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Articles by Byron Connolly
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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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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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Flinders University to spend $14M on high-speed network
Adelaide’s Flinders University will spend $14 million on a next-generation campus network, which will provide 22,000 students and 2000 staff with 1Gbps speeds to the desktop while supporting a big push to the cloud.rn
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ING Direct unveils new mobile banking app
Online bank ING Direct has updated its mobile banking capabilities with a new app that lets users view their balances across all accounts before logging in, and transfer money to anyone in Australia with email or SMS notifications.rn
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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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UPDATED: Australian PC market slumps in Q1
Australian consumers delayed or skipped buying new PCs in the first calendar quarter of 2013 as tablet computers rise in popularity, according to new IDC research. The PC market pain is also likely to continue for the rest of the year with IDC predicting a decline of 15 per cent this year over 2012.rn
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Australia Post’s mail business to lose $200 million this year
Australia Post’s traditional mail business will lose $200 million this year as one of this country’s most recognised brands adjusts to the online world.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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CenITex to become service “broker”
CenITex, the Victorian government’s troubled ICT shared services agency, appears to be planning to shift from a provider to a broker of ICT services.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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Scientists demonstrate key component of quantum machine
Mass production of incredibly powerful quantum computers may be only 10 years away thanks to researchers at the University of New South Wales who have demonstrated a quantum bit based on the nucleus of a single atom in silicon.rn
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Inside the government’s data centre transformation
In April 2008, the Australian government engaged Sir Peter Gershon to lead an independent review of its use and management of ICT. At the time, the government was spending $870 million per year on outsourced and insourced data centres.rn
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WA child services seeks its first CIO
The Department for Child Protection in Western Australia is on the hunt for its first CIO to create a co-ordinated IT strategy to improve service delivery to around 2200 staff across the state.
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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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Get some perspective on IT pricing, says licensing expert
Software specialist Filipa Preston has weighed in on the IT pricing debate, saying although prices are in most instances too high, many of the figures quoted during last week’s parliamentary inquiry were “not representative of the reality.”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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NAB operations overhaul to save $800 million annually
National Australia Bank (NAB) expects to save $800 million annually in a five year plan which includes reducing the complexity of its technology systems, centralising operations and support functions, and reshuffling senior management positions.rn
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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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Is it worthwhile hiring junior IT staff?
The post-GFC economic climate is still volatile, which is forcing many organisations to cut back on new staff hires and make do with their existing roster. This is particularly true for IT departments, with 2013 shaping up to be a slow year for IT recruitment, with minimal hiring.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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Daily office admin making us less productive: research
Australian office workers are becoming less productive as they wrestle with the rising number of manual administration tasks and increased regulation and compliance processes, according to new research.
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Pepper Group rolling out data warehouse-in-a-box
Financial services organisation Pepper Group is deploying what is claimed to be Australia’s first fully-integrated data warehouse-in-a-box, an appliance that doesn’t require IT support.rn
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CIOs struggling to meet information demands of CMOs
CIOs are struggling the meet the data demands of chief marketing officers (CMOs) who are hungry for fast access to a lot of information, according to Tristan Sternson, managing director at Melbourne-based information management consultancy InfoReady.rn
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CIOs need to be “integrated with the business”: Defence CIO
In this second part of his interview with CIO Australia, newly-appointed Defence CIO Dr Peter Lawrence discusses why chief information officers must work closely with other C-level execs, and the effect of social media on IT organisations.
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Interview: Dr Peter Lawrence, CIO, Department of Defence
Dr Peter Lawrence, the newly appointed CIO at the Department of Defence, admits he has “one of the larger and more complex CIO roles in Australia at the moment.”rn
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Finding the future-state CIO
In the second and final part of this series on the history and future of the chief information officer, we ask if CIOs need to become process and information architects to drive innovation inside their organisations.
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Department of Health and Ageing to digitise 40 million patient records
The Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA) will digitise more than 40 million patient records stored on almost obsolete microfiche archive equipment between 1975 and 1984 before the government’s Medicare scheme was introduced.rn
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NSW government revamps IT services procurement
The NSW government today announced an overhaul of its primary ICT contract processes, claimed to make it easier for agencies to procure the services they need.rn
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Anti-cyber-bullying tool creator inks deals with hardware giants
ProtectaChild, an Australian company that has built software which helps parents protect their children from cyber-bullying and online predators, has signed agreements with hardware giants Acer and Lenovo to help build sales of the tool.
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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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IT bosses want to hire this quarter: Hudson
Almost half of IT bosses across Australia have plans to hire staff in the first three months of 2013, according an employment trends report released overnight by recruiter, Hudson.rn
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Liquid metal marbles coated in “nanoparticles” to advance soft electronics
Just one week after announcing a breakthrough nanotechnology material, RMIT University scientists have created droplets of liquid metal coated in nanoparticles, which they claim will advance research into soft electronics and industrial sensing technology.rn
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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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IT job market to slow next year
There was a steady slide in IT recruitment in the fourth quarter of this year and the outlook for 2013 is no better, according to recruitment firm Ambition.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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Adcorp to buy CSC’s Australian IT staffing business
CSC has agreed to sell Paxus, its Australian IT staff unit, to South African employment services company Adcorp for US$73.5 million.rn
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