Defence desktop overhaul gets green light
The Department of Defence’s long-awaited desktop PC overhaul project has been given the green light to go ahead in a mass deployment, after a successful trial of 700 users conducted by the project’s main technology vendor Thales.
Fire + Rescue NSW deploys 400 Chromeboxes
Emergency service Fire and Rescue NSW has revealed it has dumped a number of traditional desktop PCs and plans to ditch more, as part of a widespread deployment of Google’s Chromebox cloud-based desktop platform which has so far seen some 400 of the gadgets deployed to fire stations throughout the state.
Qld Labor Govt feared IBM payroll backlash
New cabinet documents released by the Queensland Labor Party pertaining to the payroll systems disaster at Queensland Health have revealed the then-Labor administration in 2010 feared that IBM would pursue its own lawsuit if the State Government terminated its contract over the botched IT systems overhaul.
NBN Co appoints John McInerney as CIO
The National Broadband Network Company has appointed former Telstra and HP executive John McInterney to be its new chief information officer starting on 3 December this year, following the departure of inaugural-NBN Co CIO Claire Rawlins in August.
IBM Australia suffers disaster quarter
Things haven’t been going well at IBM Australia recently. And now, according to a juicy article in The AustralianIT, things have gone from bad to worse in terms of the company's finances.
‘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”.
A roundup of Australian Windows 8 trials
Now that Windows 8 has launched in Australia, what do we know about enterprise trial deployments of the technology? Surprisingly, quite a lot. A lot of people might believe that Windows 8 is the new Windows Vista, but when you look around on the actual ground, it appears as though major Australian organisations are at least dabbling with Microsoft's new operating system opus.
“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.
You can’t actually buy Windows 8 in Australia [Update: Well, kind of]
Windows 8 has launched in Australia. But you can't actually buy fully boxed copies of it locally. No, really.
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.
CenITex report: CEO’s email to the troops
Delimiter is reliably informed that CenITex chief executive Michael Vanderheide sent the following email to the IT shared services agency's staff this week, following the publication of a damning report by the Victorian Ombudsman into procurement practices and the engagement of contractors at CenITex.
“Nepotism”: Audit blasts CenITex culture
Victoria’s Ombudsman today published a damning report into procurement practices and the engagement of contractors at the state’s IT shared services agency CenITex, finding examples of “nepotism and favouritism” in the company, as well as more serious improper conduct and poor procedures for handling CenITex’s large contractor workforce.
ICAC finds Sydney University IT manager corrupt
The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has found that University of Sydney information technology (IT) manager Atilla "Todd" Demiralay engaged in corrupt conduct by using Succuro Recruitment, a business that employed his wife and later operated through a company in which he and his wife had a financial interest, to recruit contractors and staff for the university, without disclosing his financial interest in the business.
IBM’s NASH deal gets terminated
The National E-Health Transition Authority this afternoon confirmed it had “terminated” a $23.6 million contract with IBM to build a key component of the Federal Government’s Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record project, just 18 months after the contract was initially inked.
Funeral services group deploys Salesforce.com
US technology giant Salesforce.com has revealed that Australian funeral services provider InvoCare – which encompasses the Simplicity, White Lady and Guardian Funerals brands – has deployed its Sales Cloud customer relationship management software as a service application, in a deployment touching 130 branches across Australia.
Trainhack: Students crack ticketing system
Forget Black Hat in Las Vegas. Australia’s Ruxcon is where it’s at, complete with public transport ticketing hacks and shadow figures involved in advanced network security exercises.
Parliament’s IT systems a complete shambles
The department which runs Australia's Federal Parliament has published a damning report acknowledging it has widespread problems with IT service delivery and infrastructure, stemming from the fact that it has "no parliament-wide IT strategic plan" and no mechanism for making strategic IT decisions, despite a decade of reports warning of the situation.
BoQ deploys Salesforce.com CRM
Bank of Queensland today revealed that it is deploying a new software as a service-based customer relationship management system which would deliver it a dramatically simplified and flexible platform for dealing with customer accounts, with the technology reported to be supplied by US-headquartered vendor Salesforce.com
IBM says it “successfully delivered” Qld Health payroll
Global technology giant IBM has written to the new LNP Queensland Government claiming it “successfully delivered” against milestones agreed with the previous Labor administration with respect to the disastrous payroll systems overhaul at Queensland Health, which has already cost the state $417 million and will need another $837 million to fix over the next five years.
“Criminal neglect”: Qld Govt IT fixes to cost up to $6 billion
Queensland’s new IT Minister Ros Bates said this week it would cost the state between $3.7 billion and $6 billion replace the “mess of mismatched, miscellaneous and duplicated [ICT] systems” which the previous Labor administration had left the state with.
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.
NSW Govt “excited” about ICT progress
The two most senior ministers responsible for delivering technology projects in the NSW State Government have both declared they are “excited”, Big Kev-style, about the progress which the state has made over the past six months on implementing the state’s new whole of government ICT strategy, designed to lead it out of “the dark ages” of ICT service delivery.
Defence appoints new CIO: Peter Lawrence
The Department of Defence has appointed high-flying global IT executive Peter Lawrence, currently group manager of IT, Energy Markets for utility Origin Energy, to replace its outgoing chief information officer Greg Farr.
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.
NSW Govt “confident” it can avoid IT disasters
The two most senior ministers responsible for delivering technology projects in the NSW State Government have declared they are “confident” the state has sufficient IT governance procedures in place avoid the sort of billion-dollar IT disasters which have plagued Queensland and Victoria over the past half-decade.
NEC expands NSW Police network business
Diversified ICT services business NEC this afternoon revealed it had retained and expanded its communications-related work with NSW Police, with the Japanese company to continue providing voice telephony services to the organisation and expand its remit to include maintenance and support of its data network as well.
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.
$1.5bn splurge: ANZ banks on customer tech
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group has revealed plans to spend up to $1.5 billion on a wide range of customer-facing technology systems and branch refurbishments, in the latest salvo of an intensifying battle between Australia’s major banks to position themselves as technology leaders.
‘Cloud first’ a circuit-breaker, says Ovum
Taking a “cloud-first” policy has the potential to act as game changer to allow departments and agencies to break out of their current restrictive ICT procurement practices, technology analyst firm Ovum said this week, as discussion continues to swirl about how Australian governments are handling the new cloud computing paradigm.
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.
IT glitch takes down CityLink tunnels
Bad news this morning for Melbourne commuters, with a mysterious glitch at CityLink taking down the Burnley and Domain tunnels. Traffic apparently slowed to a crawl, to howls of protest.
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.
Lotus position: ABS a “happy Notes camper”
We couldn't help but laugh when we read this excellent interview with Australian Bureau of Statistics chief information officer Patrick Hadley, describing the agency's ongoing commitment to IBM's Lotus Notes/Domino platform as part of its recently released and wide-ranging ICT strategy.
Vic Govt releases motherhood ICT strategy
The Victorian State Government has released the draft of a new whole of government information and communications technology strategy, with which it aims to start addressing extensive IT project and service delivery issues which have resulted in more than a billion dollars in budget overruns and a string of failed IT projects over the past half-decade.
Medibank division deploys HP private cloud
Global technology giant HP this week revealed that Medibank division Medibank Health Solutions had deployed a complete stack of HP IT infrastructure ranging from blade servers to storage and interconnecting systems, in a rollout which appears to constitute the base parts of a scalable private cloud platform.
Microsoft beats SAP to Hastings ERP deal
Microsoft this week revealed that it had beaten fellow technology behemoth SAP to a major enterprise resource planning deal with Australian industrial dealership Hastings Deering, in a move which will see Redmond’s Dynamics AX 2012 software entrenched at the company.
12 months on, Victoria Police still has no CIO
12 months on from the departure of its then-chief information officer Michael Vanderheide to lead Victorian IT shared services agency CenITex, Victoria Police still has not appointed a permanent CIO to lead its extremely troubled IT operations.
Victoria starts airing its IT dirty laundry
The Victorian State Government has over the past month started holding hearings which touch in depth on the wide-ranging IT project delivery issues which have resulted in the state’s departments and agencies broadly failing to deliver ten major IT projects over the past half-decade.
Federal Govt re-affirms Microsoft format choice
The Federal Government’s central IT strategy division has re-affirmed and formalised its decision to pick Microsoft’s Office Open XML document standard as the federal public sector’s common office document standard, despite the fact that most alternative office suites cannot write documents in the standard.
Photos: PM Gillard launches Macquarie datacentre
Prime Minister Julia Gillard launched Macquarie Telecom's new Sydney datacentre in Sydney last week. Macquarie is billing the facility, dubbed the 'Intellicentre 2' as Australia's most advanced high-security datacentre. It cost $60 million to build.
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.
NAB deploys Chatter … and Yammer?
From Salesforce.com's Dreamforce conference in the US this week comes the news that the National Australia Bank has deployed the company's internal social networking tool Chatter ... as well as having an existing rollout of Yammer.
Asciano upgrades “entire” IT infrastructure
Port and rail operator Asciano has revealed a wide-ranging plan to upgrade its “entire” IT infrastructure and applications stack, in a move which will see a broad tranche of technology platforms modernised with the assistance of Japanese diversified IT services giant Fujitsu.
Govt IT buyers “struggling” with pace of change
Government departments and agencies are "struggling to keep up" with the pace of change in the technology sector, analyst firm Ovum said in a research note issued this month, with the rapidly evolving technology landscape outpacing the speed of procurement cycles.
IT management: Stepping away from the tools
Fascinating rumination here from Sydney-based Doug Rathbone, a long-time IT professional and current technical director at advertising agency BMF.
IT price hike inquiry may subpoena rebel vendors
Labor MP Ed Husic has publicly raised the prospect of forcing recalcitrant technology vendors to appear before a parliamentary committee on IT price hikes in Australia, alleging that some suppliers are "treating the Parliament with contempt".
LNP sacks 80 from CITEC
Not satisfied with terminating some 384 technology contractors already this year and running the axe over the IT department at the state's education department, Queensland's new LNP Government led by Premier Campbell Newman has now turned its attention to IT shared services unit CITEC.
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.
Q&A: McGrathNicol on Windows Server 2012
McGrathNicol's chief information officer and technology manager answer questions about their deployment of Windows Server 2012 and other issues of IT strategy.
Q&A: Kennards Hire on Windows Server 2012
Kennards Hire IT manager Richard Fox-Smith speaks about the company's deployment of Microsoft's new Windows Server 2012 platform and other IT strategic and operational issues.
Google Apps defeats Lotus, GroupWise in Australia
Google's popular Apps collaboration suite has knocked IBM's Lotus Notes/Domino and Novell's GroupWise platforms off their perch to become the second most popular office suite in Australian enterprises behind Microsoft Outlook/Exchange, analyst firm Telsyte revealed this week.
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.
EPA Victoria deploys SAP CRM
German software giant SAP this morning revealed that version 7.0 of its customer relationship management platform was being deployed at the Victorian Government's Environmental Protection Authority, along with a number of other components of SAP's broader software suite.
Australian Govt has “cloud last” policy, says Ovum
The Federal Government has taken a "cloud-last" position on the adoption of the new generation of cloud computing technologies, analyst firm Ovum said today, as it lacked a clear vision of the benefits of the cloud computing model, but was very clear about its risks.
Health seeks new ICT outsourcing advice
The Federal Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA) has gone to market for an advisor to develop a strategy for its future information and communications technology needs, in a move which is likely to see it examine a key IT outsourcing contract with IBM which has not been formally tested in a tender process since it was signed in 1999.
Tableau beds down Telstra Super
US business intelligence vendor Tableau Software has claimed Telstra's superannuation fund Telstra Super as a major Australian client, with the company deploying Tableau's solution to gain additional insight into its membership and transactional data.
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.
Jetstar pushes into IT outsourcing, BYOD
There's been a flurry of IT-related news issued by low-cost Qantas brand Jetstar this morning.
Purge: Qld Govt cuts 384 IT contractors
The new LNP Queensland State Government today revealed that it had terminated the contracts of some 384 technology contractors in total over the past few months, as it ramps up its drive to slash technology-related spending while simultaneously remediating dated IT systems left to languish by the previous Labor administration.
Domino’s migrates into Telstra cloud
Pizza chain Domino's has revealed that it has shifted its IT infrastructure out of an in-house datacentre (some where also with a third-party) and onto Telstra's Infrastructure as a Service platform.
Woolworths store managers get Gmail
Google Australia today revealed that retail giant Woolworths had also deployed the search giant's email application Gmail and other custom applications based on Google Apps to all of its store managers, as part of a nationwide rollout of Apple's iPad tablet slated to hit some 890 staff.
Perpetual outsources IT planks to Fujitsu
Financial services giant Perpetual has signed off on a major IT transformation project involving the outsourcing of some key functions to Japanese IT services giant Fujitsu and the modernisation of key aspects of Perpetual's applications and IT infrastructure.
Mac Uni CIO on Apple, Android tablets and IT life
Local Apple forum MacTalk has just published an extensive podcast interview with Macquarie University chief information officer Marc Bailey, which we commend to your attention.
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.
SBS is a huge fan of BMC Footprints
Business service management software vendor BMC has revealed that broadcaster SBS is expanding its use of the company's Footprints platform into departments beyond its IT support helpdesk, following a successful deployment of the system some three years ago.
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.
BPOS holdouts have “head in the sand”, says MVP
Office 365 MVP Loryan Strant has some pretty harsh words today for those Australian customers who have proven unwilling to migrate off Microsoft's defunct Business Productivity Online Suite platform (which is being essentially shut down) and onto Office 365.
Ballarat best ‘on-shoring’ IT services hub
Enterprise IT analyst firm capioIT has crowned the Victorian region of Ballarat as the best non-metropolitan location in Australia for IT services delivery, for a range of factors including historical investment in the area and integration between the government, education and commercial sectors.
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.
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.
Rackspace confirms dedicated Sydney datacentre
US hosting giant Rackspace has confirmed plans to launch a large datacentre in Sydney later this year, to support growing local demand for its services after entering the Australian and Zealand markets in 2009 using its infrastructure located overseas.
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.
Woolworths deploys iPads to all store managers
It's raining iPads at retail giant Woolworths, according to an article this morning by The Australian newspaper, which details the company's plans to deploy the Apple tablets to some 890 store managers nationwide.
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.
Two years on, SA Dept wants new social network
South Australia's Department of Premier and Cabinet has started examining new enterprise social networking solutions, just two years after implementing a solution which it has branded as delivering it significant benefits.
“Chaos” in NSW Govt IT shared services
A landmark report into the management of the NSW Public Sector commissioned by the state's new Coalition Government has described how dozens of overlapping and competing systems and services providers have created "chaos" when it comes to the state's current IT shared services paradigm.
National IT outage “minimal”, claims CommBank
Yesterday at a financial results briefing session, the Commonwealth Bank opened up for the first time regarding the nationwide outage which took down around 9,000 of its desktop PCs, hundreds of servers and even its CommSee customer management system.
Victorian school may deploy 3,500 iPads
Independent Melbourne school Haileybury has already rolled out 1,000 iPads to staff members and students throughout its three campuses in the Victorian capital and may roll out several thousand more as it attempts to take advantage of the Apple technology in education.
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.
Ansell sees light at the end of ERP tunnel
Australian condom and medical protection giant Ansell this week said it "can see the light at the end of the tunnel" following remediation efforts involving a botched implementation of Oracle’s ERP platform which went live last year and subsequently caused US$13 million to US$15 million worth of lost sales.
330k users: Google Apps hits Catholic schools
Search giant Google has revealed its Google Apps software as a service platform has been deployed to some 330,000 students, teachers and administrative staff at Catholic schools across Australia, in one of the largest local known rollouts of the platform so far.
Fortescue deploys HP server stack
Mining giant Fortescue this week revealed it had deployed a broad swathe of technology products and services from diversified global technology vendor HP as it overhauled much of its basic underlying IT server infrastructure.
Sarv Girn becomes Reserve Bank CIO
Recently departed Westpac group general manager of Enterprise Technology Services Sarv Girn has picked up a high-profile position as the new chief information officer of the Reserve Bank.
IE6 still popular in Federal Government
The outdated version 6 of Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser is still mandated and/or supported by seven Federal Government agencies, according to a new survey of the Canberra public sector's browser preferences, in a further indication that legacy versions of key software platforms continue to be maintained by the Government.
Norfolk Group picks Hyper-V over VMware
A major Australian engineering services company has revealed it recently picked Microsoft's Hyper-V virtualisation solution over VMWare's dominant solution as part of a consolidation of its server and datacentre infrastructure.
Westpac launches Android NFC payments app
Westpac Banking Corporation has joined the throng of Australian financial services giants attempting to stay ahead of the growing trend towards payments from mobile phones, launching an app yesterday that will allow those with Android smartphones to make mobile payments through their embedded NFC chip.
IBM to revamp HCF’s core IT systems
Australian health insurer HCF today revealed it had inked a major multi-million dollar contract with IBM which will see Big Blue "continue" to transform HCF's IT systems, using IBM's iLog and Lombardi software to do so.
Office 365 juggernaut hits ANU
Qantas, Mr Rental, Fortescue, Coles, Curtin University, a slew of local non-profits and more: The list of Australian organisations to announce that they're deploying Microsoft's Office 365 software as a service productivity suite is growing day by day. And now, according to iTNews, the Australian National University has added itself to that list.
AGIMO in flurry of cloud computing moves
The Federal Government’s peak technology strategy division has made a series of announcements aimed at pushing forward its vision with respect to public sector uptake of the new generation of cloud computing services and making such services available on the right terms to departments and agencies.
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.
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.
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.
‘Bring your own app’ revolution hits Australia
Australian organisations are increasingly allowing their staff to use their own software at work, in a trend being dubbed "Bring Your Own Apps" or BYOA, according to a new survey of Australian chief information officers and other senior IT staff.
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.
Disastrous patch cripples CommBank
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is currently reeling with internal chaos and some service delivery problems, following what appears to be a disastrous mis-application of an operating system patch to thousands of desktop PCs and hundreds of servers last week.
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.
Qld wrestles with WinXP upgrade
Work in the Queensland Government and stuck on a dated desktop PC running Windows XP? Bad news.
Enterprise will hold back on Windows 8
I recently came across a fantastic series of posts which pretty much sums up what I think about Microsoft's incoming new operating system Windows 8.
MyNetFone supplies VoIP to Tassie Govt
IP telephony and broadband company MyNetFone this week revealed it had been selected by the Tasmanian Government to supply Voice over IP telephony services to the state, in a three-year deal expected to be worth some $20 million over the 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.
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.
100,000 Coles staff get SharePoint Online
National retailer Coles yesterday revealed it had deployed SharePoint Online, a component of Microsoft’s software as a service-based suite Office 365 to some 100,000 Australian staff, in the latest indication that the cloud platform is gaining traction amongst large Australian enterprises.
LNP Qld Government kicks off IT cuts
The new LNP Queensland State Government has kicked off a substantial drive to reduce the amount it spends on technology-related goods and services, even ahead of a landmark audit of the state’s public sector technology use, expected to be handed down in December this year.
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.
End of an era: Greg Farr to leave Defence
The Department of Defence has advertised for a public sector executive to replace its long-serving and highly regarded chief information officer Greg Farr, whose departure will amount to the end of an era for the department.
EMC, Avaya get new Aussie chiefs
Enterprise IT vendors EMC and Avaya have revealed they have new leaders of their Australian divisions, following the promotion and departure of their local incumbent managing directors.
Stephen Wilson leaves Qantas
One of Australia's most high-profile IT executives, Stephen Wilson has finished a short-lived stint in the private sector, with the executive confirmed to have left a senior role at Qantas to lead the IT operations of Sydney Water, just two years after he left his post as CIO of the NSW Department of Education to join the airline.
CommBank unveils Square payments rival
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia this morning revealed several devices and an application development platform that together constitute an ecosystem similar to the Square mobile payments system which is becoming popular in the US for transactions at merchants such as retailers, restaurants and cafes.
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.
Tribunal backs ANZ Bank’s IT outsourcing
Industrial regulator Fair Work Australia has issued a ruling supporting ANZ Bank's decision to shift some 260 Australian and Indian staff IT testing staff to employment with outsourcer Capgemini, rejecting union demands that the bank must negotiate with staff over the move.
Qantas deploys 2,200 iPads to pilots
Pilots on the nation’s biggest airline Qantas will shortly starting using iPads to access the wide range of operational information they need to do their job instead of printed paper, under a partnership announced today between the airline and telco partner Telstra.
The ATO’s decade-long Mac denial
The reluctance of the Australian Taxation Office to provide a working version of its e-tax lodgement software for the Apple Macintosh has been a long-time bug-bear with Mac users around Australia for a long time. But some of them may not realise just how long angry parliamentarians and others have been harassing the agency about the issue.
Qld Govt IT contractors face layoff massacre
Over at the blog of Queensland-based ICT analyst house Longhaus, the firm’s managing director Peter Carr has published some ruminations about the tough future facing many of the state’s ICT contractors as the new LNP State Government puts technology squarely in the layoff firing line.
Aussie CIOs back Surface tablet
When it comes to tablets in the enterprise, Apple's iPad is currently the market leader. But, according to some early indications, Microsoft may be in with a winner with its new Surface tablet.
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.
NEXTDC M1 datacentre launch: Photos
In a ritzy ceremony, NEXTDC this week opened its new M1 datacentre in Melbourne. Attending the event were the company's founder Bevan Slattery, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, new NEXTDC chief executive Craig Scroggie, financial executive Mark Bouris, Conroy's chief of staff Shain Drabsch and others.
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.
40%: Australian enterprise prefers the iPhone
40 percent of Australian enterprises now see the iPhone as their preferred staff smartphone model, new research has revealed, in a remarkable demonstration of just how dramatically Apple's flagship handset has shaken up the nation's corporate mobile fleets over the past four years.
SAP Australia poaches Unisys chief
The Australian division of German software giant SAP today confirmed it had poached Andrew Barkla, the long-serving Asia-Pacific chief of IT services giant Unisys to lead its Australian operations, following the departure of incumbent Tim Ebbeck in January this year.
Govt’s new e-health platform already hacked
That shiny new e-health platform which the Federal Government sent live this week? The one you're supposed to put all of your most personal medical information in, for sharing only between your cadre of closed-lipped medical professionals? Yup. It was hacked during its development.
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.
Qld dumps whole of government email project
Queensland's new LNP State Government late last week revealed plans to dump the troubled colossal whole of government email project begun under the previous Bligh Labor administration, with IT Minister Ros Bates highlighting the possibility to shift to a "cloud-based solution" instead.
Australia to get IBM public cloud in Q4
Global IT giant IBM today confirmed plans to deploy its enterprise-class public cloud computing infrastructure in Australia, in a move which will give large organisations and government departments with data sovereignty concerns another option for utilising public cloud facilities based in Australia, as opposed to offshore.
Rental chain deploys Office 365 to 90 stores
Home appliance rental franchise chain Mr Rental has deployed Microsoft's software as a service-based Office 365 productivity platform to more than 90 stores across Australia and New Zealand, Microsoft announced this morning.
Homeless Sydney dev “will code for latte”
I don't know whether to feel slightly dubious about her story or merely sorry for Adelle Hartley, a Sydney C#/SQL developer who says she is homeless and has featured in an extensive article published by ninemsn this week.
Review brands ATO’s Change Program a success
An extensive review of the Australian Taxation Office's colossal $814 million Change Program IT platform overhaul has found the program broadly to be a success, with the initiative delivering on most of its objectives and making a return on its investment in just four years, despite a history which at times seemed close to going off the rails.
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.
Two years on, Virgin happy with Exadata
When it was first revealed in 2008, Oracle's Exadata machine was an unproven new factor; its new model tying Oracle's software to a specific hardware platform for the first time. But two years after its implementation, one of the first Australian customers to deploy an Exadata has praised the platform, giving credence to the idea that it has earnt its place.
Telstra wins $474m DHS telco contract
Telstra has emerged as the victor from a prolonged tendering process for a comprehensive suite of telecommunications services at the Federal Department of Human Services, announcing today that it had won a deal with the department worth $474 million.
Telstra, Accenture, to deliver SAP cloud
German software giant SAP has signed a landmark deal with the nation's largest telco Telstra and IT services giant Accenture that will see the pair deliver hosted SAP solutions to Australian customers from Telstra's on-shore datacentre infrastructure.
Cloud computing decimates Vic Uni’s IT dept
If you're nervous about the impact that the deployment of cloud computing infrastructure could have on the need your organisation has for dedicated IT staff, you probably don't want to read this chilling article by iTNews, which details some rather mercenary comments by Victoria University on its own plans in the area.
SA Govt CIO to fix Victoria’s IT nightmare
The Victorian State Government has appointed Grantley Mailes, a former whole of government chief information officer for sister state South Australia, to lead a committee to establish a new wide-ranging IT strategy to resolve Victoria's ongoing problems with IT service and project delivery.
Amazon confirms Sydney CDN node
Global cloud computing player and retailer Amazon today confirmed that it had added an 'edge' location in Sydney to speed up the delivery of content to Australians, confirming a deployment model which was the subject of speculation some 12 months ago.
Buildcorp deploys 150 Nokia Lumias
Construction firm Buildcorp has deployed some 150 new staff mobile phones in Nokia's Lumia line, the Finnish smartphone vendor announced this afternoon.
Immigration dumps Lotus in Microsoft focus
The Federal Department of Immigration and Citizenship has revealed as part of documents associated with a major IT outsourcing initiative that it is midway through the process of migrating off its Lotus Notes/Domino email platform and onto Microsoft's rival Outlook/Exchange system, as well as a number of other modernisation initiatives.
Costello says Qld should sell IT services units
A landmark report into the Queensland Government's financial position penned by Howard-era Treasurer Peter Costello has recommended the state government consider selling off its IT shared services unit, as there was no guarantee they could provide IT services to the government efficiently.
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.
Salesforce needs a more anti-social approach
As it continues its mega-push into what it has described as "social enterprise" technologies, Salesforce.com risks losing its focus on its core CRM products, particularly as its software as a service model has failed to prove itself in several key markets in Australia.
ANU buys hemisphere’s biggest supercomputer
The Australian National University has bought a supercomputer capable of 1.2 Petaflops of processing power from Japanese giant Fujitsu, in a deal which is expected to create the largest supercomputer of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.
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.
HP opens giant NSW datacentre (photos)
Global technology giant HP yesterday opened its colossal $119 million new datacentre in Western Sydney, revealing that it had dubbed the new facility "Aurora".
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.
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.
Cisco issues 9.2 percent Aussie price rise
Networking hardware giant Cisco has slapped a blanket 9.2 percent price increase on all of its products and services in Australia, giving its customers and partners just one month's notice of the price rise.
HP starts cutting Aussie staff; Caspari ascends
Well, that didn't take long. Just a couple of weeks after global technology giant HP revealed it would be cutting some 27,000 employees globally, the company's local cuts have started to surface.
ABC wants Apple, Android, Windows tablets
I would not be surprised at all if major Australian corporations were eyeing off Windows 8 and its bevy of hardware partners at this point, and wondering if the platform will allow them a much greater degree of control, flexibility and manageability over the tablets that they use than Apple's iPad will.
“Abomination”: Qld Health payroll needs $837m more
A KMPG audit into Queensland Health's payroll disaster has found the project has already cost $417 million and will need some $837 million to fix over the next five years, in a finding which the state's new LNP Health Minister Lawrence Springborg said in Parliament this week illustrated that the project was an "abomination".
Core banking IT battle not over, says NAB
The chief information officer of National Australia Bank has delivered a major speech arguing that it's too early for any of Australia's major banks to "claim victory" in the race to upgrade their aging technology platforms, in comments that run directly counter to the Commonwealth Bank's ongoing claims that it is far ahead of its rivals in the area.
NSW Parliament turfs “aged” Novell platforms
The New South Wales State Parliament will replace a broad swathe of Novell platforms it described as "end of life", "aged" and "legacy", replacing them primarily with new Microsoft software in areas such as email, identity management and file and print services that will bring its desktop IT infrastructure up to the "industry standard".
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.
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.
Defence plans major ICT projects for 2012
The Department of Defence said last week that it expects to receive Government approval to go ahead with a number of major ICT projects in the next year, ranging from telecommunications to datacentre reform and its long-anticipated overhaul of its PMKeyS human resources platform.
Qld Health payroll: The lawsuit may be back on
The new LNP Queensland Government is reportedly attempting to source legal advice created for the previous Bligh Labor Government with respect to whether it would be feasible to sue vendors involved in the disastrous Queensland Health payroll systems implementation.
Microsoft beats SF.com to another CRM deal
Microsoft announced this week that its Dynamics CRM solution had beaten rival platform Salesforce.com to another Australian deal for CRM delivered through a web browser, with the company picking up work at local conferencing services provider Redback Conferencing.
McKinnon’s ghost still haunts Clive Whincup
There was a lovely moment during the CEDA lunch with Westpac chief information officer Clive Whincup at the Shangri-La Hotel in Sydney yesterday that I suspect perfectly illustrates the current dynamics within Westpac's technology leadership team.
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.
CommBank ditches softphone strategy for smartphones
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has confirmed plans to substantially modify its high-profile softphone-based unified communications strategy recently implemented at its flagship Commonwealth Bank Place facility in Sydney, turning instead to a mass smartphone deployment as its replacement.
The Suncorp pitch: Core banking overhaul matters
Tier two banking and insurance giant Suncorp has started talking up the benefits of its Oracle-based core banking platform overhaul to the financial markets, following rival the Commonwealth Bank in arguing that its own modernisation and simplification program will bring significant business benefits that will affect its customers and its bottom line.
“Can do” Queensland starts cutting IT staff
Queensland's new LNP Premier Campbell Newman has started wielding the axe in the state's public service, according to a report by the Courier Mail newspaper published yesterday -- and information technology staff are some of the first in line.
Qld kicks off whole of Govt ICT audit
The new Liberal-National Party State Government in Queensland has announced it will conduct a six month whole of government audit into ICT systems used across the state public sector, in a bid to identify potential savings and efficiencies ahead of projected rationalisation of its ICT assets and processes.
HP layoffs likely to hit Australia
Technology giant HP this morning said it expected its massive global job cuts -- which are expected to see some 27,000 employees exit the company -- to affect all of its regions across the world, with the implication that Australia will not be left off the list of locations to receive retrenchment targets.
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.
SAP’s SuccessFactors deploys Aussie datacentre
SAP subsidiary SuccessFactors has opened a datacentre located in Australia from which it will sell its software as a service-based human resource management and business execution software to local customers, in one of the first known deployments of such dedicated Australian infrastructure by a global SaaS vendor.
Govt pushes ahead with cloud-sharing approach
The Federal Government today revealed a standardised approach to sharing computing workloads between agencies, in a so-called 'community cloud' strategy that will attempt to leverage existing infrastructure operated by major departments such as the Department of Human Services to provide services to smaller agencies.
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.
Victoria dumps HealthSMART e-health project
The Victorian State Government has reportedly decided to walk away from its troubled central electronic health project HealthSMART, which has reached only a limited number of its goals over the past decade since it was initiated, despite soaking up several hundred million dollars worth of government funding.
HP completes giant new NSW datacentre
Global technology giant HP has finished building its colossal $119 million new datacentre in Western Sydney and will launch the "world-class" facility next month, with a speech slated to be given by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.
Microsoft beats Salesforce to utility CRM deal
Energy retailer Australian Power & Gas has picked Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM system over rivals Salesforce.com and Right CRM as the base platform for a customer relationship management overhaul to tackle incoming email complaints.
NSW finalises colossal datacentre consolidation
The New South Wales State Government this week announced the Leighton subsidiary Metronode as the winner of its long-running and wide-ranging datacentre overhaul project, with the company to construct two new substantial facilities which will allow the state to consolidate its IT operations drastically.
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.
SAP considers Aussie datacentre
The Financial Review has reported that German software giant SAP is likely to build an Australian datacentre to provide services to Australian organisations, should new privacy legislation pass that could affect vendors' ability to sell cloud computing services locally from global facilities.
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.
NSW agencies push very hard for SaaS rollouts
Several major New South Wales Government agencies have unveiled major and wide-ranging plans to imminently purchase Software as a Service-style IT solutions, in moves which have the potential to re-cast the dynamics of the perceived relationship between Australia's public sector and the burgeoning class of SaaS-delivered IT packages.
Technology and planned obsolescence
Very insightful blog post here by Longhaus managing director Peter Carr, who has made a sophisticated argument regarding planned obsolescence with respect to implementing technology in organisations.
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.
Why do Australians pay more for Office 365?
A great analysis piece was published on local cloud computing media outlet BoxFreeIT last month on why Australians pay more for Microsoft's Office 365 software as a service suite.
A handful of complex Australian Oracle rollouts
Over the past month, Oracle has revealed its involvement in a series of new Australian technology rollout projects, with all of the initiatives using multiple pieces of the US software giant's complex software stack and some additionally using some of the hardware products which it has been pushing following its integration of Sun Microsystems.
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.
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.
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.
IT strategy to lead NSW from “the dark ages”
New South Wales' Coalition State Government late last week revealed a new and wide-ranging strategy which it said was slated to make it "the leader in ICT" when it came to public sector service delivery and the development of the state's technology sector as a whole.
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.
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.
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.
Pacific swaps out VMware for Hyper-V
Clothing and homewares manufacturer Pacific Brands has revealed it switched out VMware's market-dominating virtualisation platform over the past several years, installing Microsoft's rival Hyper-V system instead as it sought to take more advantage of virtualisation in its operations.
Offshore cloud an adoption barrier, finds KPMG
A research study partially funded by major offshore cloud computing vendors Salesforce.com, Microsoft, and Google has found that one of the major barriers stopping Australian organisations from migrating to cloud computing platforms is the lack of cloud infrastructure based in Australia, with legislation such as the US Patriot Act cited as key concerns with offshore hosting.
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.
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.
IT’S ON: Govt sets up IT price hike inquiry
Price-hiking technology vendors are set to be hauled before Australia's Parliament to justify their local markups, with Communications Minister Stephen Conroy confirming the Government will hold an official parliamentary inquiry into the issue, following a long-running campaign on the issue by Federal Labor MP Ed Husic.
Telstra to cut Microsoft Office 365 prices
The nation's largest telco Telstra is reportedly planning to follow Microsoft's international lead and cut prices on the local version of Redmond's Office 365 cloud productivity suite, which Microsoft offers locally in partnership with the telco.
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.
NSW Police under fire again for pirating software
The long-running battle between enterprise IT vendor Micro Focus and NSW Police over the force's allegedly illegitimate use of millions of dollars worth of software hit headlines again this week, with the broadcast of a significant investigation into the matter by the 7:30 Report.
Adobe’s biennial tradition: 50% Aussie price hikes
Global software giant Adobe has continued a long-running tradition of extensively marking up its prices for the Australian market, revealing yesterday that locals would pay up to $1,400 more for the exact same software when they buy the new version 6 of its Creative Suite platform compared to residents of the United States.
Minister worried about AGIMO’s ability to deliver
Documents released under Freedom of Information laws have appeared to show that the minister overseeing the Federal Government's peak IT decision-making agency is concerned about its ability to deliver on a whole of government technology strategy, with yet another review being commissioned into its performance.
Questions & answers: Microsoft Australia’s Dynamics chief on CRM
Thomas Gudman is Microsoft Australia's new director of its Dynamics Business. In this interview, Delimiter questions Gudman about Microsoft's Dynamics CRM business in Australia, which competes in the market for enterprise software with fellow industry titans like Oracle and Salesfore.com.
XENON to upgrade CSIRO supercomputer cluster
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia’s national science agency, has chosen Australian company XENON Systems to provide internationally competitive, customized technology solutions.
At least two web browsers for every Australian desktop: It should be mandatory
In mid-2008, a government staffer at an employee town hall meeting being held by the US State Department got up to ask Secretary of State Hilary Clinton what appeared to be a rather unusual question for the venue. "Can you please let the staff use an alternative web browser called Firefox?" asked public affairs officer Jim Finkle.
NSW Govt may scrap IT shared services units
The New South Wales Government has indicated it may follow in the footsteps of fellow states Queensland and Western Australia and drastically re-work its IT shared services strategy, in the wake of questionable benefits having flowed from the scheme.
Hackers attempt News Corp break-in
The Australian division of global media giant News Corp has warned its staff to beware of attempts of external attackers who are seeking to "hack" into the company's network.
Web Directions hosts May mini-confs
Local conference outfit Web Directions, best known for its popular October conference of the same name, will host two smaller conferences for web professionals in May, this year: Web Directions Code, set for May 23rd and 24th in Melbourne, and State of Play on May 28th in Sydney.
Lacking reality: Sysadmins slam “snooping” claims
Australia's peak representative body for systems administrators has taken an axe to claims published in the Sydney Morning Herald last week that a huge proportion of IT professionals abused their system access to illegitimately read others' email, calling for evidence to be presented to back the claim.
Kate Burleigh to lead Intel’s Aussie unit
Chipmaker Intel has announced the appointment of Kate Burleigh (pictured, top) as general manager for Australia and New Zealand. Promoted from her role as national marketing and reseller channel organisation manager for Australia and New Zealand, Burleigh replaces Philip Cronin who moves up as director of regional sales and business development for the Asia-Pacific region. He will continue to work out of Sydney.
Questions & answers: Zendesk Australia
Michael Hansen is the Asia-Pacific managing director of software as a service firm Zendesk, which offers a Web 2.0-style hosted helpdesk solution. Zendesk has recently expanded strongly in Australia, hiring staff and announcing that it has 1,000 Australian customers. In this interview, we ask Hansen about the company's local expansion plans.
US slams Australia’s on-shore cloud fixation
The United States' global trade representative has strongly criticised a perceived preference on the part of large Australian organisations for hosting their data on-shore in Australia, claiming it created a significant trade barrier for US technology firms and was based on a misinterpretation of the US Patriot Act.
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.
Westpac delays shift off Lotus Notes
Remember in May 2011, when we broke the news that Westpac confirmed it would finally shift off IBM’s troubled Lotus Notes/Domino platform, in favour of an organisation wide shift to a hosted version of Microsoft Outlook/Exchange? Well, it appears that shift isn’t going too well.
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.
RIM appoints Ray Gillenwater as ANZ MD
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion has appointed Ray Gillenwater Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand. Gillenwater replaces Adele Beachley, who resigned in February.
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.
Hudson reveals major virtual desktop rollout
If there is one enterprise IT trend which is taking off in Australia in a strong way right now, it's the move towards virtualisation on the desktop. Finally, enterprises are doing away with the ageing dedicated desktop PC rollout paradigm and replacing it with something which has the potential to be much more flexible and manageable.
Offshore cloud providers popular in Australia
A study has found that two-thirds of Australian enterprises which utilise cloud computing services, do so from offshore providers whose servers are located outside Australia rather than opting for a local provider.
DSD approves iPhones, iPads for Govt use
The Federal Government's security evaluation agency has approved devices running version 5 of Apple's iOS platform (including iPads and iPhones) for classified government communications, after a lengthy evaluation period and the production of a detailed security 'hardening' guide for the popular mobile products.
Qld gets new ‘Can Do’ ICT ministers
New Queensland Premier Campbell Newman has appointed several high-profile members of his new LNP-dominated parliament to take control of the state's technology portfolio, as a new political dawn arrives in the sunshine state following his electoral route of the previous Labor Government a week ago.
The datacentres that ate NSW
Cloud computing: Surely it is time for some fresh thinking in NSW government procurement – as taxpayers, don’t we deserve it?
An insider’s view of NAB’s IT transformation
Last week, for the first time in several years, National Australia Bank conducted a relatively open and transparent briefing on what's really going on behind the closed doors of its IT operation, with technology czar Gavin Slater addressing a lunch held by the Trans-Tasman Business Circle, with a startlingly open view into its operations.
Questions & answers: Yammer Australia
Ross Hill is a well-known personality in Australia’s social media and entrepreneur space, having founded the Hive networking event series for entrepreneurs and worked as an innovation analyst at Deloitte Digital. Since January 2011 he’s been an enterprise relationship manager with enterprise 2.0 social networking company Yammer. In this interview, Hill answers our questions about Yammer in Australia.
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.
Red Cross last upgraded its IT in 2002
The Australian Red Cross last upgraded its IT infrastructure ten years ago, it has been reported in the wake of news that the organisation will receive a $10 million grant from Microsoft to modernise its infrastructure.
ING DIRECT rolls out Microsoft cloud deployment
ING DIRECT Australia has deployed Bank in a Box, a private cloud infrastructure, in collaboration with systems integrator Dimension Data and backed by technical expertise from Cisco, NetApp and long-term partner, Microsoft. A case study published by Microsoft this month reveals the background to the technology deployment at ING DIRECT.
Questions & answers: Oracle Australia MD Ian White
Long-serving Oracle Australia managing director Ian White is one of the most senior figures in Australia's technology industry, leading the local operations of a company which has been involved at some level in virtually every major Australian IT Project. In this interview, we asked White a series of questions about the company's local operations, the industry, and his time with the company.
Companies forgoing corporate UC for Skype
Australian enterprises have started using more public telephony and softphone services as part of their voice and video communications mix, analyst firm Telsyte has found -- with commodity platforms like Skype winning out ahead of more premium enterprise IT-focused offerings from the likes of Cisco and Avaya.
Mapping out the NBN Co IT paradigm
When it comes to selecting IT platforms and partners to support its business mission, the Federal Government-owned National Broadband Network Company faces a somewhat unique set of problems and opportunities.
Recruiter picks Telstra for cloud, telco services
Recruitment and HR services provider Randstad has signed a three-year deal with Telstra, to provide telecommunication services and transition the company into a cloud-computing model.
Microsoft Hyper-V wins huge Coles rollout
Microsoft has revealed that a virtualisation solution built on Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Enterprise with Hyper-V technology has been implemented by retail giant Coles, at each of its 741 supermarkets, to tackle an aging, in-store fleet of server hardware.
Buzzword bingo
This afternoon I received the following media release from NEC Australia. However, unfortunately I have no idea what it means. Can anyone tell me? The problem appears to be the sheer number of buzzwords inserted into the one press release -- I can't tell the content from the buzzwords.
Executives carry more tech devices than ever
Corporate executives are increasingly carrying around multiple devices at work, new research from the University of Sydney has revealed.
Corruption allegation hits Sydney Uni IT manager
The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) will hold a public inquiry commencing on Tuesday 20 March 2012 as part of an investigation it is conducting into corruption allegations concerning a University of Sydney manager's use of a recruitment agency, in which he and his wife had an interest, to recruit contractors and staff to the university.
Passion for Human Services: DHS CIO outlines vision
New Department of Human Services chief information officer Gary Sterrenberg gives a wide-ranging interview following his appointment and shows that the IT portfolio within DHS still has a powerful voice.
E-health record will be hacked, says AusCERT
One of Australia's top IT security organisations has warned that the Federal Government's flagship e-health records project is likely to be broken into, with Australians' medical and identity information to be used for fraud and other criminal activities.
Atlassian buys HipChat
Australian enterprise software firm Atlassian revealed this week that it had acquired San Francisco-based HipChat.
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.
Westpac sends another 125 tech jobs offshore
Top tier bank Westpac yesterday confirmed it was planning to outsource a further 125 jobs in its technology support division, as part of an ongoing campaign of workforce rationalisation which the bank's main union has claimed has been characterised by "media-type spin" to disguise its actions.
Nikoletatos swaps Curtin for ANU
High-profile Curtin University chief information officer Peter Nikoletatos has left his role to take up a similar position at the Australian National University.
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.
Victoria Police lacks ability to deliver IT projects
In a broad-based investigation of the Victorian police force, the State Services Authority (SSA) has found that the organisation has no ability to deliver major IT projects.
Dimension Data provides further cloud details
You may remember that last week we were fairly hard on IT services outfit Dimension Data for issuing what we saw as a media release heavy on hype (mentioning cloud computing 71 times) but light on technical detail. Well, to the company's credit, it has now come through with the goods, responding to all of our questions on its cloud computing offering in full.
Surprises amongst Australia’s top cloud providers
Local ICT analyst firm Longhaus has revealed key findings from an industry report ranking cloud providers in the Australian market. The report, entitled ‘Australia’s Trusted Infrastructure-as-a-Service Cloud Provider Market 2012’, is the third annualised study released by Longhaus on the state of cloud computing in Australia.
HP firms up multimillion deal with Downer EDI
Technology giant HP has announced a six-year multimillion-dollar infrastructure technology outsourcing services agreement with Downer EDI Limited, an Australian-based engineering and infrastructure management services company.
Leap year outages: Nostalgia for Y2K?
Call us nostalgic, but today's news that the Health Industry Claims and Payments Service (HICAPS) system owned by the National Australia bank was taken down by faulty programming associated with today's leap year date takes us back to the good old days of Year 2000 bugs.
Hacks focus CIOs on IT security
After the spate of high-profile hacking incidents in 2011, Australian CIOs and IT and security managers are taking no chances this year. According to new research by local analyst firm Telsyte, Australian enterprises will increase their security spending and change their information security strategies in 2012.
Ninefold launches Aussie Box.net rival
Australian public cloud computing company Ninefold has launched a new cloud storage service entitled Business Cloud Drive. This service enables organisations of 100+ users to store, access and share their continually growing amounts of data in a secure, local and easily accessible location.
DiData lands Aussie customer for new cloud
Global IT services outfit Dimension Data has announced a new range of global cloud services, simultaneously revealing it has signed up the Australian Centre for Advanced Computing and Communications to use the platform.
Cloud could help fix Govt IT paradigm: Hodgkinson
Independent analyst firm Ovum said this week that developing and maintaining ICT capabilities constitutes an ongoing challenge for government agencies, with one of the organisation's Australian public sector specialists noting that the utilisation of cloud computing services could provide an edge in an “unsustainable game of ICT snakes and ladders being played by many government agencies”.
New Qld Govt CIO a chance for ‘industry unity’
There is the chance for a fresh start in Queensland at the moment. And if the various CIOs, politicians and industry players can get behind that, perhaps the state can avoid having virtually every major whole of government technology project, and many others, savaged by its auditor-general in a few years' time when the next round of audits comes up.
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.
Data#3 flags job cuts: Read the internal email
There was one little fact which Data#3 didn't disclose to investors during its financial results briefing session this week: Job cuts
Anna Bligh promises 5,000 iPads for schools
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has promised that her Labor State Government will commit $5.7 million to deliver some 5,000 iPads to year 7 students across the state in a high-profile educational trial of the Apple tablets, should Labor retain power in the upcoming state election.
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.
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.
NSW Govt settles Tcard dispute
New South Wales Minister for Transport Gladys Berejiklian has announced the settlement of the long-running Tcard legal dispute with Videlli (formerly ERG). The trial had been due to start next Monday in the Supreme Court of NSW. The resolution of the matter will spare taxpayers a potential loss of around $200 million.
Atlassian’s SourceTree ditches Mac App Store
Atlassian, the Australian developer of the SourceTree app for Mac have decided to stop submitting SourceTree updates to the Mac App Store after March 1st, the deadline for all submitted applications to run inside a ‘sandbox’.
Wells quits Avaya for SaaS firm Workday
Australian IT industry stalwart Rob Wells has quit his post as the managing director of Avaya's Australian operations and will instead establish the local division of Software as a Service business software group Workday.
Telstra migrates email offshore to Windows Live
Australia’s largest telco Telstra has promised its BigPond customers a faster and enhanced email service named BigPond with Windows Live, without the need to change email addresses. The caveat? Their data will now also be stored offshore with Microsoft.
Macquarie opens kimono on IT operations
One of Australia's largest but most secretive IT end user organisations has this week given industry observers a tantalising glimpse of its broad IT strategy, including staff restructuring across the board, back-office systems integrations and offshoring moves.
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.
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.
More major IT contracts up for grabs in SA
The South Australian State Government today revealed that it would shortly be kicking off a huge new round of IT purchasing initiatives which would affect a string of major whole of government contracts, as part of its long-running Future ICT Services Arrangements program.
Xero raises $15m, makes acquisition
Accounting software firm Xero announced last week that it had raised a further AU$15.5 million from current strategic investors to maintain its future growth in Australia and worldwide. The New Zealand-based company also announced the acquisition of Max Solutions, a leading practice management company and developer of WorkflowMax, a job, time and invoice management solution.
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.
Govt still hasn’t certified Apple iOS devices
Apple's iPhone 3G was first released in Australia three and a half years ago, and its flagship iPad tablet 18 months ago. But the Federal Government still hasn't certified the devices for use in government agencies, despite having pledged to do so by September last year, and despite approving Research in Motion's unpopular rival, the BlackBerry PlayBook.
Westpac still running IE6
iTNews has published an excellent article today detailing how almost all of Westpac's staff are still running Internet Explorer 6, and, presumably, Windows XP).
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank deploys next-gen IBM storage
IBM XIV Storage System Gen3 will be a key infrastructure component for Bendigo and Adelaide Bank’s ongoing development and delivery of customer-focussed business applications, according to an announcement by IBM yesterday.
Atlassian sends graduates to beach house
Atlassian has stationed 10 of its finest software graduates at the ‘Hack House’, a beach house in Narrabeen up the coat from the company’s Sydney headquarters. The ‘Gradlassians’, as they’ve been nicknamed, will spend a week combining surfing fun and hard work, developing a new product innovation ready for shipment by the end of the week.
Improving technology’s grades in Australian education
In Australian society, so much of the ongoing narrative about the current generation of students in our schools is focused around the different way that they understand and use technology; and so much of that narrative is focused around fear. But it doesn't need to be, and there's more than one side to the story.
Pia Waugh quits as Senator Lundy advisor
IT industry personality Pia Waugh has announced her decision to resign from her job as policy advisor to Labor Senator Kate Lundy, with a new role in the public service looming.
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.
Suncorp picks Oracle to replace core
Tier two banking and insurance giant Suncorp has picked Oracle's next-generation banking platform to replace its aging Hogan core banking system, as the momentum around core banking replacement projects accelerates in Australia.
Federal Government spends $5bn on ICT annually
Special Minister of State Gary Gray has released a report summarising expenditure by government departments in 2008–09 and 2009–10, which states that the Australian Government is a major consumer and producer of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) products and solutions, with an annual expenditure of $5 billion.
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.
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.
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.
Deloitte surveys state of tech in Aussie business
A national survey conducted by the the Australian Industry Group and Deloitte of Australian chief executives has revealed that business investment in new technologies is resulting in higher productivity, better innovation, improved energy efficiencies and better work safety. The survey involved 540 CEOs across many sectors including manufacturing, services and construction.
Primus wins million dollar Payless Shoes deal
Independent Australian footwear retail chain, Payless Shoes has inked a million dollar, three-year deal with Primus Telecom, one of Australia’s largest telecommunication carriers. Primus will provide an integrated Voice and Data Network solution that includes a network-based EFTPOS system plus additional hosted services across the retailer's 232 stores and its Sydney-based head office.
IBM takes Australian Open data onto private cloud
IBM announced yesterday that it is developing a global private cloud computing system for the 2012 Australian Open as part of its technology partnership for the international Grand Slam tennis tournament.
Atlassian doubles staff, revenues in 18 months
Australian enterprise software group Atlassian overnight revealed it had approximately doubled its headcount and revenues over the past 18 months, as it rapidly expands its operations internationally on the back of the $60 million in venture capital investment it took in mid-2010.
Aussie giants sign up to Oracle’s cloud CRM
Technology giant Oracle announced yesterday that various top Australian public and private sector entities had implemented its CRM On Demand software as a service suite to upgrade customer service, gain access to real-time analytics, and enable speeding up of adaptive business planning.
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.
UTS creates new CIO role
The University of Technology, Sydney, has kicked off a hiring process for a newly created chief information officer position to help it with a substantial investment program associated with its campus located just outside the Sydney central business district.
Head of Technology at ASX resigns
The Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) revealed this week that Jeff Olsson, Group Executive Technology has announced his resignation. Olsson plans to leave the company in July 2012.
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.
ThreatMetrix acquires Aussie security firm TrustDefender
Australia based TrustDefender, a specialist in secure browsing technologies and malware protection, has been acquired by US-based ThreatMetrix, a provider of cybercrime prevention solutions. Consolidated under the ThreatMetrix brand, the company will operate in the US, Australia and Europe with its headquarters in San Jose, California.
Cisco picks NSN exec to replace Williamson
Global networking giant Cisco today announced that Richard Kitts has been appointed as vice president for Cisco Australia and New Zealand. Kitts will take up the role sometime in mid to late March 2012. The position has been vacant since June 2011.
ACT moves shared services staff to Gungahlin
The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) has announced that it will be moving its shared services staff to the Canberra suburb of Gungahlin in the year 2014-15.
SAP loses Aussie MD Ebbeck
The long-serving leader of German software giant SAP's Australian business, Tim Ebbeck, has unexpectedly resigned, with the company currently conducting an executive search to find a replacement.
E*Trade flooded with DDoS before Christmas
ANZ Bank's stockbroking service E*Trade was hit by a distributed denial of service attack in the lead-up to the 2011 Christmas season. After initial denials that the site had been attacked, the company sent its customers a letter informing them about the attack yesterday.
HP issues waffle statement on job cuts claim
Help us decipher HP's waffle.
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.
Qld Health’s IT woes just keep coming
An interesting article published here by the Courier-Mail just before Christmas lays out yet another IT-related headache being suffered at the moment by Queensland's favourite technological minefield, Queensland Health.
NEXTDC inks leaseback deal for Brisbane DC
The directors of datacentre company NEXTDC have announced that the company has entered into a sale-and-leaseback agreement for its Brisbane datacentre property. During 2011, NEXTDC had announced a capital recycling program intended to unlock the increasing worth of its property assets and to re-invest the income in higher yielding datacentre infrastructure assets through sale-and-leaseback arrangements.
Turnbull’s credit card details exposed in Stratfor hack
By now many of you know that a number of Australian organisations have had their credit card numbers compromised by a major hack of the US security intelligence firm Stratfor, with Australian victims including ANZ Bank, BHP, HSBC, Westpac, Woodside and so on. But did you know that Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull's security has also been compromised?
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.
Coalition slams computers for schools delays
The Coalition has heavily criticised the Federal Labor Government's Computers in Schools program, claiming the project is behind schedule to the tune of hundreds of thousands of machines.
Tassie education dept upgrades Symantec security
The Tasmanian Department of Education has zeroed in on the latest version of Symantec’s Endpoint Protection systems to secure the 40,000 personal computers and 700 servers being used by the department’s staff, schools, colleges, libraries and online access centres.
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.
Breaking Victoria’s IT fail cycle: First steps to take
With its IT governance reputation in tatters and all of its major projects late, over budget and in many cases having simply failed to deliver, what steps can the Victorian State Government take next to get things back on track? Where can it turn for inspiration?
Government reveals new IT services panel policy
The Australian Government’s Special Minister of State Gary Gray has announced a policy that will halve the number of IT panels servicing Government agencies.
Atlassian installs Valve-esque portals in offices
Not content with already being one of the best places to work in Australia, local software developer Atlassian has taken its coolness factor one step further by installing videoconferencing gear set up to look like actual portals (you know, from the popular video game ‘Portal’) in several of its offices so that staff in different locations can talk to each other virtually.
Can Australia lead global cloud market?
The Australian Government’s IT industry advisory body has stated in a report that the nation has the scope to become a global leader in cloud computing technology and drive innovation and productivity.
NSW Education’s HR/finance overhaul goes south
New South Wales's state government auditor-general revealed yesterday that a massive SAP-based project to replace finance, HR, payroll and student administration systems across the public education sector had gone off the rails.
Coles rolls out contactless payments
Wesfarmers-owned supermarket chain Coles is set to roll out a contactless card payment service at their stores later this month. Customers will be able to pay for their purchases at Coles with a wave of their wallet over the new Ingenico pinpads, making checkout much faster than with the traditional card swipe-and-sign or PIN method.