News

Business applications

• February 24, 2013 24 Feb'13

  Universal Credit has the hallmarks of another IT failure

  Charities, housing associations and consultancies have warned that the Department for Work and Pensions’ £2.2bn Universal Credit programme has all the hallmarks of another public sector IT disaster.

• February 22, 2013 22 Feb'13

  HP's Whitman sticks with PC business as revenue crashes

  HP CEO Meg Whitman reports that the ailing computer company has a lot of work ahead to rebuild its enterprise business.

• February 21, 2013 21 Feb'13

  Dell results highlight PC decline

  As it prepares to reprivatise, Dell has reported an 11% decrease in revenue for Q4 2012, compared to the same period last year.

• February 20, 2013 20 Feb'13

  VMware updates Horizon with workplace bundle

  VMware has updated its Horizon View and VMware Horizon Mirage tools and introduced Horizon Workspace to support secure VDI and mobile access

• February 19, 2013 19 Feb'13

  Rethink enterprise architectures to embody cloud and on-premise integration

  Accenture's latest Technology Vision 2013 report recommends CIOs plan to integrate cloud and on-premise systems

• February 18, 2013 18 Feb'13

  TCS establishes UK centre as part of Home Office contract

  Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has opened a delivery centre in Liverpool to ensure it complies with government rules on security

• February 18, 2013 18 Feb'13

  BAE Systems and Vodafone join forces for mobile security

  The aerospace and defence company BAE Systems will work with Vodafone to offer security products for mobiles and tablets

• February 14, 2013 14 Feb'13

  Southwest One outsourcing achieves 10% of target savings

  Somerset council's Southwest One outsourcing venture achieved just 10% of the savings initially targeted half way through the programme

• February 14, 2013 14 Feb'13

  Google battles BT in patent row

  Google has launched legal action against BT, accusing the British firm of four counts of patent infringement

• February 14, 2013 14 Feb'13

  CIOs should scrutinise Oracle's Fusion strategy

  A Forrester report paints a bleak picture for Oracle's Fusion Applications business, suggesting price hikes could be on the horizon

• February 13, 2013 13 Feb'13

  Cloud apps, big data priorities for significant slew of UK IT managers

  Cloud-based finance and HR applications are spending priorities for a significant minority of UK IT professionals in 2013

• February 12, 2013 12 Feb'13

  Beware of Oracle's Fusion Application plans

  Businesses are avoiding Oracle’s Fusion strategy according to research from Forrester. CIOs should be wary of the supplier's long-term plans.

• February 11, 2013 11 Feb'13

  HMRC alerts businesses to impending real-time PAYE changes

  HMRC is notifying businesses about impending real-time information (RTI) changes to the PAYE payroll system

• February 11, 2013 11 Feb'13

  UK accountancy watchdog FRC investigates Autonomy

  Financial Reporting Council (FRC) in the UK is latest organisation to examine Autonomy accounts, which is accused of inflating its value

• February 11, 2013 11 Feb'13

  Australia to quiz tech giants on pricing

  The Australian parliament has summoned Microsoft, Apple and Adobe to appear before a committee investigating pricing

• February 10, 2013 10 Feb'13

  Government seeks evidence for 'information economy' strategy

  The government is urging SMEs to submit evidence ahead of the publication of its Information Economy Strategy in May

• February 07, 2013 07 Feb'13

  Interview: Phil Smith, CEO of Cisco UK & Ireland

  Cisco's UK CEO talks about innovation, wireless vs wired and software defined networking at the company’s annual Cisco Live event in London

• February 07, 2013 07 Feb'13

  SAP price rise fails to win User Group disapproval

  SAP raises standard support prices for new contracts from 18% to 19% on July 15. SAP UK & Ireland User Group signals reluctant acceptance

• February 07, 2013 07 Feb'13

  Government school building project harnesses cloud collaboration

  The Education Funding Agency (EFA) is using cloud-based collaboration to underpin the Priority School Building Programme (PSBP)

• February 05, 2013 05 Feb'13

  Interview: John Harris, vice-president of global enterprise architecture, Aimia

  Aimia, the organisation behind retail loyalty programme Nectar, is overhauling its IT to make the most of customer data

• February 05, 2013 05 Feb'13

  Dell goes private helped by $2bn loan from Microsoft

  Michael Dell has succeeded in raising $24bn to buy back the company he founded in 1984, thanks in part to a $2bn loan from Microsoft

• February 04, 2013 04 Feb'13

  Reed jobs site chooses SAP Business ByDesign

  Reed.co.uk recruitment agency has chosen cloud-based SAP Business ByDesign as part of an overhaul of its business applications strategy

• January 31, 2013 31 Jan'13

  SAP certifies Dell datacentre systems to run Hana

  SAP has certified Dell datacentre products – including servers, storage and networking systems – for running Hana as a pre-integrated system

• January 30, 2013 30 Jan'13

  First tech start-ups chosen for financial services innovation lab

  Seven financial technology companies have been selected to take part in a mentoring programme in London

• January 28, 2013 28 Jan'13

  Lessons from going global with Google

  The decision by global HR firm Randstad to migrate to Google from on-premise email should raise questions for CIOs considering the cloud

• January 28, 2013 28 Jan'13

  Finance firm applications built on C and C++ more at risk

  Study of business applications reveals choice of programming language in the financial services sector is leading to security and continuity risks

• January 28, 2013 28 Jan'13

  CIO interview: Yann L’Huillier, Tradition

  Yann L’Huillier describes the three-pronged strategy he adopted after joining over-the-counter trading firm Tradition in April 2010

• January 25, 2013 25 Jan'13

  Ferrari swerves SAP, adopts Infor LN to meet Chinese demand

  Italian sports car maker Ferrari has turned to Infor ERP technology to respond to Chinese and Middle Eastern customer demand

• January 25, 2013 25 Jan'13

  Interview with GE's head of software, William Ruh

  GE makes large industrial machines, like jet engines and locomotive control systems. William Ruh aims to pioneer industrial computing

• January 25, 2013 25 Jan'13

  Microsoft profits and shares dip despite record revenues from Windows 8

  Microsoft’s share price slips after it reports a drop in profits, despite record revenues boosted by Windows 8 operating system (OS) sales

• January 23, 2013 23 Jan'13

  SAP sees solid European growth through cloud, HANA, and mobile

  SAP’s 2012 results foreshadow solid growth prospects for its European business, says the company’s EMEA president, Franck Cohen

• January 23, 2013 23 Jan'13

  Global HR firm Randstad standardises on Google

  Randstad, is standardising on Google’s platform as a replacement for Lotus Notes and Exchange Server

• January 23, 2013 23 Jan'13

  European bank IT investment lags US and Asia-Pacific equivalents

  Banks in Asia-Pacific and North America will increase their IT spending significantly more than those in Europe

• January 23, 2013 23 Jan'13

  IBM 2012 profits rise 5% in face of falling sales

  IBM has reaped the benefits of investing in growth markets and reported a profits increase of 5% – despite a 2% fall in sales – in its 2012 results

• January 23, 2013 23 Jan'13

  Unified Communications boosts Horndean College

  The Hampshire school uses Siemens Enterprise Communications kit to cut costs and provide better services to staff and students

• January 23, 2013 23 Jan'13

  Google hits record $50bn annual revenues in 2012

  Google has reported $14.4bn revenues for the fourth quarter of 2012 and a record-breaking $50bn annual revenues for the year

• January 22, 2013 22 Jan'13

  Defra plans £80m agile CAP system

  The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is planning a single integrated £80m Common Agricultural Policy system

• January 22, 2013 22 Jan'13

  Payments Council to make mobile payments mainstream in 2014

  The Payments Council will enable mobile transfers between all UK bank accounts when it launches its mobile payments service in 2014

• January 21, 2013 21 Jan'13

  UK citizens unwilling to embrace big data

  The public sector could improve services by imitating the private sector’s use of big data, but citizens are overwhelmingly against the idea

• January 18, 2013 18 Jan'13

  Indian IT giant TCS to transform Nokia’s internal IT

  Tata Consultancy Services is taking over the support and development of Nokia’s global business applications

• January 18, 2013 18 Jan'13

  European bank IT transformations optimistic or unrealistic

  IT transformation projects at European banks exceed budgets because early success stories lead to additional scope

• January 17, 2013 17 Jan'13

  Betting site YouWin speeds response times with MongoDB database

  Bookmaker WinUnited has deployed a MongoDB open source non-relational database from 10gen to help it better update betting odds in real time

• January 16, 2013 16 Jan'13

  Post Office wants to get to bottom of IT system allegations

  A system that set out to modernise the Post Office in 1996 is under the spotlight after claims that Horizon accounting system is error prone

• January 16, 2013 16 Jan'13

  Juniper Networks outlines SDN strategy

  Juniper Networks wants to split networking functionalities across virtual machines to give administrators more control and the ability to innovate

• January 16, 2013 16 Jan'13

  Hunt wants paperless NHS by 2018

  The NHS plans to go paperless by 2018, health secretary Jeremy Hunt will announce

• January 15, 2013 15 Jan'13

  SAP reports 14% revenue increase, operating profitability softens

  SAP’s preliminary full year results show an operating profit of €4.06bn on €16.22bn revenue in 2012, a margin of 25%

• January 15, 2013 15 Jan'13

  Direct Line begins two-year IT project to decouple from RBS

  Direct Line Group has contracted Capgemini to build and run a new IT system as it separates from Royal Bank of Scotland

• January 14, 2013 14 Jan'13

  Post Office announces amnesty for Horizon evidence

  The Post Office is calling for evidence from people who have used the Horizon IT system which some have blamed for accounting discrepancies

• January 11, 2013 11 Jan'13

  Google's role in the enterprise: Interview with Thomas Davies

  As Google prepares its Q4 2012 results, UK head of enterprise Thomas Davies talks about the merger of cloud, social, mobile and big data

• January 11, 2013 11 Jan'13

  SAP puts Business Suite on HANA, joins transactional to analytical

  SAP has announced that its Business Suite software now runs on the HANA in-memory database

• January 10, 2013 10 Jan'13

  Tesco rolls out Microsoft Office 365

  Tesco has signed a deal to roll-out Microsoft Office 365 across its Europe and Asian operations

• January 10, 2013 10 Jan'13

  Software development key reason for £468m MoD overspend, says NAO

  Software development problems have been cited as a key reason for forecast overspend of £468m at the Ministry of Defence over the past year

• January 09, 2013 09 Jan'13

  CES 2013: Driverless cars could be next for the enterprise

  Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, thinks businesses will be big benefactors of the driverless car revolution

• January 08, 2013 08 Jan'13

  Are software audits good for your health?

  The Business Software Alliance's claim that 90% of all audit letters sent in 2012 were the result of tips from whistle-blowers is a wake-up call to CIOs

• January 08, 2013 08 Jan'13

  VoIP awareness up but user numbers remain low

  A report from Ofcom claims four in five consumers know what voice over internet protocol (VoIP) is, but just 29% use the technology

• January 07, 2013 07 Jan'13

  Barclays' Linux programme not a snub to suppliers

  Barclays says it is not snubbing any supplier by developing a private cloud infrastructure and using Linux to cut software development costs by 90%.

• January 04, 2013 04 Jan'13

  Consumers want stronger mobile payment security

  UK consumers are happy to use extra levels of security on their smartphones for mobile payments

• January 03, 2013 03 Jan'13

  CIO strategy for 2013

  As the economy shifts, the role of the CIO is constantly adapting. This year, expect to see a strong focus on digital enablement

• January 02, 2013 02 Jan'13

  IT problems cause Lloyds ATM outage, again

  Lloyds customers were unable to withdraw money from cash machines and complete debit card transactions on New Year’s eve, as the banking group was once again beset with IT problems.

• January 02, 2013 02 Jan'13

  Post Office admits that Horizon system needs more investigation

  Campaigners have forced the Post Office to look again at a computer system blamed for sub-postmasters being wrongly accused of false accounting

• January 02, 2013 02 Jan'13

  Home Retail Group cuts call costs with SMS automation

  Home Retail Group, whose brands include Argos, Homebase and Habitat has cut telephony costs by rolling out an automated text messaging service across its three call centres.

• December 31, 2012 31 Dec'12

  Top 10 retail IT stories of 2012

  Retailers have had another rocky year with more high street closures piling up, while online spend continued to enjoy double digit growth. As consumer spending remained stagnant, companies looked to their digital channels to bolster sales.

• December 28, 2012 28 Dec'12

  Hospitals to implement child protection database to log children who visit A&E

  The Department of Health is introducing a £9m child protection information system to log children who visit A&E in hospitals

• December 28, 2012 28 Dec'12

  Top 10 business software articles of 2012

  The main thrust in enterprise software this year has been the introduction of a new Windows OS, programming model and user interface.

• December 28, 2012 28 Dec'12

  US Department of Justice is investigating allegations of accounting fraud at Autonomy

  HP has revealed that the US Department of Justice has been investigating fraud allegation at Autonomy since last month.

• December 27, 2012 27 Dec'12

  Top 10 financial services IT stories in 2012

  The industry that you expect to hit the IT headlines on a regular basis has not let us down in the last 12 months, despite continued tough market conditions.

• December 18, 2012 18 Dec'12

  Cisco closes 2012 with BroadHop buy

  Acquisition-happy Cisco makes its 11th purchase of the year with the purchase of policy control firm BroadHop

• December 18, 2012 18 Dec'12

  Mott MacDonald rolls out Microsoft software globally

  Engineering firm Mott MacDonald is rolling out Microsoft products globally over the next year as it moves towards a Microsoft-centric business strategy

• December 17, 2012 17 Dec'12

  Bank IT should play earlier compliance role, says think tank

  Financial services organisations could streamline regulatory compliance by involving IT in the process earlier, according to think tank JWG-IT

• December 14, 2012 14 Dec'12

  Mazars outsources access management

  Global accountancy firm Mazars has outsourced the management of access to Oracle and Sharepoint applications for 6000 global staff

• December 14, 2012 14 Dec'12

  There is more to IT than BYOD

  CIOs should stop worrying about BYOD according to analyst Gartner. Instead they should focus on technology transformation.

• December 14, 2012 14 Dec'12

  DoH awards £2.2m information sharing challenge funding

  Over 40 NHS Trusts will receive funding from the Department of Health to develop new digital services and improve patient information sharing

• December 12, 2012 12 Dec'12

  Retailers are being let down by poor ERP

  UK retailers could lose an estimated £147 million of revenue this Christmas due to missed sales opportunities through out-of-stock products according to Vanson Bourne

• December 12, 2012 12 Dec'12

  CIO interview: Susan Cooklin, CIO, Network Rail

  Susan Cooklin has had an eventful 2012, delivering major technology upgrades while driving projects to help the Olympic Games run smoothly

• December 11, 2012 11 Dec'12

  European Parliament approves single EU patent system

  The European Parliament votes in a patent statute to cover the European Union (EU), but Italy and Spain stay out due to language concerns

• December 11, 2012 11 Dec'12

  London 2012 IT team passes the baton to Rio 2016 Olympics

  Computer Weekly talks to Rio 2016 Olympics CIO Elly Resende as he picks up the baton from the successful London 2012 IT team

• December 10, 2012 10 Dec'12

  Three chooses Huawei for managed services contract

  UK mobile operator Three will transfer staff to Huawei, and its partner Tech Mahindra, to manage its core network and operations.

• December 07, 2012 07 Dec'12

  Barnet councillors challenge Capita outsourcing deal

  Barnet Council’s Labour opposition will lead a challenge to the council cabinet’s decision to sign a ten-year £320m outsourcing deal with Capita

• December 07, 2012 07 Dec'12

  Citrix buys corporate MDM tool company Zenprise

  Citrix has bought mobile device management (MDM) company Zenprise for an undisclosed sum to boost its corporate mobile tools portfolio

• December 06, 2012 06 Dec'12

  Emulex buys Endace for $130m

  Networking company Emulex hopes to boost its performance management skills by acquiring Endace

• December 05, 2012 05 Dec'12

  HMRC admits RTI budget overrun

  HMRC has run over budget with its Real Time Information (RTI) system, the PAYE system crucial to the roll-out of Universal Credit next year

• December 05, 2012 05 Dec'12

  Unilever prepares for global HANA roll-out

  Consumer goods giant Unilever is looking at how it can optimise its global operations using SAP’s HANA in-memory database

• December 05, 2012 05 Dec'12

  IT managers look to telephony in the cloud

  A survey shows 80% of IT managers see the benefits of moving their telephony and unified communications systems to the cloud, but less than half are using the solutions

• December 03, 2012 03 Dec'12

  Cisco snaps up Cariden Technologies

  Cisco has bought software firm Cariden Technologies for $141m in its 10th acquisition this year

• November 30, 2012 30 Nov'12

  The Ministry of Defence signs software deal with IBM

  The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has signed a deal with IBM to provide greater insight into the management of its £22.5bn property portfolio.

• November 29, 2012 29 Nov'12

  British Film Institute to launch version of the iPlayer

  The British Film Institute (BFI) is to launch its own version of the BBC's iPlayer in digitisation plans to give millions access to its film archive

• November 29, 2012 29 Nov'12

  Deloitte and KPMG face litigation over HP/Autonomy deal

  Two of the big four accounting firms have been named in a lawsuit following HP's $8.8bn write-down of Autonomy

• November 28, 2012 28 Nov'12

  Forrester: Microsoft licence hike makes no sense

  Windows users can expect a 15% increase in the cost of licensing key Microsoft products from December, as the software giant raises its prices

• November 28, 2012 28 Nov'12

  Apple sacks head of maps

  Apple has sacked Richard Williamson, the executive in charge of Apple Maps, after months of embarrassment over application’s performance

• November 28, 2012 28 Nov'12

  Ovum urges CIOs review MDM policies to support BYOD practices

  IT departments must review IT support contracts and invest in mobile device management (MDM) for staff using their own devices at work

• November 28, 2012 28 Nov'12

  Autonomy founder Mike Lynch rejects HP allegations in open letter

  Former Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch writes open letter to HP demanding it explain its allegations against the software company it bought in 2011

• November 27, 2012 27 Nov'12

  BAT automates SAP data extraction to free up auditing resource

  British American Tobacco (BAT) deploys automatic data extraction tools in its SAP to aid auditing and reduce fraud through duplicated suppliers

• November 27, 2012 27 Nov'12

  Investors file class action against HP

  A class action has been filed against HP after investors claim the firm violated federal securities law with its acquisitions of Autonomy and EDS

• November 27, 2012 27 Nov'12

  Poor design hampers gamification in the enterprise, says Gartner

  By 2014, 80% of current gamified applications will fail to meet business objectives, primarily because of poor design, according to Gartner

• November 26, 2012 26 Nov'12

  BBC management gains tighter cost control with dashboards

  BBC managers are gaining tighter cost control with SAP Business Objects Web Intelligence dashboard

• November 26, 2012 26 Nov'12

  Competing firms jockey for position in mobile payments gold rush

  While mobile payments is still in its infancy, the promise of the rewards is substantial and competition for market dominance is gathering pace

• November 23, 2012 23 Nov'12

  Centrica delivers SAP self-service HR portal with agile testing

  Energy company Centrica has carried out its first corporate agile IT project with an employee self-service HR portal in an SAP environment

• November 23, 2012 23 Nov'12

  Capita poised to take slice of Barnet Council £1bn outsourcing contract

  Capita has been named as a preferred bidder for a back-office services contract in Barnet’s controversial One Barnet outsourcing plan

• November 23, 2012 23 Nov'12

  CIO interview: Tom Baker, head of ICT, Sunderland City Council

  Tom Baker, head of ICT at Sunderland City Council, has an office in the council’s datacentre, which provides commercial hosting, VDI and a cloud service

• November 21, 2012 21 Nov'12

  BBC researches digital future with UCL

  The BBC is partnering with University College London in a four-year R&D programme to investigate the future of digital content