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Business applications

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.
November 28, 2007 28 Nov'07
Webroot merges with Email Systems to provide firms with one-stop security

Security software firm Webroot Software has merged with on-demand e-mail security firm Email Systems.
November 28, 2007 28 Nov'07
Al Gore's climate crisis website hacked by Viagra sellers

Al Gore, the former US vice-president, now a prominent green campaigner, had his website hacked to sell drugs yesterday.
November 28, 2007 28 Nov'07
Local authorities slow on mobile working

Local authorities are failing to take advantage of technology to enable mobile working, according to research from mobile applications supplier Consillium Technologies.
November 28, 2007 28 Nov'07
Oxford researcher offers tool to ease spreadsheet complexity

A research area of mathematics is being used to simplify spreadsheet formulas by providing users with a library of downloadable spreadsheet components. Oxford...
November 28, 2007 28 Nov'07
Virgin Media improves data mining to boost sales

Virgin Media has chosen data mining technology from KXEN to help it boost sales across its millions of customers.
November 28, 2007 28 Nov'07
Contact centre provider beCogent appoints IT director

Scottish-based contact centre business beCogent has appointed an Adrian Smales to oversee its team of 20 IT professionals.
November 27, 2007 27 Nov'07
Collaboration in business: strength is unity

Collaboration in business is essential for survival, writes Michael Pincher, information systems and facilities manager at Cross London Rail Links.
November 27, 2007 27 Nov'07
RSA standard vulnerable, says founder

Millions of computers running the RSA security standard to enrycpt data could be vulnerable to hacking attacks.
November 26, 2007 26 Nov'07
Standard Life gives snail mail an e-boost

Standard Life is using image-recognition software to automate the distribution of paper-based mail.
November 26, 2007 26 Nov'07
Friends Provident uses online system to ease IFA sign-ups

Friends Provident has introduced a system to enable independent financial advisers (IFAs) to set up an agency agreement online.
November 26, 2007 26 Nov'07
United Dairy Farmers manages increasing data with new San

An investment in the latest data storage technology is enabling United Dairy Farmers of Northern Ireland to manage its ever expanding volumes of transactional data.
November 26, 2007 26 Nov'07
Trafford council rolls out online benefit claims system

Trafford Council has set up an online benefit processing system for residents.
November 26, 2007 26 Nov'07
Open source Solaris offers a way in to high-end skills

Hot skills: Sun's Unix OS takes on Linux with virtualisation
November 26, 2007 26 Nov'07
School targets truants with automated system

A school in Chesterfield is installing a system to automatically contact the parents of children absent from school to help it meet government set targets for reduced truancy.
November 26, 2007 26 Nov'07
Senior SAP managers resign amid copyright row

Several SAP senior managers at a firm at the centre of an alleged software copyrighting scandal against Oracle have resigned.
November 26, 2007 26 Nov'07
Tube Lines sells staff £17 MS Office to help ease upgrade

Tube Lines is offering staff big discounts on Microsoft Office 2007 to build up support for its migration to the Windows Vista operating system next year.
November 26, 2007 26 Nov'07
Thomas Cook deploys speech recognition for holiday balances

Thomas Cook is offering its customers an automated speech recognition service to pay their outstanding holiday balances.
November 26, 2007 26 Nov'07
SAP user group chairman steps down

Glynn Lowth is to step down as chairman of the SAP UK and Ireland User Group after six years and hand over the reigns to Alan Bowling, IS director at Northern Foods.
November 26, 2007 26 Nov'07
BI software big in customer service, says Gartner

Business intelligence (BI) software is increasingly being deployed to improve customer service in end-user businesses, a survey from analyst Gartner has found.
November 26, 2007 26 Nov'07
Kane integrates mobile eqipment with Cognito software

Thousands of UK heating service engineers can now send test results directly to their companies using mobile devices to eliminate paperwork and data entry errors.
November 23, 2007 23 Nov'07
Free Software Foundation develops open licence to cover SaaS

The Free Software Foundation has developed an open licence to cover on-demand software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications.
November 23, 2007 23 Nov'07
SCO drops plans to sell Unix

SCO has dropped plans to sell its Unix and mobile technology businesses to raise £18m.
November 23, 2007 23 Nov'07
Secure Programming Council releases first developer standard

The Secure Programming Council has released its first standard to ensure software developers can demonstrate they have the skills and knowledge to write secure software.
November 21, 2007 21 Nov'07
Smaller colleges and universities get special pricing

Eduserv has signed an agreement with Microsoft to enable all UK universities and colleges, and not just the biggest, to get preferential pricing for Microsoft software.
November 21, 2007 21 Nov'07
Alcoa adopts Oracle consolidated global database

Aluminium supplier Alcoa has upgraded its multi-terabyte data warehouse to Oracle Database 10g and Oracle Real Application Clusters to improve efficiency.
November 21, 2007 21 Nov'07
St John Ambulance Supplies implements SAP Business One

St John Ambulance Supplies, which provides health and safety, first aid and training equipment, is implementing SAP Business One, SAP's enterprise resource planning (ERP) system for small and mid-sized companies.
November 16, 2007 16 Nov'07
Unilever rolls out first phase of stocking system

Unilever has completed the first phase of an IT project designed to improve the availability of its products on supermarket shelves.
November 16, 2007 16 Nov'07
BEA reports strong third quarter after failed Oracle takeover

BEA has emerged from a failed takeover bid by Oracle to report a 59% increase in net profits for the third quarter.
November 16, 2007 16 Nov'07
Software to become a buyer’s market, says Gartner

Competitive forces are converging to reduce software licence fees, says Gartner
November 16, 2007 16 Nov'07
South Gloucestershire wins funding for children’s data management

South Gloucestershire Council has won funding from the Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) to allow its children's data management systems to work with ContactPoint.
November 16, 2007 16 Nov'07
Criminal Justice Information Technology project reaches milestone

The Criminal Justice Information Technology (CJIT) project has reached a milestone with the start of a pilot of an information sharing portal.
November 16, 2007 16 Nov'07
Continued deadline concerns over IT law for roadworks

New legislation from the Department for Transport requiring councils to invest in IT to co-ordinate roadworks has fewer inconsistencies than developers first thought - but there are still worries over meeting the law's deadline.
November 16, 2007 16 Nov'07
SAP joins with CSC to offer banks product pricing optimisation

SAP and outsourcer CSC have joined forces to offer banks product pricing optimisation technology.
November 15, 2007 15 Nov'07
IBM unveils web-like datacentre initiative

IBM has unveiled plans for "Blue Cloud," a series of cloud computing offerings that will allow corporate datacentres to operate more like the internet.
November 15, 2007 15 Nov'07
Enhanced Sophos appliances block e-mail data leaks

Web security firm Sophos has enhanced its two e-mail appliances to prevent the outgoing leakage of confidential information.
November 15, 2007 15 Nov'07
Google enhances Postini hosted e-mail security offering

Google has enhanced the management capabilities of its hosted Postini e-mail security system.
November 15, 2007 15 Nov'07
iPhone unfit for corporate e-mail, Gartner says

Experts believe that Apple's iPhone, released in the UK and Germany on 9 November, is not secure enough to access corporate e-mail systems - a sentiment endorsed by O2, the sole British mobile telephone network providing the device.
November 15, 2007 15 Nov'07
IKEA Distribution improves supply chain management

IKEA Distribution Services is reacting to the growing number of online orders with a new order tracking system to help it manage deliveries.
November 15, 2007 15 Nov'07
Nortel and IBM team on new SOA standard

Nortel and IBM today announced plans to offer a new software standard that easily brings together their business applications and processes with the latest unified communications and collaboration tools.
November 15, 2007 15 Nov'07
Business intelligence buyouts could lead to cheaper deals for users

IBM's £2.5bn purchase of Cognos is the latest in a series of buyouts by large database providers of business intelligence software suppliers.
November 15, 2007 15 Nov'07
Stock Exchange praises technology

The London Stock Exchange has highlighted the contribution of its core technology platform in its financial results for the six months to 30 September.
November 15, 2007 15 Nov'07
Sun supercomputer helps Durham University research the cosmos

Researchers from the Institute for Computational Cosmology (ICC) at Durham University have been using a supercomputer built by Sun to find out why the universe is expanding.
November 15, 2007 15 Nov'07
Nine out of 10 people worry that firms are selling their details illegally, says ICO

More than nine out of 10 people worry that organisations are selling their personal details illegally, according to research from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
November 15, 2007 15 Nov'07
Irwin Mitchell reduces energy consumption

UK law firm Irwin Mitchell has used software from Verdiem to reduce the energy consumed by PCs.
November 14, 2007 14 Nov'07
IBM unveils web application security protection

IBM has introduced software to help customers protect their business from web application security attacks.
November 14, 2007 14 Nov'07
Online comms instead of facetime fail to strike business deals

Business people tempted to rely on online communications to generate business are in for a rude shock, as most clients still prefer being wooed in person.
November 14, 2007 14 Nov'07
Enterprises report ‘satisfaction gap’ in software licensing

There is still a "satisfaction gap" for enterprises between the software licensing models they are being offered by suppliers and the needs of their business.
November 14, 2007 14 Nov'07
Online growth helps Sainsbury's to £10bn sales

Growth of 40% in online orders helped retailer Sainsbury's boost sales 4.7% to a shade under £10bn for 2007/8. This puts it on track to meet a sales target of £2.5bn growth by March 2008.
November 14, 2007 14 Nov'07
Bracknell Forest saves time by standardising servers

Bracknell Forest council has installed software to standardise its server farm and simplify IT maintenance, saving staff time and improving service to users.
November 13, 2007 13 Nov'07
Profit push persuades Haven Holidays to automate pricing

Hemmed in by space and price constraints and rising customer expectations, Haven Holidays, the UK's biggest supplier of caravan holidays, is automating its pricing operation to boost profitability by improving occupancy at the best price.
November 13, 2007 13 Nov'07
Havering College saves £10,000 with unified security system

Havering Sixth Form College has unified its network security to reduce the amount it spends on IT security by £10,000.
November 13, 2007 13 Nov'07
IT architects get their own training programme

The International Association of Software Architects (IASA) has announced the first corporate training body for IT architects.
November 13, 2007 13 Nov'07
IBM to buy Cognos for £2.5bn

IBM will buy business intelligence software supplier Cognos for about £2.5bn.
November 12, 2007 12 Nov'07
Microsoft to remove Internet Explorer 7 multimedia authorisation

Microsoft will remove a feature from Internet Explorer 7 that requires users to authorise the running of multimedia software components when visiting web pages. The first "preview" patch will be available in early December it will then be included ...
November 12, 2007 12 Nov'07
US federal IT heads less confident about their security despite spending a fortune on protection

US federal IT decision-makers are less confident about their network security arrangements compared to previous years, despite high spending on government mandated schemes, according to research.
November 12, 2007 12 Nov'07
Principal Global Investors consolidates data on Cadis

Principal Global Investors is improving its handling of multiple data sources with the Cadis data management platform.
November 12, 2007 12 Nov'07
Children’s charity upgrades performance management

NCH uses performance management tools to boost budgeting, reporting and financial planning
November 09, 2007 09 Nov'07
Chevron to use Sharepoint in 180 countries

Chevron is standardising on Microsoft Sharepoint in the third phase of a project to overhaul its IT infrastructure linking 56,000 employees in 180 countries.
November 09, 2007 09 Nov'07
PCI compliance used as blueprint for IT security

Payment services company Total Web Solutions (TWS) has used the security procedures introduced in a Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) project to boost security across its business.
November 09, 2007 09 Nov'07
Datacentre built on Harrods’ roof

Harrods is migrating its SAP enterprise resource planning system from Osterly in west London to a datacentre on the roof of its flagship store in Knightsbridge.
November 09, 2007 09 Nov'07
Lack of interoperability and liability hold back identity management IT

An identity management strategy is vital to allow businesses to collaborate with business partners and support regulatory compliance, but the technology poses challenges for IT directors, analyst firm Burton Group said last month.
November 09, 2007 09 Nov'07
Worms in decline, report says

Worms, once responsible for some of the worst virus epidemics in history, are now on the decline and are gradually fading into the background as hackers are looking to make money instead.
November 09, 2007 09 Nov'07
UK to lead discussions on future of the internet in Rio

The UK is likely to lead discussions on internet security as part of an international debate on the future of the internet.
November 09, 2007 09 Nov'07
Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust upgrades network to improve patient care

The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust is upgrading its existing networks and implementing high-performance wireless networks to deliver better bedside care.
November 09, 2007 09 Nov'07
Amazon sells Red Hat Enterprise Linux on demand

Amazon is to sell Red Hat Enterprise Linux on demand to firms.
November 09, 2007 09 Nov'07
Hot skills: Komodo opens up multi-language programming

Hot skills Integrated environment knits together different skills
November 09, 2007 09 Nov'07
Will the Microsoft ruling have knock-on effect?

Now that the dust has settled on the legal battle between the European Commission and Microsoft, the question remains what, if any, impact the judgement of the Court of First Instance (CFI) may have on high-tech companies in the years to come.
November 09, 2007 09 Nov'07
Whitehall could learn from Northern Ireland's IT change programme, analysts say

Whitehall could learn valuable lessons from a major IT change programme under way in Northern Ireland, analysts said this week.
November 09, 2007 09 Nov'07
Google application coding tools present challenge to Facebook

Google has introduced an open set of application programming interfaces (APIs) for the social networking sector that could challenge the dominance of Facebook, which is built on proprietary APIs.
November 09, 2007 09 Nov'07
Successful phishing prompts call for behavioural analysis

Behavioural analysis could have prevented Salesforce.com employee inadvertently handing over access to customer database
November 09, 2007 09 Nov'07
Intel simplifies SMB storage

Processor giant unveils new storage platform designed to ease the management of growing digital information