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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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Defence drops distributed computing initiative
The Department of Defence said on Thursday it won’t proceed with planned market testing of a Distributed Computing Bundle, which formed part of the agency’s massive ICT transformation program.rn
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Mills takes reins at QLD govt
Andrew Mills started work as CIO at the Queensland government on Monday, presiding over the government’s new ICT strategy and action plan to improve service delivery across the state.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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Cloud vendors not cutting it, say govt CIOs
Everyone’s talking about cloud computing, but some government CIOs are still not convinced, arguing that the market is still immature with one saying that some vendors are simply “repackaging” outsourcing services.rn
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TPG loses appeal, $2M fine reinstated for misleading ads
The High Court of Australia today reinstated a $2 million penalty against telecommunications service provider TPG relating to misleading advertisements on appeal by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).rn
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NAB appoints David Boyle as CIO
NAB has appointed former Ernst & Young partner David Boyle as its new CIO. He replaces David McGee, who resigned in late August.rn
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Updated: Federal Court dismisses Aust Post trade mark appeal
The Federal Court has dismissed an appeal by Australia Post that digital mail service Digital Post Australia infringed on its trade mark.rn
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Microsoft Kinect research centre opens in Melbourne
Researchers and academics will explore uses for social interactive technologies at a new $8 million research centre launched today at the University of Melbourne.rn
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Queensland government to provide 200 services online by 2015
The Queensland government will move around 200 services online by 2015 as part of its 'one stop shop plan’ to deliver multi-channel services to ratepayers across the state.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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Scientists create mega quantum system cluster
Scientists at three universities – including two in Australia – have created what they claim to be the world’s largest quantum circuit board, an essential component in high-powered laser light computers.rn
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Westfield rolls out ‘searchable mall’ app
Westfield Group has unveiled a “searchable mall” app that helps consumers find items to purchase before they visit one of the company’s shopping centres.rn
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So you’re studying IT?
Young women studying information technology degrees at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) discuss the gender gap in their chosen industry and why computing is no longer the domain of geeky males.rn
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Queensland gets a new CIO
The Queensland government has appointed former SA government IT head Andrew Mills as its new CIO.
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CUA completes $60M core system upgrade
Large customer-owned financial institution CUA announced on Tuesday it had completed a $60 million core banking system upgrade to integrate its customer banking products, and online and mobile access services.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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Westpac increases IT spend as improvement project nears completion
Westpac Group’s IT costs rose over the past 12 months as the bank nears completion of a five-year program to improve the stability of its technology infrastructure, and enhance its front-end and product systems.
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NBN Co starts weekly progress reports
NBN Co has begun publishing a weekly report on its website that for the first time distinguishes between premises passed by fibre and able to connect to the network and those not yet connected.rn
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Victorian Department of Health slammed in ICT system audit
The Victorian Department of Health has failed to implement clinical ICT systems across 19 of the state’s health services due to poor planning and inadequate understanding of system requirements, according to a damning audit report released Wednesday.rn
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Lonely Planet to drop SAP for NetSuite
Lonely Planet, the world’s largest travel guidebook publisher, will soon replace an SAP R/3 4.7 implementation with NetSuite OneWorld as part of a shift to the cloud.rn
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Government confirms Huawei NBN ban stands
The federal government will continue the ban on Chinese firm Huawei supplying networking equipment for the National Broadband Network (NBN), saying no decision has been made to change the existing policy introduced by Labor.
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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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NBN Co an employer in demand
NBN Co ranks number 8 in LinkedIn’s list of the most in demand employers across Australia, despite a recent management shakeup after the Coalition government took power.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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Australian Property Institute to save $1.94M with cloud service
The Australian Property Institute (API) expects to save $1.94 million in IT costs over the next five years by moving to a public cloud service.
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National e-health still has a future despite problems: CIOs
Technology heads in the healthcare sector continue to back the federal government’s controversial and slow moving national e-health record program, saying it has a future despite lacking the critical mass it needs to succeed.
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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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Queensland government seeks CIO to drive IT reforms
The Department of Science, Information Technology and the Arts (DSITIA) in Queensland has gone to market for a new CIO to lead the state government’s recently announced ICT reforms.rn
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Utility computing can ease big data pain
Adopting cloud or utility computing models can ease the pain for organisations analysing large amounts unstructured and structured data to gain insights that improve their competitiveness.
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From electronics engineer to CIO
In the early 2000s, Rod Apostol realised he needed to develop some business acumen to get ahead. A highly-technical individual, Apostol first became a CIO in 2001 at Greater Shepparton City Council in regional Victoria and spent 11 years in the role.rn
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Coalition puts IT governance in the frame
The Coalition has proposed a new structure where ultimate authority for “effective whole-of-government ICT decisions” would rest with the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.rn
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Coalition ICT policy to focus on transparency, digital services
The Coalition's ICT plan, unveiled today, focuses on improving transparency around government technology spending, encourage agencies to use cloud services and providing Australians with a free digital mailbox to receive communication from all levels of government.
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Queensland government unveils ICT ‘action plan’
The Queensland government has unveiled a new ‘ICT action plan’ outlining how it intends to better manage technology rollouts following Queensland Health’s high profile $1.2 billion payroll disaster.rn
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Bonuses still used to lure tech staff
A Sydney-based chief security officer who received a $276,500 bonus is one of 1300 Australian IT workers showered with cash and other benefits designed to attract and retain key staff.rn
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CIOs controlling less than 60% of IT spend
CIOs across Asia Pacific now directly control less than 60 per cent of enterprise IT spending and “time is running out for CIOs to partner with the business”, according to Forrester Research’s Dane Anderson.rn
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E-commerce: ‘I’ve never heard so much bullshit talked about a business model,’ says Razorfish boss
Razorfish MD Doug Chapman has taken aim at e-commerce in Australia, telling attendees at the CIO Summit that he had “never heard so much bullshit talked about a business model since the dot com days of the new millennium.”rn
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CommBank reports huge drop in IT system incidents
The Commonwealth Bank (CBA) has lauded its seven-year technology transformation project as a key reason for significant improvements in system reliability, reporting an 83 per cent drop in “high impact incidents” between FY07 and FY13.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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Interview: Michael Harte, CIO, Commonwealth Bank
As the Commonwealth Bank’s Wired for Wonder conference came to a close, CIO caught up with the bank’s chief information officer, Michael Harte, to discuss innovation in IT, delivering competitive advantage and technologies that will have an impact over the next year.
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ANU launches Australia’s largest supercomputer
A $26 million supercomputer capable of completing 170,000 calculations for every human on the Earth every second was unveiled on Wednesday at the Australian National University (ANU).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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CIO Summit 2013: Wrap up
More than 200 CIOs and technologists gathered at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre on Tuesday for the latest leg of the CIO Summit 2013.rn
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Department of Human Services to rip out ageing child support system
The federal government’s Department of Human Services (DHS) is set to replace a core system that processes around $3.2 billion in transactions each year to provide financial support to 1.2 million children.rn
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