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.
Amazon’s virtual desktop hits Australia
Cloud computing giant Amazon Web Services today announced that its WorkSpaces virtual desktop platform was available to be delivered from its Sydney datacentre, in a move which may accelerate the adoption of virtual desktop infrastructure in Australia in general.
ICAC finds training institute IT manager guilty of corruption
An investigation by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has found a former IT manager at the TAFE NSW South Western Sydney Institute (SWSI) guilty of corruption in his official role at the training organisation.
Woolworths deploys iPads to all store managers
It's raining iPads at retail giant Woolworths, according to an article this morning by The Australian newspaper, which details the company's plans to deploy the Apple tablets to some 890 store managers nationwide.
Moula Money banks on Rackspace
US-based cloud computing firm Rackspace has released a case study spelling out how its services have helped online lending startup Moula Money scale its systems to keep pace with its rapid growth.
Qld Govt launches ICT action plan, IT dashboard
The Queensland State Government this morning launched an ICT Action Plan containing dozens of measures designed to transform its extremely troubled ICT project and service delivery capabilities, as well as switching on its US-style ICT dashboard designed to give onlookers direct information about the state of its ICT projects.
DiData lands Aussie customer for new cloud
Global IT services outfit Dimension Data has announced a new range of global cloud services, simultaneously revealing it has signed up the Australian Centre for Advanced Computing and Communications to use the platform.
Aussie IT depts lost on how to handle BYO apps
Australian IT departments are "ill-prepared" to handle the massive influx of employee-sourced applications such as Dropbox, Skype and Evernote that are "storming" into their operations and being used by staff to improve their personal productivity, according to a new report produced by analyst firm Telsyte.
Delimiter files FOI request for Govt ICT Audit
Technology media outlet Delimiter has filed a Freedom of Information request seeking to retrieve the unreleased comprehensive ICT Audit which the Federal Government presented to Finance Minister Mathias Cormann in January this year.
Govt could shift 450 sites to Drupal cloud
The Federal Government has revealed long-range plans to migrate its public-facing websites to Drupal on a software as a service (cloud computing) basis, in a move which could end up seeing around a third of the government's 1,200 odd-sites migrated off commercial and other alternatives and onto the open source platform.
Griffith Uni dumps Lotus for Gmail
Queensland's Griffith University has become the latest educational institution to shift its staff email accounts into Google's cloud, announcing yesterday that it would ditch IBM's troubled Lotus Notes/Domino suite as it did so.
Medibank Private dumps seven other telcos, keeps Telstra and … Skype?
I've got a number of questions about this deal ... namely: How the hell was Medibank Private -- a huge corporation -- even using eight different telecommunications suppliers in 2015 to start with? Why has it taken the company so long to consolidate the numbers of suppliers down? And since when, as Telstra detailed in its media release, has Telstra been selling Skype for Business services (owned by Microsoft) as part of its service offering?
Qld dumps whole of government email project
Queensland's new LNP State Government late last week revealed plans to dump the troubled colossal whole of government email project begun under the previous Bligh Labor administration, with IT Minister Ros Bates highlighting the possibility to shift to a "cloud-based solution" instead.
“Billions”: Hockey greenlights Centrelink core replacement
Treasurer Joe Hockey has strongly hinted that the upcoming Federal Budget will include "billions" of dollars worth of funding for a core systems replacement at the Centrelink division of the Department of Human Services (DHS), in a move that represents one of the Federal Government's most long-awaited and largest IT project approvals.
NSW Trade + Investment wants to go full cloud
The NSW Department of Trade and Investment has signalled plans to continue shifting more of its IT assets to cloud computing platforms as part of a "journey" away from managing and owning its own infrastructure, in the wake of the successful deployment of a wide-ranging ERP platform based on a SAP software as a service solution.
NSW Education ERP upgrade only a little late, over budget
A comprehensive audit of the NSW Department of Education and Communities' wide-ranging Learning Management and Business Reform program, which involves a number of rolling upgrades of business administration software, is late across a number of areas and over budget, although not to the degree seen in similar projects around Australia.
Businesslink cancelled Office 365 rollout
Microsoft has been on a bit of a tear recently in Australia with its cloud-based Office 365 platform, signing up major customers such as the Queensland Government, Qantas, V8 Supercars and rental chain Mr Rental. And it’s not hard to see why, with the platform’s hybrid cloud/traditional deployment model giving customers substantial options. However, as iTNews reported last week, it hasn’t been all plain sailing for Redmond in this arena.
Smart Grid program largely successful
The Federal Government's Auditor-General has published an extensive report on a trial of smart grid and other innovative technologies which was funded in the 2009 Federal Budget at a cost of $100 million, finding that quite a few components of the overall trial were delivered successfully, although some aspects did not quite deliver up to spec.
Agile, user-focused IT development getting results at NSW FaCs
The Federal Government's Digital Transformation Office has been talking a lot recently about the need for more rapid technology development cycles in the public sector, but its' not the only home of innovation in government around Australia.
Turnbull’s Department seeks replacement CIO
The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) is looking for a new Chief Information Officer following the departure of Radi Kovacevic to the DTO.
Mirvac dumps BlackBerry for iPhone; and a few thoughts about the model
The nation's number two telco Optus and its subsidiary Alphawest has revealed that they recently helped shopping centre giant Mirvac ditch its fleet of BlackBerry mobile phones for an Apple iPhone replacement.
‘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.
Agency to refresh desktops with Surface Pro 2
Minor Federal Government agency the Australian Transport Safety Bureau has revealed plans to refresh its staff PC fleet not with laptops, not with desktop PCs, but with Microsoft's Surface Pro 2 tablet, in one of the first known deployments of its kind in Australia.
Telstra deploys Windows 7 internally
The nation's largest telco Telstra has confirmed it is currently in the midst of one of Australia's largest known rollouts of Microsoft's latest Windows 7 desktop platform, in an initiative which will eventually most of the company's 40,000 staff.
Qld Health’s IT woes just keep coming
An interesting article published here by the Courier-Mail just before Christmas lays out yet another IT-related headache being suffered at the moment by Queensland's favourite technological minefield, Queensland Health.
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.
Unisys IT modernisation gives Co-operative Bank a boost
Unisys has released a statement saying that its New Zealand subsidiary has improved the Co-operative Bank’s IT infrastructure using Unisys ClearPath Forward systems.
Lockheed Martin spin-off to create new IT services firm with giant Defence, ATO contracts
From The Wall St Journal earlier this month comes confirmation that military equipment specialist Lockheed Martin still expects to sell or spin off the IT services business which the company has long had tacked on to its manufacturing operations.
CERT report finds IT hacks uncommon, usually petty
A major new study of the IT security habits and experiences of Australian organisations conducted by government group CERT Australia has found the majority did not suffer an IT security incident over the past 12 months, and those that did mainly suffered minor breaches such as the theft of a laptop of smartphone.
US tech visionary Harper Reed to keynote Cisco Live
Technology giant Cisco has unveiled the line-up for its Cisco Live confab in Melbourne next week, with US-based technology evangelist Harper Reed to feature as one of the main keynotes, alongside several senior global Cisco executives.
NAB shifts UBank onto new core IT platform
The National Australia Bank today revealed it had migrated its UBank online brand onto its new Oracle-based core banking platform, in a move which is slated to deliver both the bank and its 300,000 UBank customers significant immediate benefits from the new technology.
Judge sides with IBM in Qld Health payroll lawsuit
This week it appears as though Queensland's actions have blown up in its face again with respect to its botched payroll systems upgrade at Queensland Health.
Lotus position: ABS a “happy Notes camper”
We couldn't help but laugh when we read this excellent interview with Australian Bureau of Statistics chief information officer Patrick Hadley, describing the agency's ongoing commitment to IBM's Lotus Notes/Domino platform as part of its recently released and wide-ranging ICT strategy.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Finally, a local Windows 8 tablet trial
News arrived last week courtesy of iTNews that the Tasmanian Police force is about to kick off a trial of Windows 8 tablets.
IT disaster waiting to happen: Qld Health to replace 22-year-old admin system
Queensland Health's beleaguered IT operation has turned its focus to a sizable IT replacement project slated to cost the state up to $438 million and see a 22-year-old patient administration program replaced, as the fallout from its billion-dollar botched payroll system upgrade continues to be felt in the state's public sector.
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.
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.
Sydney Water IT faces audit
The NSW State Government has announced it will conduct an audit of the IT and marketing budget of utility Sydney Water, in the wake of revelations the company spent some $7.1 million on the development of a new website, which went live in March this year.
Uni of Queensland to deploy private cloud
The University of Queensland has revealed plans to deploy a significant swathe of private cloud infrastructure, as it ramps up plans to provide its individual faculties and divisions with a centralised pool of computing resources that can easily provision hundreds of virtual servers.
Atlassian doubles staff, revenues in 18 months
Australian enterprise software group Atlassian overnight revealed it had approximately doubled its headcount and revenues over the past 18 months, as it rapidly expands its operations internationally on the back of the $60 million in venture capital investment it took in mid-2010.
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.
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.
WA Govt exposes dodgy IT deals
An investigation by Western Australia's Corruption and Crime Commission investigation has found that more than $1.2 million of IT software was purchased by a former council CEO without going to tender or getting quotes -- over a period in which they received gifts and benefits from the supplier.
Using SurveyMonkey? Be careful … if you’re an Australian Govt organisation
I've had an interesting and robust conversation online in the last day regarding how Australian councils and governments are using overseas services like SurveyMonkey to collect information from citizens and residents.
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?
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
“Criminal neglect”: Qld Govt IT fixes to cost up to $6 billion
Queensland’s new IT Minister Ros Bates said this week it would cost the state between $3.7 billion and $6 billion replace the “mess of mismatched, miscellaneous and duplicated [ICT] systems” which the previous Labor administration had left the state with.
Amazon hiring Sydney datacentre manager
Cloud computing giant Amazon has advertised more than a half dozen new positions as it ramps up its operations in Australia, including a role for a Sydney-based datacentre operations manager, which will re-kindle speculation the company wants to roll out infrastructure locally.
New Microsoft Surface + Lumia devices to hit Australia before Christmas
Microsoft’s new range of Surface convertible table devices will launch in Australia in mid-November, the global technology giant announced this week, as well as a clutch of new Lumia-branded handsets to keep Windows mobile enthusiasts happy.
Anatomy of Qld Health IT disaster: IBM should never have been appointed
The Queensland Government's formal inquiry into the payroll systems upgrade debacle at Queensland Health has found damning allegations of procurement impropriety in the appointment of IBM as prime contractor for the initiative, and has concluded that Big Blue should never have won the contract in the first place.
Lockheed Martin is ASG’s mystery bidder
blog After a few months of speculation, it has emerged that the mystery bidder attempting to buy Perth-headquartered IT services firm ASG is Lockheed...
Telstra migrates email offshore to Windows Live
Australia’s largest telco Telstra has promised its BigPond customers a faster and enhanced email service named BigPond with Windows Live, without the need to change email addresses. The caveat? Their data will now also be stored offshore with Microsoft.
Corruption allegation hits Sydney Uni IT manager
The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) will hold a public inquiry commencing on Tuesday 20 March 2012 as part of an investigation it is conducting into corruption allegations concerning a University of Sydney manager's use of a recruitment agency, in which he and his wife had an interest, to recruit contractors and staff to the university.
Farce: Minister has PCEHR report … but Dept can’t find a copy
The Department of Health has rejected a Freedom of Information request for a report reviewing the Federal Government’s troubled Personally Controlled Electronic Health Records project, claiming that it does not have a copy of the document, despite the fact that Health Minister Peter Dutton announced in December that he had received it.
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.
“A disgrace”: Palmer slams Tassie IT jobs cull
Palmer United Party leader Clive Palmer has strongly criticised a decision to shift the roles of some 56 Tasmanian IT workers employed by the Department of Human Services onto the mainland, describing the decision by the Federal Government as "a disgrace and a betrayal" by the Coalition.
STM Bags dumps MYOB and SugarCRM for NetSuite
STM Bags, an international designer and distributor of laptop bags, tablet and phone cases, has deployed NetSuite OneWorld to manage its business operations as the company continues to expand worldwide.
‘Unacceptable’: Cisco’s Chambers tells Obama re NSA interceptions
Long-time Cisco Systems chief executive John Chambers has written a strongly worded letter to US President Barack Obama stating that the company "simply cannot operate" if the National Security Agency continues intercepting its routers and injecting spyware onto them before they are delivered to customers.
Service Stream deploys 1,400 Office 365 seats
Telecommunications infrastructure construction and maintenance firm Service Stream has revealed that it has deployed more than 1,400 seats of Microsoft's Office 365, in one of the largest known rollouts of the software as a service platform in Australia outside of the education sector.
First interviews surface with new Defence CIO
It’s been a couple of months since the new Department of Defence chief information officer, Peter Lawrence, stepped on board to replace the now legendary Greg Farr, and the first interviews have started to surface with Lawrence.
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.
Australian standard published for IT governance
Australia's peak standards-setting body in late December claimed to have published what it described as "a significant new standard" that would support in successfully governing major information technology projects.
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.
Spark Ventures deploys BMC Remedyforce
Digital services firm Spark Ventures has moved to BMC’s cloud-based Remedyforce solution to better manage the back-end infrastructure that supports its consumer and business digital services.
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.
NSW TAFE to axe troubled LMBR student enrolment system
NSW Technical and Further Education (TAFE) is to replace the Learning Management and Business Reform (LMBR) student enrolment system, which is run by Tribal Group and has been plagued with technical issue since it's launch late in 2014.
Govt blocks PCEHR review release
The Federal Department of Health has moved to block the public release of a report reviewing the troubled Personally Controlled Electronic Health Records project, stating that there are not sufficient public interest reasons for the report to be released, despite the fact that Health Minister Peter Dutton has stated the document contains “a comprehensive plan for the future of electronic health records in Australia”.
Macquarie Uni dumps Gmail for Office 365 for staff
Macquarie University yesterday revealed it had decided to ditch Google’s hosted email and calendaring platform and would migrate its staff to Microsoft’s rival Office 365 platform, in the wake of a controversial decision by Google to shift the university’s data from its previous datacentre location in Europe and move it to the United States.
‘Cloud first’ a circuit-breaker, says Ovum
Taking a “cloud-first” policy has the potential to act as game changer to allow departments and agencies to break out of their current restrictive ICT procurement practices, technology analyst firm Ovum said this week, as discussion continues to swirl about how Australian governments are handling the new cloud computing paradigm.
Before this decade is OUT: What if the “giants of the web” designed government...
What have we learnt from the past decade of "government online"? And what could we learn from the giants of the web? This is an examination of how an understanding of complex systems, risk and common patterns can be applied in an economy-wide effort of breakthrough innovation to drive the digital transformation of government service delivery over the next decade.
AGL to launch $300 million digital transformation
AGL has announced the launch of a three-year, $300-million digital transformation programme aimed to improve customers' experience with the company.
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.
Seeing Machines replaces Salesforce.com, MYOB, Excel and Outlook with NetSuite OneWorld
Seeing Machines, an Australia-based developer of driver fatigue and distraction detection technology, has deployed NetSuite OneWorld across its global operations.
Servcorp deploys Dropbox Business for cloud storage
Following a consultation with staff members, Servcorp has moved to Dropbox Business to better fulfil its cloud storage requirements.
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.
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.
ShoreTel iDevice dock: Is this actually useful?
We couldn't help but goggle when we received a media release yesterday from enterprise telephony vendor Shoretel pushing what the company dubs "the first enterprise-grade docking station for Apple iPad and iPhone".
myGov has potential but is far from finished
MyGov – or something like it – is part of a 21st century government. It is the way of the future. But it needs careful development, testing, and selling.
Bloodbath: Qld Govt sacks one quarter of IT staff
The Queensland Government has cut its information technology workforce by about a quarter in just a year, the state's Public Service Commission has revealed, in startling figures that come as the state is grappling with substantial problems with fundamental IT project and service delivery.
NAB to roll out new personal banking platform this month
National Australia Bank (NAB) is to roll out a new personal banking platform in a move it calls "the biggest technology overhaul in the bank’s history".
WA public transport agency downed by hack attempt
It appears that IT staff at Western Australia's Public Transport Authority had a rather different kind of weekend: One in which they descended into the hell of trying to clean out hackers from their IT systems.
Cloud central to Oxfam IT overhaul
The Australian division of relief and development organisation Oxfam has revealed plans to conduct a substantial fundamental IT infrastructure refresh project which will see a number of traditional in-house IT services replaced with new cloud computing technologies.
NSW Police deploys on-body Fujitsu camera solution
The NSW Police Force last week revealed it would start deploying an on-body camera solution from Japanese vendor Fujitsu to frontline police, as part of a global trend which is seeing the technology increasingly adopted by law enforcement authorities around the world.
Google takes on Microsoft with ‘free’ Apps offer
As part of its ongoing attempt to help itself to a big slice of Microsoft's pie, Google is offering companies 'free' use its online suite of apps for enterprise. There are conditions, however.
15-year-old IT system helped Victoria lose $886m
The Victorian Ombudsman has found that the poor-performing nature of a 15-year-old IT system operated by the State Government has been one of the main contributors to the state losing more than $1.2 billion of revenue from millions of uncollected legal infringement fines. A project to replace the system kicked off in 2007 has not yet delivered on its aims.
Govt IT buyers “struggling” with pace of change
Government departments and agencies are "struggling to keep up" with the pace of change in the technology sector, analyst firm Ovum said in a research note issued this month, with the rapidly evolving technology landscape outpacing the speed of procurement cycles.
AGIMO in flurry of cloud computing moves
The Federal Government’s peak technology strategy division has made a series of announcements aimed at pushing forward its vision with respect to public sector uptake of the new generation of cloud computing services and making such services available on the right terms to departments and agencies.
Jobs go as Brisbane outsources to HCL
It’s been coming for a while, but Brisbane City Council has finally bitten the bullet and inked a wide-ranging IT outsourcing contract with Indian firm HCL. According to the Brisbane Times, some 55 jobs are set to go and staff are not happy.
Optus to transition Adelaide Festival Centre to Office 365 and Azure
Optus is to transition the existing IT infrastructure platform of the Adelaide Festival Centre to a hybrid cloud platform leveraging Microsoft Azure and Office 365.
ANZ Bank CIO Weatherston quits
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group announced late last week that its chief information officer Anne Weatherston would "step down", with the executive's responsibilities to be assumed by the bank's chief operating officer while a global search is undertaken for her replacement.
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.
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
Digital Transformation Office unveils gov.au prototype
The Digital Transformation Office (DTO) has revealed the "Alpha" prototype of gov.au – the new governmental web platform that aims to present information and services based on usability, rather than the structures of government.
EPA Victoria deploys SAP CRM
German software giant SAP this morning revealed that version 7.0 of its customer relationship management platform was being deployed at the Victorian Government's Environmental Protection Authority, along with a number of other components of SAP's broader software suite.
Bulletproof poaches Rackspace MD
Australian hosting company Bulletproof poaches the local country manager of international hosting giant Rackspace.
Digital Realty flags new datacentre construction in Melbourne
Global technology firm Digital Realty is to establish a new datacentre in Victoria that will create hundreds of new jobs in the state.
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.
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.
Surprise? Qld Police stuck in IT dark ages
A review of Queensland's police and law enforcement resources has found the Queensland Police Service's (QPS) technology capability is "significantly behind" that of comparable police forces in other jurisdictions, with archaic stand-alone IT systems lacking interconnection and modern technology not available to support officers in the field.
Fujitsu wins $140m IT services deal with Gold Coast
Global IT services provider Fujitsu has won the contract to manage Gold Coast’s ICT infrastructure and applications services.
Pacific swaps out VMware for Hyper-V
Clothing and homewares manufacturer Pacific Brands has revealed it switched out VMware's market-dominating virtualisation platform over the past several years, installing Microsoft's rival Hyper-V system instead as it sought to take more advantage of virtualisation in its operations.
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.
HP brings SAP’s hosted HANA on-shore
SAP and HP announced this morning that they would be provided HANA as a service, and (for once), Australia is the first location globally to be able to access it.
Cisco hikes Australian prices by 13 percent
It's not easy being a buyer of technology products and services in Australia at the moment. The continually sliding value of the Australian dollar means that vendor after vendor is hiking the Australian prices of their products. Australians are increasingly paying more Australian dollars for precisely the same product.
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.
“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".
CSIRO starts converting fleet to electric cars
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has announced it is taking steps to reduce its carbon footprint with the rollout of 100% electric cars to its national fleet.
Victoria Police takes first step to address IT failures
The Victorian Government has allocated a small investment of $2.5 million to Victoria Police to start addressing the failures of IT systems which the force has said partially lay behind the death of an 11-year-old boy and his father in the state last month.
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.
Optus wins $60m deal with Virgin
Based on the amount of activity we're seeing from Optus at the moment, it looks as though the telco is really taking it to big brother Telstra. And that, as anyone who is in favour of strong competition in Australia's telecommunications sector will agree, is a fantastic thing. Nice one.
NAB fills CIO role as rejigged exec team stares down 2016 migration target
onths after it kicked off a major reshuffle of its IT executives, the National Australia Bank has finally firmed up the technology management team that will lead the institution through a massive Oracle systems upgrade that’s expected to be completed by 2016.
Macquarie opens kimono on IT operations
One of Australia's largest but most secretive IT end user organisations has this week given industry observers a tantalising glimpse of its broad IT strategy, including staff restructuring across the board, back-office systems integrations and offshoring moves.
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.
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.
Shock: Queensland Health to get IT review
From the department of why the hell haven't they already done this comes the news that that bastion of IT systems stability and competence Queensland Health (yup, the very same, you'd be surprised how often it pops up in Delimiter stories) will undertake a review into its IT procurement practices and IT governance arrangements.
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.
Microsoft wants to win you back with Windows 10
The latest version of Microsoft’s Windows operating system will begin rolling out from Wednesday (July 29). And remarkably, Windows 10 will be offered as a free upgrade to those users who already have Windows 7 and 8.1 installed.
The road to public sector IT hell may not be paved with intentions at...
Something that scares me enormously is the house of cards that many (if not most) governments have built with their IT systems.
NSW Govt launches Opal card on ferries
However, the new Coalition Government in NSW over the weekend shone a ray of light into the public transport smartcard ticketing situation, with the new Opal smartcard being launched on Sydney ferries, to start with.
Free ‘trinkets’ while courses cut: Union condemns UWS iPads plan
The academics union has condemned a plan by the University of Western Sydney to give away 11,000 iPads as part of a $35 million bid to keep its content and teaching relevant to students.
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.
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.
Qld Heath payroll: Senior bureaucrats sacked
The fallout from the payroll systems disaster at Queensland Health is continuing, as hard as that may be to believe. This morning Queensland Premier Campbell Newman took the unusual step of sacking a number of senior state government bureaucrats who had been involved in the debacle.
NSW retailer pays $50k for Microsoft piracy
Microsoft Australia has revealed that PC and laptop retailer The Laptop Factory Outlet, based in South Granville, NSW, will fork out $50,000 in damages for infringing the software giant's copyright, after it Windows Certificates of Authenticity (COA) from used PCs on new PCs loaded with counterfeit software.
iPhone, BlackBerry, Android: A parliamentary headache
If you'd been listening in to the ongoing Senate Estimates hearings in Federal Parliament over the past week, you'd have witnessed an interesting phenomenon which perfectly encapsulates the Bring Your Own Technology headache suffered by many chief information officers at present.
EMC, Avaya get new Aussie chiefs
Enterprise IT vendors EMC and Avaya have revealed they have new leaders of their Australian divisions, following the promotion and departure of their local incumbent managing directors.
Web chat transcends customer service generational differences: Fifth Quadrant
New figures out of customer experience research house Fifth Quadrant suggest that older Australians, despite being less enthusiastic adopters of social media and smartphone apps, are as keen as younger Australians to use Web-based chats to interact with customer service representatives during online transactions.
Unfixable: Time to ditch e-health record scheme
Federal health minister Peter Dutton has commissioned a review of Labor’s troubled Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR) project. It’s unclear whether the review committee is to decide whether to scrap the project altogether or to try and fix it. Hopefully it is not the latter because if the past year has taught us anything, it is that this is not a fixable problem. It needs to go.
Turnbull’s DTO may take over governance of the Govt’s pathetic myGov site
Those of you who run your own business and thus have had the unfortunate experience of being forced to interact with the Government's myGov website will be aware that the site is, to put it rather bluntly, something of a piece of crap.
OneTable is scaling with Microsoft Azure
Ben Jackson has discussed how his organic food startup OneTable is scaling using Microsoft Azure, after a deliberately lean first year spent building support from the customers and developing the concept.
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.
Medibank nicks ANZ exec to lead IT operations
Health insurer Medibank Private this week revealed it had nicked a senior IT executive from ANZ Bank who had also led IT for the UK’s National Health Service to lead Medibank’s IT operations.
Defence finally starts certifying Android
Those of you with long memories will recall that the Department of Defence’s Defence Signals Directorate division, which is tasked with certifying technology for use in the Australian Government, has long had an aversion to Android. Windows- and BlackBerry-based mobile devices have long found favour with the DSD, and in April 2012 the agency even added (shock!) Apple’s iOS operating system, but for years Android has sat on the outer, leaving those public servants and politicians interested in the Android operating system out in the cold. Well, late yesterday news arrived that Samsung, at least, may be on the verge of getting access to the inner circle.
Five months after deleting it, AGL reinstates CIO role
Utility AGL Energy this week revealed it had hired a new permanent chief information officer, pinching a senior Commonwealth Bank IT executive to fill the role it had deleted from its executive roster only five months ago.
Victoria abandons IT shared services? Core CenITex services to be outsourced
Dramatic internal documents leaked from CenITex this week have revealed that the Victorian State Government plans to turn the IT shared services agency into a 'broker', rather than a provider of services, and that the Government is considering outsourcing massive chunks of CenITex's work.
Delays hit NAB’s core banking project
Delays appears to have struck the National Australia Bank's core banking modernisation project, with the bank yesterday revealing it had pushed back the implementation of the foundation of its new Oracle-based platform to 2012, having focused on other aspects of the project this year.
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.
SA Police buys drone fleet
The South Australian police force has gone to market to buy a fleet of aerial drones to assist it with surveillance operations, as controversy continues to swirl around the use of the technology in Australia's skies and whether it endangers residents and/or invades their privacy.
SAP Institute for Digital Government opens in Australia
The SAP Institute for Digital Government officially opened in Canberra last week, marking the occasion with the delivery its first research results.
Oracle reveals swathe of Aussie rollouts
Enterprise technology giant Oracle has published details of half a dozen sizable deployments of its technology by Australian customers, as it continues its push to convince local technology buyers of the popularity of its Fusion platforms.
UWS, UTS share datacentre space
Two of Sydney's largest universities have teamed up to source co-location datacentre space from business-focused telecom Macquarie Telecom, in an effort to pool their resources and bettter serve the needs of students and staff.
Cisco Live 2016 in Melbourne: Photo gallery
Your writer is down in Melbourne attending Cisco Live 2016. We had a fantastic time yesterday and will be posting quite a few stories today from the event. Here's a bit of a window into this huge tech conference with a few photos of what's going on.
Great example of how politics can destroy necessary IT projects
To my mind, this situation reflects the perfect example of politics interfering with sensible IT project delivery.
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.
Can Australia lead global cloud market?
The Australian Government’s IT industry advisory body has stated in a report that the nation has the scope to become a global leader in cloud computing technology and drive innovation and productivity.
The Australian Cloud: How are Australians using it?
This week and next week, Delimiter will take a closer took at cloud computing use in Australia with a series of two feature articles. The first -- this one -- will take a closer look at what classes of cloud computing services are proving most attractive to large Australian enterprises, and how they are being used. And the second piece, to be published next week, will examine whether cloud computing as a phenomenon is delivering on its promises of cutting costs and delivering more flexibility and scalability to Australian organisations.
Five months later, Defence seeks new CTO
It’s clear that things move very slowly within the Federal Government. But taking five months to post an advertisement seeking a replacement for an executive who has publicly announced their departure seems like a little long. As first reported by iTNews, the Department of Defence has finally advertised the position of chief technology officer.
Beverage giant picks Win8 tablet over iPads
Microsoft has revealed that the Australian division of specialist beverage company Campari has deployed a number of Windows 8-based tablet devices from HP, as well as having plans to deploy Windows 8 more generally in the business's desktop and laptop fleet.
End of an era: Oracle Australia’s ‘safe hands’ leaves
Long-term Oracle Australia and New Zealand managing director Ian White has resigned from his post and will leave the company, ending an eight and half year tenure successfully leading the local operations of one of the globe's largest technology giants.
Fire + Rescue NSW deploys real-time SAP
NSW emergency services agency Fire and Rescue NSW this month revealed it has implemented SAP's Business Suite and HANA products, in an effort to support a move towards real-time reporting and access to information across its entire emergency services network.
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.
Has Gov 2.0 in Australia gotten too boring too fast?
So has Gov 2.0 become boring too fast in Australia? Shouldn't we see more conversation, more voices, more blogs, more tweets, more people packing out events seeking the latest information in what is one of the most rapidly changing environments in history - the internet?
ANZ CIO on the banking IT revolution
ANZ Bank chief information officer Anne Weatherston has delivered a landmark speech outlining her belief that revolutionary technological change is coming to the global banking sector and the steps – from changing business processes, systems and even human approaches – that she believes will be required to address it.
Federal Govt cloud computing use is exploding
The Federal Government's adoption of cloud computing technologies has been quite a slow one. However, according to an article published this week by ZDNet, the situation may be drastically changing.
NSW Govt adds to Qld and Victoria’s appalling record on IT disaster recovery planning
The NSW Government’s Auditor-General has severely criticised eight of the state’s agencies for failing to have basic elements relating to disaster recovery planning, in comments that come after the Queensland and Victorian Governments have recently suffered similar criticism.
CIO exits Toll as IT outsourcing plan falls in a heap
Toll Group chief information officer John Ansley has resigned from the group just a year and a half after taking up the role, in the wake of the failure of an ambitious IT outsourcing plan.
Super funds botch major technology project
Sometimes it appears as though Australia's Federal and State Governments are the only ones botching major IT projects. And that makes sense, given the frequency of IT project failure in the public sector, and the public nature of the audit reports which examine them. But the private sector also has its failures, as the Financial Review chronicles this week with respect to a number of major superannuation funds.
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...
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.
Was 7:30’s TCS takedown fair?
Was 7:30's attack on the 457 Visa practices of Indian IT services giant TCS last night fair? Or did it lack context?
NEXTDC M1 datacentre launch: Photos
In a ritzy ceremony, NEXTDC this week opened its new M1 datacentre in Melbourne. Attending the event were the company's founder Bevan Slattery, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, new NEXTDC chief executive Craig Scroggie, financial executive Mark Bouris, Conroy's chief of staff Shain Drabsch and others.
Victoria finally kills $180m Ultranet disaster
The Victorian Government has reportedly terminated its disastrous Ultranet schools portal, which ballooned in cost to $180 million over the past seven years but ended up being barely used by the education stakeholders it was supposed to serve.
Will a Coalition Govt pump IT outsourcing?
Those of you will long memories will recall that it was the Howard administration which first kicked the Federal Government into gear back in 1997 in terms of the now-common practice of outsourcing key IT services to the private sector. And now there are fears an Abbott administration could push down that road strongly again.
Coalition slams Labor’s “$1bn e-health debacle”
Shadow Health Minister Peter Dutton has taken a pickaxe to the Federal Government's Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR) scheme, claiming the costly project was "more about spin than about outcomes for patients".
Victoria releases concrete, detailed ICT strategy
The Victorian State Government has released the final version of a new whole of government information and communications technology strategy containing hard deadlines for goals, with which it aims to start addressing extensive IT project and service delivery issues which have resulted in more than a billion dollars in budget overruns and a string of failed IT projects over the past half-decade.
NAB starts deploying Windows 7
In 2009 the bank started investigating the next move, to Windows 7, and now that 2013 is almost here, according to iTNews (we recommend you click through to the full article), the bank is actually deploying some Windows 7 machines:
IT price comparisons not useful, says AIIA
The IT industry's peak lobby group today said it was "not useful" to directly compare prices on technology goods and services between Australia and other countries and that increased Australian prices on such goods reflected different conditions and protections locally compared with other countries.
Construction giant trials ‘smart’ hardhats to track employee health
Multinational construction company Laing O'Rourke has come up with a novel way to monitor and protect employee health – an interactive 'smart' hardhat.
Microsoft inks giant cloud, software deal with NSW Govt
The New South Wales Government this morning revealed it had signed a new deal with Microsoft that will give the state access to the vendor’s extensive product suite on a wide-ranging basis, with a focus on departments and agencies adoption collaboration and cloud computing technologies.
Telstra to cut Microsoft Office 365 prices
The nation's largest telco Telstra is reportedly planning to follow Microsoft's international lead and cut prices on the local version of Redmond's Office 365 cloud productivity suite, which Microsoft offers locally in partnership with the telco.
Recruiter picks Telstra for cloud, telco services
Recruitment and HR services provider Randstad has signed a three-year deal with Telstra, to provide telecommunication services and transition the company into a cloud-computing model.
Two years on, Virgin happy with Exadata
When it was first revealed in 2008, Oracle's Exadata machine was an unproven new factor; its new model tying Oracle's software to a specific hardware platform for the first time. But two years after its implementation, one of the first Australian customers to deploy an Exadata has praised the platform, giving credence to the idea that it has earnt its place.
“Abomination”: Qld Health payroll needs $837m more
A KMPG audit into Queensland Health's payroll disaster has found the project has already cost $417 million and will need some $837 million to fix over the next five years, in a finding which the state's new LNP Health Minister Lawrence Springborg said in Parliament this week illustrated that the project was an "abomination".
WorldSmart boosts data analysis with Microsoft SQL 2016
Retail technology specialist WorldSmart has deployed Microsoft SQL 2016 to greatly speed up its data analytics and digital marketing solutions.
High risk that Defence ICT will go off the rails
The Federal Government's chief auditor has warned that the Department of Defence's ICT operation is teetering on the brink of a dangerous precipice, in a landmark report published this afternoon into its current ICT governance structures and projects.
Yes, the AFR’s Lenovo story is still accurate
Right now, without saying where we have obtained our information, it seems clear that the Financial Review's report on this issue is broadly accurate. In short, although the specifics of the ban are unclear, the newspaper is correct that Lenovo machines are not used in certain areas of Defence.
Web Directions hosts May mini-confs
Local conference outfit Web Directions, best known for its popular October conference of the same name, will host two smaller conferences for web professionals in May, this year: Web Directions Code, set for May 23rd and 24th in Melbourne, and State of Play on May 28th in Sydney.
NSW Govt to appoint yet another whole of government CIO
I'll be the first to admit if -- and I'll be happy about it -- I am proven wrong. But all the evidence from the past shows that this appointment will ultimately amount to little.
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.
Telstra wins $474m DHS telco contract
Telstra has emerged as the victor from a prolonged tendering process for a comprehensive suite of telecommunications services at the Federal Department of Human Services, announcing today that it had won a deal with the department worth $474 million.
Unisys launches IT support desk for NSW government agencies
Global IT provider Unisys has launched a new service desk that will provide centralised IT support services to NSW Government departments and agencies under the GovConnectNSW banner.
Cisco picks NSN exec to replace Williamson
Global networking giant Cisco today announced that Richard Kitts has been appointed as vice president for Cisco Australia and New Zealand. Kitts will take up the role sometime in mid to late March 2012. The position has been vacant since June 2011.
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...
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.
RIM appoints Ray Gillenwater as ANZ MD
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion has appointed Ray Gillenwater Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand. Gillenwater replaces Adele Beachley, who resigned in February.
NetSuite in whole of business TurboSmart deal
Business-focused software as a service giant NetSuite has unveiled yet another win with a mid-sized Australian company, revealing a deal with automotive performance products manufacturer Turbosmart that has seen the company deploy a comprehensive suite of NetSuite products across its business.
SA Govt CIO to fix Victoria’s IT nightmare
The Victorian State Government has appointed Grantley Mailes, a former whole of government chief information officer for sister state South Australia, to lead a committee to establish a new wide-ranging IT strategy to resolve Victoria's ongoing problems with IT service and project delivery.
CIO McKinnon steps back from Westpac top role
A new organisation structure at Westpac means Bob McKinnon, who directed the rebuilding of technology capability as its IT chief, is stepping back from a major role in the bank.
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.
Your problem: Rich-Phillips hands CenITex to Mailes
Those of you who’ve been around for a while will know that we’re not the greatest fans at Delimiter of Victorian IT shared services agency CenITex. From unethical procurement practices to a basic inability to deliver some of the services it promised, the agency has a penchant for getting itself in hot water with the media, politicians and even the internal Victorian Government agencies it’s seeking to serve. Which is why the State Government sacked its board and is now hot in the process of outsourcing its core functions. The next step, according to a media release issued by the Victorian Government this morning, is to start refreshing the agency’s board.
Future of PCEHR review still unclear: Will it be released?
The Department of Health has confirmed that it now has a copy of the review of the Federal Government's troubled Personally Controlled Electronic Health Records project, although it still cannot confirm whether the document, which will be key to the development of e-health systems in Australia, will be released publicly.
Myer fail displays appalling IT, business incompetency
The week-long outage of Myer's website starkly displays the fact that the company and its outsourcing partner IBM had failed to properly develop and test their infrastructure or put in place the most basic disaster recovery and business continuity plan, as well as highlighting the incredible immaturity of online retailing in Australia.
Survey reveals most organisations use multiple clouds
A new survey by Veritas has revealed that the majority of businesses are moving data to the cloud and utilising both private and public cloud services, creating a fragmented approach that could create IT "blind spots" and increase information-based risks.
Slater moved off NAB’s IT operations
NAB replaces group executive of Group Business Services Gavin Slater with Lisa Gray.
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.
Qld Health dumps GroupWise for Exchange … 2007?
Queensland Health has become the latest Australian organisation to ditch Novell's ageing GroupWise platform in favour of Microsoft Exchange. But why is it migrating to Exchange 2007 and not Exchange 2010?
Q&A: McGrathNicol on Windows Server 2012
McGrathNicol's chief information officer and technology manager answer questions about their deployment of Windows Server 2012 and other issues of IT strategy.
CUA claims victory in core banking overhaul
Minor banking and financial services group CUA has claimed victory in an overhaul of its core banking platform conducted with the assistance of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
Microsoft may can giant TechEd in Australia
Software giant Microsoft is considering a radical overhaul to its giant TechEd event in Australia that would essentially spell the end of the iconic conference in its traditional mega-format, with the company instead believed to be considering a series of smaller conferences around Australia in its place.
Westpac still running IE6
iTNews has published an excellent article today detailing how almost all of Westpac's staff are still running Internet Explorer 6, and, presumably, Windows XP).
Q+A: Oracle’s banking chief Ashwin Goyal
Delimiter recently conducted an interview with Ashwin Goyal, Oracle's global vice president & general manager, Financial Services.
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.
IBM selected to provide integration platform for the ANU
The Australian National University (ANU) has announced that IBM has been selected to supply the application integration platform for its Data Integration project.
Outsourcer Salmat dumps Microsoft Office for Google Apps, Chromebooks
Last month Macquarie University generated quite a lot of headlines when it confirmed it would ditch Google’s Gmail platform and migrate instead to Microsoft’s Office 365 ecosystem. Well, now the shoe is on the other foot, with CRN reporting that Australian marketing outsourcer Salmat is in the midst (with the assistance of Accenture-owned Cloud Sherpas) of removing Microsoft Office from its operations and deploying Google Apps with Chromebooks instead.
NAB sets 2016 target for final core migration
The National Australia Bank has given itself less than three years to complete its long-running, Oracle-based core banking systems replacement, with the project being the major piece of work still lagging in its total business technology transformation program, which has been under way since 2008/2009.
Defence appoints new CIO: Peter Lawrence
The Department of Defence has appointed high-flying global IT executive Peter Lawrence, currently group manager of IT, Energy Markets for utility Origin Energy, to replace its outgoing chief information officer Greg Farr.
CommBank unveils Square payments rival
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia this morning revealed several devices and an application development platform that together constitute an ecosystem similar to the Square mobile payments system which is becoming popular in the US for transactions at merchants such as retailers, restaurants and cafes.
Yarra Valley Water implements Oracle Exadata
Victorian utility Yarra Valley Water this week disclosed it had implemented several Oracle hardware products as it sought to boost the performance of its IT systems, including the vendor's Exadata Database Machine and its Exalogic Elastic Cloud solution.
Can agency-led innovation help transcend failing Whole of Government ICT strategies?
According to Ovum research director Steve Hodgkinson, there are lessons to be learnt from the poor outcomes of whole of government ICT strategies in Australia; revolving around the need for innovation to be pushed through individual departments.
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.
Govt admits staff lost IT equipment valued at over $100k
Government employees have cost the taxpayer may thousands of dollars-worth in lost or stolen IT equipment, it has been revealed.
Back on track: Suncorp commits to 2016 core revamp
Second-tier bank and insurance company Suncorp has reaffirmed its plans to replace its legacy Hogan core banking platform with a more modern Oracle-based alternative in 2016, with the bank finally putting a date on an overhaul that has been on-again, off-again for several years.
Talent manager builds on Windows Azure
Talent management firm PageUp People has picked Microsoft's Windows Azure public cloud computing platform to host its CareerPath application, according to a statement issued by Redmond late last week.
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.
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.
Federal Government spends $5bn on ICT annually
Special Minister of State Gary Gray has released a report summarising expenditure by government departments in 2008–09 and 2009–10, which states that the Australian Government is a major consumer and producer of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) products and solutions, with an annual expenditure of $5 billion.
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.
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.
HP completes giant new NSW datacentre
Global technology giant HP has finished building its colossal $119 million new datacentre in Western Sydney and will launch the "world-class" facility next month, with a speech slated to be given by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.
IBM Australia suffers disaster quarter
Things haven’t been going well at IBM Australia recently. And now, according to a juicy article in The AustralianIT, things have gone from bad to worse in terms of the company's finances.
Telstra, Accenture, to deliver SAP cloud
German software giant SAP has signed a landmark deal with the nation's largest telco Telstra and IT services giant Accenture that will see the pair deliver hosted SAP solutions to Australian customers from Telstra's on-shore datacentre infrastructure.
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.
Photos: PM Gillard launches Macquarie datacentre
Prime Minister Julia Gillard launched Macquarie Telecom's new Sydney datacentre in Sydney last week. Macquarie is billing the facility, dubbed the 'Intellicentre 2' as Australia's most advanced high-security datacentre. It cost $60 million to build.
Parliament’s IT systems a complete shambles
The department which runs Australia's Federal Parliament has published a damning report acknowledging it has widespread problems with IT service delivery and infrastructure, stemming from the fact that it has "no parliament-wide IT strategic plan" and no mechanism for making strategic IT decisions, despite a decade of reports warning of the situation.
Qld Transport loses CIO at critical juncture
Queensland's Department of Transport and Main Roads this month revealed it had recently lost its most senior IT executive; a move that comes as the department gears up for an extremely wide-ranging refresh of its fundamental IT infrastructure designed to bring it up to date with modern desktop and application environments.
NextDC confirms second Melbourne data centre will follow equity raising
Australian firm NextDC has announced it plans to raise equity to fund the building of two new data centres, including a second facility in Melbourne.
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.
Victoria starts airing its IT dirty laundry
The Victorian State Government has over the past month started holding hearings which touch in depth on the wide-ranging IT project delivery issues which have resulted in the state’s departments and agencies broadly failing to deliver ten major IT projects over the past half-decade.
WA Health told: Hire a goddamn CIO already
A state parliamentary committee has told Western Australia's Department of Health to end four years of acting appointments and hire a permanent CIO, in the wake of news that the lack of such an executive role in the department contributed directly to the fiasco at the state's new Fiona Stanley Hospital, much of which has revolved around poorly delivered IT systems.
Govt CTO explains new role; with Lego
We're pleased that John Sheridan has published the complete text of a lengthy speech he recently gave explaining his new role as Australian Government chief technology officer. Plus, he does so using a stack of cool lego pictures and a Cylon from Battlestar Galactica. Really, what else could you want?
Victoria Police appoints CIO without IT background
Victoria Police, which has one of the most troubled IT departments in Australia's public sector, has appointed as its new chief information officer a senior police officer with a distinguished career but who appears to have no specific experience with IT operations, in an effort to pull itself out of the deep mire which has swallowed its technology capability in recent years.
ABC hack protests anti-Islam interview
The ABC has confirmed that one of its websites has been hacked following the airing earlier this month of an interview held by Lateline with anti-Islam campaigner Geert Wilders.
Queensland TAFE suffers security breach, student data accessed
The Queensland Government says is working with security experts to assess a security breach of the TAFE Queensland and Department of Education and Training websites in which students' details have been exposed.
ATO in huge Windows 7 rollout
The Australian Taxation Office joined the throng of Australian organisations confirming plans to finally ditch Microsoft's legacy Windows XP operating system and adopt Windows 7, in a move that will also see the agency's employees finally freed from decade-old web browser Internet Explorer 6.
Regulator forces ANZ off Salesforce.com
Just when you thought Australia’s banks and the banking ecosystem in general were making some headway in their acceptance of cloud computing technologies, international regulators throw a spanner in the works. iTNews reports todaythat the Monetary Authority of Singapore has forced the hand of ANZ Bank when it comes to cloud computing.
“Extreme”: Privacy Foundation slams SA fingerprint plan
news The Australian Privacy Foundation has written to the South Australian Premier and Leader of the Opposition expressing strong concern about what it said...
IT upheaval at Qantas as IBM wins big
Remember how embattled airline Qantas revealed plans in late February to cut some $200 million out of its technology budget over the next three years? It seemed at the time like an impossible dream that the company would never be able to achieve. Well, The Australian has published what appears to be Qantas’ comprehensive roadmap for hitting its goals. As the newspaper writes, the solution is … outsourcing everything to IBM.
IT sector abusing 457 visa program, says Gillard
Julia Gillard this morning stated that the nation's IT sector was taking jobs away from Australians by importing foreign workers en-masse under the 457 visa program, a situation which the Prime Minister said was "just not acceptable".
Qantas to use NBN, ViaSat to deliver in-flight Wi-Fi from 2017
Qantas is set to introduce inflight Wi-Fi from next year under a partnership with international broadband services provider ViaSat and the NBN network.
Um … what? No open tender for Qld’s cloud email
Queensland IT Minister Ian Walker has been vocal about wanting to adopt a whole of government email platform based on cloud computing, rather than the internally-deployed approach that failed Queensland last time around. The only problem is, according to iTNews, now that the state has decided to progress with a cloud-based email platform, it's not doing so via open tender.
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.
RTFM: How to keep CIOs under control
Chief information officers never seem to understand. It doesn't matter if the servers are up or down -- that's a user problem. The real issue is whether they are configured properly in the first place. The system must be perfect, pristine. Users pollute that nirvana.
NSW Govt consults on ICT policy
The New South Wales Government, which has already been making waves in the IT industry for its comprehensive and forward-thinking ICT policy, has kicked off consultation on the next iteration of the strategy.
Danger, Will Robinson: Commission of Audit wants Centrelink core IT systems outsourced
Yours truly hasn't yet had the chance to comb through the recommendations contained in the Abbott administration's Commission of Audit report released this afternoon; that will take the better part of a week. However one notable item which has already been picked up by technology media outlet iTNews this afternoon is that the report includes some rather ... drastic recommendations for Centrelink's extremely complex and high maintenance core IT systems.
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.
Surprise! Govt botched NDIS IT systems
A government department botching the delivery of a new IT platform? Shocking, I know. This has never, ever happened before. Unbelievable. Today's public sector IT blunder comes from the pages of Intermedium, which tells us that the National Disability Insurance Scheme developed by the previous Government has been hamstrung by the poor quality of the IT systems put together to support it.
$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.
Healthcare Australia dumps in-house Exchange for cloud
The shift to cloud computing/software as a service models in Australian enterprise IT circles is endless, it appears. Yesterday it was retailer Dick Smith switching to Google Apps, and today it’s medical recruiter Healthcare Australia switching off an in-house version of Microsoft Exchange and onto Office 365.
Microsoft finally launches Surface Pro in Australia
Almost 12 months after it first announced the device, Microsoft has finally confirmed that it will launch its Surface Pro family of Windows 8-based tablets in Australia later this month.
Desktop disaster: So bad Vic Police use home PCs
Victoria Police's IT systems are so out of date that police officers often simply go home to open modern documents on their own PCs, a new report has found, and officers are also required to fax hardcopy documentation into a central repository following the end of their shift.
NSW Police reportedly settles with Micro Focus
Remember how NSW Police was allegedly caught red-handed pirating software from enterprise IT vendor Micro Focus? And how the whole story was the subject of an extensive and embarassing documentary report by the 7:30 Report in April 2012? Yeah. Not precisely the best look for the boys in blue. Well, it appears that NSW Police has come clean in the case.
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.
Medibank division deploys HP private cloud
Global technology giant HP this week revealed that Medibank division Medibank Health Solutions had deployed a complete stack of HP IT infrastructure ranging from blade servers to storage and interconnecting systems, in a rollout which appears to constitute the base parts of a scalable private cloud platform.
Hospital IT booking system ‘putting lives at risk’
A new IT booking platform at the Austin Hospital and Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre in Melbourne is reportedly placing the welfare of patients with serious conditions at risk.
Finally some action on Windows Azure in Australia
Remember when software giant Microsoft made a big deal back in May 2013 about how it was going to launch two new Australian datacentres for its Windows Azure cloud computing service? At the time it seemed as though the company’s plans were quite advanced and that we’d be seeing Australia-based Azure in short order. Well, almost a year has come and gone since that time and Microsoft has so far failed to deliver. The latest blip of news on the cloud front from the company comes in an article published by The Australian newspaper this morning.
Gartner details top 10 strategic Govt IT technologies
Technology research specialist Gartner has published what it considers the "top 10 strategic technologies" of 2016, aimed to help IT leaders to better carry out government transformation initiatives.
Defence plans major ICT projects for 2012
The Department of Defence said last week that it expects to receive Government approval to go ahead with a number of major ICT projects in the next year, ranging from telecommunications to datacentre reform and its long-anticipated overhaul of its PMKeyS human resources platform.
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.
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.
Following CenITex: NSW may outsource ServiceFirst functions
The NSW Government has finally confirmed it is looking to follow Victoria with CenITex and may outsource key chunks of the IT shared services work being done by ServiceFirst and Businesslink.
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).
Govt knee-deep in IPv6 transition
The Federal Government's top IT strategy branch has revealed it is knee-deep in the midst of a government-wide transition to version 6 of the Internet Protocol, as global availability of addresses in the current version 4 standard continues to run low.
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.
SA Police deploy Android fingerprint scanners
South Australia's police force has committed to deploying a fleet of fingerprint scanners coupled with Android-based smartphones that will allow officers in the field to conduct identity checks in the field instead of taking suspects back to police stations.
Australia tax reversed: Office 2016 pricing better in Australia
Microsoft has reversed a lengthy trend towards jacking up the pricing on its software for the local market, with analysis showing Australians will actually pay significantly less for its brand new Office 2016 suite released this week than users in the United States.
CBA outage took down CommSee
The Commonwealth Bank's wide-ranging outage also took down its customer relationship management platform CommSee, one of its main unions has revealed, in a move which further illustrates how extensive the technology-related problems suffered by the bank over the past week truly have been.
NSW finalises colossal datacentre consolidation
The New South Wales State Government this week announced the Leighton subsidiary Metronode as the winner of its long-running and wide-ranging datacentre overhaul project, with the company to construct two new substantial facilities which will allow the state to consolidate its IT operations drastically.
WA Govt still has terrible IT security
Those of you who have been reading Delimiter for some time will know that for much of the past half-decade, Western Australia's Auditor-General has been warning that the State Government's IT security is pretty abysmal.
Allianz deploys Oracle Database Appliance
Technology giant Oracle has revealed that the specialist insurance arm of local financial services giant Allianz has deployed the vendor's Oracle Database Appliance X3-2 to replace legacy hardware that was reaching the end of its useful life.
15 years later, Health breaks up IBM’s crown
Fifteen years after it first outsourced its IT department to global technology IBM, in a deal renewed half a dozen times and worth hundreds of millions of dollars, the Federal Department of Health has finally placed key components of the deal back on the market, in its first formal request for the tender in the area since 1999.
Head of Technology at ASX resigns
The Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) revealed this week that Jeff Olsson, Group Executive Technology has announced his resignation. Olsson plans to leave the company in July 2012.
“Can do” Queensland starts cutting IT staff
Queensland's new LNP Premier Campbell Newman has started wielding the axe in the state's public service, according to a report by the Courier Mail newspaper published yesterday -- and information technology staff are some of the first in line.
Rackspace hires high-profile cloud CIO Perkins
Hosting and cloud computing giant Rackspace this morning revealed it had hired one of Australia's most cloud-savvy chief information officers, former Altium IT executive Alan Perkins, in a key role to spearhead the adoption and development of the company's solutions in Australia.
Farce: WA Health can’t manage to find a CIO after six years
Every major organisation in Australia needs a senior executive to hold its top technology role. The minute you abandon that concept, is the minute you invite the kind of IT disasters and cost blow-outs that are already rife within Australia's state-based public sector.
Core banking IT battle not over, says NAB
The chief information officer of National Australia Bank has delivered a major speech arguing that it's too early for any of Australia's major banks to "claim victory" in the race to upgrade their aging technology platforms, in comments that run directly counter to the Commonwealth Bank's ongoing claims that it is far ahead of its rivals in the area.
Microsoft launches update for Dynamics CRM, hints at IoT future
Microsoft has announced the release of the Dynamics CRM Spring 2016 update, along with a preview date for its new product, Connected Field Service, which will offer the option to monitor Internet of Things devices.
Reversal: Australian Govt picks ODF doc standard
In a move which appears to reverse its previous approach based on Microsoft's file formats, the Australian Government's central IT decision-making agency appears to have decided that it will standardise its office documents on the Open Document Format going forward.
Union protests against Tassie losing 56 IT jobs
The Community and Public Sector Union has gone on the attack over a proposal to shift the roles of some 56 Tasmanian IT workers employed by the Department of Human Services onto the mainland, presenting Employment Minister and Tasmanian Senator Eric Abetz with a 1,000-strong petition against the move.
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.
IBM takes Australian Open data onto private cloud
IBM announced yesterday that it is developing a global private cloud computing system for the 2012 Australian Open as part of its technology partnership for the international Grand Slam tennis tournament.
$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.
Tribunal backs ANZ Bank’s IT outsourcing
Industrial regulator Fair Work Australia has issued a ruling supporting ANZ Bank's decision to shift some 260 Australian and Indian staff IT testing staff to employment with outsourcer Capgemini, rejecting union demands that the bank must negotiate with staff over the move.
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.
Adecco dumps handsets for softphones with Optus, Cisco
news Human resources group Adecco yesterday revealed it had undertaken a substantial refresh of its internal telephony and Internet platform with the primary assistance...
Disaster in the making? Govt embarks on mammoth IT shared services scheme
The Federal Government has issued a landmark discussion paper seeking industry and other stakeholder opinions on how it can best implement a strategic shared services scheme to serve the needs of its departments and agencies, despite the fact that this very same model has abjectly failed several Australian State Governments over the past half-decade and been abandoned.
Still in the doghouse: IBM’s Qld Govt ban very much alive
You'd have to expect that IBM has been able to come in from the cold with the Queensland Government. However, according to iTnews, this is not the case.
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.
ASD releases Windows 8 hardening guide
The Australian Signals Directorate appears to have released a guide to hardening Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system, three years after the software was released for use by corporate customers, and as Microsoft is slated to release its next upgrade, Windows 10.
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.
Domain dumps spreadsheets for Salesforce
Real-estate marketing specialist Domain Group has abandoned spreadsheets and integrated with Salesforce's cloud platform in a bid to improve its customer relationship management process.
Pia Waugh quits as Senator Lundy advisor
IT industry personality Pia Waugh has announced her decision to resign from her job as policy advisor to Labor Senator Kate Lundy, with a new role in the public service looming.
Pitcher Partners dumps desk phones for Skype for Business
Australian accounting and advisory firm Pitcher Partners has announced the replacement of desk telephones with Skype for Business, alongside the implementation of VPN-like service Microsoft DirectAccess.
IT security as a service explodes in Australia
A very interesting article on Techworld last week highlights the fact that IT security as a service is currently exploding in Australia, with smarter, sleeker, cloud-based alternatives to the old models coming to the fold.
SaaS apps now mainstream in Australia
It was only a few years ago that the term "Software as a Service" was almost anathema in Australia's IT industry, with almost all organisations preferring to deploy applications on an in-house basis. But according to respected analyst house Telsyte, in certain categories the deployment model is now "mainstream".