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Business applications

September 06, 2012 06 Sep'12
Southwest One is blocking Somerset cuts, says county councillor

Somerset County Council's troubled outsourcing contract with Southwest One has stalled the authority's programme of cost cuts, according to a Conservative member of its cabinet.
September 06, 2012 06 Sep'12
Polycom teams with IBM for cloud video services

The two firms will join forces to develop new solutions utilising the cloud for video applications and unified communications
September 06, 2012 06 Sep'12
Google lacks enterprise credibility

IT directors do not consider Google a credible supplier to the enterprise market, according to the Corporate IT Forum
September 06, 2012 06 Sep'12
FSA demands review of RBS software failure

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) wants to know how banks plan to prevent a repeat of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) software glitch

September 06, 2012 06 Sep'12
EMI Music moves to global SaaS-based service desk from Sunrise Software

EMI Music Publishing has deployed Sostenuto cloud-based IT management software-as-a-service (SaaS) to support 900 users
September 06, 2012 06 Sep'12
Data ethics: Author warns of ethical pitfalls of data collection

Heedless data collection in business analytics programmes is breeding moral hazards, according to author Frank Buytendijk.
September 04, 2012 04 Sep'12
In-depth: Windows Server 2012 goes after VMware

The general availability of Windows Server 2012 today will see Microsoft’s strongest push yet to target VMware users
September 04, 2012 04 Sep'12
NHS claws back £1bn as CSC negotiations come to an end

The Department of Health claws back £1bn from CSC as negotiations with the troubled supplier come to an end.
August 31, 2012 31 Aug'12
Department of Health announces digital services funding

The ‘Information Sharing Challenge Fund’ will give NHS organisations up to £99,000 for new digital services
August 29, 2012 29 Aug'12
VMware demos Horizon for workspace aggregation

VMware has fleshed out its desktop virtualisation strategy with products designed to make desktop computing more manageable

August 28, 2012 28 Aug'12
Villa Plus implements IBM business analytics software

Holiday company Villa Plus is using IBM business analytics software to support its advertising campaigns as it increases its number of properties by 40%
August 21, 2012 21 Aug'12
CIOs will have to share control of IT budgets

CIOs will increasingly have to share their control of IT budgets with marketing departments as customer relationship management (CRM) software becomes critical to customer retention.
August 20, 2012 20 Aug'12
De Vere Group slashes Telecity server racks in switch to UCS

The hotel group has cut its hosting fees in a deal with ANS to migrate to a Cisco private cloud
August 16, 2012 16 Aug'12
Gartner: Prepare for hybrid cloud pain

Hybrid clouds are set for a big fall as businesses feel the pain of implementation
August 16, 2012 16 Aug'12
Cisco boosts sales and income in 2012

The networking giant announces a 7% rise in sales for the year, along with income of $8bn
August 15, 2012 15 Aug'12
SMEs driving $2.2bn cloud industry growth

The global cloud industry is set to be worth an extra $2.2bn before the end of the year, according to KPMG
August 14, 2012 14 Aug'12
How has banking IT changed after the industry's Armageddon?

Five years after Northern Rock was forced into privatisation, what effect have the many changes in the financial sector had on IT?
August 13, 2012 13 Aug'12
Companies struggle to get past open source ‘big data’ experimentation

Open source big data technologies are attracting enterprise interest. Experts say, Experiment, but have business value in mind.
August 10, 2012 10 Aug'12
Case Study: Welcome Break Group revamps HR with SuccessFactors

Welcome Break Group is starting a project to deploy SuccessFactors, the cloud-based HR system from SAP.
August 09, 2012 09 Aug'12
NHS sees £100m reduction in exposure to CSC contracts

The Department for Health’s financial exposure to its contracts with troubled supplier CSC have decreased by £100m in just three months.
August 07, 2012 07 Aug'12
Microsoft attempts to simplify MS Office integration

Microsoft has unveiled an app store for MS Office 2013for utilities and add-ons
August 06, 2012 06 Aug'12
Putting innovation on the outsourcing menu

Cliff Saran investigates what happens when systems integrators are asked to innovate
August 06, 2012 06 Aug'12
Cloud Industry Forum aligns standards for easier procurement

CIF's latest code of practice aligns with ISO standards to simplify certification and make purchasing cloud services easier
August 03, 2012 03 Aug'12
Bang & Olufsen gets Office in the cloud

Sound system maker Bang & Olufsen is rolling out Microsoft Office 365 to 2,000 employees as it moves its email from Lotus Notes.
August 02, 2012 02 Aug'12
NCC Group to acquire Matasano Security

International escrow and assurance services provider NCC Group is to acquire US-based Matasano Security in £8.4m deal.
August 02, 2012 02 Aug'12
NHS Scotland rolls out shared services for 22 boards

NHS Scotland has started the roll out of a single shared services platform for finance across its 22 health boards.
August 01, 2012 01 Aug'12
Gartner: Online retailers need to exploit search technology

Online retailers are losing business because they are failing to exploit the full potential of search technology, says Gartner
July 31, 2012 31 Jul'12
How Everything Everywhere manages its network

We visit the mobile operator’s service management centre to see how the UK’s largest mobile network keeps track of operations
July 31, 2012 31 Jul'12
Newham spends £400,000 on ChildView software

The London Borough of Newham has spent £400,000 on case management software to help join up its disparate children’s services databases.
July 31, 2012 31 Jul'12
Businesses have 'once in a decade opportunity' to launch innovative apps

Businesses have a short window to distance themselves from competitors by introducing innovative phone apps, says analyst group Gartner
July 31, 2012 31 Jul'12
Interview: Denise McDonagh, government G-cloud director

Denise McDonagh talks about the challenges of the G-cloud programme and how the government is reducing dependence on large outsourcers.
July 30, 2012 30 Jul'12
The impact of private cloud on IT service delivery

Freeform Dynamics analyst Tony Lock writes about the impact private cloud has on budgets, reporting and IT delivery models
July 27, 2012 27 Jul'12
Networking the least understood element of IT, says HP's Nick Watson

HP’s European networking chief Nick Watson blames complexity for lack of understanding of networking in cloud computing
July 26, 2012 26 Jul'12
Windows Azure 'availability issues' hit users in Europe

Users of Microsoft’s cloud-based Azure compute platform have been affected by an availability issue in Europe
July 26, 2012 26 Jul'12
Windows on tablets fuels growth for Citrix

The Apple effect is rubbing off on Citrix, with the desktop virtualisation specialist posting 16% year-over-year growth for Q2 2012
July 26, 2012 26 Jul'12
Juniper and Riverbed enter technology partnership

Juniper and Riverbed combine network and application capabilitites for wide area network (WAN) optimisation, application delivery and mobility
July 25, 2012 25 Jul'12
ERM uses Nomad to accelerate Windows 7 roll-out

Sustainability consultancy ERM has used a combination of Nomad Enterprise and Microsoft’s ConfigMgr platform to distribute Windows 7
July 25, 2012 25 Jul'12
Facebook on the hunt for London-based engineering team

Facebook announces 22 job openings on its London-based team, which will focus mostly on mobile and platform
July 25, 2012 25 Jul'12
Businesses make 70% savings on applications hosted on Amazon

Businesses using Amazon Web Services over the past five years have made considerable savings, an IDC study has found
July 24, 2012 24 Jul'12
SuccessFactors boosts SAP's cloud performance

SAP’s cloud business is growing, thanks to the acquisition of SuccessFactors, according to the company’s latest financial results.
July 23, 2012 23 Jul'12
NHS Hack Day winners claim app will save £3m

The winners of a free software app created at the first NHS Hack Day claim their product could save the NHS £3m per year in lost time
July 23, 2012 23 Jul'12
Heads of business bank on IT to boost business

Top-level business managers regard IT as a competitive advantage, according to Gartner
July 20, 2012 20 Jul'12
Microsoft reports first loss since 1986

The software giant recorded an operating loss of $492m in the fourth quarter of its 2012 fiscal year
July 19, 2012 19 Jul'12
Co-op uses Lloyds managed service in branch acquisition

The Co-operative bank will switch to Lloyds TSB's IT platform when it buys the 632 Lloyds TSB and Cheltenham and Gloucester branches
July 18, 2012 18 Jul'12
CIO Interview: David Henderson, CIO, A&N Media

“From now on everything has to go into the cloud,” says David Henderson, chief information officer at Daily Mail and Metro publisher A&N Media.
July 17, 2012 17 Jul'12
IT consultancy rises in construction and transportation sectors

Finance and the public sector remain IT consultancies' biggest clients but the construction and transportation sectors are increasing their use
July 17, 2012 17 Jul'12
Steve Ballmer launches cloud-based Microsoft Office 2013

Steve Ballmer releases a preview of Microsoft's cloud-based Office 2013 suite of productivity tools, which he says works best on Windows 8 OS
July 16, 2012 16 Jul'12
DCLG sticks with same old system integrators for IT refresh

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) will contract a single outsourcing giant for its desktop management services
July 16, 2012 16 Jul'12
CIO interview: Antoine Shagoury, London Stock Exchange

London Stock Exchange CIO Antoine Shagoury – who recently added COO to his job title – talks about his balancing act at the LSE
July 13, 2012 13 Jul'12
SAP expects strong second quarter

Software provider SAP expects a strong second quarter, with revenues up 18% on last year to €3.9bn (£3bn).
July 13, 2012 13 Jul'12
DWP loses £3.2bn in error and fraud, finds NAO

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) estimates that total benefit overpayments due to fraud and error in 2011-12 were £3.2 billion.
July 13, 2012 13 Jul'12
What next for government open data?

Campaigners are worried that plans for further data releases and their promised £16bn stimulus to the economy are being derailed
July 12, 2012 12 Jul'12
Katie Davis steps down as health informatics chief

Katie Davis is to step down as managing director for NHS Informatics at the Department for Health.
July 11, 2012 11 Jul'12
IT cost-cutting slashes legacy budget

Almost 60% of IT executives have a plan in place to retire applications, according to a UK study by Accenture
July 10, 2012 10 Jul'12
Eurotunnel selects QlikView over SAP for business intelligence applications

Eurotunnel, which runs Le Shuttle, is using business analytics applications built with QlikView to analyse data from its SAP system
July 09, 2012 09 Jul'12
Case Study: Asda Direct revamps distribution centre IT

Asda is deploying software from Manhattan Associates to support the future growth of its e-commerce site, Asda Direct
July 09, 2012 09 Jul'12
Businesses rein in spending on hardware and software

Businesses are reining in spending on hardware and software amid continued uncertainty in the global economy, according to analyst Gartner
July 09, 2012 09 Jul'12
Cloud mobile device management key to BYOD, says Lambeth IT head

Cloud mobile device management will be key to enabling bring your own device (BYOD) policies, says Lambeth council IT chief Rob Miller
July 06, 2012 06 Jul'12
Majority of hospitals seek electronic records post NPfIT

Most hospitals are seeking electronic patient records outside the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT), according to Computer Weekly research
July 05, 2012 05 Jul'12
CW500: Agile techniques for software development

Using agile development methodologies can speed software development and reduce the likelihood of errors, IT leaders heard at the CW500 Club
July 04, 2012 04 Jul'12
UK's biggest GPU-based supercomputer goes live

The University of Oxford and a consortium of UK academic institutions have deployed the nation’s most powerful GPU-accelerated supercomputer
July 04, 2012 04 Jul'12
Network Rail selects Informatica MDM platform for whole-system view

Network Rail chose Informatica for the MDM stage of its change programme, aimed at reducing costs by 30% by 2019. Its Orbis unit is working with Capgemini on an eight-year asset information effort.
July 03, 2012 03 Jul'12
Cloud computing underpins Uefa business strategy

Uefa outsourced its IT infrastructure to a supplier-built private cloud to cope with demand and free up in-house resources for contingency action
July 03, 2012 03 Jul'12
Exeter University automates overseas student processing for UKBA compliance

The University of Exeter is using IT to replace manual processing overseas students in compliance with UK Border Authority (UKBA) rules
July 02, 2012 02 Jul'12
Dell buys Quest Software for $2.4bn to boost enterprise family

Following its acquisition of Wyse earlier this year, Dell is to buy Quest Software to bolster its software virtualisation portfolio
July 02, 2012 02 Jul'12
NHS trust cloud solves immediate challenge and prepares for future

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS trust moved systems into the cloud to solve immediate challenges and prepare for a future of shared services
July 02, 2012 02 Jul'12
National Grid selects HR software package

Energy firm National Grid has chosen software from human resources consultancy firm Towers Watson as it moves towards a single integrated HR system for its 30,000 employees
June 29, 2012 29 Jun'12
Universities deliver HPC for business via the cloud

The University of Cambridge and Imperial College are pooling their resources to create a high-performance computing (HPC) service that will offer some of the UK’s fastest computer resources to industry through the cloud
June 29, 2012 29 Jun'12
Key HMRC IT plans delayed due to spending freeze, says NAO

Key HMRC IT plans have been delayed because of the Cabinet Office’s moratorium on spending, the National Audit Office (NAO) says
June 28, 2012 28 Jun'12
Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude vows permanent rein on IT spending

The government will keep a permanently tight rein on spending controls, says Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude
June 27, 2012 27 Jun'12
Microsoft hikes software costs by four times for some charities

Specialist charities such as housing associations face paying nearly four times as much for Microsoft software due to licensing changes.
June 27, 2012 27 Jun'12
Windows 8 in the enterprise: From tablet to desktop PC

During the Windows preview day in Amsterdam, Microsoft explained how it plans to change the way everyone uses computers in its so-called "beautiful experience"
June 27, 2012 27 Jun'12
RBS set to sue supplier CA Technologies for software failure

Reports claim RBS is gearing up for legal action against US software supplier CA Technologies over the technical fault that crashed accounts
June 27, 2012 27 Jun'12
Microsoft presses the case for Windows 8 in the enterprise

In the second day of its annual TechEd developers conference in Amsterdam, Microsoft presented the case for Windows 8 in the enterprise
June 26, 2012 26 Jun'12
Cambridge University turns to computer games to unlock secrets of the universe

Cambridge University is turning to technology developed for computer gaming to help it solve some of the fundamental problems of science
June 26, 2012 26 Jun'12
Whitehall must measure progress of IT strategy, says IfG

Whitehall must measure the progress of its IT strategy more effectively to achieve its transformation agenda, says the Institute for Government (IfG)
June 26, 2012 26 Jun'12
Cambridge University targets businesses with commodity supercomputer services

The University of Cambridge is offering businesses supercomputer services built on commodity Intel chips
June 26, 2012 26 Jun'12
Amazon delivers high-performance computing applications from Ireland datacentre

Amazon debuts a computer cluster at its facility in Ireland to support European high-performance computing (HPC) applications
June 26, 2012 26 Jun'12
CIO interview: Adriana Karaboutis, global CIO, Dell

It is one thing being CEO of a company with best-in-class supply chain. But what happens when the business refocuses? We talk to Dell's CIO.
June 25, 2012 25 Jun'12
Government slashes SAP and Microsoft spend by £150m

The government expects to slash licence and maintenance spend with Microsoft and SAP up to £150m by 2015, via a framework renegotiation.
June 25, 2012 25 Jun'12
CA Technologies works with RBS on technical fault as outage enters fifth day

Software supplier CA Technologies is working with RBS to fix the software glitch that has caused a five-day outage
June 25, 2012 25 Jun'12
RBS enters fifth day of software failures

After a weekend of the RBS and Natwest outage, accounts are still not back to normal for banking customers
June 22, 2012 22 Jun'12
Software glitch to blame for RBS and NatWest online banking outages

The software glitch behind the outages at RBS and NatWest banks could carry on through the weekend, preventing cutomers from buying online
June 22, 2012 22 Jun'12
Government Procurement Service tenders for £1bn IT services

The Government Procurement Service has published a £1bn tender for IT services
June 22, 2012 22 Jun'12
Post Office launches external review of system at centre of legal disputes

The Post Office has launched an external review into the Horizon computer system at the centre of a legal dispute with sub-postmasters
June 21, 2012 21 Jun'12
NHS Trusts tender for £300m clinical systems

Some 29 NHS Trusts across London and south England have issued a framework tender, worth £300m, for clinical information systems
June 21, 2012 21 Jun'12
The future of Autonomy – one year on

Recent moves to subsume Autonomy into HP have lent increasing irony to the name. Nearly a year after the £7.1bn acquisition, we examine Autonomy's future
June 21, 2012 21 Jun'12
Halliburton CIO Ken Braud on strategy and innovation

CIO Ken Braud talked to delegates at the Orange Business Live customer event in Rome, and it was clear he has plenty on his plate.
June 21, 2012 21 Jun'12
Banks break with in-house software in move to commercial systems

Increased regulation, reduced profits and customer demands are driving banks to replace home-grown software with off-the-shelf alternatives
June 20, 2012 20 Jun'12
Wimbledon site gets redesign on IBM cloud

The Wimbledon website has been redesigned on IBM’s SmartCloud for the 16 million visitors expected to access the site during the tennis tournament
June 20, 2012 20 Jun'12
Testing becoming ingrained in software development

A survey of software testing capabilities has revealed a dramatic increase in the number of organisations embedding testing into the software development process
June 20, 2012 20 Jun'12
Enterprises increase software application spending to $120bn in 2012

Global spending on enterprise application software will reach $120bn this year, according to the latest Gartner research
June 20, 2012 20 Jun'12
Aston Martin implements Microsoft for accounts

Car manufacturer Aston Martin implemented an ERP system from Microsoft when it required a new accounting system
June 19, 2012 19 Jun'12
Forrester: Prepare for digital disruption in your business

The digital revolution will impact every business sector. CIOs must adapt to support digital products
June 19, 2012 19 Jun'12
Oracle reports strong profit growth

Oracle reported an 8% increase in profits on a 1% increase in sales for the fourth quarter of its 2012 financial year
June 18, 2012 18 Jun'12
Microsoft customers react to July licence fee hike

Microsoft’s decision to increase the costs of volume licensing agreements demonstrates the power software suppliers wield over their customers
June 18, 2012 18 Jun'12
US Sequoia machine takes title of fastest supercomputer

The US has overtaken Japan in the race for the world’s fastest supercomputer, with the Sequoia computer achieving 16.32 petaflop/s
June 18, 2012 18 Jun'12
Japan's K computer to drive breakthroughs in engineering, medicine and science

Japan’s K computer, ranked last year as the world’s most powerful supercomputer, is expected to drive breakthroughs in engineering, medicine and science when it enters live operation in October
June 18, 2012 18 Jun'12
Asian scientists call for government action on supercomputers

Scientists in India, China, Japan, Korea and India have called on their governments to collaborate on supercomputer technology
June 14, 2012 14 Jun'12
Microsoft pushes Azure as cloud infrastructure on demand

Microsoft is now offering Azure as on-demand cloud infrastructure, supporting both Windows and Linux workloads