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.
Carbon Tax: How will it hit servers?
How much impact will the Federal Government's so-called Carbon Tax have on server hosting costs? According to Aidan Tudehope, the managing director of Macquarie Telecom's hosting division, quite a lot.
IT disaster waiting to happen: Qld Health to replace 22-year-old admin system
Queensland Health's beleaguered IT operation has turned its focus to a sizable IT replacement project slated to cost the state up to $438 million and see a 22-year-old patient administration program replaced, as the fallout from its billion-dollar botched payroll system upgrade continues to be felt in the state's public sector.
BoQ cuts down outsourcing list to four
Those of you who follow the big end of the IT services market in Australia will recall that November last year Bank of Queensland revealed plans to finally chop up its extremely long-running comprehensive IT outsourcing deal with HP, with the effort being led by the bank's chief information officer Julie Bale (pictured). Well, things have been moving along at a rapid clip and the bank has reportedly now cut down its list of prospective partners to four.
Watch out, CIOs — CMOs are stealing chunks of your IT spend
Chief marketing officers are increasingly making technology decisions for their organisations, according to a new study published today by technology analyst firm Telsyte.
Fiona Stanley Hospital IT gets $40m more
The Western Australian Government has allocated a further $40 million in funding to the troubled IT systems of the state's flagship Fiona Stanley Hospital, in a state budget which comes ahead of the similar, $187 million deployment of similar new IT systems at the upcoming Perth Children's Hospital.
Qld Govt inks $26.5m deal for Office 365
The Queensland State Government yesterday announced it had signed a $26.5 million deal with Microsoft which will gain the state access to Microsoft's Office 365 software and services platform. However, with the deal not covering operating system licences and not being mandatory for departments and agencies, it remains unclear what its impact will be.
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.
NSW ramps up giant datacentre consolidation
The New South Wales State Government this week starting building a list of suppliers to help its departments and agencies migrate their server infrastructure from dozens of dated back-office server rooms and into modern datacentres, as part of the state's long-running and wide-ranging comprehensive datacentre overhaul project.
CBA outage took down CommSee
The Commonwealth Bank's wide-ranging outage also took down its customer relationship management platform CommSee, one of its main unions has revealed, in a move which further illustrates how extensive the technology-related problems suffered by the bank over the past week truly have been.
NEXTDC opens Sydney datacentre: Photos
Listed datacentre operator NEXTDC this week opened its new ('S1') datacentre in the Sydney suburb of Macquarie Park, at an event attended by Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull as well as customers, partners and the media.
Fire & Rescue dumps GroupWise for hosted Exchange
Fire and Rescue NSW finally ditches Novell GroupWise for a hosted version of Microsoft Exchange.
Brisbane reveals $353 million IT overhaul
Australia's largest council administration, Brisbane City Council, has revealed an ambitious plan to spend $353 million on a comprehensive new SAP-based business administration platform which will see some 62 legacy systems shut down and replaced with the aid of IT services firm Accenture.
Qld Health dumps GroupWise for Exchange … 2007?
Queensland Health has become the latest Australian organisation to ditch Novell's ageing GroupWise platform in favour of Microsoft Exchange. But why is it migrating to Exchange 2007 and not Exchange 2010?
“SYSTEMIC BUSINESS RISK”: 90% of Qld Govt’s ICT needs to be replaced Total cost:...
Ninety percent of the Queensland Government's ICT systems are outdated and will require replacement within five years at a total cost of $7.4 billion, the state's first comprehensive ICT audit released today revealed, as Queensland continues to grapple with the catastrophic outcome of years of "chronic underfunding" into its dilapidated ICT infrastructure.
Turnbull wants whole Cabinet to use Slack
We knew that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was a technophile, but I suspect many of us didn't quite appreciate how focused on technology the Member for Wentworth truly is.
IT sector abusing 457 visa program, says Gillard
Julia Gillard this morning stated that the nation's IT sector was taking jobs away from Australians by importing foreign workers en-masse under the 457 visa program, a situation which the Prime Minister said was "just not acceptable".
Pitcher Partners dumps desk phones for Skype for Business
Australian accounting and advisory firm Pitcher Partners has announced the replacement of desk telephones with Skype for Business, alongside the implementation of VPN-like service Microsoft DirectAccess.
DHS issues show Turnbull’s innovation talk just ‘spam’, says Labor
Labor has criticised the Turnbull government over recent IT and other issues at the Department of Human Services (DHS), saying they reveal that the Prime Minster's talk of Innovation is just "spam".
Technology One making inroads into Federal Govt
Home-grown Australian software firm Technology One appears to be making significant inroads into the Federal Government, with a $5.8 million deal with the Federal Department of the Treasury reportedly building on existing success the company is having selling its software into major institutions.
Digital Transformation Office adds Sydney digs as formal hiring campaign kicks off
The Federal Government’s Digital Transformation Office has revealed plans to locate a small office on-campus at the University of Technology Sydney, as well as embarking on a rapid hiring campaign in which it will seek the best Australian technologists to help deliver lasting changing in government IT service delivery.
Coca-Cola Amatil takes SAP project to Asia
For those wondering where Coca Cola Amatil is at with its comprehensive SAP-based internal enterprise IT applications overhaul project, wonder no more.
Hacked? NSW Education in major outage
The NSW Department of Education and Communities has confirmed it has suffered a major event in its IT operation this week that knocked key staff services such as email offline, with an an unverified source claiming it had been hacked and suffered the deletion of thousands of accounts.
“Obstruction, avoidance and evasion”: IT giants stonewall price inquiry
Members of Parliament from both major sides of politics have very publicly blasted global technology giants such as Apple, Adobe and Microsoft and even representative group the Australian Information Industry Association, for what they described as “deep reluctance and resistance” to give evidence before a parliamentary committee investigating local IT price hikes.
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.
Village Roadshow goes cloud with Interactive, NetApp
Village Roadshow, the Melbourne-based company that has been entertaining Australians since 1954 with theme parks, resorts and attractions, cinemas, music and DVD distribution, has moved its data storage to the cloud. The Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) data centre model for Village Roadshow was built on NetApp hardware and provided by service provider Interactive to manage Village Roadshow’s substantial data growth.
Adobe faces piracy backlash over Australian pricing
Many Adobe customers have taken to the Internet to openly pledge to dump the software vendor's products or pirate them illegally, with thousands more signalling their general displeasure with what many saw as the arrogant refusal of its chief executive Shantanu Narayenlast week to answer the question of how the company can justify charging Australians up to $1,400 more for its software than US residents.
NT Govt buys a new IBM mainframe
Due to the incredible rise of the x86 chipset over the past several decades, it's easy to forget that at the beating heart of many organisations, those ancient dreadnoughts which the IT industry knows as the common or garden mainframes are still found, continuing to promulgate their ever-lasting mission of stability, cost efficiency and power.
DTO confirms govCMS as GOV.AU platform, ending cold war
The Federal Government's two centralised IT decision-making agencies have buried the hatchet in their cold war over which content management system will be used for Canberra's 1,500-odd websites, announcing plans for the GovCMS platform to be used for the new GOV.AU project.
Unhappy dragon: Westpac IBM outsourcing spreads to St George
The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that up to 200 jobs at Westpac subsidiary St George may be outsourced to IBM.
Vic Govt to sack CenITex board
The Victorian Government is set to remove the board of troubled state IT shared services agency CenITex, according to a report published by Melbourne newspaper The Age late last week.
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.
Three years on, RailCorp may get CIO
More than three years after it lost its last chief information officer, NSW State Government agency Railcorp has finally flagged plans to overhaul its IT executive management structure, in moves associated with the split into two separate divisions, Sydney Trains and NSW Trains.
Movie effects firm Animal Logic deploys Brocade network switches
Digital animation and visual effects studio Animal Logic has announced it will deploy network switches from Brocade in order to cope with the data demands of the next generation of 3D movies.
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.
RTFM: How to keep CIOs under control
Chief information officers never seem to understand. It doesn't matter if the servers are up or down -- that's a user problem. The real issue is whether they are configured properly in the first place. The system must be perfect, pristine. Users pollute that nirvana.
Apparently people still buy SPARC servers
According to a media release issued by Oracle Australia this morning, apparently SPARC servers are still in vogue. Who knew?
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.
Hospital IT booking system ‘putting lives at risk’
A new IT booking platform at the Austin Hospital and Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre in Melbourne is reportedly placing the welfare of patients with serious conditions at risk.
Qld Treasury terminates failed IT overhaul
Queensland's Labor government has been caught on the wrong foot again with another failed IT project, with the Queensland Treasury Corporation (QTC) revealing it had spent $15 million on dumped finance platforms, recently terminating a $7.5 million contract with supplier Temenos and throwing away an equivalent amount on internal work.
ANZ CEO announces head of digital role in raft of executive changes
Along with a number of significant changes to the executive team at ANZ, the bank's new CEO Shayne Elliott has announced plans to create a role for a new head of digital banking.
Jetstar pushes into IT outsourcing, BYOD
There's been a flurry of IT-related news issued by low-cost Qantas brand Jetstar this morning.
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.
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.
Mills slams ‘failed re-run’ Qld CIO appointment
Bruce Mills' Outsourcing Council Asia Pacific (OCAP) has severely criticised the Queensland State Government’s appointment last week of Peter Grant as the new whole-of-government Chief Information Officer.
[ad] Today’s Delimiter webinar has been postponed
As you may recall, Delimiter was planning to hold a webinar this morning on transitioning to Office 365. This is just a quick email to let you know that, due to events beyond our control, the webinar has been postponed for a couple of weeks. It's unfortunate -- I was looking forward to it, and we have some great content.
Microsoft beating Google in cloud email race, says Gartner
A study by analyst firm Gartner has found that 8.5% of global public companies use cloud email from Microsoft's Office 365 service, with just 4.7% using Google Apps for Work.
Unisys launches IT support desk for NSW government agencies
Global IT provider Unisys has launched a new service desk that will provide centralised IT support services to NSW Government departments and agencies under the GovConnectNSW banner.
Delimiter files FOI request for Govt ICT Audit
Technology media outlet Delimiter has filed a Freedom of Information request seeking to retrieve the unreleased comprehensive ICT Audit which the Federal Government presented to Finance Minister Mathias Cormann in January this year.
Slater moved off NAB’s IT operations
NAB replaces group executive of Group Business Services Gavin Slater with Lisa Gray.
AFR wrong, says ABS: We weren’t hacked
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has poured cold water on a series of articles by the Financial Review newspaper last week which claimed a series of "cyber-attacks" had successfully targeted the government agency, with the ABS stating that its systems had never been breached.
City of Sydney deploys Windows 7
A Microsoft case study published last month tells us that the City of Sydney, which has some 1,800 total staff, recently upgraded to Windows 7 from the long-lived Windows XP.
ANZ Bank shifts 260 testing staff to Capgemini
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group late yesterday revealed it would shift 110 Melbourne IT testing staff and a further 250 located in India to employment with outsourcing and consulting company Capgemini, in a bid to deliver what it described as a "step change" in its development operations.
Two years later, NTT sacking Frontline staff
Just two years after Japanese technology consortium NTT revealed it would purchase the majority of Australian IT services firm Frontline Systems (which also owns hosting company Harbour MSP), the trio have revealed plans to make a substantial number of Australian staff redundant as part of a reorganisation.
$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.
Qld payroll lawsuit ‘rewriting history’, says IBM
Technology giant IBM has accused the Queensland State Government of trying to "rewrite history" through filing a new lawsuit against IBM over the botched Queensland Health payroll systems upgrade, despite the fact that the two parties had already come to a legal agreement on the issue.
Law firm Macpherson Kelley deploys Commvault data platform, flash storage
Australia-based law firm Macpherson Kelley has deployed Commvault's data platform and Pure Storage FlashArray in order to improve information management and boost efficiency.
Future of PCEHR review still unclear: Will it be released?
The Department of Health has confirmed that it now has a copy of the review of the Federal Government's troubled Personally Controlled Electronic Health Records project, although it still cannot confirm whether the document, which will be key to the development of e-health systems in Australia, will be released publicly.
Attanasio takes NSW RMS CIO role
Former Customs CIO Joe Attanasio takes up the equivalent role at NSW Roads and Maritime Services.
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.
NSW Office of Environment and Heritage boosts mobility with shift to Office 365
The New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) says it has rolled out Office 365 in order to boost mobility for its many employees.
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.
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.
Turnbull outlines Govt ICT vision
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has published an extensive article arguing that the Federal Government needed to do a better job of connecting with Australians via digital channels and that public sector IT projects needn't cost the huge amounts that some have in the past.
Kill software patents, says Pirate Party
In a call for an overhaul of the Innovation Patent System, Pirate Party Australia has made a submission to the Advisory Council on Intellectual Property (ACIP), challenging the inclusion of software in the current patent system.
Gillard’s PC hack surfaces in Stratfor leaks
A document published by Wikileaks on the public Internet appearing to be an internal briefing document from global intelligence firm Stratfor has mentioned the alleged security breach on Prime Minister Julia Gillard's parliamentary computer and has alleged that similar hack attacks have occurred before.
HP’s behind the Boral IT outsourcing
HP has revealed it is the key partner supporting the extensive IT outsourcing plan with diversified materials company Boral revealed in mid-January, with the global technology giant to supply a complete set of products and services as part of the program.
Victoria finally kills $180m Ultranet disaster
The Victorian Government has reportedly terminated its disastrous Ultranet schools portal, which ballooned in cost to $180 million over the past seven years but ended up being barely used by the education stakeholders it was supposed to serve.
Hyde quits NEC
NEC Australia managing director Alan Hyde has unexpectedly resigned from his role leading the local operations of the Japanese company, with the chief planning officer of NEC Australia, Tetsuro Akagi, to take his place.
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.
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 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.
Microsoft’s Dynamics Online wins ASD certification
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, a customer relationship management software package, has passed Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) certification to host unclassified but sensitive government data.
Rackspace promises Aussie datacentre
Will Rackspace roll out Australian datacentre infrastructure in the next year or so? The company says yes, but we'll believe it when we see it.
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.
Barden Produce deploys VMware’s vCloud Air
Australian veg wholesaler Barden Produce has announced a move to VMware's vCloud Air to bring about a more flexible and agile business model.
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.
Emperor Hyde pillages CSG’s IT services vault
The Australian division of NEC this morning announced it would acquire the Technology Solutions arm of locally listed company CSG for an amount up to $260 million, in a move which will make the Japanese technology giant a significant player in Australia's IT services market.
Privacy risks plague cloud computing, says commissioner
In a recent speech on ‘Privacy risks and potential benefits in the cloud’, Acting Victorian Privacy Commissioner Anthony Bendall has highlighted some of the privacy concerns with cloud computing, particularly in its use by the local government.
Unfixable: Time to ditch e-health record scheme
Federal health minister Peter Dutton has commissioned a review of Labor’s troubled Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR) project. It’s unclear whether the review committee is to decide whether to scrap the project altogether or to try and fix it. Hopefully it is not the latter because if the past year has taught us anything, it is that this is not a fixable problem. It needs to go.
Union protests against Tassie losing 56 IT jobs
The Community and Public Sector Union has gone on the attack over a proposal to shift the roles of some 56 Tasmanian IT workers employed by the Department of Human Services onto the mainland, presenting Employment Minister and Tasmanian Senator Eric Abetz with a 1,000-strong petition against the move.
Surprise! Govt botched NDIS IT systems
A government department botching the delivery of a new IT platform? Shocking, I know. This has never, ever happened before. Unbelievable. Today's public sector IT blunder comes from the pages of Intermedium, which tells us that the National Disability Insurance Scheme developed by the previous Government has been hamstrung by the poor quality of the IT systems put together to support it.
‘Daring yet awful’: An epic Windows 8 rant
We hate Windows 8 on the desktop just as much as the next man, but we haven’t tested it as extensively as Taswegian and technologist Simon Reidy, who penned this epic rant on Google Plus this week detailing why Microsoft’s new opus is the company’s “most interesting, daring, different, ridiculous, contradictory, frustrating, and awful Windows yet”.
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.
CIO promoted as Boral outsources IT
Diversified materials company Boral this morning revealed it would embark on a wide-ranging IT outsourcing program which would see an undisclosed number of jobs go and its chief information officer promoted.
CenITex sacks 200: Read the internal email
Victorian IT shared services agency CenITex told its staff that it was planning a round of 200 redundancies. Thanks to a source, we've gotten our hands on the internal document outlining the changes.
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.
HP CEO Whitman lands in Australia
HP has confirmed its global chief executive Meg Whitman has landed in Australia for a brief visit, in a move that comes as fallout from a bungle at key HP customer the Commonwealth Bank of Australia continues to make itself felt.
Amazon hiring Sydney datacentre manager
Cloud computing giant Amazon has advertised more than a half dozen new positions as it ramps up its operations in Australia, including a role for a Sydney-based datacentre operations manager, which will re-kindle speculation the company wants to roll out infrastructure locally.
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.
No core IT overhaul in Westpac’s future
Westpac has stepped away from its core banking IT upgrade plans for now, according to the Financial Review.
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.
Optus signs $115m contract to manage telecoms for immigration department
Optus Business has announced a three-year deal to supply end-to-end telecommunications and managed IT services for Australia’s Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP).
Defence appoints Mohan as new CTO
The Department of Defence has appointed a new chief technology officer, nicking senior Toll IT executive Aiyaswami Mohan to replace its previous CTO Matt Yannopoulous, who left in October last year to take up the role of chief information officer at the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.
NSW ‘ChildStory’ IT project drags heels on deployment
The NSW Department of Family & Community Services’ (FACS) ChildStory project has finally reached the deployment phase, despite being announced as far back as September of last year.
Super funds close to dumping $250m IT revamp
If you have even a skin deep awareness of the structure of Australia’s superannuation industry, you’ll be aware that much of the underlying infrastructure used by many of the nation’s major funds is provided by a centralised group, Superpartners. One of the group’s main projects in recent years has been to dramatically update and modernise its IT platform — its version of a core banking platform overhaul. Unfortunately, the $250 million project has not precisely been going well.
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.
Danger, Will Robinson: Commission of Audit wants Centrelink core IT systems outsourced
Yours truly hasn't yet had the chance to comb through the recommendations contained in the Abbott administration's Commission of Audit report released this afternoon; that will take the better part of a week. However one notable item which has already been picked up by technology media outlet iTNews this afternoon is that the report includes some rather ... drastic recommendations for Centrelink's extremely complex and high maintenance core IT systems.
IBM, VMware sign strategic cloud partnership
IBM and VMware have agreed a strategic partnership aimed to make it easier for businesses to advantage of the cloud’s speed and economic factors.
SA Housing Trust dumping mainframe, possibly for cloud ERP
The South Australian Housing Trust has revealed plans to undertake a project to replace its mainframe-based business systems, with one option being considered being to shift onto a modern cloud computing platform for the provision of its services.
DTO seeks top execs to lead gov.au, Digital Marketplace
The Digital Transformation Office (DTO) is seeking a top level executive to lead the new Digital Marketplace announced in the government's Innovation and Science Agenda just two weeks ago. A head is also being sought for the transformation of the gov.au web platform that is aimed to make it quicker and easier to access government services online.
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.
Guzman y Gomez likes the taste of NetSuite
Fast-growing Mexican restaurant fast food chain Guzman y Gomez revealed this week that it has upgraded its previous MYOB-based accounting system to a comprehensive business platform from software as a service vendor NetSuite, to help support the chain's ongoing expansion plans.
Most Qld Govt cloud data is going straight offshore
Queensland's Auditor-General has revealed that the State Government's 'cloud-first' policy has resulted in three quarters of the government data placed into cloud computing platforms going offshore, despite the availability of Australia-based cloud computing solutions.
KONE staff pick Lumia over iPhone, Samsung, HTC
More than 70 percent of staff at the local division of elevator manufacturing company KONE picked a model from Nokia's Lumia handset line over other options from Apple, HTC and Samsung, when given the choice, the Finnish manufacturer claimed in a statement issued yesterday.
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.
Fujitsu’s history in Australia: A decent eBook
Some of you may be aware that Japanese technology giant Fujitsu recently celebrated the 40-year anniversary of its launch in the Australian market. As part of the festivities, the company hired credible local technology journalist Graeme Philipson to put together an eBook chronicling that period.
Adobe bucks IT price hike inquiry
US software giant Adobe is fast emerging as one of the toughest nuts to crack when it comes to the IT price hike inquiry currently being carried out by the Federal Parliament.
CommBank standardises in-house fleet on iPhone
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has revealed that it will standardise its mobile phone fleet on Apple’s iPhone platform, as it progresses plans to move away from its
high-profile softphone-based unified communications strategy recently implemented at its flagship Commonwealth Bank Place facility in Sydney.
The Reject Shop deploys Win7, InTune
A case study published by Redmond this week details how retailer The Reject Shop deployed Windows 7, plus Microsoft’s remote management tool InTune, to its several hundred PCs and other devices across Australia.
NSW Health unleashes mammoth email consolidation
If you follow technology news relating to Australian governments, you can't help but laugh sometimes; because if you didn't, you'd cry at the irony of it all.
More on those IBM redundancies
Another day, another swathe of details emerge about the ongoing job cuts happening within the ranks of IBM Australia. This morning's morsel comes from The AustralianIT, which reports the latest figure as being around 1,400 Australian staff, amid the involvement of the controversial 457 visa program.
ShoreTel iDevice dock: Is this actually useful?
We couldn't help but goggle when we received a media release yesterday from enterprise telephony vendor Shoretel pushing what the company dubs "the first enterprise-grade docking station for Apple iPad and iPhone".
Developers prefer Android, says survey
Google’s Android operating system has replaced Apple’s iOS in terms of importance to developers in the Asia-Pacific region in the last 12 months, according to a new survey by independent technology analysts Ovum. However, both still form the core of developer support and almost all developers support both platforms. The survey also reveals that there is increasing interest from developers in Blackberry OS and Microsoft’s Windows phone.
Qantas can’t afford to replace 26-year-old IT system
So, it turns out the Queensland and New South Wales Governments are not the only major Australian organisations running short of much-needed cash when it comes to critical IT upgrades. According to the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, national carrier Qantas also can’t afford to keep its IT up to spec.
ASG clouds Tax Practitioners Board
IT services outfit ASG has revealed it has been chosen by the Tax Practitioners Board to deliver an “all cloud solution” for its enterprise IT needs.
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.
Govt CTO Sheridan on open source, cloud
Federal Government chief technology officer John Sheridan gives his views on cloud computing and open source use in the Federal Government, in a wide-ranging speech to Forrester's Summit for chief information officers in Sydney.
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.
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.
Amazon extends Sydney datacentre offerings
Cloud computing giant Amazon Web Services has launched several new services through its Sydney datacentre previously only available from international facilities, giving Australian customers access to a low-cost storage service designed for long-term backup, as well as a fast data warehouse service.
How Adelaide City Council uses Skype for Business to reach constituents
In 2015, the recently elected Adelaide City Council became the first in Australia to live stream its committee meetings using Skype for Business’s module Skype Meeting Broadcast. This is how it did it...
Qld 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.
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.
NSW Education Dept’s SAP-based billion-dollar LMBR system is still malfunctioning
Those of you with an enduring interest in State Government IT projects will recall that Delimiter has covered the NSW Education Department's Learning Management and Business Reform (LMBR) project on many occasions.
Customs appoints new CIO, CTO
The Australian Customs and Border Protection Service has appointed executives to its newly created chief information officer and chief technology officer roles, as the agency continues its drive to extensively restructure its technology operations.
Victoria abandons IT shared services? Core CenITex services to be outsourced
Dramatic internal documents leaked from CenITex this week have revealed that the Victorian State Government plans to turn the IT shared services agency into a 'broker', rather than a provider of services, and that the Government is considering outsourcing massive chunks of CenITex's work.
Ninemsn shifts hosting to … Amazon?
We knew Amazon Web Services had robust infrastructure — after all, the Commonwealth Bank hosts some of its services with the cloud computing giant — but we didn’t know that it was quite this robust. The AustralianIT reports today (we recommend you click here for the full article) that one of Australia’s largest web sites, Ninemsn, is actually hosted with Amazon:
Ministers’ cloud approval lasted just a year
Remember how twelve months ago, the Federal Government released a new cloud computing security and privacy directive which required departments and agencies to explicitly acquire the approval of the Attorney-General and the relevant portfolio minister before government data containing private information could be stored in offshore facilities? Remember how the policy was strongly criticised by Microsoft, Government CIOs and Delimiter? Well, it looks like the policy is about to be reversed.
Specsavers deploys Google Apps, loves cloud
Optometry chain Specsavers has deployed Google Apps to its Australian staff and hopes to continue moving almost everything else into the fluffy happy land of cloud computing, the company's Asia-Pacific IT director Simon Baxter has told iTNews on the sidelines of the CIO Strategy Summit the week before last.
Construction giant trials ‘smart’ hardhats to track employee health
Multinational construction company Laing O'Rourke has come up with a novel way to monitor and protect employee health – an interactive 'smart' hardhat.
Atlassian buys HipChat
Australian enterprise software firm Atlassian revealed this week that it had acquired San Francisco-based HipChat.
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.
Reversal: Australian Govt picks ODF doc standard
In a move which appears to reverse its previous approach based on Microsoft's file formats, the Australian Government's central IT decision-making agency appears to have decided that it will standardise its office documents on the Open Document Format going forward.
VMware cans unpopular vRAM licensing
VMware has abandoned its unpopular memory-based licensing model introduced in 2011, in a move which will likely be welcomed by the virtualisation vendor's Australian customer base, some of whom had been vocal about the increased charges they saw as unreasonable.
WA utility deploys Azure, business intelligence to track grid
Microsoft revealed this week that state-owned electricity distributor Western Power had deployed Microsoft’s cloud computing Azure platform coupled with its Power BI product to automatically collate, analyse and visualise the data from millions of electricity meters deployed around Western Australia.
First State rewards security tip with legal threat
Whoah. It looks like Australian superannuation fund First State Super has had a massive, corporate-style over-reaction to a security analyst, Patrick Webster who politely let it know about an obvious, glaring security hole in its online platform.
11,000 iPads in one hit: UWS goes Apple crazy
The University of Western Sydney has revealed that it will deploy some 11,000 iPads to students and staff this year, in one of the largest rollouts of the Apple tablets known in Australia so far and a move that will see every first year student at the institution receiving one of the devices.
Bridgestone picks Lumias for smartphone fleet
The Australian division of tyre manufacturer Bridgestone has picked Nokia's Windows Phone7-based Lumia 800 smartphone as its platform of choice for its corporate smartphone fleet, with the Finnish company beating rival offerings from the likes of Research in Motion, Apple and Google to the work.
Macquarie Telecom suffers major outage
Last month was a good one for local enterprise telco and hosting company Macquarie Telecom. The company hosted Julia Gillard for a ritzy launch of its new datacentre, drank champagne and toasted its success. But the past two days haven't been quite as rosy for the firm.
WA Govt exposes dodgy IT deals
An investigation by Western Australia's Corruption and Crime Commission investigation has found that more than $1.2 million of IT software was purchased by a former council CEO without going to tender or getting quotes -- over a period in which they received gifts and benefits from the supplier.
Victoria Police gives up trying to replace 25-year-old IT system
I strongly urge the Victorian Government to address this issue as a matter of urgency. It will require not only a substantial funding increase for this area to Victoria Police, but also a number of senior appointments and strong Ministerial support to get this project moving and delivered.
Former US Govt CIO in Aussie speaking tour
Former US whole of government chief information officer Vivek Kundra will hit Australia over the next several weeks for a speaking tour that will include events for his new employer Salesforce.com, as well as the Australian Information Industry Association.
Australian Govt re-kindles office file format war
The Federal Government's peak IT strategy group has issued a cautious updated appraisal of currently available office productivity suite file formats, in what appears to be an attempt to more fully explain its thinking about the merits of open standards such as OpenDocument versus more proprietary file formats promulgated by vendors like Microsoft.
Vic Govt claims early wins from ICT strategy
The Victorian Government has published a list of accomplishments which it claims to have achieved off the back of its previous whole of government ICT strategy, as it releases a new vision for the 2014 and 2015 years.
Smart Grid program largely successful
The Federal Government's Auditor-General has published an extensive report on a trial of smart grid and other innovative technologies which was funded in the 2009 Federal Budget at a cost of $100 million, finding that quite a few components of the overall trial were delivered successfully, although some aspects did not quite deliver up to spec.
Parliament trials Windows 8 tablets
ZDNet publishes an interview with Federal Parliament chief information officer Eija Seittenranta, detailing the fact that the Parliament is conducting a trial of Windows 8 tablets.
Outsourcing to impact 188 Westpac jobs
Top-tier Australian bank Westpac today confirmed 188 local jobs would be affected by a shift in its technology sourcing strategy which is slated to see some internal work handed off to external suppliers.
CSIRO still running Windows 98, NT
In an otherwise unrelated article on the organisation's adoption of Internet Protocol version 6, an article published by ZDNet.com.au yesterday revealed that Australia's peak scientific research agency was still running some copies of Windows 98 and NT4.
CenITex cuts another 60 staff
Troubled Victorian Government IT shared services group CenITex has flagged plans to cut another 60 staff from its roster, as wider plans progress to outsource the infrastructure and services currently being provided by the group to other Victorian Government departments and agencies.
Govt could shift 450 sites to Drupal cloud
The Federal Government has revealed long-range plans to migrate its public-facing websites to Drupal on a software as a service (cloud computing) basis, in a move which could end up seeing around a third of the government's 1,200 odd-sites migrated off commercial and other alternatives and onto the open source platform.
First interviews surface with new Defence CIO
It’s been a couple of months since the new Department of Defence chief information officer, Peter Lawrence, stepped on board to replace the now legendary Greg Farr, and the first interviews have started to surface with Lawrence.
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.
ATO wants cloud HR platform
We're starting to see this kind of SaaS/cloud computing deployment in the Federal Government. It's a slow process, but each kind of 'safe' deployment such as this one -- with data and processes which could be considered non-mission-critical -- increases the comfort level of mega-agency chief information officers and secretaries regarding cloud computing. We're getting there.
Qld Health payroll fix may cost $440m
The Australian newspaper has reported that the cost of fixing Queensland Health's botched payroll systems implementation may rise eventually to $440 million.
Aussie non-profits adopt Office 365 en-masse
Non-profit Australian organisations such as charities are adopting Microsoft's Office 365 Software as a Service platform in large numbers, according to non-profit technology enablement group Infoxchange, which has recently helped 20 such organisations shift into Microsoft's cloud.
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.
SA Govt appoints Premier’s insider as CIO
The South Australian State Government has appointed the long-term executive director of the Department of Premier and Cabinet as its new whole of government chief information officer, to replace outgoing CIO Andrew Mills, who this month commenced the same role in Queensland.
Dimension Data overhauls ‘mediocre’ Deakin University wireless network
ICT solutions and services provider Dimension Data has overhauled the wireless network at Deakin University's campuses across Victoria to address a "mediocre" previous system that was causing connectivity issues for both students and staff.
Jobs go as Brisbane outsources to HCL
It’s been coming for a while, but Brisbane City Council has finally bitten the bullet and inked a wide-ranging IT outsourcing contract with Indian firm HCL. According to the Brisbane Times, some 55 jobs are set to go and staff are not happy.
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.
Survey reveals most organisations use multiple clouds
A new survey by Veritas has revealed that the majority of businesses are moving data to the cloud and utilising both private and public cloud services, creating a fragmented approach that could create IT "blind spots" and increase information-based risks.
Servcorp deploys Dropbox Business for cloud storage
Following a consultation with staff members, Servcorp has moved to Dropbox Business to better fulfil its cloud storage requirements.
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.
Video: Amazing Microsoft Sydney office lightshow
In the video above, Microsoft Australia appears to have taken over several office towers in Sydney's Darling Harbour for the launch of its LightSwitch software (apparently an add-in to the company's Visual Studio development environment. We know we've been pretty hard on Microsoft recently ... but this is amazing. Kudos!
iiNet enters SMB cloud computing market
National broadband provider iiNet announced this week that its newest business product Business Cloud would enable small and medium businesses (SMBs) to develop privately hosted IT infrastructure. Business Cloud aims to spare customers the bother and expense of setting up and maintaining their own IT installations.
ICAC finds training institute IT manager guilty of corruption
An investigation by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has found a former IT manager at the TAFE NSW South Western Sydney Institute (SWSI) guilty of corruption in his official role at the training organisation.
Dick Smith deploys Google Apps
The latest Australian company to deploy Google Apps as its document management and collaboration suite appears to be electronics retailer Dick Smith, at least according to a post on Google's Australian blog today.
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.
IT price comparisons not useful, says AIIA
The IT industry's peak lobby group today said it was "not useful" to directly compare prices on technology goods and services between Australia and other countries and that increased Australian prices on such goods reflected different conditions and protections locally compared with other countries.
Defence dumps distributed computing plans
The Department of Defence has taken the unusual step of abandoning plans to go to market for one of the three major tranches of IT outsourcing programs it has been evaluating over the past several years, opting instead to renew a contract in the area with Unisys, despite the fact that it will shortly be forced to re-examine the deal anyway.
NRMA, Coles reveal sizable Oracle deployments
US technology giant Oracle has revealed that two major Australian organisations, Coles and the NRMA, have chosen Oracle as the basis for new IT projects, using technology ranging from Oracle’s customer relationship management platform to its Exadata Database Machine and Oracle Linux.
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.
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.
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.
Bankwest in massive Windows 8 rollout
Large Windows 8 rollouts have been thin on the ground in Australia since Microsoft released its newest operating system last year, but there have been a handful exposed -- and more are apparently coming. This morning iTNews adds Commonwealth Bank subsidiary Bankwest to the list.
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.
Australia Post trials drone deliveries
Australia Post has announced the it will be the "first major parcels and logistics company" in Australia to trial package delivery by remotely piloted aircraft, also called drones.
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.
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.
Data#3 to deploy Cisco network for Edith Cowan University
Business technology provider Data#3 this week announced it had inked a multi-million dollar deal to provide a “highly available, scalable and future-proof” communications platform for Western Australia’s Edith Cowan University (ECU).
Two good Australian CIO interviews
There have been a couple of good interviews with Australian chief information officers done by various media outlets over the past couple of days -- good enough that we thought them worth highlighting to readers on Delimiter.
Western Australia announces major cloud push
The Western Australian state government has announced a cloud computing initiative that is aimed to boost services while cutting back on overall spending.
Victoria Police links IT failure to tragic death
The sustained inability of Victoria Police to deliver major IT projects appears to have come home to roost at the organisation, with the force this morning laying part of the blame for an 11-year-old boy's death this week at the doorstep of its ailing IT systems, which failed to provide officers with sufficient information to apprehend an offender in a timely manner.
NSW, SA lose Health CIOs
From Intermedium this morning comes news that health departments in both South Australia and New South Wales are looking for new chief information officers, with their long-time incumbents departing and making way for new public servants in their roles.
ERP disaster costs Ansell millions
Australian condom and medical protection giant Ansell this week revealed a botched implementation of Oracle's ERP platform which went live last year had caused US$13 million to US$15 million worth of lost sales.
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".
Was 7:30’s TCS takedown fair?
Was 7:30's attack on the 457 Visa practices of Indian IT services giant TCS last night fair? Or did it lack context?
Brisbane Airport deploys VCE private cloud
Brisbane Airport today announced it had selected technology from the VMware, Cisco and EMC coalition to deploy a new private cloud computing environment to meet its server processing needs, reportedly migrating on a previous IBM platform along the way.
Tasmania wants on-island private cloud
The Tasmanian Government has gone to market for an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) or private cloud solution that can be used across its operations, telling potential suppliers that any supplied option must be located in the state and that it envisages transitioning most of its services to the environment in the long-term.
ING Direct appoints new head of IT
Financial services group ING Direct this week revealed it had appointed a new local head of its information technology division, importing the chief information officer of the company's Italian division for the role.
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.
Premier announces “technology revolution” for Victoria Police
Victoria’s frontline police men and women will soon be kitted out with state-of-the-art mobile technology intended to bring about a "technology revolution", thanks to funding allocated in the latest state budget.
Telstra’s cloud computing suffers 24 hour outage
Telstra has confirmed that it suffered a major outage in its high-end corporate cloud computing platform last week that left a number of its most high-profile customers without some of their services for a period as long as 24 hours.
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.
NSW appoints digital economy taskforce
The NSW Government has taken another step in meeting its commitment to put development of the state's technology sector at the front of its priority list, announcing today the formation of a taskforce that would help form a ten-year action plan to develop the state's digital economy.
NSW Govt consults on ICT policy
The New South Wales Government, which has already been making waves in the IT industry for its comprehensive and forward-thinking ICT policy, has kicked off consultation on the next iteration of the strategy.
La Trobe Uni deploys TechOne cloud app
La Trobe University in Melbourne has extended its existing partnership with Australian software as a service (SaaS) provider TechnologyOne with the signing of a Student Management SaaS deal.
Bloodbath: Qld Govt sacks one quarter of IT staff
The Queensland Government has cut its information technology workforce by about a quarter in just a year, the state's Public Service Commission has revealed, in startling figures that come as the state is grappling with substantial problems with fundamental IT project and service delivery.
Australia prefers Govt contact via the Internet
Special Minister of State Gary Gray said in a statement yesterday that the Internet constitutes the preferred method of access to government services, backing his statements with the release of a new report in the area.
Cloud: It’s about opportunities, not obstacles
One of the key messages that is coming out of the cloud computing camp at the moment is the concept that those who are thinking about this new paradigm of IT infrastructure purely through the lens of the old are missing out on the opportunities that it offers. A good piece on the issue comes from Rackspace Asia-Pacific chief technology officer Alan Perkins, formerly an influential chief information officer who had been an early cloud pioneer in Australia.
The end is nigh for Windows XP: Are you ready?
Almost 13 years after its release in October 2001 to a world still in shock after the 9/11 terror attacks, the sun is finally setting on Microsoft’s Windows XP. The operating system has been the software in many home and work PCs but for die-hard users who continue to use XP, danger that way lies.
Origin searches for Head of Cloud Services
Australian energy provider Origin is on the hunt for an experienced executive to take on the role of Head of Cloud Services as the firm moves towards a "cloud first" strategy.
“Billions”: Hockey greenlights Centrelink core replacement
Treasurer Joe Hockey has strongly hinted that the upcoming Federal Budget will include "billions" of dollars worth of funding for a core systems replacement at the Centrelink division of the Department of Human Services (DHS), in a move that represents one of the Federal Government's most long-awaited and largest IT project approvals.
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.
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.
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.
Gen-i Australia may completely shut down
You couldn’t exactly say that the Australian division of IT services company Gen-i was in rude health, with the company revealing in mid-March that it would sack most of its staff and stop competing for most local contracts, as it shifted focus to only serving Trans-Tasman contracts as per the instructions of its parent Telecom New Zealand. However, according to CRN, things may be even more dire
DTO plucks teen coding genius from UK
The Federal Government’s fledgling Digital Transformation Office has hired a trio of high-profile digital government service delivery experts, including a 19 year-old hailed as one of the young guns of the UK’s equivalent agency on which the DTO was based, as it rapidly bulks up in the first few months of its existence.
Microsoft goes Windows Azure crazy: Aussie deployments ahoy as TechEd kicks off
Redmond has just published three extensive case studies of how Australian customers and partners are using its Windows Azure platform (which encompasses infrastructure as a service, storage as a service, and even platform as a service, to name a few of its aspects).
STM Bags dumps MYOB and SugarCRM for NetSuite
STM Bags, an international designer and distributor of laptop bags, tablet and phone cases, has deployed NetSuite OneWorld to manage its business operations as the company continues to expand worldwide.
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.
Microsoft criticises AG Dept’s cloud rules
Global technology giant Microsoft has asked the Federal Government to review a controversial policy enacted by the Attorney-General's Department last year which which require departments and agencies to explicitly acquire the approval of the Attorney-General and the relevant portfolio minister before government data containing private information can be stored in offshore facilities.
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.
Sources claim Oracle has completely dumped its Australian support centre
Delimiter has been contacted by several sources who have stated that The Register's report is accurate, and that Oracle has indeed completely offshored its Australian support centre in the past month.
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.
“A real barrier”: Sports Commission CIO speaks up on new Govt cloud policy
A chief information officer from a minor agency has publicly criticised the Federal Government's new risk management guidelines on storing offshore data, stating that they constitute "a real barrier" to the adoption of public cloud technologies in the public sector.
Flat year for Australian offices of IBM, HP
The Australian divisions of global technology giants IBM and HP have suffered a relatively flat year in terms of revenue and profit growth, despite major initiatives in the rapidly growing cloud computing area by both companies that each would be likely to have hoped would have the potential to significantly boost revenue.
Macquarie Uni gets deep into virtual desktops
Following on from the news last week that recruitment firm Hudson (and a number of others over the past year or so) is rolling out an extensive desktop virtualisation project internally, comes further detail about a similar (and quite innovative) program at Macquarie University.
Dimension Data to fit out flagship Queensland Government skyscraper
Global ICT services provider Dimension Data has won the bid to fit out and support the networking infrastructure for the Queensland Government’s new flagship offices at 1 William Street, Brisbane.
Farr, Boreham, Wood, Skellern win Australia Day honours
Former IBM Australia leader Glen Boreham, Defence chief information officer Greg Farr, Wotif.com founder Graeme Wood and former NICTA chief David Skellern have all picked up Australia Day honours this week for outstanding service to the nation.
Report savages NT Govt’s ICT performance
The Northern Territory's parliament has published a landmark report into the management of ICT projects by its departments and agencies, finding a similar list of disasters as have been suffered by other state jurisdictions in Australia and recommending the immediate appointment of a whole of government chief information officer to help rectify the systemic issues.
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.
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.
Victoria Police takes first step to address IT failures
The Victorian Government has allocated a small investment of $2.5 million to Victoria Police to start addressing the failures of IT systems which the force has said partially lay behind the death of an 11-year-old boy and his father in the state last month.
TechOne’s CRM package a hit
Australian software vendor TechnologyOne this week revealed it had landed five major local deals in the last quarter for its customer relationship management (CRM) software. The vendor's solution is set to replace a rival Microsoft platform at one of these sites, and believes its CRM solution be in use by over 10,000 people in the near future.
Coalition slams Labor’s “$1bn e-health debacle”
Shadow Health Minister Peter Dutton has taken a pickaxe to the Federal Government's Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR) scheme, claiming the costly project was "more about spin than about outcomes for patients".
Desktop disaster: So bad Vic Police use home PCs
Victoria Police's IT systems are so out of date that police officers often simply go home to open modern documents on their own PCs, a new report has found, and officers are also required to fax hardcopy documentation into a central repository following the end of their shift.
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".
Nine deploys Centrify to assist with Mac/Active Directory admin
Identification management and security vendor Centrify has revealed the Nine Network has deployed its solution to drastically simplify administration of its recently expanded fleet of Apple Mac desktops.
Qantas signs up for Office 365
Qantas has reportedly revealed plans for a mass deployment of Microsoft's Office 365 suite, in a landmark move which will mark one of the first major Australian rollouts of the software as a service platform in a private sector entity.
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.
Treasury dumps BlackBerry for iPhone 5, iPad
The Federal Department of the Treasury has told ZDNet that it's ditching its fleet of BlackBerrys for Apple iPhone and iPad devices.
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.
Woolworths dumps BlackBerrys for iPhones
This morning The Australian newspaper reported (we recommend you click here for the full article) that BlackBerry is completely out and iPhone in at the retailer.
DHS reveals year of IT outages
New Federal Government super-department the Department of Human Services has revealed it suffered 137 IT outages thoughout the year to the end of September 2012, with dozens of instances where customers of services such as Centrelink were unable to access online services through Centrelink's web site.
Law firm deploys desktop virtualisation
Virtualisation and remote access vendor Citrix has revealed that a sizable deployment of its desktop and application virtualisation solutions has aided local law firm Duncan Cotterill in setting up a completely mobile working environment for its staff that will assist it with productivity as well as with dealing with natural disasters affecting its operations, such as the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.
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.
New cloud development aims to support charities
Appichar, a technology company that has been working with not-for-profit organisations for over ten years in the UK and three years in Australia, has launched a locally developed system called ‘Supporter360’ that aims to use the latest cloud technologies to help charitable organisations computerise their operations with minimal capital investment.
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.
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".
Nokia Lumia rollout for Sara Lee
Finnish smartphone seller Nokia today added another name to the growing public list of large Australian organisations which have decided to deploy its Windows Phone-based Lumia line as their corporate smartphone, picking the series ahead of competing options from Apple and Android.
AGIMO needs a little Obama magic
It's hard to imagine AGIMO getting to the point where it has the direct support and interest of Australia's Prime Minister of the day in its efforts. But, if we've learnt anything from Vivek Kundra in the US, it's that this kind of executive-level buy-in is possible.
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.
eHealth NSW hiring for yet another CIO
New South Wales' peak electronic health agency NSW eHealth has yet again advertised for a new chief information and chief executive officer, as the latest swing in a revolving door of senior executives.
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.
Spend-less Shoes replaces dated ERP platform
Speaking of ERP platforms, as we were earlier this morning, news arrived last week that local footwear retailer Spend-less Shoes will deploy a new platform. The company has picked Microsoft’s Dynamics AX 2012 for Retail platform, as detailed in a statement issued by Redmond.
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.
Qld Transport loses CIO at critical juncture
Queensland's Department of Transport and Main Roads this month revealed it had recently lost its most senior IT executive; a move that comes as the department gears up for an extremely wide-ranging refresh of its fundamental IT infrastructure designed to bring it up to date with modern desktop and application environments.
Sydneysiders quit Google to fix … Gmail
What is hilarious and very telling about Google's current corporate culture is that three entrepreneurs felt it necessary to resign from their (no doubt high-paying) jobs in the supposedly innovative GooglePlex in order to push the envelope forward on email, an area which Google itself revolutionised almost a decade ago with Gmail.
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.
Google leaves Australia off cloud expansion list
Google has announced two new regions for its Cloud Platform network of datacentres, with more on the way, but it is still unclear if Australia will eventually be included in the list.
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.
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.
Too late? WA wants central Fiona Stanley PMO
The Western Australian Government has gone to market for a provider to establish a project management office (PMO) to will coordinate development activities between its problematic Fiona Stanley Hospital build and its wider health department, just weeks after it admitted that the IT systems associated with the hospital had blown out in cost by an amount expected to be between $25 million and $50 million.
Lessons from HealthSMART: The era of big health IT projects in Victoria is over
The Victorian Government has published a landmark review into the use of technology in the state’s health ecosystem, finding that its landmark HealthSMART program launched in 2004 had had its benefits, but that the state should devolve most decisions about IT back to individual health units such as hospitals.
NSW Police wants huge internal social network
The New South Wales Police Force has flagged plans to deploy a sizable internal social networking platform, as it moves ahead with plans to better serve the information needs of its 17,000 police officers and 4,000 civilian administration staff.
NSW retailer pays $50k for Microsoft piracy
Microsoft Australia has revealed that PC and laptop retailer The Laptop Factory Outlet, based in South Granville, NSW, will fork out $50,000 in damages for infringing the software giant's copyright, after it Windows Certificates of Authenticity (COA) from used PCs on new PCs loaded with counterfeit software.
How much more do servers cost in Australia?
How much more do the hardware servers used by small businesses and large organisations cost in Australia? Quite a lot more than in the US, according to a report by small business technology media outlet BIT, in yet another case of the Australian technology tax striking fear into Australian wallets.
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.
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.
Qld picks new whole of government CIO
The Queensland State Government has appointed a new whole of government chief information officer, with industry insiders naming former state CIO Peter Grant as the most likely candidate to have returned to the role.
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.
Elders Real Estate deploys Gmail to 1,200
interview Last week Elders Real Estate revealed that it had this year deployed Google's Gmail email platform and its Sites website creation and sharing tool to some 1,200 staff located around Australia. In this interview, the company discusses the rollout, its rationale for it, and its attitude towards cloud computing services in general.
Brisbane City Council loses CIO Brant
Brisbane City Council chief information officer Nicholas Brant is to leave the organisation, right as Brisbane, the largest council organisation in Australia is in the middle of several major technology initiatives, including offshoring a substantial number of IT roles, shifting some work into the cloud and spending $353 million on a comprehensive, SAP-based businesses administration system.
Bailey quits Macquarie for non-profit COO role
Long-time Macquarie University chief information officer Marc Bailey has left the educational institution to join non-profit group Intersect, which focuses on applying advanced ICT technologies to the practice of research.
Office 365 switch may hit BPOS die-hards
Are you a customer of Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite who hasn't yet confirmed your intention to upgrade to the new Office 365 paradigm? Well, reality check: You don't have much time to make the change before BPOS is switched off.
NT dumps failed Fujitsu/SAP project
The Northern Territory Government has decided to dump its broken Asset Management System (AMS) developed by Fujitsu and based on SAP software, after receiving independent advice that it would cost an additional $120 million and five years to fix.
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 finally launches Surface Pro in Australia
Almost 12 months after it first announced the device, Microsoft has finally confirmed that it will launch its Surface Pro family of Windows 8-based tablets in Australia later this month.
Melbourne IT may sell off divisions
Diversified Australian hosting and digital services group Melbourne IT today revealed it would conduct a review into the future of its various divisions which may result in selling some of them off, in the wake of disappointing flat revenue growth over the past six months.
Fascinating case study about open source cloud
Most of the cloud computing stories we hear about involve major vendors. You know the ones we're talking about: VMware, Microsoft, Salesforce.com, Amazon and so on. These are household names. But what you may not realise is that there are other options out there for building cloud computing stacks. And some of them are not based on proprietary technologies and vendor lock-in at all.
Amazon’s Australian datacentre gets closer
That Australian datacentre which Amazon was planning to build? It's been a while since we heard a good rumour on that one, but The Register delivers this week, with news that the US cloud computing and online retail giant's local plans are still on.
NSW Govt progresses private cloud talks
Remember that private cloud computing environment that the NSW Government is planning to develop for its departments and agencies? The one it discussed in a public forum last month in front of the creme de la creme of Australia's IT industry? Well, according to Intermedium , the state is actually doing something about the plan, kicking off private talks with key vendors.
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.
iBooks textbooks? Sorry, not for Australia
Apple has limited access to the broad range of new educational textbooks announced through its iBookstore overnight to students in the US, locking Australians and those in other countries out of accessing the new content from publishers such as McGraw-Hill and Pearson.
Qantas CIO jets off to Airbus
Qantas Airways' Chief Information Officer, Luc Hennekens, is leaving the company to take on the same role at Airbus, effective 1 October.
NSW 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.
AGL hiring new CTO after IT management chaos
Energy utility AGL has revealed plans to hire several executives to fill new chief technology officer and head of IT service delivery roles, in a new wave of hires taking place after several years of turmoil in its IT leadership.
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.
Defence finally starts certifying Android
Those of you with long memories will recall that the Department of Defence’s Defence Signals Directorate division, which is tasked with certifying technology for use in the Australian Government, has long had an aversion to Android. Windows- and BlackBerry-based mobile devices have long found favour with the DSD, and in April 2012 the agency even added (shock!) Apple’s iOS operating system, but for years Android has sat on the outer, leaving those public servants and politicians interested in the Android operating system out in the cold. Well, late yesterday news arrived that Samsung, at least, may be on the verge of getting access to the inner circle.
David Boyle appointed NAB CIO
The National Australia Bank has poached Ernst & Young Partner and long-time Accenture executive David Boyle to be its new chief information officer, following the departure of incumbent Denis McGee earlier this year.
Qantas dumps BlackBerrys for iPhones
National carrier Qantas has reportedly confirmed plans to ditch some 1,300 corporate BlackBerrys and replace them with iPhones, as the ongoing corporate shift away from Research in Motion's BlackBerry ecosystem gains pace.
Q+A: Oracle’s banking chief Ashwin Goyal
Delimiter recently conducted an interview with Ashwin Goyal, Oracle's global vice president & general manager, Financial Services.
High risk that Defence ICT will go off the rails
The Federal Government's chief auditor has warned that the Department of Defence's ICT operation is teetering on the brink of a dangerous precipice, in a landmark report published this afternoon into its current ICT governance structures and projects.
NSW Police trialling body cameras to record everything
US-based body camera vendor Reveal Media has announced that the New South Wales police force is trialling use of its body cameras, in a move that will likely have transparency and accountability benefits for both ordinary Australians and officers.
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.
IBM and Queensland squabble in court over Health payroll disaster
Remember that massive, billion-dollar payroll IT systems disaster at Queensland Health? Remember how the prime contractor IBM disavowed all responsibility for it? And how the Queensland Government subsequently sued the company and banned IBM from any further work with its departments and agencies? Yeah, good times.
Telstra deploys Windows 7 internally
The nation's largest telco Telstra has confirmed it is currently in the midst of one of Australia's largest known rollouts of Microsoft's latest Windows 7 desktop platform, in an initiative which will eventually most of the company's 40,000 staff.
Coles is yet another complex cloud case study
We’ve been seeing some very interesting moves from retail giant Coles over the past several years with respect to cloud computing and software as a service adoption. Nothing revolutionary, but solid moves nonetheless.
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.
The Inside Track: What’s behind Macquarie Uni’s move to ditch Gmail
Macquarie University’s very public decision this week to dump the Gmail platform it adopted with great pomp and ceremony just five years ago sends a clear message to Australian chief information officers of what they can expect when they buck corporate IT trends: Internal insurrection and ongoing dissent.
“Diabolical mess”, “Scandal of epic proportions”: NT ICT Minister damns Fujitsu to hell in...
Those of you who’ve been with us for a while will recall that the Northern Territory Government is more than a little annoyed at technology giant Fujitsu for what it sees as the company’s botched implementation of a new asset management system using software from German giant SAP. But what you may not have realised is just how annoyed the Territorians are. Well, to get the full feeling, you need to read this extraordinary statement made by NT Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Corporate and Information Services David Tollner in Parliament last week.
Australia tax reversed: Office 2016 pricing better in Australia
Microsoft has reversed a lengthy trend towards jacking up the pricing on its software for the local market, with analysis showing Australians will actually pay significantly less for its brand new Office 2016 suite released this week than users in the United States.
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.
The ABC didn’t sack Bitcoin miner
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation didn't fire an un-named IT worker who attempted to use the broadcaster's vast server infrastructure to make himself a fortune through the Bitcoin virtual currency system, it has emerged, with the employee merely being disciplined and having their access to certain IT systems restricted.
Federal education dept in major AWS cloud pilot
It's not often you see examples of cloud computing deployments in major Federal Government departments. With the exception, it turns out, of the Federal Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, which went a little cloud-crazy before it was split in two after the Federal Election.
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.
Four months later, Govt cloud, IT audit stall
The new Coalition Government appears to have made little progress so far on enacting core elements of its centralised IT policy.