Qantas Credit Union deploys Infosys Finacle’s ‘core banking as a service’
One of Australia’s largest credit unions, the Qantas Credit Union, has revealed it will deploy a new core banking platform from Infosys’ Finacle division (EdgeVerve Systems(, as well as a host of other related services, in a move that the bank says will see it transition to a ‘core banking as a service’ model.
DTO reveals progress on digital transformation projects
The Digital Transformation Office has revealed the state of progress on a number of Digital Delivery Hubs that were set up in October 2015.
CommBank’s deep innovation is redefining our notion of what a bank is
The remarkable wave of technological innovation emanating from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia is forcing Australians to redefine their fundamental concept of what a bank is, and reimagine what their basic relationship to such an institution should be.
Australia Post trials drone deliveries
Australia Post has announced the it will be the "first major parcels and logistics company" in Australia to trial package delivery by remotely piloted aircraft, also called drones.
Qld Health preps huge IT outsourcing deals
The Queensland State Government has revealed plans to engage in a comprehensive IT outsourcing exercise involving its statewide health department, in the newest plank in its strategy to overhaul Queensland Health's extremely troubled IT support systems and processes.
Crown Casino loses $32m in IT security breach
The ABC reports that a high-roller gambler has scammed Melbourne's Crown Casino of $32 million, with what looks to be the assistance of the casino's own in-house surveillance system.
NSW Govt seeks storage as a service
The New South Wales State Government has gone to market for storage as a service capabilities to replace its existing in-house storage solutions, in a move that will add to the rapid ramp-up of the state's adoption of cloud computing services.
How Adelaide City Council uses Skype for Business to reach constituents
In 2015, the recently elected Adelaide City Council became the first in Australia to live stream its committee meetings using Skype for Business’s module Skype Meeting Broadcast. This is how it did it...
Qld loses IT renewal chief after just nine months
The Queensland Government appears to have suffered a substantial blow to its attempts to reform its technology infrastructure, with the news reported late last week that the executive in charge of that renewal program, Glenn Walker, had resigned for a position in the private sector.
Medibank IT glitch delays tax statements
Australia's largest health insurance provider Medibank has announced that it is experiencing a technical issue which is "likely" to prevent it from providing annual tax statements to "a majority of customers" before its 15 July deadline.
Data#3 flags job cuts: Read the internal email
There was one little fact which Data#3 didn't disclose to investors during its financial results briefing session this week: Job cuts
A decade later, third time lucky, NSW LifeLink IT project finishes
The NSW Government has revealed that it is finally close to completing its extremely troubled LifeLink IT project to replace the key administration platform used by the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, some 11 years after the project was first begun.
More on those IBM redundancies
Another day, another swathe of details emerge about the ongoing job cuts happening within the ranks of IBM Australia. This morning's morsel comes from The AustralianIT, which reports the latest figure as being around 1,400 Australian staff, amid the involvement of the controversial 457 visa program.
WA Government to complete delayed school IT upgrades
The Western Australian Government has announced an IT investment at the state's schools that will allow students and teachers to use wireless devices around campuses and bring greater mobility to classrooms.
Microsoft Ignite 2015 (Gold Coast): Photo gallery
Several thousand Australian technologists are currently on the Gold Coast attending one of Australia's technology conferences -- Microsoft's Ignite conference. If you want to get a feel for what you're missing out on, we recommend you check out some of these great photos taken at the event :)
Xero migrates to Amazon Web Services
New Zealand-based accounting software company Xero has made what it calls the "massive move" to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform.
NSW ramps up giant datacentre consolidation
The New South Wales State Government this week starting building a list of suppliers to help its departments and agencies migrate their server infrastructure from dozens of dated back-office server rooms and into modern datacentres, as part of the state's long-running and wide-ranging comprehensive datacentre overhaul project.
Amazon confirms Sydney CDN node
Global cloud computing player and retailer Amazon today confirmed that it had added an 'edge' location in Sydney to speed up the delivery of content to Australians, confirming a deployment model which was the subject of speculation some 12 months ago.
Westpac appoints McKinnon lieutenant Whincup CIO
Top tier bank Westpac has appointed one of Bob McKinnon's top lieutenants, UK import Clive Whincup, to succeed him as chief information officer.
WA appoints first whole of government CIO
Western Australia has appointed its first permanent whole of government chief information officer, with acting CIO Giles Nunis taking on the role on an ongoing basis to help the state cut its costs, develop an overarching IT strategy and build the capacity of WA’s growing ICT sector.
Salesforce needs a more anti-social approach
As it continues its mega-push into what it has described as "social enterprise" technologies, Salesforce.com risks losing its focus on its core CRM products, particularly as its software as a service model has failed to prove itself in several key markets in Australia.
News Corp Australia dumps Exchange for Gmail
The new chief technology officer of publishing giant News Corp Australia has wasted no time making big changes to the organisation's IT infrastructure model, announcing a huge formal move to Google's mail and calendaring suite just months after taking on the position.
Executives carry more tech devices than ever
Corporate executives are increasingly carrying around multiple devices at work, new research from the University of Sydney has revealed.
Kill software patents, says Pirate Party
In a call for an overhaul of the Innovation Patent System, Pirate Party Australia has made a submission to the Advisory Council on Intellectual Property (ACIP), challenging the inclusion of software in the current patent system.
Wells quits Avaya for SaaS firm Workday
Australian IT industry stalwart Rob Wells has quit his post as the managing director of Avaya's Australian operations and will instead establish the local division of Software as a Service business software group Workday.
Australian CIOs optimistic about future
Microsoft and Fujitsu this week revealed the findings from the pair's first Insights Quarterly Report of Australian CIOs, offering a window into the issues steering IT strategy in Australia’s businesses and government bodies. The planned quarterly survey by independent research firm Connection Research found a high level of optimism among the 207 Australian CIOs who were part of the study.
“Alarming” amount of end of life software in Vic Govt: Microsoft + Oracle in...
Victoria’s acting Auditor-General has blasted the state’s departments and agencies for continuing to use IT systems which have reached their end of life state, as well as for ignoring its ongoing recommendation that the state put together a whole of government disaster recovery framework.
SP AusNet insources IT services
Listed Victorian energy utility SP AusNet has signalled plans to insource its IT services needs, following a decision to terminate a wider management deal under which a variety of corporate services were being provided by a subsidiary of its part-owner Singapore Power.
New Qld Govt CIO a chance for ‘industry unity’
There is the chance for a fresh start in Queensland at the moment. And if the various CIOs, politicians and industry players can get behind that, perhaps the state can avoid having virtually every major whole of government technology project, and many others, savaged by its auditor-general in a few years' time when the next round of audits comes up.
Victorian high school deploys Android tablets
Students and staff of years 9–12 at Brighton Grammar School, Victoria will each be provided with an Acer Iconia Tab A500, from this week onwards, Acer revealed in a statement yesterday. The move is part of what is being publicised as the first large Android program for an Australian school.
$63m baby: Oracle sells ‘the works’ to Defence
Oracle has revealed that it signed a wide-ranging $63 million contract with the Federal Department of Defence earlier this year that will see the US technology giant supply virtually all of its major product lines, ranging from its popular PeopleSoft, Database and Fusion products to its Exadata hardware and even its Exalogic Elastic Cloud technology.
After 16 years, ANAO picks Unisys again for IT
The Australian National Audit Office this morning revealed it had renewed its extremely long-running relationship with US-headquartered IT outsourcer Unisys, in a move which will push the pair's partnership close to the 20 year mark and raise questions about the degree to which the agency is engaging in competitive tendering.
When mainstream media covers cloud startups
Hilarious video above of a segment broadcast recently on Channel 10 news about Australian cloud computing startup OrionVM.
iPad minis replace Windows Mobile at Arnott’s
From iTNews earlier this month comes a rather interesting story about how food giant Campbell Arnott’s has deployed a fleet of several hundred iPad mini tablets to replace legacy Windows Mobile devices being used by its field staff.
Qantas CIO jets off to Airbus
Qantas Airways' Chief Information Officer, Luc Hennekens, is leaving the company to take on the same role at Airbus, effective 1 October.
NSW, SA lose Health CIOs
From Intermedium this morning comes news that health departments in both South Australia and New South Wales are looking for new chief information officers, with their long-time incumbents departing and making way for new public servants in their roles.
TAFE Queensland is rolling out TechOne’s education solution
Australian enterprise Software as a Service (SaaS) provider TechOne has inked a deal to provide Student Management solution to TAFE Queensland, the vocational education and training organisation.
SA Govt forgets to pay phone bill
Think the Queensland and Western Australian State Governments have got problems with their technology shared services divisions? Well, they have. But at least they (we assume) pay their telephone bills on time. That isn’t precisely the case in South Australia, where the state’s Finance Minister yesterday revealed it couldn’t even get that right.
Parliament trials Windows 8 tablets
ZDNet publishes an interview with Federal Parliament chief information officer Eija Seittenranta, detailing the fact that the Parliament is conducting a trial of Windows 8 tablets.
NSW Govt opens datacentres to SaaS vendors
The New South Wales State Government has invited technology vendors to register their interest in providing cloud computing-based services from its two new datacentres being constructed to consolidate the IT infrastructure needs of its departments and agencies state-wide.
A complete picture of NAB’s IT transformation
You may have noticed that National Australia Bank enterprise transformation EGM Adam Bennett gave a speech at a CEDA lunch in Sydney this week. The executive's comments have caused a flurry of articles in the media. A brief overview, for your Friday afternoon reading pleasure, can be found here.
Woodside connects 200k IoT sensors to Amazon
There are some fascinating case studies coming out of Amazon Web Service's Summit in Sydney this week. One of the ones that we found the most interesting was a story regarding resources giant Woodside, which has conducted one of the largest Internet of Things projects we've seen yet in Australia.
CIO promoted as Boral outsources IT
Diversified materials company Boral this morning revealed it would embark on a wide-ranging IT outsourcing program which would see an undisclosed number of jobs go and its chief information officer promoted.
Symantec dumps Aussie support staff
According to iTNews, security vendor Symantec has dumped what little Australian technical support presence it had, offshoring the jobs overseas.
Adelaide Festival Centre deploys Red Hat Linux on Azure cloud
Adelaide Festival Centre has chosen to shift its Red Hat Enterprise Linux system from physical servers to Microsoft’s Azure could computing platform.
Govt splits AGIMO, appointing CIO, CTO
The Federal Government has announced it will split its troubled IT strategy division the Australian Government Information Management Office in two, promoting internal staffers into two new chief information and technology officer roles in line with the recommendations of the Reinecke review regarding the agency’s future.
Gen-i Australia may completely shut down
You couldn’t exactly say that the Australian division of IT services company Gen-i was in rude health, with the company revealing in mid-March that it would sack most of its staff and stop competing for most local contracts, as it shifted focus to only serving Trans-Tasman contracts as per the instructions of its parent Telecom New Zealand. However, according to CRN, things may be even more dire
Up to $50m more for Fiona Stanley hospital IT
The Western Australian State Government has been forced to admit that the IT systems associated with the new Fiona Stanley Hospital being built in the state had blown out in cost by an amount expected to be between $25 million and $50 million, as delays continue to affect the opening of the new flagship facility.
Offshore cloud an adoption barrier, finds KPMG
A research study partially funded by major offshore cloud computing vendors Salesforce.com, Microsoft, and Google has found that one of the major barriers stopping Australian organisations from migrating to cloud computing platforms is the lack of cloud infrastructure based in Australia, with legislation such as the US Patriot Act cited as key concerns with offshore hosting.
Heartbleed, internal outages: CBA’s horror 24 hours
The Commonwealth Bank's IT division has suffered something of a nightmare 24 hours, with a catastrophic internal IT outage taking down multiple systems and resulting in physical branches being offline, and the bank separately suffering public opprobrium stemming from contradictory statements it made with respect to potential vulnerabilities stemming from the Heartbleed OpenSSL bug.
National IT outage “minimal”, claims CommBank
Yesterday at a financial results briefing session, the Commonwealth Bank opened up for the first time regarding the nationwide outage which took down around 9,000 of its desktop PCs, hundreds of servers and even its CommSee customer management system.
Wollongong club group ditches email
Matt O’Hara, a club owner in Wollongong, has largely gotten rid of email for good, and is reportedly happier for it.
Westpac CIO Whincup to lead Woolworths’ IT
Westpac chief information officer Clive Whincup is set to leave his position just weeks after it was revealed the bank had dramatically shaken up its senior IT executive team, with retail giant Woolworths having reportedly confirmed the executive as its new CIO to replace outgoing IT chief Daniel Beecham.
Vic IT bungles Labor’s fault, says Liberal Minister
Victorian Minister for Technology Gordon Rich-Phillips has lambasted the past Labor Government’s “incompetence, mismanagement and waste” in its handling of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) projects in the state.
Government to retain ownership of Canberra’s ICON network
The Federal Government has announced it will not sell off the Intra Government Communications Network (ICON) – a fibre network connecting public service buildings throughout Canberra.
ICT Audit largely clears Federal Govt of problems
A comprehensive ICT audit of the Federal Government's ICT operations has largely found they are sound and performing to required standards, with expenditure within appropriate levels and only a small proportion of major ICT projects at risk.
Now Toll dumps Google Apps rollout, reconsiders SAP plan
Toll has reportedly stopped the rollout of a Google Apps deployment to its staff and is developing a new plan for its proposed SAP-based finance transformation.
Melbourne IT may sell off divisions
Diversified Australian hosting and digital services group Melbourne IT today revealed it would conduct a review into the future of its various divisions which may result in selling some of them off, in the wake of disappointing flat revenue growth over the past six months.
TechOne’s CRM package a hit
Australian software vendor TechnologyOne this week revealed it had landed five major local deals in the last quarter for its customer relationship management (CRM) software. The vendor's solution is set to replace a rival Microsoft platform at one of these sites, and believes its CRM solution be in use by over 10,000 people in the near future.
CenITex has no disaster recovery capacity
An audit of departments and agencies within the Victorian Government has found many don't have sufficient business continuity/disaster recovery facilities to keep them operating in the event of a major disaster, with the situation exacerbated by the lack of capability found at IT shared services agency CenITex.
NSW Govt trials Gmail, MS cloud email
The New South Wales State Government has revealed that it will trial both Google- and Microsoft-based cloud email platforms, as its interest in the new cloud computing paradigm continues to develop.
Survey warns Australian businesses may be in “digital denial”
A new survey by Progress has found that, while most Australian business leaders recognise the benefits of going digital, over half said their organisations were "in denial" over the urgent need to transform their processes and services.
CSIRO still running Windows 98, NT
In an otherwise unrelated article on the organisation's adoption of Internet Protocol version 6, an article published by ZDNet.com.au yesterday revealed that Australia's peak scientific research agency was still running some copies of Windows 98 and NT4.
Budget 2016: Major Child Care, Veterans’ IT reform projects approved
The Federal Government has approved several hundred million dollars' worth of funding to reform key IT platforms in the Department of Human Services and Veterans' Affairs, in moves that will unlock substantial IT transformation packages of work.
Qld to deploy whole of govt search
The Queensland Government has flagged plans to deploy a whole of government search package which will allow Internet users to search its hundreds of websites and other online resources through a single, centralised portal.
Microsoft to kill off SQL Server 2005 support in April
Software giant Microsoft has revealed it will formally end extended support for its ageing SQL Server 2005 database product in April next year, in news that will most likely not be welcomed by the substantial numbers of Australian organisations struggling to stay up to date with Microsoft’s refresh cycle.
US slams Australia’s on-shore cloud fixation
The United States' global trade representative has strongly criticised a perceived preference on the part of large Australian organisations for hosting their data on-shore in Australia, claiming it created a significant trade barrier for US technology firms and was based on a misinterpretation of the US Patriot Act.
DHS issues due to ‘chronic’ IT underfunding, says union
Computer malfunctions and other issues at the Department of Human Services are due to "chronic and prolonged underfunding" according to the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU).
Barden Produce deploys VMware’s vCloud Air
Australian veg wholesaler Barden Produce has announced a move to VMware's vCloud Air to bring about a more flexible and agile business model.
NT Govt still buying new IBM mainframes
IBM this month announced that the Northern Territory Government would deploy another new unit from its flagship zEnterprise mainframe system, in a rollout that marks the second time the territorial government has deployed one of the mainframe units over the past 18 months.
Aussie non-profits adopt Office 365 en-masse
Non-profit Australian organisations such as charities are adopting Microsoft's Office 365 Software as a Service platform in large numbers, according to non-profit technology enablement group Infoxchange, which has recently helped 20 such organisations shift into Microsoft's cloud.
Four years later, Westpac will finally shift core banking to Celeriti
Four years after it first started talking about migrating its core banking platform to Celeriti, the next generation of CSC's Hogan system, and five years after it acquired St George, which already uses Hogan, top-tier bank Westpac has finally confirmed imminent plans to start taking action on the issue.
Qld Police trial Segways for crime-fighting
The Queensland Police Service yesterday revealed that it would kick off what it said was the first Australian trial of the Segway personal transportation vehicle in pedestrian areas, to test their suitability for police operations.
Vic Govt abjectly fails IT security tests
An audit of the Victorian Government's IT security defences and ability to respond to major cyber-attacks has found it woefully unprepared, with its IT systems suffering over 100 "serious breaches" and the state unprepared for any serious online attack.
Vic Govt kicks off telco purchasing initiative
The Victorian Government this week revealed it had started discussing the future of its whole of government telecommunications purchasing strategy with the market as part of a new approach dubbed 'VicConnect' that it hopes will deliver service delivery improvements to the state's departments and agencies.
NSW Govt trials inter-truck safety devices
The New South Wales Government has inked a contract with connected vehicle technology supplier Cohda Wireless, as part of a trial of so-called Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) which allow heavy vehicles to communicate directly with each other about their position on the road to help reduce road accidents.
DHS issues show Turnbull’s innovation talk just ‘spam’, says Labor
Labor has criticised the Turnbull government over recent IT and other issues at the Department of Human Services (DHS), saying they reveal that the Prime Minster's talk of Innovation is just "spam".
Four months later, Govt cloud, IT audit stall
The new Coalition Government appears to have made little progress so far on enacting core elements of its centralised IT policy.
NSW moves closer to ‘cloud-first’ strategy
The New South Wales Government has given further signs that it is moving to adopt the kind of ‘cloud-first’ IT procurement strategy which jurisdictions such as the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand have pursued over the past several years, in a move which could fundamentally change the way the state buys and uses technology.
Insurer IAG hires Deloitte exec as digital ‘disrupter’
Multinational insurance company IAG has appointed Deloitte's Peter Bonney to a newly established 'Disruptive Technology and Architecture' role within its IAG Labs division.
Nokia Lumia rollout for Sara Lee
Finnish smartphone seller Nokia today added another name to the growing public list of large Australian organisations which have decided to deploy its Windows Phone-based Lumia line as their corporate smartphone, picking the series ahead of competing options from Apple and Android.
Future IT project fail? NSW Police gets COPS replacement funding
If you've been following state government IT in Australia for as long as I have, it starts to get easier and easier to see major IT project failures before they even happen. And NSW Police just popped up a doozy.
Qantas’ Amazon website cloud move will save it $30m
Over the past several years it has become a very common story to see major organisations shifting IT infrastructure, particularly their public-facing websites, into cloud computing facilities. Major banks have done it. Government departments have done it. And now, as has been outlined in a slew of articles over the past week, has Qantas -- well, at least it's in the throes of the migration.
Govt CTO Sheridan on open source, cloud
Federal Government chief technology officer John Sheridan gives his views on cloud computing and open source use in the Federal Government, in a wide-ranging speech to Forrester's Summit for chief information officers in Sydney.
Coles is yet another complex cloud case study
We’ve been seeing some very interesting moves from retail giant Coles over the past several years with respect to cloud computing and software as a service adoption. Nothing revolutionary, but solid moves nonetheless.
PIPE founder, Gordon Bell invest in OrionVM
Australian cloud computing startup OrionVM today revealed it had taken angel investment capital from two high-profile technology sector luminaries: PIPE Networks co-founder Stephen Baxter and US engineer Gordon Bell, of Digital Equipment Corporation fame.
V8 Supercars deploys Office 365
Software giant Microsoft this morning revealed racing specialist V8 Supercars had adopted its Office 365 software as a service productivity suite, citing the fact that it had outgrown its previous IT platform and needed room for expansion.
IBM says it “successfully delivered” Qld Health payroll
Global technology giant IBM has written to the new LNP Queensland Government claiming it “successfully delivered” against milestones agreed with the previous Labor administration with respect to the disastrous payroll systems overhaul at Queensland Health, which has already cost the state $417 million and will need another $837 million to fix over the next five years.
Santos reveals Win8 tablet rollout
From the sidelines of Microsoft's TechEd conference on the Gold Coast this week, Computerworld reports that oil and gas giant Santos has confirmed plans to deploy Windows 8 tablets throughout its business.
HP’s Caspari quits after just one year
It's been reportedly extremely widely in Australia's technology media over the past 24 hours that HP South Pacific Managing Director David Caspari has resigned his post and will leave the company.
“Morons”: Freelancer CEO wants ACS disbanded
The outspoken chief executive of crowdsourcing company Freelancer.com has posted an extensive diatribe online calling for the Australian Computer Society to be disbanded, describing the professional body as a "joke" and being run by "f*cking morons".
ShoreTel deploys unified communications for Brimbank City Council
ShoreTel, a California-based provider of phone systems and unified communications (UC) solutions, has announced it has deployed a unified communications solution for Brimbank City Council in Victoria.
Microsoft’s war on Google Apps gets nasty
Microsoft Australia produces case study scorching towards Google Apps and Gmail.
Woolworths dumping Windows for Chrome OS
Huge news coming from Computerworld today with respect to retail chain Woolworths, which is reportedly set to switch 85 percent of its PCs across to Google's Chrome OS operating system, shifting off Windows in the process.
IT in the budget? Move along, not much to see
Curious about what technology-related iniatives came out last night's Federal Budget? So were we, given that the release of the budget had been being hyped for weeks (months?) by much of the mainstream media as part of its continual fixation on the fraught battle between the various sides of politics. However, unlike previous years, this yaer there wasn't much in the 2013 Federal Budget to interest technologists.
ANZ Bank inks $450m deal with IBM
ANZ Bank this morning revealed it had signed a $450 million deal with global technology firm IBM that would allow the bank to access all of IBM’s technology and feature an ‘Innovation Lab’ to more rapidly bring new products and services to market.
Kmart calls police to investigate IT security breach
National retailer Kmart has called in the Australian Federal Police and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner to investigate an IT security breach which it has confirmed saw customers’ data accessed by unknown parties.
News Ltd builds classifieds site on Google cloud
It's not often you see Google's App Engine mentioned in Australia in the context of cloud computing. However, at least one decently-sized implementation has surfaced, courtesy of Google Australia's blog this week.
Salesforce a winner as NSW’s ChildStory project announces vendors
The NSW Department of Family & Community Services' ChildStory project has announced the winning vendors for a $100-million IT platform that is aimed to boost child safety in the state.
NZ Govt pushes hard into cloud
New Zealand's national Government announced a whole of government contract this morning for what it terms 'Office Productivity as a Service' services. This includes email and calendaring services, as well as file-sharing, mobility, instant messaging and collaboration services. The contract complements two existing contracts -- Desktop as a Service and Enterprise Content Management as a Service.
Fed Govt releases motherhood ICT strategy
The Federal Government today published what it described as a new strategy document which would set the overall direction for the Australian Public Service’s use of ICT in the future. However, the document contains few specific details of steps that will be taken, preferring to focus instead on a series of high-level motherhood statements.
Fortescue deploys HP server stack
Mining giant Fortescue this week revealed it had deployed a broad swathe of technology products and services from diversified global technology vendor HP as it overhauled much of its basic underlying IT server infrastructure.
ANU buys hemisphere’s biggest supercomputer
The Australian National University has bought a supercomputer capable of 1.2 Petaflops of processing power from Japanese giant Fujitsu, in a deal which is expected to create the largest supercomputer of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.
Report savages NT Govt’s ICT performance
The Northern Territory's parliament has published a landmark report into the management of ICT projects by its departments and agencies, finding a similar list of disasters as have been suffered by other state jurisdictions in Australia and recommending the immediate appointment of a whole of government chief information officer to help rectify the systemic issues.
The Inside Track: What’s behind Macquarie Uni’s move to ditch Gmail
Macquarie University’s very public decision this week to dump the Gmail platform it adopted with great pomp and ceremony just five years ago sends a clear message to Australian chief information officers of what they can expect when they buck corporate IT trends: Internal insurrection and ongoing dissent.
ANZ CEO announces head of digital role in raft of executive changes
Along with a number of significant changes to the executive team at ANZ, the bank's new CEO Shayne Elliott has announced plans to create a role for a new head of digital banking.
Disaster ahead? NSW Govt unveils massive SaaS ERP consolidation
The New South Wales State Government has unveiled plans for a massive technology-led project to consolidate a number of different enterprise resource planning systems onto just two new platforms, in a style of project which has historically led to cost blow-outs and extended project delays for similar initiatives accross Australian State Governments.
NSW kickstarts cloud email, virtual desktop trial
The New South Wales State Government today kicked off two trials of virtual desktop and cloud email services, in a move which could eventually signal a mass migration of some 30,000 government users into the cloud and which represents one of the first concrete steps by the state into the new cloud computing landscape.
NSW Police tackles ballooning data with dropbox
The New South Wales Police Force has revealed plans to deploy a low level document management system somewhat akin to the easy access storage solutions offered by vendors like Dropbox and Box, as its existing systems continually struggle to deal with massively growing data volumes of files being used by its staff.
NSW Health unleashes mammoth email consolidation
If you follow technology news relating to Australian governments, you can't help but laugh sometimes; because if you didn't, you'd cry at the irony of it all.
End of an era: Greg Farr to leave Defence
The Department of Defence has advertised for a public sector executive to replace its long-serving and highly regarded chief information officer Greg Farr, whose departure will amount to the end of an era for the department.
Technology One making inroads into Federal Govt
Home-grown Australian software firm Technology One appears to be making significant inroads into the Federal Government, with a $5.8 million deal with the Federal Department of the Treasury reportedly building on existing success the company is having selling its software into major institutions.
Atlassian’s SourceTree ditches Mac App Store
Atlassian, the Australian developer of the SourceTree app for Mac have decided to stop submitting SourceTree updates to the Mac App Store after March 1st, the deadline for all submitted applications to run inside a ‘sandbox’.
Vic Govt splurges on IT in budget
Those of you with your eyes on public sector IT spending will no doubt be hanging out for next week's Federal Budget, where there are always a few multi-million-dollar gems laid out in terms of big-spending IT packages. However, it's not always the Federal Government which splurges on major IT projects, as this week's budget in Victoria showed.
Transport for NSW signs huge IT deal with CSC
Transport for NSW has announced the signing of a "major contract" with multinational IT corporation CSC to transform its back-of-house IT systems.
Westpac dumps desk phones for Samsung Android mobiles
The era of troublesome desk phones tied to physical locations is gradually coming to an end in many workplaces, with mobile phones becoming increasingly popular as organisations' main method of voice telecommunications. But some groups are more advanced than others when it comes to adoption of the trend. One of those is Westpac.
Qld goes cloud for emergency services payroll
The Queensland Government has committed to replacing the ageing payroll systems used to support its emergency services (police, fire and ambulance) workers with a cloud computing platform, in the second major planned deployment of a cloud payroll application in the state following its billion-dollar on-premises payroll disaster at Queensland Health.
Govt finally introduces data breach laws
Those of you who work in the IT security field might want to pay attention to this. If your organisation suffers a major data breach, you're now going to be required to tell affected stakeholders about it.
Global Health inks e-health deals with SA, ACT govts
Global Health has inked a deal with SA and ACT governments to roll-out its proprietary electronic medical record (EMR) system across the Adelaide Primary Health Network and in the ACT.
Where’s My Jetpack? An awesomely epic rant by Australia’s new CTO
If you have even the slightest interest in government IT or technology project management, we recommend you sit down with a cup of tea and your tablet and read this epic rant by Australia's new chief technology officer John Sheridan. It's worth it.
Medibank appoints new tech chief
Private health insurance provider Medibank has announced the hiring of a new head of technology, effective from the end of November.
A great Aussie virtual desktop case study
Virtual desktops, bring your own device computing, integrated datacentre components. These are three of the hottest trends to hit Australia’s enterprise IT sector at the moment, and they all come together in this highly recommended article by iTNews writer Chris Jager looking at a huge virtual desktop implementation at RMIT University.
HPE may cut 200 Adelaide jobs, just months after hiring binge
Just months after flagging a sizable expansion of its business in South Australia, insiders have revealed Hewlett Packard Enterprise is actually in the throes of cutting several hundred staff from the state.
Vic Govt kicks off CenITex outsourcing
Just several months after the plans leaked to the media, the Victorian Government has gone to market for IT outsourcing partners to replace large chunks of the service delivery functionality currently provided by its extremely troubled IT shared serices agency CenITex.
Premier announces “technology revolution” for Victoria Police
Victoria’s frontline police men and women will soon be kitted out with state-of-the-art mobile technology intended to bring about a "technology revolution", thanks to funding allocated in the latest state budget.
NSW agencies push very hard for SaaS rollouts
Several major New South Wales Government agencies have unveiled major and wide-ranging plans to imminently purchase Software as a Service-style IT solutions, in moves which have the potential to re-cast the dynamics of the perceived relationship between Australia's public sector and the burgeoning class of SaaS-delivered IT packages.
NSW Govt implements new IT project assurance framework
The New South Wales Government is implementing a new set of procedures as part of its plan to monitor projects more closely and protect departments from issues such as runaway budgets.
KONE staff pick Lumia over iPhone, Samsung, HTC
More than 70 percent of staff at the local division of elevator manufacturing company KONE picked a model from Nokia's Lumia handset line over other options from Apple, HTC and Samsung, when given the choice, the Finnish manufacturer claimed in a statement issued yesterday.
Android in the enterprise: Three Aussie examples from Samsung
Forget iOS and Windows. Today we present three decently sized deployments of Android in the Australian market on Samsung's hardware, which the Korean vendor has dug up from its archives over the past several years for us after a little prompting :)
Hospital’s Windows XP virus has spread into other facilities: Read the internal email
Sounds like there is still quite a bit of work to do in nailing this one down, and making sure this kind of situation never happens again.
Comcare goes cloud for DR
Cloud computing projects in the Federal Government are a little thin on the water these days, despite the fact that the previous Labor administration tried to push for further adoption in the public sector, and despite the fact that cloud is all the rage in state governments at the moment. That's why we're particularly interested in this little gem posted by Australian Government chief technology officer John Sheridan on his blog today.
Attanasio quits Customs as CIO role abolished
The Australian Customs and Border Protection Service has revealed plans to abolish its chief information officer role in the wake of the resignation of its incumbent CIO Joe Attanasio from the position in late November last year.
Vic Govt opens IT offshoring door
The Victorian Department of Human Services has reportedly investigated handing the re-development of its troubled client and case management system to an offshore provider in the popular IT outsourcing country of India, in one of the first signals that the state recognises the unsustainable nature of its current onshored resources.
Microsoft beats Salesforce to utility CRM deal
Energy retailer Australian Power & Gas has picked Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM system over rivals Salesforce.com and Right CRM as the base platform for a customer relationship management overhaul to tackle incoming email complaints.
VMware talks Aussie datacentre
Apparently virtualisation giant VMware isn't content with having its software used by virtually every major organisation in Australia, and wants to push things a little further by launching its own public cloud offerings globally. And an Australian datacentre appears to be on the cards.
Atmail loses Raine & Horne as Office 365 slides in
Just two years after it announced a switch to the independent Atmail email platform, real estate giant Raine & Horne has revealed a migration to a new platform, with Microsoft's Office 365 and Exchange platforms getting the nod over for more than 3,000 staff.
Deakin Uni addresses student needs with Citrix cloud
Victoria's Deakin University has deployed a cloud platform based on Citrix technology in order to provide a solution for the evolving needs of its 53,000 students, Citrix has announced.
Microsoft’s Dynamics AX for Azure cloud to launch in Australia
Microsoft has announced that Dynamics AX, the latest version of its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software product, will soon be available in Australia and hosted in local data centres.
Nikoletatos swaps Curtin for ANU
High-profile Curtin University chief information officer Peter Nikoletatos has left his role to take up a similar position at the Australian National University.
Questions raised about Post IT transformation
Australia Post has issued a statement staunchly defending the progress of its IT transformation program, Building Future Ready IT, as questions are being raised about some aspects of the project's ability to meet its goals on time and while avoiding significant risks associated with any such corporate technology renewal effort.
Avoiding future ICT disasters: Qld outlines next steps
The Queensland Government today stated that it would accept all four major recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry into the Queensland Health payroll disaster, with the state's LNP administration already taking action to stop other projects going off the rails in a similarly catastrophic manner.
Commission of Audit backs high-risk shared services schemes
The new Coalition Government’s Commission of Audit (CoA) has recommended the Federal Government investigate the same kind of whole of government shared corporate services scheme which have abjectly failed most Australian State Governments over the past half-decade and resulted in widespread IT service delivery problems.
Optus inks $19.5m satellite deal with Defence
SingTel subsidiary Optus this morning revealed it had inked a $19.5 million contract with the Department of Defence, extending its current relationship in delivering managed professional satellite services to the Department for four years until mid-2018.
Weather bureau gets $80m Cray supercomputer
The Bureau of Meteorology this week revealed it had signed a US$59 million (AU$80 million) contract with US supercomputer specialist Cray for a beefy machine that will deliver the agency about 16 times its current computing capacity and allow it to predict the weather that much better.
CenITex cuts another 60 staff
Troubled Victorian Government IT shared services group CenITex has flagged plans to cut another 60 staff from its roster, as wider plans progress to outsource the infrastructure and services currently being provided by the group to other Victorian Government departments and agencies.
Questions & answers: Microsoft Australia’s Dynamics chief on CRM
Thomas Gudman is Microsoft Australia's new director of its Dynamics Business. In this interview, Delimiter questions Gudman about Microsoft's Dynamics CRM business in Australia, which competes in the market for enterprise software with fellow industry titans like Oracle and Salesfore.com.
Minister worried about AGIMO’s ability to deliver
Documents released under Freedom of Information laws have appeared to show that the minister overseeing the Federal Government's peak IT decision-making agency is concerned about its ability to deliver on a whole of government technology strategy, with yet another review being commissioned into its performance.
IBM inks cloud ERP deal with Coca-Cola Amatil
Global technology giant IBM this morning revealed it had signed a five-year, multi-million-dollar deal with Coca-Cola Amatil which will see the beverage company's revamped enterprise resource planning operations hosted out of an IBM datacentre located in Sydney.
eHealth NSW hiring for yet another CIO
New South Wales' peak electronic health agency NSW eHealth has yet again advertised for a new chief information and chief executive officer, as the latest swing in a revolving door of senior executives.
AARNet peers with Amazon Web Services
Work for one of Australia's universities and use Amazon Web Services? Your life just got a little better. Today AARNet, the telecommunications network serving Australia's university sector, announced it would peer with AWS for fun and profit.
Westpac follows CBA with cardless ATM access
Remember how in the middle of last week, the Commonwealth Bank announced a raft of measures to reform mobile access to its infrastructure, including cardless access to ATM machines? Well, it appears the competition was watching. Barely had CommBank gotten its announcement out of the door when Westpac followed.
iBooks textbooks? Sorry, not for Australia
Apple has limited access to the broad range of new educational textbooks announced through its iBookstore overnight to students in the US, locking Australians and those in other countries out of accessing the new content from publishers such as McGraw-Hill and Pearson.
VMware out, Hyper-V in at ING Direct
Internet banking brand ING Direct revealed this week that it had upgraded its server infrastructure to the latest version 2012 of Microsoft’s Windows Server operating system and further standardised on the vendor’s Hyper-V solution, as the bank’s enthusiasm for Microsoft’s server stack continues to grow at the cost of virtualisation rival VMware.
Huge Chrome OS success for Fire + Rescue NSW
Those among you with longish memories will recall the slight hullaballoo which emergency services agency Fire and Rescue NSW caused in November 2012 when it revealed it had dumped plans to deploy new traditional PCs throughout its operations in New South Wales, opting instead for a widespread deployment of 400 units of Google's Chromebox cloud-based desktop platform. Well, according to to the group's IT director Richard Host, the rollout has been a huge success.
“Waste of money”: Sydney Grammar School bans laptops in class
According to at least one school, these new-fangled devices are a "waste of money" and should be banned.
Telstra launches Cisco’s Android tablet
The nation's largest telco Telstra late last week confirmed it had started offering Cisco's low-profile Cius Android tablet to customers as a complement to their corporate unified communications platforms.
Report: Australia must take steps to capitalise on IoT revolution
Australia must take care not to miss out on the benefits of the ‘next great disruptor’ – the Internet of Things – according to a report published last week by the newly formed Communications Alliance Internet of Things (IoT) Think Tank.
CIO Curran outlines ambitious Westpac IT consolidation strategy
news Westpac chief information officer Dave Curran has outlined an ambitious IT platform consolidation strategy for the bank which will result in a centralised...
Atlassian buys HipChat
Australian enterprise software firm Atlassian revealed this week that it had acquired San Francisco-based HipChat.
Enterprise will hold back on Windows 8
I recently came across a fantastic series of posts which pretty much sums up what I think about Microsoft's incoming new operating system Windows 8.
Chinese spy concerns: Key Australian defence agencies ban Lenovo
According to the Financial Review, PCs made by Lenovo have been banned from the “secret” and ‘‘top secret” networks of the intelligence and defence services of Australia, the US, Britain, Canada, and New Zealand, due to similar spying concerns as have been published about Chinese networking vendor Huawei.
DTO celebrates achievements in first year
The Digital Transformation Office (DTO) has celebrated its first birthday with a blog post penned by CEO Paul Shetler looking back at the "highlights and milestones" of its inaugural year.
Spend-less Shoes replaces dated ERP platform
Speaking of ERP platforms, as we were earlier this morning, news arrived last week that local footwear retailer Spend-less Shoes will deploy a new platform. The company has picked Microsoft’s Dynamics AX 2012 for Retail platform, as detailed in a statement issued by Redmond.
Victoria Police outlines huge IT outsourcing project
Victoria Police's trouble-plagued IT department has gone to market for a large tranche of IT outsourcing services, in a deal which will reportedly be worth up to $340 million and see five separate outsourcing contracts consolidated into one substantial contract representing one of the largest such deals in Australia's public sector this year.
Adelaide Uni joins virtual desktop throng
The University of Adelaide this morning revealed it had joined the throng of Australian tertiary institutions making applications and platforms available to their students through desktop virtualisation, in a wide-ranging project which will see some 20,000 licences of Citrix's XenDesktop platform.
Xero raises $15m, makes acquisition
Accounting software firm Xero announced last week that it had raised a further AU$15.5 million from current strategic investors to maintain its future growth in Australia and worldwide. The New Zealand-based company also announced the acquisition of Max Solutions, a leading practice management company and developer of WorkflowMax, a job, time and invoice management solution.
Qantas still finalising Outlook shift
The nation's largest airline Qantas has revealed that it's still in the process of migrating its corporate email platform off IBM's Lotus Notes/Domino platform and onto Microsoft's Outlook/Exchange system, with the rollout now into its fourth year.
Cloud, Windows 8 may sneak into Canberra through Tourism Australia
At least one Federal Government agency, Tourism Australia, may be on the verge of taking the cloud computing plunge on multiple fronts.
Amazon’s Australian datacentre gets closer
That Australian datacentre which Amazon was planning to build? It's been a while since we heard a good rumour on that one, but The Register delivers this week, with news that the US cloud computing and online retail giant's local plans are still on.
LNP Qld Government kicks off IT cuts
The new LNP Queensland State Government has kicked off a substantial drive to reduce the amount it spends on technology-related goods and services, even ahead of a landmark audit of the state’s public sector technology use, expected to be handed down in December this year.
Cloud burst: Oracle reveals second Australian datacentre
Oracle co-president Mark Hurd has used a visit to Australia over the past week to officially launch the company’s second local datacentre, which the US enterprise IT giant will use to expand the variety of cloud computing and hosted services it provides locally to Australian customers.
Does IT matter … in Australian supermarkets?
But leading with technology doesn’t mean throwing technology at the problem. You need to do something different with it. That’s the challenge for Woolworths.
Great article series on Australian DevOps/agile
If you've spent any time working in the global technology industry over the past five years, it would have been pretty hard to miss the growing importance of the 'DevOps' movement -- in short, the increasingly powerful attempt to break down the traditional disconnect between 'development' and 'operations' activity within IT shops, particularly associated with agile development techniques. So what's happening in Australia in this area? iTNews has this morning published several excellent feature articles on this topic, and we recommend you spend this morning reading them instead of actually doing work.
Kicking Telstra out: Optus wins mobile deal with NSW Govt
The NSW Government today revealed it had picked Optus as its new provider of managed mobility services for a centralised contract with its Department of Finance and Services, in a move which will see the SingTel subsidiary take over a sizable body of work previously provided by Telstra.
IBM adds 150 new jobs in Ballarat
Well it appears that analyst firm capioIT’s rating of the Victorian region of Ballarat as the best non-metropolitan location in Australia for IT services delivery may be accurate. Or, at least IBM thinks so. In coalition with the Victorian Government, Big Blue last week announced it was expanding its Ballarat operations by some 150 jobs.
Victoria follows NSW, Qld into ‘cloud-first’
The Victorian State Government has flagged plans to follow other states such as New South Wales and Queensland and shift to a 'cloud-first' procurement model for IT infrastructure, in a move flagged in the first major update to its detailed whole of government ICT strategy first published in February 2013.
12 months on, Victoria Police still has no CIO
12 months on from the departure of its then-chief information officer Michael Vanderheide to lead Victorian IT shared services agency CenITex, Victoria Police still has not appointed a permanent CIO to lead its extremely troubled IT operations.
Costello says Qld should sell IT services units
A landmark report into the Queensland Government's financial position penned by Howard-era Treasurer Peter Costello has recommended the state government consider selling off its IT shared services unit, as there was no guarantee they could provide IT services to the government efficiently.
Harris Farm deploys IBM all-in-one servers
Retailer Harris Farm Markets revealed in late December that it had deployed IBM's all-in-one compute, storage and networking Flex System in its operations to meet a variety of aims ranging from reducing IT costs and complexity to boosting the performance of business systems such as its ERP platform.
UNSW deploys Cisco 802.11ac Wi-Fi
It’s a slow process, but gradually the 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard is making its way into consumer and corporate locations to gradually upgrade 802.11a/b/n installations. 802.11ac wireless routers are being sold in stores and mobile devices are gradually getting support. One of the first major organisations in Australia to deploy the technology en-masse will be the University of NSW.
Ruckus to deploy Wi-Fi network at Western Sydney University
Ruckus Wireless has been selected to roll out 'smart Wi-Fi' across all Western Sydney University (WSU) campuses.
NSW releases draft ICT strategy to lead tech sector
The NSW State Government has released a draft ICT strategic framework, which it hopes will help it become a leader in technology across Australia.
Anna Bligh promises 5,000 iPads for schools
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has promised that her Labor State Government will commit $5.7 million to deliver some 5,000 iPads to year 7 students across the state in a high-profile educational trial of the Apple tablets, should Labor retain power in the upcoming state election.
Most Qld Govt cloud data is going straight offshore
Queensland's Auditor-General has revealed that the State Government's 'cloud-first' policy has resulted in three quarters of the government data placed into cloud computing platforms going offshore, despite the availability of Australia-based cloud computing solutions.
ERP disaster costs Ansell millions
Australian condom and medical protection giant Ansell this week revealed a botched implementation of Oracle's ERP platform which went live last year had caused US$13 million to US$15 million worth of lost sales.
Govt updates on ICT strategy progress
This morning AGIMO’s Andrew McGalliard, from the agency’s governance and policy branch, published an update on the Government’s progress on delivering on the strategy, and contrary to my initial expectations, it appears as though there are in fact quite a few initiatives getting under way.
Breaking Victoria’s IT fail cycle: First steps to take
With its IT governance reputation in tatters and all of its major projects late, over budget and in many cases having simply failed to deliver, what steps can the Victorian State Government take next to get things back on track? Where can it turn for inspiration?
How much more do servers cost in Australia?
How much more do the hardware servers used by small businesses and large organisations cost in Australia? Quite a lot more than in the US, according to a report by small business technology media outlet BIT, in yet another case of the Australian technology tax striking fear into Australian wallets.
Microsoft’s giant Aussie Office 365 migration has started
Software and services giant Microsoft last week revealed it had started migrating the data of its Australian customers onto datacentres based locally, in a move that will affect customers in Australia, Fiji and New Zealand.
NEXTDC inks leaseback deal for Brisbane DC
The directors of datacentre company NEXTDC have announced that the company has entered into a sale-and-leaseback agreement for its Brisbane datacentre property. During 2011, NEXTDC had announced a capital recycling program intended to unlock the increasing worth of its property assets and to re-invest the income in higher yielding datacentre infrastructure assets through sale-and-leaseback arrangements.
Labor claims DHS telephone and IT systems ‘collapsing’
Labor has released a statement over what it calls a "collapse" in the standards of telecoms and IT services at Centrelink and Medicare.
Federal Govt re-affirms Microsoft format choice
The Federal Government’s central IT strategy division has re-affirmed and formalised its decision to pick Microsoft’s Office Open XML document standard as the federal public sector’s common office document standard, despite the fact that most alternative office suites cannot write documents in the standard.
ABC wants Apple, Android, Windows tablets
I would not be surprised at all if major Australian corporations were eyeing off Windows 8 and its bevy of hardware partners at this point, and wondering if the platform will allow them a much greater degree of control, flexibility and manageability over the tablets that they use than Apple's iPad will.
ING DIRECT rolls out Microsoft cloud deployment
ING DIRECT Australia has deployed Bank in a Box, a private cloud infrastructure, in collaboration with systems integrator Dimension Data and backed by technical expertise from Cisco, NetApp and long-term partner, Microsoft. A case study published by Microsoft this month reveals the background to the technology deployment at ING DIRECT.
IBM, VMware sign strategic cloud partnership
IBM and VMware have agreed a strategic partnership aimed to make it easier for businesses to advantage of the cloud’s speed and economic factors.
Govt’s new e-health platform already hacked
That shiny new e-health platform which the Federal Government sent live this week? The one you're supposed to put all of your most personal medical information in, for sharing only between your cadre of closed-lipped medical professionals? Yup. It was hacked during its development.
Watch out, CIOs — CMOs are stealing chunks of your IT spend
Chief marketing officers are increasingly making technology decisions for their organisations, according to a new study published today by technology analyst firm Telsyte.
Cloud computing player Ninefold shuts down
Ninefold, the Macquarie Telecom-owned cloud computing company which provides infrastructure as a service offerings, has decided to shut down, with its last day of operation being January 30, 2016.
Whole of Govt CIO Archer joins Gartner
Technology research and advisory firm Gartner has appointed former whole of Federal Government chief information officer Glenn Archer to the role of research vice president in its public sector research group, several months after the executive resigned from his post in early February.
Seittenranta to be permanent DPS CIO
Long-time Centrelink and Department of Human Services IT executive Eija Seittenranta has been appointed to a permanent role as the chief information officer of the Federal Department of Parliamentary Services, following a temporary appointment to the role in October.
E*Trade flooded with DDoS before Christmas
ANZ Bank's stockbroking service E*Trade was hit by a distributed denial of service attack in the lead-up to the 2011 Christmas season. After initial denials that the site had been attacked, the company sent its customers a letter informing them about the attack yesterday.
AGL turns to Microsoft for project management tools
AGL Energy has deployed Microsoft’s Project Online in order to more efficiently manage projects across the company.
Brisbane Airport extends IT services deal with Data#3
Australian IT solutions firm Data#3 has announced the signing of a new deal that will see it continue to provide infrastructure support for Brisbane Airport Corporation (BAC) for a further two years.
Brocade delivers LAN with New IP for secondary college
Networking solutions firm Brocade has announced that it has rolled out a comprehensive campus LAN upgrade, including a New IP networking solution, for Mazenod College in Lesmurdie, Western Australia.
Outsourcing to impact 188 Westpac jobs
Top-tier Australian bank Westpac today confirmed 188 local jobs would be affected by a shift in its technology sourcing strategy which is slated to see some internal work handed off to external suppliers.
Local Govt groups abandon Yammer trials
According to a yarn by The Register this week, at least two Australian trials of corporate social networking tool Yammer in Australia have been recently abandoned.
Obamacare web fiasco won’t be the last big IT fail
The uncomfortable reality is that no one really knows how to design or manage large, complex IT projects.
Accenture parlays CBA skills into Child Support win
The Federal Department of Human Services today announced a deal with IT services giant Accenture that will see the company help replace the ageing Child Support payments system, using the SAP technology which Accenture developed extensive skills with during the Commonwealth Bank's core banking placement project.
Qld eHealth agency reportedly stands down CIO after just one month
In mid-December 2015, the Department promoted the fact that it had appointed a new chief executive and chief information officer of eHealth Queensland -- the agency within the Department which is responsible for resolving the state's ongoing eHealth mess. Less than one month later, the executive has reportedly been stood down as part of an internal investigation.
Two Sydney universities get hacked
It hasn't been a good few weeks for university IT security in Australia, with the Universities of Western Sydney and New South Wales both being broken into.
Clutch of Aussie manufacturers go NetSuite
Enterprise software company NetSuite this morning revealed that a clutch of Australian manufacturers including Headland, Precision Mechatronics and BA Equipment Group had recently adopted its software as a service platform, as the vendor continues to make headway in the mid-level customer market in Australia.
Coalition IT policy: Quite similar to Labor’s
The Coalition has released a wide-ranging policy on how it would develop Australia's digital economy and government use of IT, in a move which broadly appears to place it on an even footing with the current Labor Federal Government and commit it to many of the same existing initiatives.
QBE shifts 100 IT roles to India
Insurance giant QBE continues restructuring operations in its IT department by offshoring 100 roles, according to the Finance Sector Union.
Qld poaches SA whole of govt CIO
The Queensland Government has poached South Australia's whole of government chief information officer Andrew Mills to be its own central CIO, six months after it removed two-time incumbent Peter Grant from the position.
Delimiter files FoI request for PCEHR Review
Technology media outlet Delimiter has filed a Freedom of Information request for a report reviewing the Federal Government's troubled Personally Controlled Electronic Health Records project begun under Labor, due to the fact that new Health Minister Peter Dutton has received but not yet released the sensitive document.
CommBank CIO rich enough to buy own island
Just how rich is Commonwealth Bank chief information officer Michael Harte? Rich enough to buy his own mediterranean island, according to Ninemsn, which today detailed the executive's attempt to buy the island of Budelli off the coast of Italy.
Qld Govt censors ICT audit, but makes progress on ICT strategy
Over the past month, the Queensland State Government has repeatedly declined to release the whole of government ICT audit it conducted last year. However, there are signs the state is making progress on plans to address wide-spread problems in ICT project and service delivery which have bedevilled many of its departments and agencies over the past half-decade.
Shock: Qld Govt succeeds in IT project
Police Minister Jack Dempsey announced yesterday that the Queensland Police Service had successfully delivered a new Online Crime Statistics Crime Portal that allows residents to access crime statistics for any area in the state, all through an interactive web portal.
Developers prefer Android, says survey
Google’s Android operating system has replaced Apple’s iOS in terms of importance to developers in the Asia-Pacific region in the last 12 months, according to a new survey by independent technology analysts Ovum. However, both still form the core of developer support and almost all developers support both platforms. The survey also reveals that there is increasing interest from developers in Blackberry OS and Microsoft’s Windows phone.
Asciano upgrades “entire” IT infrastructure
Port and rail operator Asciano has revealed a wide-ranging plan to upgrade its “entire” IT infrastructure and applications stack, in a move which will see a broad tranche of technology platforms modernised with the assistance of Japanese diversified IT services giant Fujitsu.
$1.5bn splurge: ANZ banks on customer tech
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group has revealed plans to spend up to $1.5 billion on a wide range of customer-facing technology systems and branch refurbishments, in the latest salvo of an intensifying battle between Australia’s major banks to position themselves as technology leaders.
NAB starts getting real about BYOD
It's only been six months or so since the National Australia Bank admitted that it had cautiously -- ever so cautiously -- dipped its toe into the turbulent waters of implementing a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) scheme in its operations. However, NAB appears to have already become a convert of the philosophy.
Amazon UPS design at fault in Sydney outage
As you may have noticed, Amazon Web Services is not precisely having a fantastic week in Australia. And now we know why and how.
Introducing a new Friday profile: Delimiter’s Friday CIO
When I think about the people that I personally most admire in Australia's technology sector, my thoughts usually go first to those working in chief information officer, IT director and IT manager positions. It's for these reasons that I'm planning to start a new regular profile for Delimiter.
NSW Govt refreshes ICT Advisory Panel
NSW Minister for Finance and Services Andrew Constance this week announced the State Government was taking nominations for the refreshed version of its ICT Advisory Panel, as well as the Industry Advisory Group of its Procurement Board.
IBM suffers “catastrophic failure” at health dept
The Federal Department of Health and Aging has accused technology giant IBM of causing a “catastrophic failure” in its IT systems stemming from an update to its storage environment that took down a number of services for a period of time this week.
Microsoft breaks Telstra Office 365 monopoly
Technology giant Microsoft has revealed plans to break the monopoly which its partner Telstra has on selling its Office 365 software as a service productivity suite in Australia, in a move which will widen the software's ecosystem substantially.
Recipe for disaster: NSW Education Dept turfs 600 techs
If you assume, as I do, that many of these staff spent much of their time 'putting out fires' -- reacting to the latest crisis in terms of their schools' IT infrastructure -- then removing those staff will create chaos across the board.
NSW Cancer Council ditches desktop PCs, phones forever
'Mobility' has been one of the hottest buzzwords in Australian IT departments for some time now. Smartphones, tablets, laptops -- and allowing users to access their corporate data wherever they feel is the most appropriate place and time and in the most appropriate format -- these are all the hallmarks of the new evolving mobility landscape inside major and minor organisations. However, few have taken it to the extremes that the NSW Cancer Council has.
BoQ cuts down outsourcing list to four
Those of you who follow the big end of the IT services market in Australia will recall that November last year Bank of Queensland revealed plans to finally chop up its extremely long-running comprehensive IT outsourcing deal with HP, with the effort being led by the bank's chief information officer Julie Bale (pictured). Well, things have been moving along at a rapid clip and the bank has reportedly now cut down its list of prospective partners to four.
Turnbull outlines Govt ICT vision
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has published an extensive article arguing that the Federal Government needed to do a better job of connecting with Australians via digital channels and that public sector IT projects needn't cost the huge amounts that some have in the past.
NRMA, Coles reveal sizable Oracle deployments
US technology giant Oracle has revealed that two major Australian organisations, Coles and the NRMA, have chosen Oracle as the basis for new IT projects, using technology ranging from Oracle’s customer relationship management platform to its Exadata Database Machine and Oracle Linux.
IBM unveils Watson centre in Melbourne as AI adoption takes off in Australia
Global technology giant IBM last week officially opened a new client experience centre in Melbourne where it will show off its Watson artificial intelligence platform, which is increasingly being adopted by major Australian organisations such as Deakin University, ANZ Bank, Customs and Woodside.
Stephen Wilson leaves Qantas
One of Australia's most high-profile IT executives, Stephen Wilson has finished a short-lived stint in the private sector, with the executive confirmed to have left a senior role at Qantas to lead the IT operations of Sydney Water, just two years after he left his post as CIO of the NSW Department of Education to join the airline.
Microsoft goes Windows Azure crazy: Aussie deployments ahoy as TechEd kicks off
Redmond has just published three extensive case studies of how Australian customers and partners are using its Windows Azure platform (which encompasses infrastructure as a service, storage as a service, and even platform as a service, to name a few of its aspects).
The datacentres that ate NSW
Cloud computing: Surely it is time for some fresh thinking in NSW government procurement – as taxpayers, don’t we deserve it?
Qld Police buys 1,250 more iPads, iPhones
The Queensland Police Service has committed to buying another 1,250 Apple iPads and iPhones to better deliver information to front-line police officers, following a successful trial of the devices from mid-2013 and the recent announcement that live CCTV footage would be piped to officers using the technology.
Russian hacker manipulated Australian stockmarket
Police and the national markets regulator yesterday revealed that a Russian hacker had last year broken into IT systems in major Australian financial institutions and manipulated penny stocks for a profit.
NSW Police trials iPad minis for tickets
New South Wales' police force has revealed plans to undertake a four-week field trial of a mobile app for officers to issue traffic infringement notices, which will be deployed in the field on locked-down versions of Apple's iPad mini tablets.
Why is Transport for NSW signing a 10-year, 1bn deal with IBM?
IBM might have been banned from signing new contracts with the Queensland Government over the Queensland Health payroll systems disaster, but that apparently hasn’t stopped other Australian jurisdictions from dealing with the vendor. The Financial Review reports this morning that Transport for NSW (which was formed from the merger of the NSW RTA, maritime, transport construction authority and Country Rail groups) is poised to jump into bed with Big Blue in a big way.
SAP loses Aussie MD Ebbeck
The long-serving leader of German software giant SAP's Australian business, Tim Ebbeck, has unexpectedly resigned, with the company currently conducting an executive search to find a replacement.
NSW Police trialling body cameras to record everything
US-based body camera vendor Reveal Media has announced that the New South Wales police force is trialling use of its body cameras, in a move that will likely have transparency and accountability benefits for both ordinary Australians and officers.
IT’S ON: Govt sets up IT price hike inquiry
Price-hiking technology vendors are set to be hauled before Australia's Parliament to justify their local markups, with Communications Minister Stephen Conroy confirming the Government will hold an official parliamentary inquiry into the issue, following a long-running campaign on the issue by Federal Labor MP Ed Husic.
Medicare moves into Human Services IT family
It’s been a while now since the Federal Government signed into being the Department of Human Services, the new super-department formed by the merger of Medicare, Centrelink, the Child Support Agency, Australian Hearing and CRS Australia. However, DHS’ IT department, which largely consists of Centrelink’s very successful IT department with more resources, has only just now taken responsibility from long-time outsourcer for much of Medicare’s IT systems.
Kundra reforms hit Queensland: State Govt pledges ‘cloud first’, IT dashboard
The Queensland Government has committed to adopting two of the most radical measures implemented by then-US Government chief information officer Vivek Kundra in the Obama administration's first term, as it grapples with a government-wide ICT Audit released last week that starkly demonstrates the potential for further disasters akin to the Queensland Health payroll catastrophe.
Optus signs $115m contract to manage telecoms for immigration department
Optus Business has announced a three-year deal to supply end-to-end telecommunications and managed IT services for Australia’s Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP).
330k users: Google Apps hits Catholic schools
Search giant Google has revealed its Google Apps software as a service platform has been deployed to some 330,000 students, teachers and administrative staff at Catholic schools across Australia, in one of the largest local known rollouts of the platform so far.
Elders Real Estate deploys Gmail to 1,200
interview Last week Elders Real Estate revealed that it had this year deployed Google's Gmail email platform and its Sites website creation and sharing tool to some 1,200 staff located around Australia. In this interview, the company discusses the rollout, its rationale for it, and its attitude towards cloud computing services in general.
Clothing with Bluetooth safety alerts idea wins mining hackathon
After over two days of non-stop brainstorming, a team composed of university students and scientists has won the 2015 Unearthed Melbourne Hackathon.
Immigration dumps Lotus in Microsoft focus
The Federal Department of Immigration and Citizenship has revealed as part of documents associated with a major IT outsourcing initiative that it is midway through the process of migrating off its Lotus Notes/Domino email platform and onto Microsoft's rival Outlook/Exchange system, as well as a number of other modernisation initiatives.
Aussie CIOs back Surface tablet
When it comes to tablets in the enterprise, Apple's iPad is currently the market leader. But, according to some early indications, Microsoft may be in with a winner with its new Surface tablet.
Legacy health software lands SA Govt in court
In which the South Australian Government comes up with complex legal arguments as to why it should be able to continue to use a 1980's software package.
“Chaos” in NSW Govt IT shared services
A landmark report into the management of the NSW Public Sector commissioned by the state's new Coalition Government has described how dozens of overlapping and competing systems and services providers have created "chaos" when it comes to the state's current IT shared services paradigm.
Mainframe out; Westpac adopts Exadata, Exalogic
Top-tier bank Westpac has revealed that it will shift some processing resources off existing mainframe infrastructure and onto Oracle’s Exadata and Exalogic platforms, as it attempts to gain higher levels of efficiency in the platforms that underpin its project to achieve a single view of customer information.
WA Govt agencies ignore constant warnings on IT security
Western Australia's Auditor General has warned that over a half of government agencies are failing to heed advice on IT security.
Yet another major Australian bank goes hard with Amazon cloud
It seems like it was only yesterday that Australia’s major financial services organisations were holding their noses and sniffing at the bad smell that they associated with ‘low-grade’ cloud computing services operated by offshore technology giants such as Amazon Web Services. It was only last month that it was revealed that National Australia Bank had switched its entire public-facing website into Amazon’s cloud, and this week Suncorp joined the throng, planning what The Australian describes as a “complete transfer” into the cloud.
Programming error costs CommBank over $2.5m
A flawed computer programme has forced Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) to stump up $2.5m in penalties and written off overdrafts, according to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
Three years on, RailCorp may get CIO
More than three years after it lost its last chief information officer, NSW State Government agency Railcorp has finally flagged plans to overhaul its IT executive management structure, in moves associated with the split into two separate divisions, Sydney Trains and NSW Trains.
Qantas can’t afford to replace 26-year-old IT system
So, it turns out the Queensland and New South Wales Governments are not the only major Australian organisations running short of much-needed cash when it comes to critical IT upgrades. According to the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, national carrier Qantas also can’t afford to keep its IT up to spec.
Tasmania to build on-island cloud for community and government services
The Tasmanian Government has announced it will build an on-island cloud service that will host most government data and services in the near future.
Telstra bets on Windows 10 solution to boost retail engagement
Telstra is rolling out Microsoft Windows 10 on Surface devices at its retail outlets in a move aimed to blur the line between in-store and online sales.
HP opens giant NSW datacentre (photos)
Global technology giant HP yesterday opened its colossal $119 million new datacentre in Western Sydney, revealing that it had dubbed the new facility "Aurora".
Sysadmin victory: Bulletproof to list on ASX
Sydney-based hosting and cloud computing company Bulletproof Networks has unexpectedly revealed its intention to list on the Australian Stock Exchange through a reverse takeover of a mining firm, in the second example in as many months of a major Australian technology firm going public.
UNSW publishes detailed cloud/data sovereignty toolkit
The University of New South Wales's widely respected Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre has published what I would consider to be a very useful whitepaper investigating data sovereignty issues related to cloud computing in the Australian context.
Woods Bagot deploys SharePoint 2013 early
It’s only just been formally released for official use, but Australian architectural design firm Woods Bagot has been using early versions of Microsoft’s SharePoint 2013 software since early this year, a new case study published by Microsoft recently has revealed.
How NAB’s private cloud keeps it carbon-neutral
The National Australia Bank has published a detailed white paper revealing how it used a combination of engineering and information technology tools and processes such as infrastructure on demand to achieve carbon neutrality and push beyond this benchmark into even greater heights of environmental efficiency.
ING Direct shifts entire bank platform onto private cloud
Financial services group ING Direct this week revealed it had switched its entire production IT infrastructure onto a private cloud platform, in a move the company claimed was a first for any bank in Australia.
Brisbane Airport deploys VCE private cloud
Brisbane Airport today announced it had selected technology from the VMware, Cisco and EMC coalition to deploy a new private cloud computing environment to meet its server processing needs, reportedly migrating on a previous IBM platform along the way.
IBM, Accenture are risk factors for IT disasters, claims TechnologyOne
Australian technology vendor Technology One has claimed that using major third-party systems integrators such as IBM and Accenture on major technology projects can add to the risk of "implementation disasters" such as the billion-dollar catastrophe with Queensland Health's payroll systems overhaul.
Makita Australia tried to “break” Windows 10 and failed, so deployed it instead
The IT department at the Australian office of Japanese power tool maker Makita tried to “break” Microsoft’s latest Windows 10 operating system and failed to do so, so ended up deciding to deploy the software throughout its operations to staff, the company revealed last week.
Tom Quinn appointed News Corp Australia CTO
Publishing giant News Corp Australia has appointed internal candidate Tom Quinn as its new chief technology officer, following the retirement of long-serving chief information officer John Pittard this month.
Fascinating case study about open source cloud
Most of the cloud computing stories we hear about involve major vendors. You know the ones we're talking about: VMware, Microsoft, Salesforce.com, Amazon and so on. These are household names. But what you may not realise is that there are other options out there for building cloud computing stacks. And some of them are not based on proprietary technologies and vendor lock-in at all.
DTO plucks teen coding genius from UK
The Federal Government’s fledgling Digital Transformation Office has hired a trio of high-profile digital government service delivery experts, including a 19 year-old hailed as one of the young guns of the UK’s equivalent agency on which the DTO was based, as it rapidly bulks up in the first few months of its existence.
Bailey quits Macquarie for non-profit COO role
Long-time Macquarie University chief information officer Marc Bailey has left the educational institution to join non-profit group Intersect, which focuses on applying advanced ICT technologies to the practice of research.
AGL hiring new CTO after IT management chaos
Energy utility AGL has revealed plans to hire several executives to fill new chief technology officer and head of IT service delivery roles, in a new wave of hires taking place after several years of turmoil in its IT leadership.
SA Police latest to join tablet epidemic
The South Australian Government announced this week that it will kick off a $1.7 million trial which will see police in the state deployed with some 350 tablets over the next year, in a move which will see the state follow similar initiatives in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and at the Australian Federal Police.
Vic Govt instantly blows $4.4m on Windows 2003
The Victorian Government has paid Microsoft a whopping $4.4 million for extended support for the now-defunct Windows Server 2003 operating system, in a move which sharply demonstrates the extreme cost of running operating systems which are no longer formally supported by their vendors.
Whole of Govt CIO Steward retires
Australia’s Whole of Government chief information officer Ann Steward this week announced her intention to retire from the public service after seven years leading peak IT strategy agency the Australian Government Information Management Office and long years more in the global public sector generally.
Qld Education Dept buys 14k Win8 tablets
If you were the chief information officer of a major education department and wanted to deploy a mass tablet rollout to thousands of students, would you pick Apple’s dominant iPad platform, which owns the majority of the tablet market? Or perhaps you’d go with the fastest-growing competitor and pick Android? That’s probably what we’d do. However, Queensland’s Department of Education has ignored both these options and gone for a Windows 8 model from Acer.
Jeff Smith quits Suncorp for IBM
Second-tier Australian bank and financial services group Suncorp today announced that its long-serving top technology executive Jeff Smith would leave to take up a senior role with IBM in the United States, in an announcement which marks the end of an era for the nation’s banking IT sector.
Ansell turns to SAP as Oracle ERP project lags
Australian condom and medical protection giant Ansell this week revealed it had chosen to extend an existing SAP-based business systems platform from its acquisition of French protective equipment company Comasec to other areas of its business, instead of further extending its new Oracle ERP rollout, which has suffered significant problems.
Australian Federal Police fails cybersecurity health check
The Federal Auditor-General has criticised the Australian Federal Police for not meeting federal cyber-security standards, in a wide-ranging audit that exposed a number of issues with the law enforcement agency's ability to secure its own IT systems.
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank adopts IBM cloud
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has adopted IBM Cloud to boost development of new banking products and services for its 1.6 million customers.
Uniloc fixed software piracy in 1993
Remember Uniloc? That little Aussie battler software company which took on Microsoft on patents and walked away with half a billion dollars? The company’s founder Ric Richardson this week posted a YouTube clip about the company back in 1993. Let’s just say it was a simpler age.
Super funds close to dumping $250m IT revamp
If you have even a skin deep awareness of the structure of Australia’s superannuation industry, you’ll be aware that much of the underlying infrastructure used by many of the nation’s major funds is provided by a centralised group, Superpartners. One of the group’s main projects in recent years has been to dramatically update and modernise its IT platform — its version of a core banking platform overhaul. Unfortunately, the $250 million project has not precisely been going well.
Budget 2016: Govt establishes joint taskforce to fix myGov
The Government has established a joint taskforce to remediate its troubled myGov digital identity and verification platform, bringing in experts from a number of government departments and throwing $50.5 million at the project.
University of Melbourne launches new hybrid supercomputer
The University of Melbourne has launched a new supercomputing service called Spartan it says will boost research at the institution.
Lessons for Australia? UK outlaws IT contracts larger than £100m
The UK Government has taken a startling new stance on major IT contracts, outlawing new deals larger than £100 million (AU$190m) and declaring that it's time the country moved past traditional arrangements with "legacy technology giants", in a move which appears to mirror similar State Government initiatives in Australia.
Review brands ATO’s Change Program a success
An extensive review of the Australian Taxation Office's colossal $814 million Change Program IT platform overhaul has found the program broadly to be a success, with the initiative delivering on most of its objectives and making a return on its investment in just four years, despite a history which at times seemed close to going off the rails.
‘Cloud’ is now mainstream in Australia’s banking sector
It's finally happened. After years of expressing concern about the privacy risks, regulatory challenges and technical inadequacies of the new clutch of technologies broadly known as “cloud computing”, Australia's financial services sector has embraced the new paradigm wholesale. It's about time.
NSW Office of Environment and Heritage boosts mobility with shift to Office 365
The New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) says it has rolled out Office 365 in order to boost mobility for its many employees.
Royal Melbourne Hospital still has not fixed its Windows XP virus problem
As it turns out, two weeks on, the hospital still has not quite got control of the IT infection
Jetstar deal the Asian wind beneath Telstra’s wings
Telstra is talking up the international prospects for its Network Applications and Services (NAS) arm after securing a significant contract to manage IT management and procurement on behalf of expanding regional budget airline Jetstar.
Two years later, NTT sacking Frontline staff
Just two years after Japanese technology consortium NTT revealed it would purchase the majority of Australian IT services firm Frontline Systems (which also owns hosting company Harbour MSP), the trio have revealed plans to make a substantial number of Australian staff redundant as part of a reorganisation.
Hacked? NSW Education in major outage
The NSW Department of Education and Communities has confirmed it has suffered a major event in its IT operation this week that knocked key staff services such as email offline, with an an unverified source claiming it had been hacked and suffered the deletion of thousands of accounts.
Are police drones just toys for the boys?
Military tactics and hardware can make policing more appealing to recruits and generate impressive media spectacles, but they do not prevent or solve crime. The underlying causes of social disorder go unaddressed while public funds are spent instead on expensive but ineffective and potentially dangerous toys.
Too late? WA wants central Fiona Stanley PMO
The Western Australian Government has gone to market for a provider to establish a project management office (PMO) to will coordinate development activities between its problematic Fiona Stanley Hospital build and its wider health department, just weeks after it admitted that the IT systems associated with the hospital had blown out in cost by an amount expected to be between $25 million and $50 million.
Uni of New England opens Lync to 23,000
Microsoft has revealed that Armidale's University of New England has licensed its Lync unified communications platform for the use of 23,000 students and staff, in a deployment which appears to set a new record for the use of the technology in Australian educational institutions and which opens UNE's remote learning doors further.
Nine deploys Centrify to assist with Mac/Active Directory admin
Identification management and security vendor Centrify has revealed the Nine Network has deployed its solution to drastically simplify administration of its recently expanded fleet of Apple Mac desktops.
CenITex sacks 200: Read the internal email
Victorian IT shared services agency CenITex told its staff that it was planning a round of 200 redundancies. Thanks to a source, we've gotten our hands on the internal document outlining the changes.