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Articles by Byron Connolly
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Australian rail firm in SAP first
Australian company Aurizon will be the first rail transport company globally to deploy a freight management solution based on SAP’s Supply Chain Execution 9.1 software and HANA in-memory computing platform.rn
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NSW govt touts e-health future
The NSW government has unveiled its Blueprint for eHealth in NSW, aimed at improving collaboration between agencies and the development of a strategy to provide services to rural and remote areas.rn
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CIO 100: Carsales wins top gong for innovation
Australian online success story, Carsales.com.au has won the Most Innovative IT Project award in the inaugural year of CIO Australia’s CIO 100 Awards – recognising excellence in technology innovation and business value delivery.rn
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Jetstar CIO cuts IT costs by 6% yearly
Jetstar CIO Stephen Tame is asked to cut IT infrastructure costs by 6 per cent year-on-year. In fact, it’s one of his key performance indicators as CIO of the Qantas- owned low cost airline.rn
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Bulletproof Networks to list on the ASX
Australian-owned cloud service provider Bulletproof Networks on Monday announced it would soon list on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) in a bid to raise $1.6 million.rn
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New standard claims to alleviate cloud security concerns
The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) and BSI have launched a technology-neutral certification they claim provides an additional layer of transparency around security controls used by cloud service providers.rn
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State of the CIO 2013
Innovation is a hot topic for CIOs but many are still at least a few years away from achieving their goals, according to responses for our State of the CIO survey for 2013.rn
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NSW councils team up to cut software costs
Forty-three councils across NSW are rolling out new server and desktop virtualisation technology under a new enterprise licensing agreement that harnesses their collective buying power.rn
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Technology driving ME Bank’s growth plans
ME Bank will complete a $60 million IT transformation project in 2014, boosted by the rollout of a service that enables new and existing customers to open their own transaction accounts online within minutes.
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Mobile app trial for NSW cops
NSW Police have begun a four-week trial of an iPad app that enables traffic cops to automatically process infringement notices. If the trial is successful, NSW Police estimated it could save 240,000 police hours and $1.2 million per year.rn
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Government tech budgets stabilise
Government technology budgets appear to be stabilising or even increasing, according to research firm Gartner.rn
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University of Queensland to roll out shared server virtualisation
The University of Queensland (UQ) will soon deploy centralised server virtualisation services for its faculties and institutes in a university-wide project aimed at cutting IT costs and streamlining application delivery to 40,000 students and 7000 staff.rn
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Signs you’re not being a CIO
Everyone’s talking about what the CIO role may look like in the future. But when dealing with the here and now, what makes an individual CIO a genuine business leader?
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NBN Co boss quits
NBN Co CEO Mike Quigley has quit his post, announcing on Friday that he will retire from corporate life after four years at the helm of the organisation.
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WA Department of Education to spend $14.8M on IT modernisation project
The Department of Education in Western Australia will spend $14.89 million modernising its technology infrastructure after signing a five-year contract with ASG Group for new licenses and support services.rn
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Telstra to put job applicants through five-day interview process
Want a job at Telstra? Be prepared, you might be put through a five-day interview process.rn
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The road to becoming a future-state CIO
Focusing on driving business strategy, building better relationships with other c-level executives, and moving your IT department from a cost to a profit centre were key themes at CIO Australia’s future-state CIO breakfast, sponsored by Canon.rn
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Why change management doesn’t work
Change management is fundamentally flawed, according to Diane Dromgold, managing director at project delivery firm, RNC Global.
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UNSW engineers create low cost solar silicon
Engineers at the University of New South Wales have developed a way to dramatically improve the quality of low-grade silicon to improve the efficiency and reduce the cost of solar panels.rn
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Bureau of Meteorology switches on online ads
The Bureau of Meteorology will be the first federal government agency to accept commercial advertising on its website starting this week.rn
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Interview: Peter Bourke, CIO, Westfield
Peter Bourke, CIO at Westfield discusses how the retailer has created mobile apps that help internal leasing and shopping centre staff to do their jobs better while improving the experience for customers.
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Interview: Steve Fox, CIO, Caltex Australia
Steve Fox, CIO at Caltex discusses why the organisation took the plunge with a public cloud service.
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Newcastle Permanent searching for a CIO
Newcastle Permanent is looking for a CIO to lead a team of 70 IT staff and drive the $8 billion retail banking provider’s systems development, IT operations and overall technology direction.rn
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Interview: Ross Dawson, futurist
Leading Australian author and futurist, Ross Dawson, discusses his framework for the "CIO of the Future" and what CIOs need to do now to stay relevant in the future.
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Telstra to deliver unified comms from the cloud
Telstra is delivering integrated voice, video, presence and mobility applications as a cloud service, following a new agreement with networking equipment vendor Cisco.rn
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Brisbane City Council IT jobs will go
Despite union pressure, 55 IT staff at Brisbane City Council (BCC) will lose their jobs after the council decided to outsource their roles to Indian outsourcer HCL.rn
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IT worker shortage continues as jobs remain unfilled
There was a shortage of 4600 IT professionals across Australia during the December quarter with skills in data warehousing, business intelligence and SAP technologies remaining in high demand, according to the Clarius Skills Index.rn
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Supercomputers help scientists design more powerful antioxidants
Supercomputer modelling holds the key to keeping potentially deadly age-related illnesses such as Alzheimer’s, diabetes, cancer and heart disease at bay, according to Australian scientists.rn
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Updated: Defence tenders for a $2 million supercomputer
The Department of Defence plans to deploy a high-performance computer (HPC) cluster to execute computational fluid dynamics simulations that support its Future Submarine program, in a project set to begin in March this year.rnrn
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Department of Human Services vows to reduce system outages in 2013
The Department of Human Services (DHS) is hoping to cut the number of system outages across its complex IT environment by 5 per cent per quarter over the next 12 months.
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Australian scientists in nanotechnology breakthrough
Scientists at the CSIRO and RMIT University have discovered a new two-dimensional nano-material that could pave the way for the creation of even smaller computing devices that offer big improvements in processing speed.rn
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Partnership to cut the cost of solar energy
The CSIRO will lead an $87 million research initiative which aims to cut the cost of solar thermal power from 25 cents to 10 cents per kilowatt hour, the Federal government announced today.rn
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Quantum computers will be commercially available in 20 years: scientist
It will be 20 years before quantum computers capable of modelling and simulating complex biological and chemical systems to create new materials will become commercially available, a scientist at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) has predicted.
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Laser prototype improves bomb detection
Scientists at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) have developed a prototype laser device capable of detecting tiny traces of explosive vapour, an invention that has the potential to put bomb sniffer dogs out of a job.
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Robotic ocean vehicle completes historic journey
It survived a shark attack, battled gale force storms and surfed the East Australian Current during its journey across the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco to the East Coast of Australia, all in the name of science.rn
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UPDATED: CSIRO job cuts “baffling”, says union boss
CSIRO Staff Association president Dr Michael Borgas described the scientific agency’s decision to cut jobs within its wireless and network technology program as “baffling” and has urged management to rethink its position.rn
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NextDC preps site for WA data centre
NextDC is gearing up to begin building its fifth Australian data centre, a 9600 square metre facility in Malaga, Western Australia dubbed “P1”, which will come online in the fourth quarter of 2013.rn
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Profile: Tim Parsons, chief innovation and operating officer, Quickflix
It’s quite plausible that Tim Parsons is the only Australian technology specialist who can lay claim to being part of a research team that has helped improve safety for spacecraft re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere.rn
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More ICT jobs as industry grows 11 per cent
Around 12,300 new ICT jobs are expected to be available in the year to February 2013 with further growth anticipated to 2015 unless Australia enters a minimum two year recession, according to data from the Australian Computer Society.
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Water treatment giant bridges language divide
Global water treatment organisation, MWH is planning to deploy an extension to its Microsoft Lync deployment that translates instant messages between staff across 180 offices in 35 countries.rn
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Henley Properties Group solves document control woes
When Jeremy Bree arrived at Henley Properties Group as CIO in 2010, one of his first tasks was to bring some order and control to clunky methods of managing millions of documents.
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Vodafone to cut 500 jobs
Vodafone Australia has confirmed that it will cut around 500 jobs, about 10 per cent of its workforce, as part of a restructure announced today by CEO Bill Morrow.
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IBM unveils local enterprise cloud service
IBM has launched a new local enterprise cloud computing service – hosted at its data centre in Baulkham Hills in Sydney – suitable for organisations wanting to deploy hybrid cloud models.
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Australian Red Cross gets $3M IT boost
Australian Red Cross will deploy new enterprise software as part of an initiative to consolidate its business systems and improve its retail and fundraising services under a $3 million contract.
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CIO Summit: Lawyer navigates BYOD software minefield
Organisations implementing bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives often forget to consider if their software licence agreements are broad enough to cover devices under their programs, according to a technology lawyer.rn
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AARNet helps students and staff cut the cable in Qld hospitals
Australia’s Academic Research Network (AARNet) has expanded its “eduroam” high speed wireless network in several hospitals across Queensland.rn
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Telstra talks up expanded 4G coverage
Telstra will spend $1.2 billion in fiscal 2013 to extend 4G mobile network coverage to two-thirds of the Australian population, as the telco looks to add to an existing base of more than 500,000 4G customers.rn
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Telstra reports 26 per cent drop in customer complaints
Telstra experienced a 26 per cent reduction in customer complaints in fiscal 2012 and 30 per cent of its interactions with customers are now online, Telstra CEO David Thodey told shareholders this morning at the company’s AGM.rn
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