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Business applications

• January 08, 2008 08 Jan'08

  CA's website hacked to point users to Chinese malware

  According to reports, IT supplier CA's main website has been hacked, with visitors redirected to a Chinese site distributing malware.

• January 08, 2008 08 Jan'08

  UK firms have difficulties with business processes, survey shows

  More than half of UK companies have problems with most of their critical business processes, according to a survey by infrastructure software company Software AG.

• January 08, 2008 08 Jan'08

  University of Cambridge picks Cisco and BT for IP telephones

  The University of Cambridge has signed a multi-million pound contract with Cisco and BT to deliver approximately 20,000 IP telephony handsets to the university over the next 18 months, replacing the existing system.

• January 08, 2008 08 Jan'08

  Wildlife trust gains a bird’s eye view

  Cumbria Wildlife Trust is using digital aerial mapping technology to protect wildlife in one of Britain's areas of outstanding natural beauty. The trust is using GeoPerspectives photomap digital imagery, which covers the entire county of Cumbria.

• January 07, 2008 07 Jan'08

  Bill Gates hails 'second digital age'

  In his keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft chairman, Bill Gates, predicted that the digital world was now focusing on connecting people. Calling this the second digital age, Gates said this new digital world would...

• January 07, 2008 07 Jan'08

  Fire IT project two years late and £70m overbudget

  A government IT project aiming to centralise fire control rooms is two years behind schedule and more than 50% overbudget, according to a report from the Communities and Local Government Committee.

• January 04, 2008 04 Jan'08

  First Microsoft Patch Tuesday of the year is quiet

  It is a quite Patch Tuesday next week, as Microsoft is only releasing one "critical" security patch on 8 January, its first of the year.

• January 04, 2008 04 Jan'08

  Yale deploys CRM platform to support ITIL initiative

  Yale University in the US is rolling out a customer relationship management to improve its IT helpdesk and support its IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) initiative.

• January 04, 2008 04 Jan'08

  Governments adopt OpenDocument Format

  Governments are increasingly adopting the open-source OpenDocument Format (ODF), according to the annual report by the ODF Alliance.

• January 04, 2008 04 Jan'08

  Flash users hit by cross-site scripting flaw

  The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-Cert) has reported security vulnerabilities in Flash file code.

• January 04, 2008 04 Jan'08

  More than one million Facebook users infected by malicious love widget

  More than one million Facebook users could be affected by a malicious widget.

• January 04, 2008 04 Jan'08

  Firefox flaw allows PayPal hack, says researcher

  A potential flaw in the way Firefox web browser handles log-ons could be used by identity thieves to dupe users into disclosing passwords, a leading security researcher has warned.

• January 04, 2008 04 Jan'08

  Vista gains momentum as end of XP support looms

  One-third of enterprises will start company-wide roll-outs of Windows Vista in 2008 as Microsoft begins to phase out support for Windows XP, analyst firm Forrester has predicted.

• January 03, 2008 03 Jan'08

  Users see older files blocked by Office 2003 SP3

  Microsoft has been forced to issue a complex workaround after users complained that its Office 2003 Service Pack 3 blocked access to older file formats.

• January 03, 2008 03 Jan'08

  Moat housing association deploys spend control system

  The Moat housing association in southeast England is deploying the Proactis Spend Control system from Sapphire Systems to get a tighter rein on its finances.

• January 03, 2008 03 Jan'08

  Staff return to face new year wave of malware attacks

  The hackers are failing to take an early new year break with staff being warned of a new wave of malware attacks.

• January 03, 2008 03 Jan'08

  Server virtualisation saves energy at Vanderbilt University

  At Vanderbilt University, officials with Information Technology Services are using a server virtualisation strategy to dramatically reduce the rising energy demands caused by the computing needs of a large research university.

• January 03, 2008 03 Jan'08

  IDC sees 'post-disruption' marketplace taking hold in 2008

  IDC predicts that 2008 will be marked by greatly increased investment in emerging markets, introduction of a raft of new online product and service offerings, the opening-up of closed business models to communities, and innovative new approaches to ...

• January 02, 2008 02 Jan'08

  Mills & Boon transfers to Email Systems for web security

  Mills & Boon has bolstered e-mail and web security by migrating its managed service to Email Systems.

• January 02, 2008 02 Jan'08

  AOL ends support for Netscape browser

  The Netscape Navigator browser will no longer be supported by owner AOL from 1 February because of a lack of users.

• January 01, 2008 01 Jan'08

  Hot skills catch-up

  Click on the links for recent Computer Weekly articles on the background and applications of programming languages, formats, standards and skills, how easy it is to become expert in them, and how to go about adding a new one to your CV.

• December 24, 2007 24 Dec'07

  Get real value from real-time systems

  A few years ago, everyone was talking about the real-time enterprise and how it was destined to be the future. The idea was that companies would be instantaneously aware of any important business events taking place so that they could respond ...

• December 20, 2007 20 Dec'07

  Gerber Juice outsources to save £100,000 a year

  UK fruit juice manufacturer Gerber Juices expects to save £100,000 a year by outsourcing the management of its database.

• December 20, 2007 20 Dec'07

  Specific Media deploys IBM warehouse platform for targeted ads

  US online advertising network Specific Media is to use the IBM Balanced Warehouse platform to improve the results of advertising campaigns.

• December 20, 2007 20 Dec'07

  IBM releases free smart e-mail search software

  Software is powered by advanced algorithms that can interpret incomplete queries and find information such as phone numbers, people, meetings, presentations, documents and images

• December 18, 2007 18 Dec'07

  Manufacturer boosts mainframe with Red Hat Linux

  Italian olive oil manufacturer Fratelli Carli has standardised its IT infrastructure onRed Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

• December 18, 2007 18 Dec'07

  Network significant contributor to environmental footprint

  Gartner advises organisations that even if they can’t turn their network off to reduce their environmental footprint, they must take simple steps to reduce it.

• December 18, 2007 18 Dec'07

  Avaya software enables iPhone to integrate with corporate IP networks

  Avaya is doing its bit to make Apple's iPhone a genuine business tool by enabling its business mobile IP software to work with the must-have consumer Christmas gadget.

• December 18, 2007 18 Dec'07

  IT managers put off by web conferencing ‘complexities’ despite benefits

  Many IT managers are put off from using web conferencing systems because of perceived technology set-up challenges.

• December 18, 2007 18 Dec'07

  Fortis increases online loan completion by 25% with web anti-bottleneck tool

  Fortis credit4me has seen a 25% improvement in customers successfully completing web loan applications after deploying the Speed-Trap web anti-bottleneck tool.

• December 18, 2007 18 Dec'07

  Italian Ministry of Economics and Finance uses Linux for mission-critical apps

  The Italian Ministry of Economics and Finance has selected Red Hat Linux systems to run the organisation's mission-critical applications.

• December 18, 2007 18 Dec'07

  Wolters Kluwer boosts efficiency with SAS business intelligence

  In November last year, business publisher and advisory service Wolters Kluwer piloted a business intelligence system from SAS to consolidate the view of its customers and improve the return on its marketing and sales campaigns.

• December 17, 2007 17 Dec'07

  Novell makes year-end loss, despite rising Linux sales

  Novell made a loss last year despite increasing sales for its Linux-based products.

• December 17, 2007 17 Dec'07

  Water firm uses GIS to improve business processes

  Clean water supplier Veolia Water has deployed a new geographic information system (GIS) from ESRI to improve business efficiencies in its operations.

• December 14, 2007 14 Dec'07

  11 Sussex NHS Trusts share consolidated network security system

  Sussex Health Informatics Service (HIS), which provides IT services to all 11 NHS trusts in the Sussex region, is deploying consolidated Sophos security and management solutions to protect 25,000 users.

• December 14, 2007 14 Dec'07

  Software company lodges complaint against Microsoft

  A Norwegian software company has filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission, accusing Microsoft of tying its web browser, Internet Explorer, to Windows and of hindering interoperabilty with other web browsers.

• December 14, 2007 14 Dec'07

  Linklaters boosts global collaboration with EMC

  International law firm Linklaters has implemented a content management system to share 25 million documents between 4,000 lawyers and business service team members across 31 offices in 24 countries.

• December 14, 2007 14 Dec'07

  Ofcom to auction TV frequencies in 2009

  Ofcom will, in 2009, auction off the radio frequencies that presently carry terrestrial television following the national switch to digital TV.

• December 14, 2007 14 Dec'07

  Semiconductor sales up 3% as manufacturers follow consumer product demands

  Worldwide semiconductor revenue increased almost 3% this year, as suppliers became increasingly dependant on consumer spending patterns, said analyst Gartner.

• December 14, 2007 14 Dec'07

  DHL cuts costs and paper invoicing

  Logistics company DHL is rolling out e-invoicing across Europe, and expects to save millions of pounds by reducing billing costs by at least 15% across the region.

• December 14, 2007 14 Dec'07

  £1.9m digital e-learning project launched

  A £1.9m government-supported digital e-learning initiative has been launched.

• December 14, 2007 14 Dec'07

  Anglo Beef Processors beefs up document management to save cash

  Anglo Beef Processors (ABP) is streamlining its accounts-payable processes and improving its cash collection by implementing new document management and imaging software.

• December 14, 2007 14 Dec'07

  Cruden Group saves £10,000 a year with document management

  Construction company Cruden Group has achieved savings of at least £10,000 a year by implementing document management software.

• December 13, 2007 13 Dec'07

  Law firm Norton Rose chooses Fast search engine

  International law firm Norton Rose expects to save £500,000 a year by introducing an integrated search engine to improve knowledge sharing between 2,000 users across 24 offices in 20 countries.

• December 13, 2007 13 Dec'07

  Peer-to-peer botnets pose fresh network threat

  Businesses, governments and internet service providers face dangerous new network disruption and malware attacks from botnets based on peer-to-peer technology (P2P) instead of the more common hierarchical structure.

• December 13, 2007 13 Dec'07

  New online service for more efficient virtualisation product purchase

  Transitive Corporation, a provider of cross-platform virtualisation software has made its QuickTransit enterprise product line available for purchase from the Red Hat Exchange (RHX) online service.

• December 13, 2007 13 Dec'07

  Ridge and Partners opts for Workspace to improve workflow

  Construction consultancy Ridge and Partners has invested £130,000 in web-based knowledge management software to standardise and improve workflow practices.

• December 13, 2007 13 Dec'07

  Microsoft releases Office 2007 SP1

  Microsoft has released Office 2007 SP1, designed to enhance the stability, performance and security of Microsoft office.

• December 13, 2007 13 Dec'07

  US-CERT: hackers are attacking flaw in Microsoft Access

  The US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) has warned that hackers are actively targeting a security flaw in the Microsoft Access system.

• December 13, 2007 13 Dec'07

  Genesys acquires Informiam to boost performance management offering in contact centres

  Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, an Alcatel-Lucent firm, has acquired Informiam LLC, a pioneer in software that optimises customer service operations.

• December 12, 2007 12 Dec'07

  Butlins plans to grow through online sales

  UK holiday company Butlins has begun using website optimisation software as part of its strategy to increase online bookings by at least five percentage points in 2008.

• December 12, 2007 12 Dec'07

  Aviva improves web security and stability with single hosting deal

  Aviva has selected NTT Europe Online to host all of the group's websites - including household brands such as Norwich Union, RAC and BSM.

• December 11, 2007 11 Dec'07

  AMRO technology supports VocaLink

  Dutch bank ABN AMRO is providing VocaLink with access to its network to deliver global Euro payments globally when the single euro payments area (Sepa) system comes into force next month.

• December 11, 2007 11 Dec'07

  Funky Group implements Elertz for targeted web marketing

  The Funky Group online hair and beauty site has adopted a web alert tool to complement its existing e-mail marketing campaigns, which often get ignored by most customers.

• December 11, 2007 11 Dec'07

  EMC improves storage virtualisation platform

  Storage systems supplier EMC has improved its storage area network (San) virtualisation with a new version of the EMC Invista platform.

• December 11, 2007 11 Dec'07

  Construction firm deploys Workspace document management

  Baxall Construction has implemented document management software to conform to industry standards for the storage and retrieval of business correspondence.

• December 11, 2007 11 Dec'07

  Nationwide extends mobile banking with iPhones

  Nationwide customers with Apple iPhone and iPod Touch devices will be able to access their online bank accounts while on the move, as the company extends accessibility.

• December 11, 2007 11 Dec'07

  Yotel: IP network convergence in a capsule

  Yotel, the newly opened capsule hotel inside Heathrow Airport's Terminal 4, is using a converged network with two different digital subscriber lines to run all business applications, including IP-based CCTV, and deliver the latest technology to ...

• December 10, 2007 10 Dec'07

  Application developers not using hard metrics, Forrester says

  Application developers are relying on subjective estimates to measure the success of an IT project rather than hard metrics, according to a study conducted by Forrester Consulting for Borland Software.

• December 10, 2007 10 Dec'07

  Akamai Technologies adds application acceleration technology to its platform

  Akamai Technologies, a provider of web acceleration technology has added application acceleration protocol technology to its platform.

• December 10, 2007 10 Dec'07

  Customers dissatisfied with eGovernment services, says survey

  More than half of citizens are unsatisfied with e-government services, according to a survey carried out by business management company Touchpaper.

• December 10, 2007 10 Dec'07

  Hertfordshire uses teleconferencing to deliver flexible working

  Hertfordshire County Council is piloting teleconferencing and instant messaging in a bid to improve communication and efficiency at the council.

• December 10, 2007 10 Dec'07

  Efficiency and security drive wireless tracking revenues

  Wireless tracking revenues will reach £2.4bn in Western Europe by 2012, according to a report by Juniper Research.

• December 10, 2007 10 Dec'07

  IBM Classification Module set for an upgrade

  IBM will announce an update to its system to manage and interpret unstructured data in the enterprise next week.

• December 07, 2007 07 Dec'07

  EC to use mobile phones to track carbon footprints

  New application allows users to see how their daily choices impact climate change in terms of the major greenhouse gases

• December 07, 2007 07 Dec'07

  Cisco partners with BT on video conferencing

  Cisco Systems has extended its Cisco TelePresence platform to enable companies to run inter-company video conferences.

• December 07, 2007 07 Dec'07

  Oracle to acquire Moniforce

  Oracle has announced the acquisition of Moniforce, a web application performance management provider.

• December 06, 2007 06 Dec'07

  IT design process must consider environment, says Carbon Trust

  IT departments need to be more flexible and increase their efforts to become environmentally friendly, according to the Carbon Trust.

• December 06, 2007 06 Dec'07

  Smoothwall improves school web filtering platform

  Smoothwall has improved its schools web filtering platform with new management features to make sure web policies are adhered to.

• December 06, 2007 06 Dec'07

  Callcredit speeds credit checks with SQL upgrade

  Callcredit, the credit reference agency arm of Skipton Building Society, has doubled the speed of its credit checking service after ­upgrading to the latest version of Microsoft SQL Server.

• December 06, 2007 06 Dec'07

  Microsoft makes Vista SP1 Release Candidate available

  Microsoft has released Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Release Candidate (RC) to developers.

• December 06, 2007 06 Dec'07

  Olympics, iPhone, Web 2.0 and ‘vishing’ to spur web attacks in 2008

  Web security firm Websense has predicted the top security threats for 2008.

• December 06, 2007 06 Dec'07

  Indian Microsoft researchers split PC screens

  Microsoft researchers in India have developed a technology that allows organisations to split PC screens to allow two simultaneous users using different keyboards.

• December 05, 2007 05 Dec'07

  Retail banks held back by legacy systems

  Retail banks are failing to improve communications with customers because legacy systems are holding them back, according to research from Coleman Parkes.

• December 05, 2007 05 Dec'07

  Firms fail to unlock value of unstructured data

  European firms are failing to unlock the value of unstructured content in their organisations.

• December 05, 2007 05 Dec'07

  SMS celebrates 15th birthday

  The company that sent the first SMS mobile text message is celebrating the technology's 15th birthday.

• December 05, 2007 05 Dec'07

  SAP releases SAP Customer Relationship Management

  SAP has introduced the next version of SAP Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM), a component of its SAP Business Suite enterprise software.

• December 05, 2007 05 Dec'07

  IBM to donate £1m supercomputer to South Africa

  IBM has announced that it will donate a £1m 14-teraflop Blue Gene/P system to the Meraka Institute which will be hosted by the Center for High Performance Computing (CHPC) in Cape Town, South Africa.

• December 05, 2007 05 Dec'07

  Oracle user satisfaction dips

  The UK Oracle User Group's annual survey of 600 users shows lower levels of satisfaction in Oracle Support compared with 2006.

• December 04, 2007 04 Dec'07

  Microsoft taking steps to improve Windows Genuine Advantage

  Microsoft said it will increase its efforts against piracy and has outlined steps being taken to protect Windows Vista from ongoing and known counterfeiting threats.

• December 04, 2007 04 Dec'07

  Erith Group turns to Google Apps in hour of need

  A demolition company saved itself from disaster when staff switched to Google Apps following a fire that destroyed the firm's IT facilities.

• December 04, 2007 04 Dec'07

  Woolworths uses analytics software to recommend gifts

  Woolworths is implementing software from Avail Intelligence to automatically generate gift recommendations for its online customers based on customer behaviour.

• December 04, 2007 04 Dec'07

  Dunfermline Building Society appoints Graeme Hardie as IT general manager

  Dunfermline Building Society has appointed Graeme Hardie as its new general manager for IT

• December 04, 2007 04 Dec'07

  Concrete product maker starts paperless drive

  Aerated concrete building products manufacturer H+H UK has cut costs and improved efficiency by digitising thousands of paper documents.

• December 04, 2007 04 Dec'07

  IBM backing OpenSolaris OS

  IBM is supporting the open source OpenSolaris OS from Sun Microsystems on its mainframes.

• December 04, 2007 04 Dec'07

  European Commission to use mobile phones to track carbon footprints

  Scientists at the European Commission have launched a mobile application that uses mobile phones to track users' carbon footprints.

• December 04, 2007 04 Dec'07

  Collaboration technology enables leaner, more innovative businesses

  After the focus during the first two or three years of this decade being squarely on how to cut costs and reduce overheads, the past few years have seen organisations keen to reinvent themselves as stronger, more effective and more innovative on top...

• December 04, 2007 04 Dec'07

  SAP pledges to improve support for UK customers

  SAP remains committed to improving its relationship with UK users, Steve Rogers, managing director for SAP UK & Ireland, told delegates at the SAP User Group Conference in Birmingham last week.

• December 03, 2007 03 Dec'07

  Coventry Uni creates mobile and virtual serious gaming environment

  Coventry University has joined with Cisco and Giunti Labs to create a unique mobile and virtual learning environment in its Serious Games Institute.

• December 03, 2007 03 Dec'07

  Ofcom to auction more spectrum for business broadband services

  Ofcom is releasing high-frequency spectrum access to allow firms to benefit from new broadband services.

• December 03, 2007 03 Dec'07

  Dudley Hospitals NHS Trust adopts e-rostering to save cash

  The Dudley Group of Hospitals NHS Trust has deployed an e-rostering system to save time and money.

• December 03, 2007 03 Dec'07

  Oil firm Wintershall outsources with BASF IT Services

  German oil and gas company Wintershall has outsourced the management of all its SAP systems, Lotus Notes e-mail and its intranet to BASF IT Services to ensure availability and security.

• December 03, 2007 03 Dec'07

  Troubled Galileo sat-nav project gets European nod

  A majority of EU transport ministers have approved the £2.4bn Galileo satellite navigation project, reports the BBC.

• November 30, 2007 30 Nov'07

  Swisscom Fixnet selects Assyst system to meet ITIL

  Swisscom Fixnet has selected a new IT service management (ITSM) system as it follows the ITIL resources standard.

• November 30, 2007 30 Nov'07

  Financial firms struggling to make ERP count

  Financial analysts are struggling to extract meaningful data from enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, despite firms ploughing millions of pounds into their use.

• November 30, 2007 30 Nov'07

  Virgin Money implements Axios IT best practice

  The financial services arm of Virgin has reduced calls to its IT helpdesk by 40% and freed up time for the service desk to focus on strategic work after installing service management software.

• November 29, 2007 29 Nov'07

  Mothercare picks Imprivata, Secure Computing to meet PCI DSS commtiments

  Mothercare, the UK baby products retailer, is to meet its commitment to the PCI Data Security Standard with a combination of Imprivata's Onesign authentication appliance and one-time-password tokens from Secure Computing.

• November 29, 2007 29 Nov'07

  Securing the drugs industry

  Pharmaceutical companies operate in a broad community of partners, collaborators and competitors. Allowing other organisations into your network can be risky, but keeping them out may be a more costly mistake.

• November 29, 2007 29 Nov'07

  UK and Ireland SAP User Group to unite user groups in Boston

  The UK and Ireland SAP User Group is to join other groups from around the world for the first time at SAP's Influencer Summit to be held in the US city of Boston next week.

• November 28, 2007 28 Nov'07

  Co-op rolls out new store supply chain system

  The Co-op is rolling out a new supply chain system to smooth deliveries to its stores.