Business applications
At the heart of enterprise software strategy are the key business applications upon which every organisation relies. From enterprise resource planning (ERP) to customer relationship management (CRM), financial and accounts software to business intelligence (BI), such applications demand high investments and can deliver high returns. We analyse the latest product developments and the news from major suppliers such as Oracle, Microsoft and SAP.
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News
20 Jun 2025
Election workers’ data stolen in cyber breach of Oxford City Council
Oxford City Council election workers had personal information stolen by cyber attackers in an attack over the weekend of 7-8 June. The council has stated that most disrupted systems are back online Continue Reading
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News
20 Jun 2025
UK data reforms become law
UK passes wide-ranging data protection reforms to ‘simplify’ organisations’ sharing and processing of data, but questions remain whether changes will be accepted by European Commission when renewing UK data adequacy Continue Reading
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Feature
18 Aug 2014
What ingredients go into the successful app store?
An enterprise app store should provide the controlled availability of apps for employees.We look at what is available for organisations to use Continue Reading
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News
13 Aug 2014
Home Office pours £3.8m into shared service for biometric cards
The Home Office has awarded a £3.8m contract to Thales for a service to support the production of Biometric Residence Permit cards Continue Reading
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News
08 Aug 2014
Government breaks grip of IT oligopoly
Figures for public sector software and IT services investments reveal a dwindling share for IT giants, but can the oligopoly be removed? Continue Reading
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News
07 Aug 2014
Sacked BBC CTO wins unfair dismissal case
Former BBC chief technology officer John Linwood has won his case for unfair dismissal against the broadcaster Continue Reading
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News
05 Aug 2014
AstraZeneca rolls out IT self service using ServiceNow
Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has rolled out ServiceNow self service IT to 51,500 staff globally in four months Continue Reading
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News
04 Aug 2014
Why digitisation transforms supplier relationships
As the economy moves forward, CEOs are looking for the next wave of innovation to fuel growth. But are IT service providers ready? Continue Reading
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Feature
01 Aug 2014
Wearable technology will up the game for sports data analytics
Wearable technology is a big industry thanks to the ‘quantified self’ movement. It’s now giving a boost to professional sports data analytics professionals Continue Reading
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News
30 Jul 2014
Lack of coding skills may lead to skills shortage in Europe
European Commission urges people to learn coding, warning that a lack of coding skills could see Europe facing skills shortage by 2020 Continue Reading
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News
28 Jul 2014
Oracle in-memory option creates licensing pain and audit risk
A former Oracle employee has highlighted a major issue in the way the new Oracle Database 12c Release 12.1.0.2 is licensed Continue Reading
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News
25 Jul 2014
Bank of America: When software relationships turn sour
Tibco has filed a lawsuit alleging the Merrill Lynch division of Bank of America illegally used $300m of its software for a major IT project Continue Reading
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News
24 Jul 2014
Citrix SaaS revenue rises 12% while overall revenue grows 7% YoY
Citrix has reported a 7% revenue increase in its second quarter of fiscal year 2014 . But it reported double-digit revenue growth in SaaS Continue Reading
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News
22 Jul 2014
NAO reveals Home Office spent £347m on failed ICW programme
The Home Office spent £347m closing its Immigration Case Work programme, which was supposed to replace legacy databases Continue Reading
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News
17 Jul 2014
IFS reports 13% increase in first half software licence revenue
IFS, the Sweden-based ERP company has reported half-year licence revenue growth of 13% Continue Reading
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News
15 Jul 2014
Diageo puts ServiceNow fizz in IT service desk
Diageo has gone live with an implementation of ServiceNow to automate IT services as part of a global transformation Continue Reading
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News
15 Jul 2014
The billion-customer challenge of ITC CIO VVR Babu
ITC CIO VVR Babu explains the challenges for a business that targets over one billion consumers with its goods Continue Reading
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Feature
14 Jul 2014
Big Apple revolution: How to manage Macs in the enterprise
Apple’s products were once niche devices. Now, following a consumer-led initiative, they are widely used across the enterprise Continue Reading
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News
14 Jul 2014
SAP helps Germany lift the World Cup
Germany-based software company SAP played its part in the national football team's victory over Argentina in the World Cup final in Brazil Continue Reading
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Feature
14 Jul 2014
A guide to smart home automation
Unless it is a new build, the challenge in creating a smart home is that technology must work irrespective of the age of the property Continue Reading
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News
10 Jul 2014
Google Ventures expands with $100m to fund ‘most disruptive’ startups in Europe
Google is launching an expanded venture fund for Europe, with £58m to support and invest in next-gen European startups Continue Reading
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News
09 Jul 2014
Google I/O: Extending Google's enterprise reach
At its annual developer conference last month, Google extended its enterprise portfolio boosting its security, storage and MDM products Continue Reading
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News
08 Jul 2014
Huddle eases collaborative critical path for engineering firm WSP
Engineering consultancy WSP chooses Huddle to allow its engineers and architects to share project data securely and collaborate, regardless of location Continue Reading
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News
08 Jul 2014
Airbus deploys modular datacentre strategy to boost HPC capacity
The aircraft manufacturer has deployed HP's performance optimised datacentres (PODs) to increase its high performance compute capabilities for its engineers Continue Reading
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News
30 Jun 2014
Net-a-Porter integrates testing and development
Online fashion retailer Net-a-Porter has integrated software testing and development to support agile methodologies Continue Reading
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News
27 Jun 2014
Roadchef exits IBM Global Services for direct supplier relationships
Motorway services firm Roadchef ended an outsourcing deal with IBM Global Services when its IT was up for refresh and moved to SAP Continue Reading
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Feature
24 Jun 2014
Unilever puts SAP at the captain’s table
Consumer goods company Unilever works hand in glove with SAP in “speeding up its growth”, according to senior executives at the two firms Continue Reading
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News
23 Jun 2014
Oracle set to boost retail business with $5bn Micros acquisition
Oracle is expected to acquire internet-enabled point-of sale-specialist Micros Continue Reading
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News
20 Jun 2014
Centrica's datacentre move to HP still not complete after three and a half years
Centrica is yet to transfer its entire datacentre operations to HP despite signing a contract with the supplier in 2010 Continue Reading
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News
20 Jun 2014
Sourcing and integrating managed services
Analysts Bob Tarzey and Clive Longbottom look at the issues business managers need to take into account when deciding how to deploy applications and when they should consider turning to managed service providers (MSP) for resources and advice. Continue Reading
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News
19 Jun 2014
BlackBerry makes small profit in light of internal shakeups
BlackBerry has achieved a net profit of $23m with revenue of $966m in three months from May until the end of March 2014 Continue Reading
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News
18 Jun 2014
Case study: How eBay uses its own OpenStack private cloud
eBay runs one of its most crucial workloads – its website – on an OpenStack private cloud platform developed by itself Continue Reading
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News
18 Jun 2014
Interview: John Swainson, president of Dell Software
Dell Software president John Swainson's aims to make Dell Software a $5bn business Continue Reading
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News
16 Jun 2014
Travel group Expedia aims to predict your holiday plans
Travel group Expedia is developing technology that will predict the needs of its customers before they call about their travel plans Continue Reading
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News
12 Jun 2014
HSBC makes executives responsible for application consolidation
In the next few weeks, senior executives at HSBC globally will have KPIs to reduce the number of applications they run Continue Reading
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News
12 Jun 2014
Can Salesforce.com re-engineer business IT?
With 1.5 million developers and a new focus on industry solutions, is Salesforce.com a business platform? Continue Reading
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News
11 Jun 2014
Tesco Bank launches current account on off-the-shelf platform
Tesco has launched a current account four years after implementing its core banking platform Continue Reading
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News
11 Jun 2014
EE drives mobile phone deals with CRM software implementation
Mobile phone operator Everything Everywhere claims a 400% increase in phone deals after rolling out customer relationship management software Continue Reading
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News
10 Jun 2014
Engineering firm fined for using unlicensed Autodesk software
Project Options has been fined £16,000 by the Business Software Alliance, following an online tip-off Continue Reading
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News
09 Jun 2014
Home Secretary Theresa May unveils datacentre in Maidenhead
Home Secretary Theresa May has opened a multi-million-pound extended datacentre, owned by UK cloud firm iomart Continue Reading
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News
05 Jun 2014
UK airports lead move to cloud services
UK airports are at the vanguard of using cloud to develop innovative services, says Gatwick CIO. Continue Reading
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News
03 Jun 2014
High availability strategy key to saving costs, says Sungard AS
The cost of IT downtime is extremely high for businesses – but must all systems and applications be highly available all the time? Continue Reading
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News
30 May 2014
IT supplier insolvencies fall for first time as economy recovers
Technology companies have reached a turning point as insolvencies fall for the first time in 2014 Continue Reading
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News
29 May 2014
BSkyB retunes IT to ready-for-anything datacentre quad
British broadcaster BSkyB has based its IT on four core datacentres that are resilient, interconnected, energy-efficient and cloud-ready Continue Reading
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News
28 May 2014
CIO interview: Ian Cohen, CIO, Jardine Lloyd Thompson
Running a programme to transform the business is the wrong way to go about change, according to Ian Cohen, CIO at insurance broker JLT Continue Reading
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News
28 May 2014
NHS shared services aims to end paper invoicing
NHS Shared Business Services hopes to eradicate paper invoicing by implementing an e-invoicing system that will be free for suppliers to use Continue Reading
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News
23 May 2014
Business Objects use increases among SAP users, but Hana uptake low
More UK and Ireland SAP customers are using Business Objects now than even two years ago, but only 15% are using Hana Continue Reading
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News
22 May 2014
Salesforce.com opens UK datacentre to support data sovereignty
Cloud CRM company Salesforce.com has announced its first UK datacentre, which is also its first in Europe Continue Reading
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News
19 May 2014
SAP certifies core business apps to run on Microsoft Azure
From June, users of SAP Business Suite software, Business All-In-One solution, SAP Mobile Platform, SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise and Hana platform will be able to run them on Azure Continue Reading
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News
16 May 2014
Why did GPs turn their back on Choose and Book?
NHS England has scrapped its £356m outpatient booking system, Choose and Book, which was largely ignored by doctors Continue Reading
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News
15 May 2014
Justifying the business case to update Oracle eBusiness Suite
To justify the upgrade cost needed to move to Oracle eBusiness Suite Release 12, IT departments need consider how the implementation can deliver value. Continue Reading
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E-Zine
06 May 2014
The problems of legacy IT in banking
In this week’s Computer Weekly, as problems caused by legacy IT in banks become increasingly critical, we assess the difficulties in updating banking systems. After the Windows XP support issues – we look at a similar problem facing Oracle users. And we take an in-depth look at managing corporate networks to enable mobile IT. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
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News
02 May 2014
Addressing security and privacy on the industrial internet
The smart grid and smart meters are part of the wider industrial internet, which will offer insight into people’s life at home. What are the security implications? Continue Reading
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News
01 May 2014
Co-operative Bank report reveals challenge of legacy IT replacement
A report into the £1.5bn losses at Co-operative Bank reveals numerous failures in a project to replace core banking systems Continue Reading
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News
01 May 2014
GDS working to secure Google Apps for government
The Government Digital Service (GDS) is in talks with CESG, the IT security arm of GCHQ, to get approval for using Google Apps within government. Continue Reading
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News
30 Apr 2014
Software developers suffer as IT companies endure rising insolvencies
Increase in the number of IT insolvencies expected as the economy improves Continue Reading
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News
30 Apr 2014
SDL turns to cloud HR to join up businesses in 40 countries
The technology is central to the company’s strategy to integrate formerly autonomous businesses in 38 countries into a single operation Continue Reading
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News
28 Apr 2014
Fiat and Chrysler to integrate separate IT systems
Car manufacturing group Fiat and Chrysler have contracted IBM to integrate their separate IT infrastructures into a single global operation, following the companies coming together after Chrysler applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Continue Reading
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News
25 Apr 2014
Bringing System Management to Messaging & Collaboration
The fast growing interaction between email, collaboration and social media is creating new management pressures. Analysts Bernt Ostergaard and Clive Longbottom offer answers in this paper from Quocirca. Continue Reading
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News
25 Apr 2014
CIO briefing on agile development
How do we create agile organisations and behave in a more agile way? Kelly Waters executive Consultant, Coach, and Interim CTO, offers some answers in this presentation. Continue Reading
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News
23 Apr 2014
Optimising the data warehouse
Analysts Clive Longbottom and Rob Bamforth discuss approaches to optimising data warehouses for big data. Continue Reading
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News
23 Apr 2014
The mid-market conundrum
Analysts Bob Tarzey and Bob Brown look at how mid market organisations can achieve 'best in class' IT applications with limited resources. Continue Reading
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News
23 Apr 2014
Transforming business at the intersection of marketing and technology
Businesses have to change themselves quickly and dramatically if they want to survive and thrive, say Bob Lord and Ray Velez, CEO and CTO of razorfish, in this extract from their book, Covnerge. Continue Reading
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News
16 Apr 2014
Q&A: SAP's Mike Ettling discusses SuccessFactors cloud HR strategy
Computer Weekly talks to Mike Ettling, global head of cloud and on-premise HR at SAP, about the company’s strategy for its SuccessFactors cloud HR technology Continue Reading
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News
11 Apr 2014
Co-op Bank plans to 'fix the fundamentals' and invest in IT
The Co-operative Bank intends to invest in IT systems following a troubled year Continue Reading
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News
07 Apr 2014
CIO interview: Leandro Balbinot, global CIO, HJ Heinz
Food giant HJ Heinz is gearing up to expand its international presence with a technology modernisation programme encompassing 23 countries Continue Reading
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Photo Story
04 Apr 2014
Test drive: Is Microsoft Office for iPad a strong start for mobile Office?
Microsoft unveiled Office for iPad on 27 March 2014, with immediate availability in Apple’s App Store. Continue Reading
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News
03 Apr 2014
Pharmaceuticals company turns to cloud HR technology
Astra Zeneca CIO Dave Smoley turns lessons learned from an earlier cloud HR implementation to use at the pharmaceuticals giant Continue Reading
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News
31 Mar 2014
Ministry of Justice to invest up to £375m in court and tribunal technology reform
The Ministry of Justice has announced a five-year programme to update and replace technology used in courts and tribunals across the UK Continue Reading
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Feature
28 Mar 2014
Can the mainframe remain relevant in the cloud and mobile era?
IBM mainframes run more than 1.1m transactions per second, yet the mainframe has remained largely unfashionable. We investigate Continue Reading
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Tip
25 Mar 2014
Seven secrets of SQL Server Management Studio
SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) is the principal interface for working with Microsoft SQL Server. However, many subtleties of this powerful tool evade even the most seasoned professionals Continue Reading
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Feature
25 Mar 2014
Using NoSQL databases to gain competitive advantage
NoSQL is attracting growing interest from businesses - we examine three case studies: Amadeus, i2O and Temetra Continue Reading
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News
24 Mar 2014
Grant Thornton spends £3m in move to cloud HR services
Financial advisory firm invests in cloud talent management as it gears up to expand its operations in the UK Continue Reading
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News
20 Mar 2014
Application support and maintenance costs increase 29%
The cost of supporting and maintaining applications is increasing every year for Global 2000 companies in the US and UK, according to a study of 300 CIOs Continue Reading
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News
19 Mar 2014
Oracle finally sees revenue growth from hardware business
Oracle has finally seen a boost from its server business, with hardware sales up 8% in its latest financial results Continue Reading
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Feature
19 Mar 2014
Case study: How John Lewis conquered the web
An in-depth look at the inside story of John Lewis' £40m e-commerce strategy. Continue Reading
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News
14 Mar 2014
Interview: Charles Phillips, CEO, Infor
Charles Phillips is at a critical point in his role at Infor. Over the past three years as CEO he has invested heavily in overhauling the company's enterprise software Continue Reading
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News
14 Mar 2014
Amazon Web Services reaches its 8th birthday
On March 14 2006 Amazon expanded from its retail heritage and launched its IT services business with the birth of Amazon Web Services (AWS) Continue Reading
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News
12 Mar 2014
Executing Your Strategy 6: Transition
This is the final part of a six part guide which explains the key steps of the Strategic Execution Framework, developed by the Stanford Advanced Management Programme. Continue Reading
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News
12 Mar 2014
Analytics across the ecosystem
Analytics is a key enabler for life sciences and healthcare organizations to create better outcomes for patients, customers and other stakeholders across the entire healthcare ecosystem, according to this research from IBM. Continue Reading
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News
10 Mar 2014
Case study: BG Group turns to cloud HR to reach staff in multiple countries
Gas exploration and production company replaces SAP HR technology with Oracle Fusion in the cloud. Continue Reading
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News
06 Mar 2014
Thames Water pilots smart analytics with Accenture
Thames Water is six months into an 18 month pilot with Accenture Smart Grid to pilot real time monitoring to deliver an improved service Continue Reading
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News
04 Mar 2014
Gartner: Time to rethink backup procedures
IT leaders and storage managers can realise cost savings and improve their use of backup infrastructure by rethinking their back-up procedures, says Gartner analyst Dave Russell. Continue Reading
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Feature
03 Mar 2014
No more email? Why companies are turning to collaboration technology
Collaboration technologies are helping companies improve their employees' work-life balance Continue Reading
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Feature
27 Feb 2014
Hadoop 2 opens new vistas beyond current UK data management practice
Hadoop 2 enables a greater range of data-crunching tasks, beyond Hadoop’s previous scope of batch processing, directly within the stack itself Continue Reading
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News
27 Feb 2014
RBS to tidy up systems mess
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) outlines plans to cut costs and improve customer services, slashing the number of IT systems in the process Continue Reading
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News
25 Feb 2014
Flexibility and integration drove NatWest Microsoft Dynamics migration
NatWest Business Banking selected Microsoft Dynamics CRM when it realised it needed full CRM capability Continue Reading
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News
18 Feb 2014
Is second-hand software illegal?
The action by Federation Against Software Theft to suspend one of its members confuses users over legal second-hand user licences Continue Reading
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News
18 Feb 2014
HP knew of Autonomy hardware sales tactics
New evidence suggests HP was aware of Autonomy’s accounting practices months before publicly condemning the company Continue Reading
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Photo Story
17 Feb 2014
UK IT spending will outpace rest of Europe in 2014
Computer Weekly research reveals the IT spending priorities for UK and European organisations in 2014. Continue Reading
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News
14 Feb 2014
HR Technology Key Trends 2014
HR Directors and leading IT suppliers give their take on the HR technology trends for 2014 in this analysis from HR Zone. Continue Reading
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News
07 Feb 2014
Met Police releases ‘Total Technology’ IT strategy
The Metropolitan Police Service has released a three to four-year plan on how to transform the use of technology in the organisation Continue Reading
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News
04 Feb 2014
Satya Nadella replaces Steve Ballmer as Microsoft CEO
Microsoft has named Satya Nadella as CEO almost six months after former incumbent Steve Ballmer announced his retirement Continue Reading
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News
29 Jan 2014
Case study: Scottish Fire and Rescue advances national BI strategy with QlikView
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is using QlikView business intelligence software to bring together its data streams for external reporting and operational intelligence Continue Reading
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News
28 Jan 2014
BBC failed to get "sufficient grip” over failed DMI project, says NAO
The National Audit Office has slammed the BBC over its failed Digital Media Initiative (DMI), project saying the broadcaster was “too optimistic” and the BBC executive “did not have sufficient grip of the programme" Continue Reading
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News
27 Jan 2014
Teradata launches analytics product as SAP BW replacement
Teradata has released an analytics product for SAP ERP, as a full-blown alternative to SAP BW Continue Reading
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Photo Story
24 Jan 2014
40 years ago today: Computer Weekly January 24 1974
The National Museum of Computing has a full copy of every print edition of Computer Weekly since our first in September 1966, and is now digitising the archive. Continue Reading
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News
22 Jan 2014
HB Fuller sticks with HR in the cloud
Cloud based HR system gives adhesives maker the ability to manage its global workforce Continue Reading
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News
22 Jan 2014
CIO interview: The challenge of delivering IT in a refugee camp
The United Nations (UN) looks after 58 million refugees. Naginder Kaur Dhanoa, CIO of the UN High Commission for Refugees speaks about the challenges Continue Reading
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News
21 Jan 2014
Allianz deploys Rumba to provide secure mainframe administration
Insurer Allianz UK has deployed Rumba terminal emulator software from MicroFocus to provide a mainframe-based policy admin system Continue Reading
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News
16 Jan 2014
HCL and CSC partner to modernise applications
Indian IT services firm HCL and US competitor CSC are working together to win business in the application modernisation and cloud migration segments of the application outsourcing sector Continue Reading
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News
16 Jan 2014
Microsoft extends XP security updates by 15 months
Microsoft has caved in to user concerns over XP end of support and will now extend security updates by another 15 months Continue Reading