News

Business applications

• September 19, 2011 19 Sep'11

  New Look increases sales by 45% after mobile site launch

  Fashion retailer New Look has increased sales by 45% three months after the launch of its mobile commerce site.

• September 14, 2011 14 Sep'11

  IT development underpinning Universal Credits comes under fire from MPs and experts

  The delivery of Universal Credits is coming under fire as observers are casting an increasingly critical eye on the IT systems underpinning the politically sensitive project.

• September 13, 2011 13 Sep'11

  Sabre develops apps marketplace for travel industry

  Sabre, the global distribution system for reserving hotels, airlines, cruise ships, rail tickets and car hire, has taken the concept of the app store and applied in to its own travel market.

• September 12, 2011 12 Sep'11

  Windows 8: Microsoft hibernates the operating system for faster boot-up

  This week developers get a chance to try out Windows 8, the latest version of Microsoft's desktop operating system. Windows 8 offers a new graphical user interface using tiles rather than the start menu, which is optimised for touch.

• September 09, 2011 09 Sep'11

  Morrisons checks out a milestone in £310m IT transformation

  Supermarket chain Morrisons has completed a major electronic point-of-sale (EPOS) roll-out as part of its ongoing £310m IT transformation programme.

• September 09, 2011 09 Sep'11

  Cambridge exam board outsources applications support to Cognizant

  Cambridge University's examination group has outsourced applications management and support to Cognizant that will see the company replace 20-year-old bespoke applications with off-the-shelf alternatives.

• September 08, 2011 08 Sep'11

  University challenge: using IT to improve services and reduce costs

  Universities face a balancing act as they become increasingly expected to improve the experiences of more demanding students while making budgets go further, and IT is a critical tool in finding this balance.

• September 07, 2011 07 Sep'11

  CIO interview: Mike Bracken, UK government director of digital

  Whitehall is not exactly known for being at the bleeding edge of technological innovation. But as the newly appointed government director of digital, Mike Bracken is set to change that perception. In an exclusive interview, he discusses the ...

• September 07, 2011 07 Sep'11

  DigiNotar certificate authority breach: Why it matters

  There has been much speculation around the identity and motive of the hacker who was able to breach DigiNotar and issue fraudulent digital certificates for hundreds of websites, but putting such speculation aside, what is the broader significance of...

• September 06, 2011 06 Sep'11

  CRM failing business due to lack of focus

  Customer relationship management (CRM) is failing to deliver business value, according to a study from the National Computer Centre (NCC).

• August 30, 2011 30 Aug'11

  Small suppliers dominate social CRM market

  Spending on social software for marketing, customer service and sales increased by 40% in 2010, but social CRM remained less than 5% of the total CRM application market, according to analyst Gartner.

• August 19, 2011 19 Aug'11

  What does HP's Autonomy acquisition mean for the UK tech sector?

  HP's bombshell announcement that it is to acquire Autonomy has left many questioning where this leaves the UK software industry. Computer Weekly asks the experts what the deal means for UK home-grown tech talent and what HP is likely to achieve with...

• August 16, 2011 16 Aug'11

  Microsoft to discontinue support for its e-book reader application

  Microsoft is to halt support for its e-book reader application in a year's time, with no new content to be released after November this year.

• August 15, 2011 15 Aug'11

  Government must change the way it stores citizens' personal data, calls the EHRC

  The government must bring in changes to better protect personal information, calls the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

• August 12, 2011 12 Aug'11

  Gist uses IBM cloud to improve supply chain messaging

  Gist, a logistics company specialising in the distribution of chilled, frozen and ambient foods, has implemented IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services.

• August 11, 2011 11 Aug'11

  US woman sues Google over Gmail scanning

  A woman has filed a class action suit against Google for scanning all e-mail sent to Gmail account holders to use for targeted advertising campaigns.

• August 11, 2011 11 Aug'11

  Government moves Alpha.gov.uk one-stop website to beta phase for public testing

  The government has moved an alpha version of a pilot website - which could replace all .gov.uk URLs - to beta.

• August 09, 2011 09 Aug'11

  Windows 7 deployments delayed by economic uncertainties, says Gartner

  Economic uncertainty may cause a slowdown in Windows 7 operating system (OS) deployments in Western Europe, according to research firm Gartner.

• August 08, 2011 08 Aug'11

  Royal Pharmaceutical Society outsources to cope with restructure

  The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain has outsourced the management of e-mail and storage to support a major restructure.

• August 05, 2011 05 Aug'11

  Case Study: Data encryption at the Salvation Army

  The Salvation Army in the UK supports flexible working from home using laptops owned by the charity, but says finding a good way of protecting data was a challenge.

• August 02, 2011 02 Aug'11

  Tesco signs eight-year deal to use Microsoft products and services

  Tesco has signed a software licensing and services deal with Microsoft aimed at helping improve the retail giant's global productivity and international growth.

• August 02, 2011 02 Aug'11

  Amazon closes Android appstore submissions in Germany after Apple lawsuit

  Amazon has closed submissions for its Android app store in Germany following a lawsuit from Apple.

• August 01, 2011 01 Aug'11

  CIO interview: Michael Foster, European vice-president of IT, FedEx Express

  What role should IT play in business? This is the question Michael Foster, vice-president of IT at Fedex Europe, tackles at the global courier. Cliff Saran reports.

• July 28, 2011 28 Jul'11

  ElasticStack delivers cloud with SAN-resilient storage on commodity hardware

  Cloud platform provider ElasticStack has refined its software to deliver a cloud platform with resilient storage using low-cost commodity hardware...

• July 26, 2011 26 Jul'11

  Tate museum group chooses Drupal and cloud hosting for new website

  The Tate museum group is scrapping the use of HTML code in favour of open source content management platform Drupal...

• July 25, 2011 25 Jul'11

  Automated web application attacks are the top security threat, study reveals

  Websites are attacked about 27 times an hour or once every two minutes on average, peaking at 25,000 attacks a minute or seven a second, according to research...

• July 20, 2011 20 Jul'11

  Forrester: Seven trends to shape the future of enterprise applications and ERP

  Over the next five years, technology changes will disrupt our long-held beliefs about the ownership and value of core enterprise application, writes Paul D. Hamerman, vice-president and principal analyst at Forrester Research.

• July 19, 2011 19 Jul'11

  Carphone Warehouse uses business process management to increase customer satisfaction

  Retailer Carphone Warehouse is claiming a 25% jump in its customer satisfaction ratings after investing in BPM software to help staff deal with sales, queries and complaints.

• July 18, 2011 18 Jul'11

  Government shelves Co-ordinated Online Record of Electors database to save £11m

  The government has shelved plans to create a database of electoral information, in a move estimated to save £11m.

• July 14, 2011 14 Jul'11

  Gartner urges IT departments to support end-user application development

  Business IT users are increasingly looking outside the IT department for application development and in many cases are building applications themselves,...

• July 12, 2011 12 Jul'11

  Twitter uses Acquia to provide Drupal-based development community site

  Twitter has launched a new developer community site using open source content management system (CMS) Drupal, provided by Acquia.

• July 11, 2011 11 Jul'11

  Microsoft packs a lot into July’s four Patch Tuesday security updates

  Microsoft is to release only four security updates in this month's Patch Tuesday security update, but these will cover 22 vulnerabilities in Windows and Office.

• July 11, 2011 11 Jul'11

  Law firm uses RES Software to manage desktop transfer in office move

  UK-based international law firm Stephenson Harwood used RES Software to retain and manage user desktop settings as well as upgrade desktop software during an office move.

• July 07, 2011 07 Jul'11

  Oracle releases iPad app for virtual desktop client

  Oracle has released a virtual desktop client app for the Apple iPad to provide mobile access to server-hosted desktops and enterprise applications.

• July 07, 2011 07 Jul'11

  Kognitio ships data analysis tool Pablo

  Data analytics company Kognitio is now shipping Pablo, a product that allows users to build and query virtual OLAP (online analytical processing) cubes without data warehouse specialists.

• July 01, 2011 01 Jul'11

  DWP adds agile development into IT contracts for £2bn Universal Credit system

  The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has modified contracts governing the supply of its £2bn Universal Credit system by adding clauses encouraging agile development.

• June 29, 2011 29 Jun'11

  Update software to reduce risk of cyber attack, top suppliers tell business

  Businesses are unnecessarily exposing themselves to cyber attack simply by failing to update to the latest versions of the software they are running, according to Microsoft and Adobe.

• June 23, 2011 23 Jun'11

  Interactive crime maps allow victims to track cases

  The government will extend its interactive crime maps site to enable victims to track their cases online, according to Nick Herbert, minister of state for policing and criminal justice.

• June 22, 2011 22 Jun'11

  European Commission gives green light to CSC acquisition of beleaguered iSoft

  The European Commission (EC) has approved CSC's acquisition of healthcare software maker iSoft.

• June 22, 2011 22 Jun'11

  Police National Database launched containing details of 15 million UK citizens

  A national database to allow police forces to share locally held information across the country has been launched by the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA).

• June 22, 2011 22 Jun'11

  Mozilla releases final version of Firefox 5 for download

  Mozilla has released a fifth version of its web browser, Firefox, available to download for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android.

• June 17, 2011 17 Jun'11

  Chinese software flaw makes infrastructure vulnerable, warns report

  China's public infrastructure is vulnerable to cyber attack because of vulnerabilities in software used to run weapons systems, utilities and chemical plants, according to Reuters.

• June 09, 2011 09 Jun'11

  Plan International moves global systems to SAP

  International child welfare charity Plan International is rolling out SAP globally and in doing so is embarking on its first ever major application outsourcing project.

• June 02, 2011 02 Jun'11

  E-mail accounts of senior US officials targeted in Chinese hack attack

  Chinese hackers have accessed the accounts of hundreds of Gmail users, including senior US officials, Chinese political activists, military personnel, journalists and officials in several Asian countries, Google has said.

• May 31, 2011 31 May'11

  Case study: Invensys saves £546,000 with SMS tokens for 150,000 users

  Engineering firm Invensys is embarking on a global roll-out of software-based tokens from SecurEnvoy to replace physical token-based authentication.

• May 31, 2011 31 May'11

  Google Chrome OS keeps focus on notebooks despite tablet explosion

  Google will keep the focus of its Chrome operating system on notebooks rather than tablets for now, according to a senior executive at the search company.

• May 27, 2011 27 May'11

  DWP prepares alternative to identity cards for Universal Credit

  The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is grooming a British tech start-up to play a key role in its £2bn Universal Credit benefits system.

• May 26, 2011 26 May'11

  Data warehouse and business intelligence projects fail to meet companies' requirements

  Over half of businesses gave their business intelligence and data warehouse projects a rating of "average" when asked how well they met business objectives.

• May 26, 2011 26 May'11

  Twinfield offers mileage accounting on iPhone

  Online accounting services provider Twinfield has created an iPhone application that will enable users to automatically record time and mileage. Available as a free download from the Apple AppStore, the app uses global positioning to track mileage.

• May 20, 2011 20 May'11

  Salesforce.com gains 5,400 customers but profit slumps by 97%

  Salesforce.com posted a 97% profit slump since last year despite its subscription-based CRM software growing to be used by over 97,000 companies.