Delimiter appeals PCEHR review censorship
Technology media outlet Delimiter has appealed a Federal Department of Healths move to block the public release of a report reviewing the troubled Personally Controlled Electronic Health Records (PCEHR) project, as news emerges that the Federal Government appears to have made a decision on how to proceed with the project.
Atos, Datacom and NEC signed up for $3bn WA GovNext plan
Atos, Datacom and NEC have been selected by the WA Government to help it roll out its $3 billion GovNext ICT plan, according to The West Australian.
NSW formalises ‘cloud-first’ with new policy
The New South Wales State Government has formalised its already extremely proactive and positive approach towards the adoption of the new class of cloud computing services within its operations, issuing a new cloud computing policy this week which forces departments and agencies to consider the cloud when undertaking ICT procurements.
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.
Ballarat best ‘on-shoring’ IT services hub
Enterprise IT analyst firm capioIT has crowned the Victorian region of Ballarat as the best non-metropolitan location in Australia for IT services delivery, for a range of factors including historical investment in the area and integration between the government, education and commercial sectors.
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.
Drastic govt measures needed: IT price hike report pulls no punches
The Federal Parliament committee examining IT price hikes in Australia has published an extensive report recommending a raft of drastic measures to deal with current practices in the area, which, the report says, are seeing Australians unfairly slugged with price increases of up to 50 percent on key technology goods and services.
IBM received leaked info during Qld Health payroll bid
The somewhat disturbing revelations from the Commission of Inquiry into Queensland Health’s payroll systems disaster just keep on coming. The Brisbane Times reports today that prime contractor IBM was actually forwarded leaked information that could have helped it win the payroll upgrade contract.
Executives carry more tech devices than ever
Corporate executives are increasingly carrying around multiple devices at work, new research from the University of Sydney has revealed.
Coles rolls out contactless payments
Wesfarmers-owned supermarket chain Coles is set to roll out a contactless card payment service at their stores later this month. Customers will be able to pay for their purchases at Coles with a wave of their wallet over the new Ingenico pinpads, making checkout much faster than with the traditional card swipe-and-sign or PIN method.
Five years later, Salesforce is still promising an Australian datacentre
Salesforce has been promising Australian customers for many years that it would start delivering some of its popular cloud offerings from a local datacentre for many years. So where is it?
“Alarming” amount of end of life software in Vic Govt: Microsoft + Oracle in...
Victoria’s acting Auditor-General has blasted the state’s departments and agencies for continuing to use IT systems which have reached their end of life state, as well as for ignoring its ongoing recommendation that the state put together a whole of government disaster recovery framework.
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?
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.
HostUs moves to IBM cloud in search of efficiency, cost savings
Australian IT and telephony service provider HostUs is moving its entire IT environment to IBM Cloud – a shift that IBM says will enable the firm to scale its infrastructure within hours rather than months, without the need for upfront capital expenditure.
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.
SA politicians debate upgrade of 24-year-old IT platform
South Australia's two major sides of politics have engaged in a war of words over the past week over various pledges to upgrading a 24-year-old IT platform underpinning the state's courts system, which its chief justice says is close to collapse and which needs tens of millions of dollars to replace.
Westpac delays shift off Lotus Notes
Remember in May 2011, when we broke the news that Westpac confirmed it would finally shift off IBM’s troubled Lotus Notes/Domino platform, in favour of an organisation wide shift to a hosted version of Microsoft Outlook/Exchange? Well, it appears that shift isn’t going too well.
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.
Cisco assists Queensland Uni with digital transformation
Cisco has published a blog post discussing its partnership with the University of Queensland as the two organisations sought to bring digital transformation to the educational institution over the last few years.
Lonely Planet dumps SAP, Salesforce.com for NetSuite
Business software giant NetSuite has revealed that Australia-headquartered travel publishing firm Lonely Planet will consolidate its business systems on the vendor's OneWorld platform, ditching existing systems from rivals SAP (R/3 4.7) and Salesforce.com in the process.
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.
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.
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.
Transport for NSW signs huge IT deal with CSC
Transport for NSW has announced the signing of a "major contract" with multinational IT corporation CSC to transform its back-of-house IT systems.
Unisys wins IT outsourcing deal with Merck KGaA
Global IT firm Unisys has announced that it has won a new five-year contract to provide Merck KGaA with end-user IT services for its 48,000 employees in 90 countries worldwide, including Australia.
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?
Microsoft Yammer buy great news, says cloud CIO
Will Microsoft’s $1.2 billion purchase of corporate social networking firm Yammer be a positive event for the future of enterprise IT? Yes, according to Alan Perkins, one of Australia’s leading IT executives when it comes to understanding cloud computing.
Govt splits AGIMO, appointing CIO, CTO
The Federal Government has announced it will split its troubled IT strategy division the Australian Government Information Management Office in two, promoting internal staffers into two new chief information and technology officer roles in line with the recommendations of the Reinecke review regarding the agency’s future.
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.
Qld goes cloud for emergency services payroll
The Queensland Government has committed to replacing the ageing payroll systems used to support its emergency services (police, fire and ambulance) workers with a cloud computing platform, in the second major planned deployment of a cloud payroll application in the state following its billion-dollar on-premises payroll disaster at Queensland Health.
Data#3 revenues up, but profits down
Australian diversified ICT services group Data#3 Limited on Monday reported a 15 per cent increase in group revenue at $435.8 million for the second half of 2011, in line with projections and well ahead of overall industry growth. However, the net profit after tax (NPAT) of $7.2 million was down 9.5 per cent from the previous year, which was a particularly good one for the company.
Atlassian sends graduates to beach house
Atlassian has stationed 10 of its finest software graduates at the ‘Hack House’, a beach house in Narrabeen up the coat from the company’s Sydney headquarters. The ‘Gradlassians’, as they’ve been nicknamed, will spend a week combining surfing fun and hard work, developing a new product innovation ready for shipment by the end of the week.
Why CIOs should be cloud brokers, not blockers
This is the transcript of a speech given by Australian Government chief technology officer John Sheridan to a conference entitled “Tomorrow Ready CIO” in Canberra. It covers the developing use of cloud computing by the Australian Government and the measures undertaken by the Department of Finance and Deregulation to provide guidance and procurement support for agencies using the cloud. Sheridan's major point is the need for CIOs to be brokers, not blockers, of cloud services.
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.
It’s not just HP: Boral picked Oracle too
Oracle takes a chunk of Boral, alongside HP.
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.
ASG picks up WA IT services work
Nice work if you can get it. Perth-headquartered IT services outfit has revealed several major new tranches of IT services work over the past several weeks that is putting it in good stead with the Western Australian State Government.
IT management: Stepping away from the tools
Fascinating rumination here from Sydney-based Doug Rathbone, a long-time IT professional and current technical director at advertising agency BMF.
NSW education board seeks Chief Digital Officer to drive innovation
The New South Wales Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards (BOSTES) is seeking a Chief Digital Officer to drive innovation across schools in the state.
Domino’s migrates into Telstra cloud
Pizza chain Domino's has revealed that it has shifted its IT infrastructure out of an in-house datacentre (some where also with a third-party) and onto Telstra's Infrastructure as a Service platform.
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.
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).
Companies forgoing corporate UC for Skype
Australian enterprises have started using more public telephony and softphone services as part of their voice and video communications mix, analyst firm Telsyte has found -- with commodity platforms like Skype winning out ahead of more premium enterprise IT-focused offerings from the likes of Cisco and Avaya.
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.
NT Govt still buying new IBM mainframes
IBM this month announced that the Northern Territory Government would deploy another new unit from its flagship zEnterprise mainframe system, in a rollout that marks the second time the territorial government has deployed one of the mainframe units over the past 18 months.
Global Health inks e-health deals with SA, ACT govts
Global Health has inked a deal with SA and ACT governments to roll-out its proprietary electronic medical record (EMR) system across the Adelaide Primary Health Network and in the ACT.
NAB moves website into Amazon cloud
In an article in The Australian newspaper this morning, it was revealed that NAB had switched its entire public-facing website into Amazon’s cloud (excluding, of course, sensitive areas such as Internet banking).
Windows 8 sales disappointing in Australia
It won't come as a surprise to many, given its drastically altered user interface and mixed reviews, but the news is already bad for Microsoft's new flagship operating system Windows 8 in Australia.
More major IT contracts up for grabs in SA
The South Australian State Government today revealed that it would shortly be kicking off a huge new round of IT purchasing initiatives which would affect a string of major whole of government contracts, as part of its long-running Future ICT Services Arrangements program.
TransGrid: Dumping Oracle support for Rimini Street slashed fees by half
Electricity utility TransGrid has said dumping Oracle as the provider of annual maintenance and support for its own database product brought significant savings.
Local Govt groups abandon Yammer trials
According to a yarn by The Register this week, at least two Australian trials of corporate social networking tool Yammer in Australia have been recently abandoned.
Get em young: Windows 8 indoctrination
Many young Australians head off to school these days with a collection of Apple paraphenalia; iPhones, iPods and now iPads are common items to see in the schoolbags of students heading off to both high school and primary school. However, for at least one young man, there won't be any Apple in his forseeable future.
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.
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.
Spear-phishers targeted Reserve Bank in 2011
The Reserve Bank of Australia has on several occasions been the target of targeted malicious email traffic that sought to help external attackers breach the organisation's IT security systems, it was revealed this morning, although it is believed the bank was able to fend off the attacks before they got access to any sensitive information.
Homeless Sydney dev “will code for latte”
I don't know whether to feel slightly dubious about her story or merely sorry for Adelle Hartley, a Sydney C#/SQL developer who says she is homeless and has featured in an extensive article published by ninemsn this week.
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.
NEXTDC inks leaseback deal for Brisbane DC
The directors of datacentre company NEXTDC have announced that the company has entered into a sale-and-leaseback agreement for its Brisbane datacentre property. During 2011, NEXTDC had announced a capital recycling program intended to unlock the increasing worth of its property assets and to re-invest the income in higher yielding datacentre infrastructure assets through sale-and-leaseback arrangements.
Minister worried about AGIMO’s ability to deliver
Documents released under Freedom of Information laws have appeared to show that the minister overseeing the Federal Government's peak IT decision-making agency is concerned about its ability to deliver on a whole of government technology strategy, with yet another review being commissioned into its performance.
Qld kicks off whole of Govt ICT audit
The new Liberal-National Party State Government in Queensland has announced it will conduct a six month whole of government audit into ICT systems used across the state public sector, in a bid to identify potential savings and efficiencies ahead of projected rationalisation of its ICT assets and processes.
Tom Quinn appointed News Corp Australia CTO
Publishing giant News Corp Australia has appointed internal candidate Tom Quinn as its new chief technology officer, following the retirement of long-serving chief information officer John Pittard this month.
Manly Council CIO on board with Microsoft Internet of Things
Microsoft has revealed that Sydney’s Manly Council is using its ‘Internet of Things’ software to significantly enhance its capabilities for operating infrastructure such as the council’s parking metres and CCTV cameras, in one of the first known deployments of this kind of environment for Microsoft in Australia.
SAP Australia wins ‘biggest cloud deal ever’
German software giant SAP has won a substantial deal with the NSW Government’s Trade & Investment agency which it yesterday described as its biggest deployment of its Business ByDesign software as a service suite globally, and its first cloud platform win in the local public sector.
BoQ deploys Salesforce.com CRM
Bank of Queensland today revealed that it is deploying a new software as a service-based customer relationship management system which would deliver it a dramatically simplified and flexible platform for dealing with customer accounts, with the technology reported to be supplied by US-headquartered vendor Salesforce.com
DTO looking to create Govt cloud marketplace
If you've been following public sector IT for a while, you're probably aware that Australia's Federal Government has not precisely set the world on fire when it comes to its adoption of cloud computing platforms. Most Government CIOs consider the cloud a little risky, both for control reasons, but also because of data sovereignty issues. However, much of that may change, if Malcolm Turnbull's Digital Transformation Office gets its way.
WA audit finds schools “struggling” with ICT management
Western Australia's schools are struggling to keep on top of ICT management and students could be adversely affected if the situation is not remedied, according to the state's Auditor General.
Q+A: Hills CIO on the company’s “complete rip and replace”
Hills Limited is an Australian company that makes home, hardware and electronic products. We had a chance to catch-up with Derek Brown, CIO, at Hills to discuss how he and his IT team of 40 employees is transforming the company’s IT infrastructure and enabling flexible, cloud-based collaboration.
Defence hasn’t tested IBM contract since 1999
The Federal Department of Defence has revealed that it renewed a major IT hardware and software contract with IBM in late 2008 to the tune of $342 million, despite not having put the work out to public tender since 1999.
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.
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.
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.
NSW Govt refreshes ICT Advisory Panel
NSW Minister for Finance and Services Andrew Constance this week announced the State Government was taking nominations for the refreshed version of its ICT Advisory Panel, as well as the Industry Advisory Group of its Procurement Board.
ANZ Bank says no business case for core banking IT overhaul
Right now, there is a 'halo' effect that surrounds CommBank's core banking overhaul project that gives strong credence to the business case for its first mover advantage in the core banking IT race. I'm not sure that ANZ really understands just how powerful this overall effect can be. If it did, I would suspect it would be quite worried indeed.
Vic Govt instantly blows $4.4m on Windows 2003
The Victorian Government has paid Microsoft a whopping $4.4 million for extended support for the now-defunct Windows Server 2003 operating system, in a move which sharply demonstrates the extreme cost of running operating systems which are no longer formally supported by their vendors.
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.
Deloitte Australia to deploy internal private cloud
One of Australia’s largest corporate consultancies, the local branch of international firm Deloitte, has revealed it will join the widespread migration towards internal private cloud solutions, standardising heavily on the vCloud Suite developed by virtualisation leader VMware.
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.
Accenture parlays CBA skills into Child Support win
The Federal Department of Human Services today announced a deal with IT services giant Accenture that will see the company help replace the ageing Child Support payments system, using the SAP technology which Accenture developed extensive skills with during the Commonwealth Bank's core banking placement project.
Jetstar appoints CIO with little IT experience
National airline Jetstar this week announced it had appointed an executive with less than three years' worth of experience in a technology role as its new chief information officer, in an unorthodox move for a major Australian corporation.
Wollongong club group ditches email
Matt O’Hara, a club owner in Wollongong, has largely gotten rid of email for good, and is reportedly happier for it.
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:
Four years later, Westpac will finally shift core banking to Celeriti
Four years after it first started talking about migrating its core banking platform to Celeriti, the next generation of CSC's Hogan system, and five years after it acquired St George, which already uses Hogan, top-tier bank Westpac has finally confirmed imminent plans to start taking action on the issue.
NEC Australia suffering “profitability challenges”
The new managing director of diversified technology solutions group NEC has warned its Australian employees the group is facing "immediate profitability challenges" despite having a "very healthy" pipeline of contracts.
Qld Govt depts home to botnets
Anew audit report coming out of Queensland has sharply criticised a number of major Queensland Government departments (including the IT Minister’s own Department of Science, Information Technology Innovation and the Arts, the Department of Transport and Main roads and the Treasury, as well as the Brisbane City Council) for having zero plans to deal with IT security issues. Surprise!
Ansell sees light at the end of ERP tunnel
Australian condom and medical protection giant Ansell this week said it "can see the light at the end of the tunnel" following remediation efforts involving a botched implementation of Oracle’s ERP platform which went live last year and subsequently caused US$13 million to US$15 million worth of lost sales.
NSW Cancer Council ditches desktop PCs, phones forever
'Mobility' has been one of the hottest buzzwords in Australian IT departments for some time now. Smartphones, tablets, laptops -- and allowing users to access their corporate data wherever they feel is the most appropriate place and time and in the most appropriate format -- these are all the hallmarks of the new evolving mobility landscape inside major and minor organisations. However, few have taken it to the extremes that the NSW Cancer Council has.
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.
Queensland policeman charged over unauthorised database access
A police constable from Queensland has been removed from official duty and charged with misconduct over unauthorised access of a police database, after an investigation by the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC).
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.
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.
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.
Hackers attempt News Corp break-in
The Australian division of global media giant News Corp has warned its staff to beware of attempts of external attackers who are seeking to "hack" into the company's network.
Small business missing the mobile, social, cloud revolution
Most companies that live and breathe the online revolution are not tech startups, but smart smaller firms that use online tools to run their core business better: to cut costs, reach customers and suppliers, innovate and get more control. Many others, however, are falling behind, according to a new Grattan Institute discussion paper.
Interesting thoughts on IT outsourcing in the cloud era
It's now been several years since cloud computing became mainstream in Australia. Small businesses are using it. Major corporations such as Australia's largest banks and insurers are using it. And even the public sector has started using it.
With this breadth of adoption has also come a deepening of our understanding of how large organisations should use cloud computing.
Technology and planned obsolescence
Very insightful blog post here by Longhaus managing director Peter Carr, who has made a sophisticated argument regarding planned obsolescence with respect to implementing technology in organisations.
Why major IT projects fail: A basic primer
New South Wales' outgoing auditor-general has published a brief whitepaper outlining the major causes of project failure in the state government and what can be done to address the issue, specifically calling out IT projects as having a bad track record in the area.
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.
Basic Govt IT needs a fundamental rethink
Government systems could be redesigned from the ground-up to make it easy to reorganise, merge and demerge departments, so that a person's email system can be rapidly and easily moved from one agency to another, or the HR information of two departments can be consolidated in a merger at low cost.
SA Govt forgets to pay phone bill
Think the Queensland and Western Australian State Governments have got problems with their technology shared services divisions? Well, they have. But at least they (we assume) pay their telephone bills on time. That isn’t precisely the case in South Australia, where the state’s Finance Minister yesterday revealed it couldn’t even get that right.
Budget 2016: Major Police IT projects win funding
Commonwealth law enforcement agencies such as the Australian Federal Police and Crimtrac have won big in this year's Federal Budget in terms of their IT infrastructure programs, with the Government greenlighting a series of major initiatives.
DTO nicks Treasury CIO to be new COO
The Digital Transformation Office (DTO) has nabbed Peter Alexander, the current Chief Information Officer at the Treasury, as its new Chief Operating Officer.
Customs foregoes standalone CIO role in IT shakeup
The status of the title of Chief Information Officer continues to wax and wane as Australia’s Customs and Border Protection Service eliminates the role’s standing as a separate concern during a shakeup of its IT operations that began earlier this month and is expected to be complete by 1 July.
How NAB’s private cloud keeps it carbon-neutral
The National Australia Bank has published a detailed white paper revealing how it used a combination of engineering and information technology tools and processes such as infrastructure on demand to achieve carbon neutrality and push beyond this benchmark into even greater heights of environmental efficiency.
Queensland Police starts body-worn camera rollout
The Queensland Police Service (QPS) has announced it is rolling out body-worn cameras (BWCs) for frontline police across the state.
Aussie firms deploy corporate social network tibbr
Software giant Tibco has revealed that two sizable Australian companies, accounting group HLB Mann Judd and real estate agency Compton Green, have deployed its internal corporate social networking platform tibbr to streamline their internal communications.
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.
Vic Govt releases motherhood ICT strategy
The Victorian State Government has released the draft of a new whole of government information and communications technology strategy, 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.
Hospital attack shows the risk of still running Windows XP
A virus attack on the computer system of one of Melbourne’s largest hospital networks is cause for concern because it affected machines running Microsoft’s Windows XP, an operating system no longer supported by the software giant.
Uni of Adelaide appoints new CIO
The University of Adelaide has appointed a new chief information officer, Mark Gregory, it announced last week.
ACT audit praises IT security; without testing it
The ACT Auditor-General's Office has published a report praising the security of the territorial government's IT systems, basing its conclusions on the evidence presented by government staff, but without actually testing that security, as some State Governments have done over the past several years.
Mainframe out; Westpac adopts Exadata, Exalogic
Top-tier bank Westpac has revealed that it will shift some processing resources off existing mainframe infrastructure and onto Oracle’s Exadata and Exalogic platforms, as it attempts to gain higher levels of efficiency in the platforms that underpin its project to achieve a single view of customer information.
Tasmania’s huge payroll overhaul may go cloud
The Tasmanian Government has flagged plans to overhaul its dated whole of government human resources and payroll systems, in a move which will affect some 28,000 employees and may see the state shift its systems into a cloud computing/software as a service model.
Brickworks details ERP integration project
In a case study published by Microsoft this week, Brickworks details how it has integrated various accounts payable and invoicing systems together using a combination of SharePoint, software from smart processing company Kofax and Microsoft partner Efficiency Leaders.
Fairfax wants to dump Office, Exchange for Google
Media giant Fairfax has announced plans to will ditch Microsoft's Office and Exchange platforms for most of its 11,000-odd staff, with the company to become one of the largest known Australian organisations to shift onto Google's Apps platform for both email and office productivity software.
VMware talks Aussie datacentre
Apparently virtualisation giant VMware isn't content with having its software used by virtually every major organisation in Australia, and wants to push things a little further by launching its own public cloud offerings globally. And an Australian datacentre appears to be on the cards.
Govt kicks off long-term ERP strategy
The Department of Finance and Deregulation has kicked off a major effort to examine the Federal Government's use of enterprise resource planning systems, with a view to optimising how the public service uses such platforms in the long-term.
At least two web browsers for every Australian desktop: It should be mandatory
In mid-2008, a government staffer at an employee town hall meeting being held by the US State Department got up to ask Secretary of State Hilary Clinton what appeared to be a rather unusual question for the venue. "Can you please let the staff use an alternative web browser called Firefox?" asked public affairs officer Jim Finkle.
Trojan takes down entire WA Parliament IT, phone system
Bad news for the Western Australian Parliament, which, it appears, didn't have the most hardened IT security systems on earth. The ABC is reporting today that a "trojan virus" has knocked the Parliament's IT and telephone systems offline.
Qld Govt planning to cut 430 IT staff
The Queensland Government flags plans to cut some 430 ICT staff, as the state's ongoing problems with its ICT service delivery structure continue to bite.
$145m project collapse: AFP fails to upgrade 18-year-old case management system
As regular readers of Delimiter will know, Australia's police forces have not precisely covered themselves in glory when it comes to upgrading their ageing IT systems.
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.
Victoria follows NSW, Qld into ‘cloud-first’
The Victorian State Government has flagged plans to follow other states such as New South Wales and Queensland and shift to a 'cloud-first' procurement model for IT infrastructure, in a move flagged in the first major update to its detailed whole of government ICT strategy first published in February 2013.
Australia gets two Windows Azure datacentres
Microsoft this morning revealed plans to offer its Windows Azure platform as a service from Australian datacentres located in Sydney and Melbourne, in the latest move by a global technology giant to offer cloud computing services from Australian facilities to meet local demand and address concerns around data sovereignty.
Cross-platform tools luring mobile app developers back from HTML5
Many performance and functionality-minded application developers, who are shifting back to proprietary mobile apps after growing disillusioned with the limitations of HTML5, will find solace in today’s launch of a cross-platform development tool that allows Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, Android and Windows RT apps to be written using the popular C++ and Delphi development languages.
IT price hike inquiry may subpoena rebel vendors
Labor MP Ed Husic has publicly raised the prospect of forcing recalcitrant technology vendors to appear before a parliamentary committee on IT price hikes in Australia, alleging that some suppliers are "treating the Parliament with contempt".
NSW Govt super group can’t afford to upgrade its IT systems
The New South Wales Government has announced that it may sell off state-owned superannuation services company Pillar instead of spending the estimated $30 million the fund needs to update its IT systems and deal with other internal matters.
Victorian Govt continues to suffer major issues with ICT projects
A new report from Victoria's Acting Auditor-General Dr Peter Frost has criticised the state government over failed and badly planned ICT projects that he said were, in some cases, "not acceptable".
Macquarie Bank planning OpenStack cloud solution with “large vendor”
Macquarie Bank has indicated that it is planning the development of a cloud infrastructure based on OpenStack – an open-source cloud operating system.
Anna Bligh promises 5,000 iPads for schools
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has promised that her Labor State Government will commit $5.7 million to deliver some 5,000 iPads to year 7 students across the state in a high-profile educational trial of the Apple tablets, should Labor retain power in the upcoming state election.
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.
NAB loses CIO Denis McGee
As reported by half a dozen media outlets over the past 24 hours, long-time National Australia Bank senior IT executive Denis McGee, who has most recently held the post of chief information officer, has resigned.
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank deploys next-gen IBM storage
IBM XIV Storage System Gen3 will be a key infrastructure component for Bendigo and Adelaide Bank’s ongoing development and delivery of customer-focussed business applications, according to an announcement by IBM yesterday.
NEC keeps parliamentary IT services work
Remember how a damning report was published in October 2012 noting that the IT systems running Australia’s Federal Parliament were a complete shambles? Remember the litany of complaints which politicians and their staff filed with the Department of Parliamentary Services over the issue? Well, things might be gradually improving at the Parliament courtesy of its new chief information officer, but at least one thing is going to remain the same: The IT services firm servicing the politicians’ electorate offices.
802.11ac to wire up your garage datacentre? Why not?
Fascinating blog post this week from MacTalk founder and all-round geek Anthony Agius, who chronicles his attempts to use two 802.11ac routers to link his new garage-based server farm to his house network.
Qld’s email project stuck in low gear
The Queensland-based Courier Mail newspaper revealed this week that the state's Labor Government has spent $46 million on its whole of government email platform, despite it so far catering to just 2,000 accounts.
HP opens giant NSW datacentre (photos)
Global technology giant HP yesterday opened its colossal $119 million new datacentre in Western Sydney, revealing that it had dubbed the new facility "Aurora".
Google Australia: ~$1bn in revenue, $74k in tax
Search giant Google has revealed it expects to pay just $74,000 in corporate income tax for the 2011 calendar year in Australia, off claimed local revenues of $201 million, despite the fact that industry estimates have continually pegged the search giant's Australian income at closer to $1 billion.
Breaking Victoria’s IT fail cycle: First steps to take
With its IT governance reputation in tatters and all of its major projects late, over budget and in many cases having simply failed to deliver, what steps can the Victorian State Government take next to get things back on track? Where can it turn for inspiration?
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.
Defence wants special ops tablet, smartphone
The Australian Defence Force has gone to market for a solution which will allow it to provide highly secure smartphones and tablets to certain soldiers with the purpose of accessing command systems in the field.
Back to the future: Qld kickstarts payroll consolidation
The new LNP Queensland State Government has revealed plans to consolidate eight "outmoded and heavily customised" payroll IT systems into one outsourced system, in a move which will re-ignite the debate over how the state should provide core IT services supporting administrative functions to its various departments and agencies.
Vendors poach another Qld central Govt CIO
Queensland-based software vendor Technology One has poached the executive in charge of the state government's IT renewal program to become a business development executive, in a move that will further stimulate ongoing questions about the close relationship between the state's public sector and its IT vendors.
Google’s Sydney HQ gets hacked … kind of
The security staff at Google Australia’s flashy new headquarters in the Sydney CBD most likely spend most of their time worrying about physical breaches of the building’s security, making sure that the company’s local network routers and PCs aren’t broken into by Internet nasties and trying to keep nutbag journalists from conducting satirical exercises outside their front door. But do they spend much time worrying about the in-building network controlling functions such as air conditioning? Probably not. However, if this article by Wired is any indication, perhaps they should be.
Telstra builds four new datacentres
Telstra late yesterday revealed plans to expand its cloud computing business through constructing four new datacentres located around the nation to cater for demand. Now if only the telco could announce some new cloud computing customers.
Defence brings massive IT services deal back to the market
The tender was put on ice some two years ago, as it was undertaking several other major IT purchasing efforts at the same time. However, iTnews reported today that the contract had been brought back.
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.
REA Group: Another complex cloud case study
Computerworld has published a fascinating article about the cloud computing strategy of REA Group, which operates the realestate.com.au family of websites. What I find fascinating about the company's strategy is that it's not using just one type of cloud computing technologies to deliver services -- it's using several.
Former Sydney University ICT manager found to be corrupt
The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has ascertained that a former ICT manager at the University of Sydney carried out corrupt acts during his time at the institution.
VMware introduces new desktop virtualisation platform
Virtualisation giant VMware has unveiled a new platform for delivering secure digital workspaces for flexible working on any device.
ICT Audit largely clears Federal Govt of problems
A comprehensive ICT audit of the Federal Government's ICT operations has largely found they are sound and performing to required standards, with expenditure within appropriate levels and only a small proportion of major ICT projects at risk.
Questions & answers: Zendesk Australia
Michael Hansen is the Asia-Pacific managing director of software as a service firm Zendesk, which offers a Web 2.0-style hosted helpdesk solution. Zendesk has recently expanded strongly in Australia, hiring staff and announcing that it has 1,000 Australian customers. In this interview, we ask Hansen about the company's local expansion plans.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Australian Defence College pilots Google Apps for academic programs
The Australian Defence College (ADC) has launched a pilot scheme that will see its academic programs using Google Apps, Senator the Honourable Marise Payne, Minister for Defence, announced this week.
Australian Federal Police fails cybersecurity health check
The Federal Auditor-General has criticised the Australian Federal Police for not meeting federal cyber-security standards, in a wide-ranging audit that exposed a number of issues with the law enforcement agency's ability to secure its own IT systems.
Govt ICT apprenticeships open
Spoiling for a career in IT in the public sector? You're in luck. The Federal Government has just opened its ICT apprenticeship and cadetship program again.
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.
Unita dumps MYOB, Excel spreadsheets for NetSuite
Interior-construction company Unita has replaced a number of instances of MYOB, Accentus and Excel spreadsheets with a single instance of NetSuite OneWorld to manage its core business processes.
Westpac launches Android NFC payments app
Westpac Banking Corporation has joined the throng of Australian financial services giants attempting to stay ahead of the growing trend towards payments from mobile phones, launching an app yesterday that will allow those with Android smartphones to make mobile payments through their embedded NFC chip.
Australian Electoral Commission moves website to Amazon Web Services
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has switched to Amazon Web Services (AWS) for the hosting of digital services across all its public-facing websites.
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.
NSW Govt adopts Android Pay
The New South Wales Government has adopted Android Pay as a payment method at service centres across the state, and said it is the first Australian Government to do so.
NSW Health reveals huge Oracle platform rollout
The shared services division of NSW Health this week revealed it had deployed a massive implementation of Oracle’s hardware and software systems in an effort to support its human resources and payroll functions, with the agency using Oracle products from its E-Business suite to hardware systems such as the vendor’s Exalogic and Exadata systems.
University of Melbourne launches new hybrid supercomputer
The University of Melbourne has launched a new supercomputing service called Spartan it says will boost research at the institution.
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.
Weather bureau gets $80m Cray supercomputer
The Bureau of Meteorology this week revealed it had signed a US$59 million (AU$80 million) contract with US supercomputer specialist Cray for a beefy machine that will deliver the agency about 16 times its current computing capacity and allow it to predict the weather that much better.
$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.
Victoria to trial IoT tech for better water management
In what it is calling "an Australian first", Victoria's South East Water has started trials of a new low-powered Internet of Things (IoT) technology to improve real-time monitoring and help to boost the reliability, efficiency and safety of its water and sewer assets.
Qld may hold Royal Commission into payroll bungle
It's been one of the biggest IT-related disasters in Australia's history, it's going to take $1.2 billion to fix, and it's even the subject of complex legal discussions between prime contractor IBM and the Queensland Government. Welcome to the world of Queensland Health's colossal payroll systems overhaul bungle. Today's news is that the state's LNP Premier Campbell Newman has canvassed setting up a commission of inquiry (also known as a royal commission) to get to the heart of the matter.
The plot thickens in CBA/ServiceMesh IT bribery scandal
There have been a series of new revelations in the Commonwealth Bank's IT bribery scandal over the past several days.
Corruption raises its ugly head in Australia’s technology sector
The newspaper alleged, and Leighton has substantially verified, the fact that staff from Visionstream were suspected of aiding Silcar staff in stealing Visionstream tender files relating to a $240 million contract to deploy Optus’s 4G network, which the two contractors were competing to bid. I’ll have a separate article on that situation shortly.
What you may not realise is that this not an isolated incident.
Cash Converters deploys Windows 10
In a move aimed to "streamline its information ecosystem", Cash Converters has rolled out Windows 10 to 350 stores around the world, including Australia.
Seittenranta to be permanent DPS CIO
Long-time Centrelink and Department of Human Services IT executive Eija Seittenranta has been appointed to a permanent role as the chief information officer of the Federal Department of Parliamentary Services, following a temporary appointment to the role in October.
As expected, Mailes to lead Vic Govt IT
As has been widely known inside the Victorian Government for a while now, former South Australian whole of government chief information officer Grantly Mailes has been appointed to a permanent role as Victoria's first chief technology advocate -- a new style of role recommended in the state's new ICT strategy which Mailes coordinated.
Qld Health CIO reportedly poached by IBM
Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. Queensland Health CIO Colin McCririck has reportedly resigned for a job with IBM in the US.
Telstra deploys eHealth record solution for St John of God
Telstra Health has announced it has deployed an electronic medical record (EMR) system at St John of God Midland public and private hospitals in Perth.
St George trials Apple iBeacon in branches
Westpac subsidiary St George Bank has revealed plans to deploy a trial of Apple's iBeacon technology in three Sydney branches, in a move which will see customers' iPhones sent a welcome message and "tailored information" when they enter a branch.
Australia Post accelerates digital push with Data61 partnership
Australia Post has announced a new partnership with the country's largest data innovation group Data61 that is aimed to drive continued transformation into a digital services company.
Optus inks $19.5m satellite deal with Defence
SingTel subsidiary Optus this morning revealed it had inked a $19.5 million contract with the Department of Defence, extending its current relationship in delivering managed professional satellite services to the Department for four years until mid-2018.
Microsoft’s Dynamics AX for Azure cloud to launch in Australia
Microsoft has announced that Dynamics AX, the latest version of its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software product, will soon be available in Australia and hosted in local data centres.
New Qld CIO defends Govt IT debacles
Queensland's new whole of government chief information officer Peter Grant has defended the state's record on major IT projects in his first interview since taking the position in December last year.
Suncorp picks Oracle to replace core
Tier two banking and insurance giant Suncorp has picked Oracle's next-generation banking platform to replace its aging Hogan core banking system, as the momentum around core banking replacement projects accelerates in Australia.
IBM Australia sacking staff again
It seems as if, when it comes to major Australian technology companies such as Telstra, Optus, HP and IBM, there are always 'moves, adds and changes' going on in these giants' workforces.
British Airways workers to rally against Tata outsourcing of IT jobs
British Airways workers are to protest against the outsourcing of IT jobs to foreign workers employed by Tata Consultancy Services at a rally organised by general workers' union, the GMB.
Another great Aussie IT company to go overseas? CSC makes offer for UXC
I personally feel it would be a real shame to see UXC snapped up by CSC. UXC is a strong Australian business, with its Red Rock, Oxygen, Connect, Telsyte and other brands being very well-known in Australia. Of course, CSC would be likely to keep most of its staff intact. But the Australian IT services market would feel a lot less ... Australian without UXC existing on its own.
Qld’s new IT Minister has zero IT experience
Following the resignation of Ros Bates last week, Queensland Premier Campbell Newman has appointed Ian Walker to replace Bates as the state’s Minister for Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts. Did we mention that Walker appears to have no experience dealing with information technology, given his extensive background as a 35-year veteran of law firm Norton Rose?
Microsoft reveals roadmap for new Windows 10 business features
Microsoft has published details of its roadmap for new Windows 10 business features that are likely to make their way to users' machines in the near future, with security seeming a high priority.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Qld loses IT renewal chief after just nine months
The Queensland Government appears to have suffered a substantial blow to its attempts to reform its technology infrastructure, with the news reported late last week that the executive in charge of that renewal program, Glenn Walker, had resigned for a position in the private sector.
NSW Health seeks CIOs in restructure
NSW Health has advertised two high-profile chief information officer roles, as the State Government's plan to ramp up improvements in healthcare through the use of technology impacts the organisation and it's eHealth NSW sub-division.
How to understand NAB’s core banking strategy
If you follow Australia’s banking technology scene closely, no doubt you’ve probably become quite confused over the past four or so years about the National Australia Bank’s core banking overhaul strategy and how precisely it is actually put together and progressing; and you wouldn’t be the only one. But if you delve a little under the surface it all becomes clear.
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".
New Qld Govt CIO a chance for ‘industry unity’
There is the chance for a fresh start in Queensland at the moment. And if the various CIOs, politicians and industry players can get behind that, perhaps the state can avoid having virtually every major whole of government technology project, and many others, savaged by its auditor-general in a few years' time when the next round of audits comes up.
‘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.
Last chance: Microsoft plans huge Win8 price hike
Microsoft Australia has confirmed that Australians have only several more days to buy its new Windows 8 operating system at promotional prices before it hikes its prices on the software massively as at the 1st of February.
CenITex turfs almost all contractors
Those of you with a long-term interest in Victorian Government IT shared services provider CenITex will remember that the agency was several years ago known far and wide for the high rates it was paying its extensive contractor workforce. No more: Most of those contractors are now gone.
Obamacare web fiasco won’t be the last big IT fail
The uncomfortable reality is that no one really knows how to design or manage large, complex IT projects.
ADFA hack a national security failure: expert
According to media reports, a single hacker from the Anonymous group, calling himself Darwinare, released online the names, birthdays and passwords of 20,000 staff and students from a university database at the Australian Defence Force Academy.
Govt CIOs focusing on analytics, cloud, infrastructure
A new survey has revealed that analytics, infrastructure and cloud computing are the top three technology priorities for government CIOs, with digital transformation still lagging behind.
Vic Govt opens IT offshoring door
The Victorian Department of Human Services has reportedly investigated handing the re-development of its troubled client and case management system to an offshore provider in the popular IT outsourcing country of India, in one of the first signals that the state recognises the unsustainable nature of its current onshored resources.
$170m: Defence extends Fujitsu contract again
The Department of Defence has again renewed an extremely long-running IT services contract with Japanese technology giant Fujitsu which has been in place since 2005, when it was originally won by KAZ, as the pace of change within the department appears to be slowing down.
Australian CIOs will be focused on business intelligence, cloud in 2016
The annual survey of Australian chief information officers by analyst firm Gartner has found business intelligence software and cloud computing platforms will be the hottest technologies in large Australian organisations over the next year.
NAB appoints acting tech chief
National Australia Bank has appointed a new acting Chief Technology and Operations Officer (CTOO), following Bob Melrose's move to the role of Executive General Manager, Retail Banking.
US Govt proposes US$3.1bn fund to upgrade “legacy” IT systems
The US Government has proposed the creation of a US$3.1 billion (A$4.8 billion) modernisation fund to improve cybersecurity and save money by replacing or modernising "antiquated" IT systems with more secure, efficient and up-to-date technology.
Online retailers yet to harness big social data
A large volume of social media data gets created on a daily basis from these customer service interactions. Companies need to be examining both the volumes of unstructured social media data created by their own processes as well as by their competitors for a better understanding of necessary process improvements.
WA sports dept emerges as cloud leader in Azure deployment
The Western Australian Department of Sport and Recreation (DSR) has moved a number of servers to Microsoft’s Azure Cloud to better connect its 17 locations throughout the large state – including some in the more remote Pilbara and Kimberly regions.
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.
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.
Qld Health preps huge IT outsourcing deals
The Queensland State Government has revealed plans to engage in a comprehensive IT outsourcing exercise involving its statewide health department, in the newest plank in its strategy to overhaul Queensland Health's extremely troubled IT support systems and processes.
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.
Budget 2014: PCEHR project continues, for now
The Federal Government has opted to continue to progress the previous Labor administration's troubled Personally Controlled Electronic Health Records project for now, allocating funding of $140.6 million to the project over the next 12 months while it decides its ultimate fate.
Atlassian’s SourceTree ditches Mac App Store
Atlassian, the Australian developer of the SourceTree app for Mac have decided to stop submitting SourceTree updates to the Mac App Store after March 1st, the deadline for all submitted applications to run inside a ‘sandbox’.
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.
“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.
BoQ, AMP open up major IT outsourcing deals
Wow. It's been a huge week or so in Australia's financial services IT scene, with revelations that two massive, long-running IT outsourcing deals which have been in place for a decade or more may be finally opened up to rivals.
Commission of Audit backs high-risk shared services schemes
The new Coalition Government’s Commission of Audit (CoA) has recommended the Federal Government investigate the same kind of whole of government shared corporate services scheme which have abjectly failed most Australian State Governments over the past half-decade and resulted in widespread IT service delivery problems.
Has Fortescue dumped BlackBerry for Nokia?
Australian iron ore group Fortescue metals has declined to comment on an unverified rumour that the company has recently deployed over 600 new staff smartphones, allegedly swapping out its existing BlackBerry fleet in the latest corporate switch to Microsoft's rival Windows Phone 7 ecosystem.
Amazon claims huge Australian growth as dedicated local support launches
The cloud computing branch of online retailer Amazon late last month claimed it was seeing rapid uptake from the launch of its first Australia-based datacentre; simultaneously announcing the launch of a dedicated support centre based in Australia to serve local customers.
Westpac loses McKinnon deputy Sarv Girn
The fallout from the reshuffle at Westpac continued today, with the Financial Review breaking the news that senior IT executive Sarv Girn would quit the bank in search of a chief information officer role elsewhere.
Red Cloud to build $40m next-gen datacentre in Hobart
Red Cloud Ltd, a data centre services provider, has announced it will build a $40-million, resilient, Tier-3 data centre in Hobart using proven state-of-the-art modular technology.
Woolworths dumping Windows for Chrome OS
Huge news coming from Computerworld today with respect to retail chain Woolworths, which is reportedly set to switch 85 percent of its PCs across to Google's Chrome OS operating system, shifting off Windows in the process.
Debunking Abbott’s “server timestamp” claims
Unless you live in an area of Australia where it's impossible to get television or radio reception (an idea which has seemed attractive to your writer at times, in the current media environment), it would have been hard to escape the news that a Federal Court judge has thrown out the sexual harassment case against former Federal House of Representatives Speaker Peter Slipper. But it's one particular comment by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott that has Australia's IT industry perking up its ears this morning.
Screw cloud: Coogans upgrades mainframe instead
To paraphrase Francis Urquhart, you might very well think that no Australian organisation would be spending much money these days upgrading their old mainframes or deploying new ones. Isn't everything about cloud computing these days, after all? Well, true, it is, but that hasn't stopped some Australian groups from hanging onto their old mainframe infrastructure and even pushing it further.
Fire & Rescue dumps GroupWise for hosted Exchange
Fire and Rescue NSW finally ditches Novell GroupWise for a hosted version of Microsoft Exchange.
‘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.
News Corp Australia dumps Exchange for Gmail
The new chief technology officer of publishing giant News Corp Australia has wasted no time making big changes to the organisation's IT infrastructure model, announcing a huge formal move to Google's mail and calendaring suite just months after taking on the position.
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.
Leap year outages: Nostalgia for Y2K?
Call us nostalgic, but today's news that the Health Industry Claims and Payments Service (HICAPS) system owned by the National Australia bank was taken down by faulty programming associated with today's leap year date takes us back to the good old days of Year 2000 bugs.
Attanasio takes NSW RMS CIO role
Former Customs CIO Joe Attanasio takes up the equivalent role at NSW Roads and Maritime Services.
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.
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.
VMware tightens grip on NSW councils
Virtualisation giant VMware this week revealed it had signed a wide-ranging contract renewal involving some forty three local councils across New South Wales, in a move which the vendor said was expected to result in savings of up to $3 million for the council group as a whole and the further deployment of its technology.
Whole of Govt CIO Archer joins Gartner
Technology research and advisory firm Gartner has appointed former whole of Federal Government chief information officer Glenn Archer to the role of research vice president in its public sector research group, several months after the executive resigned from his post in early February.
Cloud could help fix Govt IT paradigm: Hodgkinson
Independent analyst firm Ovum said this week that developing and maintaining ICT capabilities constitutes an ongoing challenge for government agencies, with one of the organisation's Australian public sector specialists noting that the utilisation of cloud computing services could provide an edge in an “unsustainable game of ICT snakes and ladders being played by many government agencies”.
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.
Vendors unimpressed by IT price hike inquiry
A number of global technology vendors likely to be hauled before Australia's Parliament to justify their local price markups have grudgingly and briefly signalled their acceptance of the proceedings and willingness to participate, although some have completely refused to comment on the issue.
SAP has 20 Aussie Business ByDesign customers
IT channel publication CRN has reported that German software giant SAP has signed up 20 customers for its Business ByDesign software as a service platform, which launched in Australia in August last year.
Enterprise will hold back on Windows 8
I recently came across a fantastic series of posts which pretty much sums up what I think about Microsoft's incoming new operating system Windows 8.
Insurance network deploys Microsoft business intelligence
Insurance Advisernet (IA) has deployed Microsoft's Business Intelligence data visualisation suite in order to bring greater efficiency and customer understanding network of independent advisers.
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.
Qantas Credit Union deploys Infosys Finacle’s ‘core banking as a service’
One of Australia’s largest credit unions, the Qantas Credit Union, has revealed it will deploy a new core banking platform from Infosys’ Finacle division (EdgeVerve Systems(, as well as a host of other related services, in a move that the bank says will see it transition to a ‘core banking as a service’ model.
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".
Parliament runs out of money for Win7 rollout
In an exchange in a Senate Estimates hearing yesterday (PDF transcript here), DPS secretary Carol Mills revealed the department didn’t have enough money to complete the rollout to Windows 7 it has been working on.
Office 365 juggernaut hits ANU
Qantas, Mr Rental, Fortescue, Coles, Curtin University, a slew of local non-profits and more: The list of Australian organisations to announce that they're deploying Microsoft's Office 365 software as a service productivity suite is growing day by day. And now, according to iTNews, the Australian National University has added itself to that list.
Adelaide Festival Centre deploys Red Hat Linux on Azure cloud
Adelaide Festival Centre has chosen to shift its Red Hat Enterprise Linux system from physical servers to Microsoft’s Azure could computing platform.
Domino’s Pizza to launch drone deliveries with new tech partner
Domino’s Pizza has announced a new partnership with US-based drone delivery specialist Flirtey to launch what it claims will be the "first commercial drone delivery service in the world".
‘Kaching’: New CBA mobile, social, NFC payments app
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has revealed plans to launch a new combination smartphone application and associated hardware accessory that allow customers to make quick payments from their mobile phone to anyone with an email address, phone number of Facebook friendship, as well as to merchants via near field communications (NFC).
Tasmania to build on-island cloud for community and government services
The Tasmanian Government has announced it will build an on-island cloud service that will host most government data and services in the near future.
Tasmania upgrades to Exchange 2010
The Tasmanian Government has embarked on one of Australia's largest known email platform upgrades, recently revealing plans to shift some 40,000 email accounts to the latest version of Microsoft's Exchange platform as part of a wider shake-up of its communications strategy.
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.
Will Australia meet its April 2014 Open Government commitment?
Will Australia join Russia, becoming the second nation to withdraw? Or will it simply delay membership - one year, two years or more? Perhaps we'll find out with a government announcement in the next month regarding its OGP commitment. Or perhaps all we can expect is ongoing silence.
IBM Australia to cut 1,000 staff, reports ABC
I’d like to see a little more transparency from IBM with respect to this issue. Of course IBM is entitled to shift around staff and re-balance its headcount. But when we’re talking about redundancies as high as 1,000 workers, large companies such as IBM have a responsibility to their customers, to their staff and to their shareholders to let a little more information out of the kimono. 1,000 staff is not 100. And it would be ethical of IBM to let us know a little more about what’s going on here.
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.
Legacy health software lands SA Govt in court
In which the South Australian Government comes up with complex legal arguments as to why it should be able to continue to use a 1980's software package.
Loft Group deploys on IBM SoftLayer cloud
IBM's June 2013 acquisition of cloud computing company SoftLayer has started to pay off for Big Blue in Australia, with the company announcing last week that local creative digital agency The Loft Group had deployed its e-learning business platform on its Infrastructure as a Service infrastructure.
Server timestamps: Abbott was right after all
The Department of Parliamentary Services appears to have cleared Abbott of any wrongdoing in fudging James Ashby-related media release timestamps, admitting that its systems haven't been up to spec.
CBA’s Kaching app raises privacy concerns
One of Australia's leading privacy advocates has raised concerns about the Commonwealth Bank's new mobile, social and near field communications payments application, highlighting the fact that it has the potential to eliminate much of the anonymity offered by paying for goods and services through cash.
Specsavers outsources key IT services to Accenture
Global optical chain Specsavers has partnered with professional services company Accenture to help manage its IT services as it focuses on increasing the digital side of its business.
Victorian agency reports schoolboy to police for informing it of IT security hole
Public Transport Victoria has reportedly reported a 16-year-old Melbourne schoolboy to Victoria Police for merely informing it of substantial security holes in its IT infrastructure.
Oracle CEO jets into Australia to reassure customers on support offshoring, flag huge sales...
Fresh off the back of claims that Oracle has just dumped its entire Australian support operation, news has arrived from the Financial Review this week that global Oracle co-chief executive Mark Hurd has landed in 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.
Bloodbath: Qantas to cut $200m in IT costs, jobs
Embattled airline Qantas has flagged plans to cut $200 million out of its technology budget over the next three years and undertake reviews of its major technology supplier contracts, as part of a company-wide cost-cutting initiative that will see a total 5,000 staff leave the company and some $2 billion in total costs cut.
Capgemini deploys Amazon cloud insurance platform for SICorp
Consulting company Capgemini this week announced that it has successfully implemented a new cloud-based system to deliver a complete outsourced core insurance platform for the New South Wales Self Insurance Corporation (SICorp).
Oracle chief Mark Hurd hits Australia
Oracle's global co-president Mark Hurd is in Australia to meet with key clients and to catch up on his tennis.
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.
Westpac demotes CIO, makes CTO redundant
Westpac Banking Group has dramatically shaken up its senior IT executive team, slicing some responsibilities away from previous top IT dog Clive Whincup and reportedly making its chief technology officer Jeff Jacobs redundant.
Adobe dumps Creative Suite: ‘Cloud’ subscription only for next version
Overnight in the US, Adobe revealed it would exclusively focus on its subscription offerings in future. That's right: If you want to buy Photoshop or other applications in Creative Suite in future, you won't be able to -- you'll only be able to lease them.
$752m: NSW Education Dept’s SAP-based LMBR system doubles in cost
Those of us who've been around the traps for a while know that it's extremely common for major IT projects to go over budget. 10 percent, 15 percent, 20 percent ... these are all normal amounts for a project's costs to blow out by, and of course delays to projects' delivery schedule are also common. However, what would you think of a project which doubled in cost over its lifetime?
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.
Defence has 200 Australian ‘datacentres’
A new revelation by the Department of Defence this week, as it gets ready to changeover its massive centralised processing contract, shows that some departments just have more legacy than others.
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.
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.
TechOne’s software goes into 486 Catholic schools
Queensland-headquartered software company TechnologyOne has inked a landmark $15 million deal with the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria (CECV) which will see it deliver enterprise software to 486 schools across the state.
End of an era: CIO Harte leaves CommBank
The Commonwealth Bank's long-serving and highly decorated chief information officer Michael Harte has announced he will shortly leave the bank to take up a senior role at UK-based Barclays Bank, in a move that signals the end of an era for CommBank's IT operations.
Telstra launches Cisco’s Android tablet
The nation's largest telco Telstra late last week confirmed it had started offering Cisco's low-profile Cius Android tablet to customers as a complement to their corporate unified communications platforms.
LNP sacks 80 from CITEC
Not satisfied with terminating some 384 technology contractors already this year and running the axe over the IT department at the state's education department, Queensland's new LNP Government led by Premier Campbell Newman has now turned its attention to IT shared services unit CITEC.
SA e-Health system could cause fatalities
It used to be pretty rare that Australia would see an IT system implemented or maintained so poorly that it had the potential to cause fatalities or serious injury. But not any more. This year we’ve seen three such cases in Victoria alone, linked separately to failing IT systems at Victoria Police (which actually did result in several deaths), a Victorian hospital and, most worryingly, with relation to children’s safety under the care of the Department of Human Services. Well, last week South Australia got its own potentially fatal IT system.
Qld Police trial Segways for crime-fighting
The Queensland Police Service yesterday revealed that it would kick off what it said was the first Australian trial of the Segway personal transportation vehicle in pedestrian areas, to test their suitability for police operations.
New SAP strategy strands NSW cloud pilot
A sudden decision by German software giant SAP to end active development of its ailing Business ByDesign online software suite has left the New South Wales Government's premier cloud computing business systems pilot stranded without a future roadmap.
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.
DDoS takes down Census website
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has said the 2016 online Census form was subject to four distributed denial of dervice (DDoS) attacks on 9 August that were of "varying nature and severity".
Qld to deploy whole of govt search
The Queensland Government has flagged plans to deploy a whole of government search package which will allow Internet users to search its hundreds of websites and other online resources through a single, centralised portal.
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.
News Ltd builds classifieds site on Google cloud
It's not often you see Google's App Engine mentioned in Australia in the context of cloud computing. However, at least one decently-sized implementation has surfaced, courtesy of Google Australia's blog this week.
CenITex failure kills govt email for “up to a week”
The problems just keep coming for Victorian IT shared services agency CenITex. Today's damning report into the beleagured organisation comes from The Age, which reports the organisation left thousands of government staffers without email and other IT systems for up to a week.
Parramatta first to Windows 8.1
Microsoft and Parramatta City Council today announced that the council would be the formally first in Australia to deploy the latest Windows 8.1 version of its flagship desktop and tablet operating system that Redmond is releasing this Friday.
Woods Bagot deploys SharePoint 2013 early
It’s only just been formally released for official use, but Australian architectural design firm Woods Bagot has been using early versions of Microsoft’s SharePoint 2013 software since early this year, a new case study published by Microsoft recently has revealed.
Victorian high school deploys Android tablets
Students and staff of years 9–12 at Brighton Grammar School, Victoria will each be provided with an Acer Iconia Tab A500, from this week onwards, Acer revealed in a statement yesterday. The move is part of what is being publicised as the first large Android program for an Australian school.
DTO mandates APIs for Federal agencies
The DTO is looking to make it mandatory for government agencies to create APIs for all new services, and to consume their own APIs when delivering those services.
Digital Transformation Office announces ambitious work program
The Federal Government’s Digital Transformation Office has announced its work program over the initial period of its operation, listing a number of thorny problems that have been plaguing Australians for some time in terms of their interaction with the Federal Government.
Costello says Qld should sell IT services units
A landmark report into the Queensland Government's financial position penned by Howard-era Treasurer Peter Costello has recommended the state government consider selling off its IT shared services unit, as there was no guarantee they could provide IT services to the government efficiently.
Even major banks still use archaic Excel spreadsheets for complex tasks
I hope this Suncorp example can serve as a stimulus for other organisations to shift off Excel for these kinds of complex tasks as well.
TAFE Queensland is rolling out TechOne’s education solution
Australian enterprise Software as a Service (SaaS) provider TechOne has inked a deal to provide Student Management solution to TAFE Queensland, the vocational education and training organisation.
HP’s Caspari quits after just one year
It's been reportedly extremely widely in Australia's technology media over the past 24 hours that HP South Pacific Managing Director David Caspari has resigned his post and will leave the company.