News

Business applications

• 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

• November 21, 2012 21 Nov'12

  Alan Pelz-Sharpe reported Autonomy to Serious Fraud Office in 2011

  Consultant Alan Pelz-Sharpe referred Autonomy’s alleged shortcomings to the Serious Fraud Office before HP's $11.7bn deal went through

• November 20, 2012 20 Nov'12

  HP writes down Autonomy by $8.8bn

  HP blames Autonomy for misleading the firm before acquisition and refers former management to the Serious Fraud Office

• November 20, 2012 20 Nov'12

  SAP users need more clarity on latest cloud, mobile and BI efforts

  SAP customers continue to express confusion about the supplier’s more advanced initiatives, including cloud migration and recent acquisitions

• November 19, 2012 19 Nov'12

  Emirates takes Windows 8 HP ElitePad 900 to the sky

  Airline Emirates is rolling out in-flight Windows 8 tablets to enable cabin crew to access core IT

• November 19, 2012 19 Nov'12

  BT rolls out toughened Windows 8 OS tablets for engineers

  BT is deploying the Windows 8 operating system (OS) to 5,900 engineers in what is believed to be the largest roll-out of the Microsoft OS

• November 16, 2012 16 Nov'12

  WiFox claims 700% boost in Wi-Fi performance

  New software created by researchers at North Carolina State University claims to boost performance of Wi-Fi by up to 700%

• November 16, 2012 16 Nov'12

  London Stock Exchange technology sales up

  The growth of the London Stock Exchange’s MillenniumIT software has outstripped the wider business, with a 19% increase in sales of its trading software

• November 16, 2012 16 Nov'12

  Software engineer shortage pushes up salaries

  Contractors raise their rates 10% or more as businesses struggle to recruit skilled software engineers

• November 16, 2012 16 Nov'12

  SAP certifies use of Business Suites on AWS cloud

  SAP has certified Amazon Web Services (AWS) to run its business intelligence (BI) applications, including SAP ERP and SAP CRM, on the AWS cloud

• November 16, 2012 16 Nov'12

  Dell profits plummet 47%

  Revenues for Dell’s mobility division take a beating as a result of a big drop in consumer sales

• November 15, 2012 15 Nov'12

  Vast majority of GPs use electronic medical records

  Some 97% of GPs in the UK claim to use electronic medical records, according to the 2012 Commonwealth International Health Policy survey

• November 15, 2012 15 Nov'12

  Cyber security will change ideas of the nation state, says Stonesoft

  The lack of cyber security is a major threat to the civilised world and will change how people see the nation state, says security firm Stonesoft

• November 14, 2012 14 Nov'12

  Interview: Accenture's in-memory data guru, Alexander Zeier

  Alexander Zeier, co-designer of SAP's HANA appliance, speaks to Computer Weekly about the evolution of in-memory analytics

• November 14, 2012 14 Nov'12

  SAP builds on cloud strategy with Financials OnDemand

  SAP has introduced its first cloud-based financial application for the enterprise, based on the company's Hana in-memory database system

• November 13, 2012 13 Nov'12

  Hillarys Blinds rolls out custom sales app using SAP Afaria

  Blinds and curtains supplier Hillarys Blinds has developed an Android app for sales agents that synchronises with its back-end SAP ERP system

• November 13, 2012 13 Nov'12

  SAP TechEd Madrid: SAP chiefs urge businesses to go digital

  SAP is urging businesses to rethink core business values to become more consumer-centric using mobile, social, cloud and BI

• November 13, 2012 13 Nov'12

  MPs quiz Google over UK tax avoidance

  The Public Accounts Select Committee asks Google northern Europe vice-president Matt Brittin to explain why Google pays so little UK tax

• November 12, 2012 12 Nov'12

  EMI gains music taste insight with Microsoft SQL Server 2012

  Record group EMI is joining up data sources through Microsoft SQL Server 2012, to view how artists’ songs sell in different countries.

• November 09, 2012 09 Nov'12

  German retailer Otto invests in neural software to net future sales

  German retail giant Otto improves demand forecasting with neural network technology from Blue Yonder, a predictive analytics start-up

• November 08, 2012 08 Nov'12

  Capgemini reduces consultancy charges

  Capgemini has lowered pricing in its consulting and local professional services businesses, according to its latest quarter results.

• November 07, 2012 07 Nov'12

  Apple loses patent case to VirnetX

  Apple has been ordered to pay $368m in damages to VirnetX after a court ruled it had infringed on two of the software firm’s patents

• November 07, 2012 07 Nov'12

  University Hospitals Birmingham reorganises case notes with EMC Documentum

  UHB reduces paper work and organises patient data into one central location through EMC Documentum

• November 06, 2012 06 Nov'12

  IT skunkworks powers Barclays innovation drive

  Barclays Bank is changing its image through innovative IT In spite of the regulatory framework governing banking

• November 06, 2012 06 Nov'12

  EMC Momentum Vienna opens with Documentum product releases

  EMC opened its Momentum show in Vienna with updated and new Documentum product releases from its Information Intelligence Group

• November 06, 2012 06 Nov'12

  Universal Credit programme director Malcolm Whitehouse steps down

  Malcolm Whitehouse, programme director for the government's £2.2bn Universal Credit project, has stepped down

• November 06, 2012 06 Nov'12

  Gartner Symposium: RBS emulates Amazon with private cloud

  Royal Bank of Scotland has developed a private cloud to support its application development process, using Amazon best practices

• November 06, 2012 06 Nov'12

  Gartner Symposium Barcelona: rewrite the rule book

  Gartner is urging CIOs to change their IT budget to support a nexus of change arising from cloud, social, big data and mobile.

• November 06, 2012 06 Nov'12

  EDF blames system upgrade for customer complaint failures

  EDF blames a system upgrade for failing to handle customer complaints to standard, but says it will resolve the issue by the end of the year

• November 05, 2012 05 Nov'12

  Financial services takes big data beyond pilot stage

  Survey reveals financial services is embracing big data, with more than half of the respondents claiming to have a big data strategy

• November 02, 2012 02 Nov'12

  Mobile business intelligence cascades from boardroom to front line

  Mobile BI has started to cascade down in organisations over the past year says Adrian Simpson, chief innovation officer, SAP UK