative was a 'complete failure', and lack of engagement between IT and business was a major factor, say MPs
April 09, 2014 09 Apr'14
Caravan Club moves to cloud to support growth plan

The Caravan Club is in the process of moving to a private cloud after outsourcing parts of its IT to T-Systems to support growth plans
April 08, 2014 08 Apr'14
Microsoft ends XP support – what should users do next?

For organisations that still have a significant Windows XP user base, it's no surprise there is rising concern over what to do next
April 07, 2014 07 Apr'14
CIO interview: Leandro Balbinot, global CIO, HJ Heinz

Food giant HJ Heinz is gearing up to expand its international presence with a technology modernisation programme encompassing 23 countries
April 07, 2014 07 Apr'14
Microsoft chief sets sights on multi-platform future

At the end of March, day 52 of his tenure as Microsoft's third CEO, Satya Nadella unveiled the start of a new era for the software giant
April 07, 2014 07 Apr'14
Teradata Database 15 adds JSON, addresses internet of things

Teradata has added JSON to its data warehouse. Teradata Database 15 is said to fill out the logical data warehouse, much vaunted in the industry in recent years
April 03, 2014 03 Apr'14
Parliamentary computers crash 90 minutes after IT assurances

Network suffers ‘major incident’ soon after MPs and Lords are told, "It is working much better"
April 03, 2014 03 Apr'14
Pharmaceuticals company turns to cloud HR technology

Astra Zeneca CIO Dave Smoley turns lessons learned from an earlier cloud HR implementation to use at the pharmaceuticals giant
April 02, 2014 02 Apr'14
Barking and Dagenham Council swaps XP desktops for Chromebooks

Barking and Dagenham London Borough Council migrates from Windows XP to Google Chromebooks
April 02, 2014 02 Apr'14
Gartner: IT spending increases by 3.2% as businesses invest in digital strategies

Spending on IT is set to increase as businesses gain confidence in the economic recovery and start developing digital capabilities
April 02, 2014 02 Apr'14
Businesses must rethink HR IT as traditional jobs disintegrate

HR software needs a complete rethink to deliver services to an increasingly dispersed workforce, says cloud technology specialist
April 01, 2014 01 Apr'14
Arup uses Snow to recoup Microsoft and Adobe licences

Arup has used Snow Licence Manager to make significant savings on its enterprise agreements with Microsoft and Adobe