News

Business applications

September 11, 2012 11 Sep'12
Ten killer questions for choosing an HR IT system

Inchcape Shipping Services (ISS) chose a cloud-based HR system, to manage its 3,700 disparate global staff, on the basis of 10 killer questions
September 11, 2012 11 Sep'12
Cabinet Office blacklists Fujitsu from government IT contract tenders

The Cabinet Office has banned Fujitsu and another IT supplier from tendering for public sector IT contracts as they constitute too high a risk
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 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 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 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 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 06, 2012 06 Aug'12
Putting innovation on the outsourcing menu

Cliff Saran investigates what happens when systems integrators are asked to innovate
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 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 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
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 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 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 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 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
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
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 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
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 13, 2012 13 Jun'12
The cloud will move supercomputers into the mainstream

Cloud computing will move supercomputers out of the research labs into mainstream business, says Amazon
June 13, 2012 13 Jun'12
BAE assesses off-the-shelf application lifecycle management

BAE Maritime Systems is assessing new tools from Serena Software to support mission-critical software development
June 13, 2012 13 Jun'12
South Lanarkshire moves to IBM XIV disk storage platform

South Lanarkshire council has invested in an IBM XIV disk storage platform as part of its move to virtualisation.
June 13, 2012 13 Jun'12
O’Neill consolidates IT applications to grow profits

Retail chain O’Neill Europe has undergone a major IT consolidation to cut costs and use information more efficiently in a difficult trading market
June 06, 2012 06 Jun'12
HP eyes EMC’s storage market

HP has released a StoreOnce data deduplication back-up system, which it claims can ingest data at 100TB per hour – three times faster than EMC’s recently launched Data Domain 990
May 31, 2012 31 May'12
William Grant & Sons opens datacentre for ERP consolidation

Distiller William Grant & Sons opens a UK datacentre to consolidate its global ERP operation
May 30, 2012 30 May'12
Inadequate financial reporting holds firms back

Businesses admit difficulties in controlling data quality when reporting financial results as finance executives complain of stress as a result
May 23, 2012 23 May'12
Amey uses SAP HR system to manage 11,000 people

Developed by SAP specialist Epi-use, SAP HR is being used to power a human resources shared service at construction firm Amey
May 21, 2012 21 May'12
Global software piracy increasing rapidly, study shows

Global software piracy is increasing rapidly in the absence of any effective deterrence, a survey has revealed.
April 27, 2012 27 Apr'12
Amazon results demonstrate commitment to cloud

Amazon's AWS cloud business made $500m in sales in the first quarter of 2012, comprising 3.79% of Amazon's Q1 business
April 25, 2012 25 Apr'12
SAP reports double-digit growth

SAP has continued where it left off last year with an 11% increase in sales in the first three months of 2012.
April 19, 2012 19 Apr'12
Supercomputers will reach 'exascale' speeds within decade

Supercomputers will be powerful enough to simulate the human brain within seven years, says founder of Top500 list.
April 18, 2012 18 Apr'12
Government unaware how much it pays for e-mail services

Government departments do not know how much they are spending on e-mail services, according to research by Computer Weekly.
April 04, 2012 04 Apr'12
Microsoft improves virtual desktops but drops inventory software

Microsoft is expanding its desktop virtualisation product family with software that retains user preferences as they switch between devices
April 04, 2012 04 Apr'12
Atos completes first live software rehearsal for London 2012 Olympics

Atos has completed the first live rehearsal of IT, communications, media, sports and security systems for the London 2012 Olympics
March 29, 2012 29 Mar'12
Danone uses SAP to reduce carbon footprint

Heath food maker Danone has used SAP to reduce its carbon footprint by 22%.
March 27, 2012 27 Mar'12
Retail and insurance lead two-speed IT spending

More IT-based businesses are starting with greater investment in IT after the slowdown, but with lopsided demand as businesses increase spending at different rates
March 26, 2012 26 Mar'12
BSA fines Coverteam UK £6,000 for unlicensed Microsoft and Adobe software

The BSA has fined power conversion company Converteam UK £6,000 for using unlicensed copies of Microsoft and Adobe software
March 23, 2012 23 Mar'12
Information management: lessons from the public sector

Freeform Dynamics identifies the lessons organisations can learn from the public sector's approach to information management
March 19, 2012 19 Mar'12
Case Study: US Xpress deploys hybrid big data with Informatica

US Xpress is using a suite of data tools and integration products from Informatica to boost its fleet management
March 14, 2012 14 Mar'12
Gartner: Rethink organisation structure to boost business

Businesses must radically rethink how they organise staff and collaborate if they want to make big improvements, according to analyst Gartner
March 13, 2012 13 Mar'12
Enterprise software procurement done right can save companies millions

Software procurement is frequently poorly conducted, argues consultant Andy Hayler. Intelligent software evaluation processes and savvy contract management can pay huge dividends, he says.
March 07, 2012 07 Mar'12
Government’s shared services strategy failing, says NAO

The government’s £1.4bn shared services centres have failed to achieve value for money, according to a report from the National Audit Office (NAO)
March 06, 2012 06 Mar'12
SAP boosts ByDesign ecosystem to support small business customisation

SAP is rolling out a partner programme for its ByDesign cloud-based product, to simplify implementation in SMEs
March 06, 2012 06 Mar'12
CW500: Getting to grips with big data

Experts from Standard Life, Deloitte and Intelligent Business Strategies share some useful tips for CIOs on understanding big data
February 23, 2012 23 Feb'12
Predictive analytics used to cut costs in oil sector

Predictive analytics is being used in the oil and gas industry to better manage asset maintenance on capital equipment. And a more enterprisewide adoption of the technology is predicted.
February 20, 2012 20 Feb'12
CIO priorities 2012: Ali Jaffri, ICT manager, Gallions Housing

Ali Jaffri, ICT manager at Gallions Housing, talks about the challenges of 2012.