The X-Pert Group has announced its project business solution, the X-Pert Managing By Project Portal. The portal is intended to aid businesses in acquiring, sorting and managing their project information, in order to improve project decision-making processes whilst improving project delivery. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
Number portability, here in September, is set to negatively affect the smaller or less well-equipped least cost routing (LCR) solution providers from a cost perspective. There are fears that they will pass this on to their customers in the form of higher telecommunication costs. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
Acer has taken top spot in the local notebook market and moved up to third place in the client-access (combined notebook and PC) market in the second quarter of 2006, according to the latest IDC EMEA PC Tracker. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
Softworx, regional master distributor of SSA Global in SA, has confirmed that Infor, a global provider of enterprise software, has completed the acquisition of SSA Global. The name change follows the completion of Infor's $1,4bn acquisition of SSA Global last month. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
Standard Bank says that it has introduced Internet banking on the cellphone designed to take advantage of the latest developments in modern cell phones and their ability to access the Internet. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
RMB Asset Management, a division of JSE-listed financial services group, FirstRand, says that it has successfully implemented LatentZero Capstone to manage its assets of more than R200bn. Capstone is LatentZero's front-office suite for buy-side institutions, and its implementation was led by LatentZero's local partner, Peresys. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
With a deadline for delivery of just four weeks, Schreuder Engineering Services says that it recently designed and manufactured a specialised conveyor for offloading fish, by harnessing 3D software technology from productONE. Competitors said the deadline could not be met. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
Sybase, a provider of enterprise infrastructure and mobile software, has announced the Sybase Data Integration Suite, a solution that aims to combine key data integration techniques, including replication, data federation, extract, transform and load (ETL), real-time events and data search with integrated development and administration. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
As the annual SA Oracle User Group conference draws nearer, the focus on finding equilibrium in Oracle technology environments, following the vendor's acquisition of several enterprise application and technology vendors, is set to come under scrutiny during the course of the Sun City event, which will be held from September 25 - 27. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
Avaya has expanded its local team in sub-Saharan Africa, with the appointment of Craig Butler as business development manager for the coastal regions. Butler brings much experience and knowledge to the local office, including 16 years in the communications market. His new business development responsibilities with Avaya will span both the KwaZulu-Natal and Cape regions. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
The local call centre industry is growing rapidly, at approximately 8% every year, currently employs over 60 000 agents, and contributes about 1% of SA's GDP, says Keryn House, CEO of ContactinGauteng. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
Lenovo, the world's Number 3 PC vendor, and the company that "picked up the baton" from IBM in the development and marketing of the PC less than 18 months ago, is this year celebrating the 25th anniversary of the PC. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
Demand for semiconductor intellectual property (IP) is growing, and the demand is shifting from simple IP to complex IP, according to Gartner. Worldwide IP revenue is projected to total $1,8bn in 2006, a 24,9% increase from 2005 revenue of $1,4bn. By 2010, worldwide semiconductor IP is forecast to surpass $2,7bn. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
Two researchers working within Cardiff University's School of Computer Science, Professor Antonia J Jones and Joseph R Rabaiotti, together with a third independent researcher, Stuart P Goring, have released details of a problem with HSBC's online banking system. The bank was informed of the issue prior to publication. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
In co-operation with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission and other regulatory agencies worldwide, Dell is announcing the voluntary recall of approximately 4,1m Dell-branded lithium-ion batteries with cells manufactured by Sony. Under rare conditions, it is possible for these batteries to overheat, which could cause a risk of fire. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
Research by independent market analyst Datamonitor (DTM.L) reveals that the number of annual Voice-XML-based Interactive voice response (IVR) shipments in China will rise from a mere 7 000 by the end of 2006 to over 66 000 by 2010, overtaking traditional touchtone IVR systems as the dominant platform in the country. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
Samsung Electronics says that it has developed a three-inch LCD panel with VGA (640 x 480 pixels) resolution that directly meets industry interface standards for digital still cameras. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
BMC Software has announced that fiscal 2007 first quarter net earnings on a GAAP basis were $31m, or $0,15 per diluted share, compared to a loss of $41m, or a loss of $0,19 per diluted share in the year-ago period. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
The European Conference and Exhibition on Optical Communication (ECOC) - the second largest event of its kind in the world - has received nearly 1000 proposals for technical papers for this year's event in Cannes - a record. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
Novell has announced an update to Sentinel from Novell, the security information and event management solution acquired with e-Security. This release is claimed to mark a milestone in Novell's commitment to delivering a single, real-time view of security and compliance activities across the entire enterprise. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
Novell has announced that one of the largest home furnishings retailers in the USA is installing SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 from Novell on all of its in-store sales terminals across more than 320 stores. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
HP today announced financial results for its third fiscal quarter ended 31 July, with net revenue of $21,9bn, representing growth of 5% year-over-year, or 6% when adjusted for the effects of currency. GAAP operating profit was $1,5bn and GAAP diluted earnings per share (EPS) were $0,48 per share, up from $0,03 in the prior year period. GAAP financial information for the third quarter 2005 reflects a tax adjustment resulting from HP's decision to repatriate $14,5bn in cash from foreign earnings. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
Welsh scientists are part of a consortium that has been awarded a one million pound (R13m) grant to drive forward smart microchip technology - the next generation of power electronics with the potential to radically reduce the world's energy consumption. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
Panda Software has warned users about Oscarbot.KD (CME-482), said to be the first worm that exploits the Microsoft MS06-040 vulnerability to infect systems, allowing a remote attacker to take a series of malicious action on compromised computers. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
ICT World exclusive
Overland Storage has released version 3.0 of its REO Protection OS, the data protection software integrated with every REO Series disk-based back-up and recovery appliance. With this latest release, Overland claims to have delivered performance improvements designed to accommodate ever-shrinking back-up windows, while preserving initial REO hardware investments. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
ICT World exclusive
The local market has seen a major uptake of Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), with a recent announcement by Telkom that it will reduce its rates expected to further boost adoption. This alternative to dial-up and the costlier leased line aims to meet the needs of many markets, including, most significantly, the SME market. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
A 'dangerous' vulnerability has been identified and patched by Microsoft in Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows 2003 versions. In the next few days this can lead to attacks on the scale of the 2003 MS Blaster worm, say security analysts at MicroWorld Technologies. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
ICT World exclusive
Cognos, a BI and performance management solutions vendor, has announced the results of a recent security evaluation on Cognos 8 Business Intelligence performed by Symantec. Cognos 8 BI aims to help enterprise customers worldwide to continue to progress BI standardisation and performance management initiatives with increased confidence in secure information delivery and access throughout the organisation. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
AMD has announced broad software industry support for its upcoming next generation AMD Opteron processor family, which aims to provide the independent software vendor (ISV) and open source software development communities with hardware support for the development of the next evolution of business-class enterprise applications. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
Gigabyte Technology's flagship chassis', the Poseidon and Triton, are now available from official distributor, Rectron. The chassis form part of Gigabyte's 3D Aurora series, claimed to feature the same design and functionality advancements. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
Lenovo and Novell have announced a Linux-based ThinkPad mobile workstation, which will run Novell's recently released SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 operating system. The workstation is based on Intel Centrino Duo mobile technology. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
Oracle has announced the availability of Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise Customer Relationship Management (CRM) 9. Highlights of this release are said to include enhancements designed specifically for the financial services and communications industries, usability enhancements designed to help increase productivity, and increased use of Oracle Fusion Middleware. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
Hyperion, distributed locally by Intellient, has released Hyperion System 9 Financial Data Quality Management, a packaged solution for finance users to develop standardised financial data management processes. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
SMC Networks SA has announced that the TigerAccess 24-port Extended Ethernet VDSL2 Solution, which supports VDSL2 technology, will be available locally in the fourth quarter of this year. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
Logitech and Skype say that they have expanded their relationship by producing a complete solution for Internet calling dedicated to Skype users worldwide - the Logitech EasyCall Desktop. The desktop combines a mouse, headset and speakerphone with a Skype-specific keyboard, the companies say. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
Lightedge, a national IT distributor and technology services company specialising in advanced Microsoft infrastructures, hardware platform integration and headquartered in Cape Town, expects to grow its business by 20% during the next financial year. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
ICT World Exclusive
Any retail business begins and ends with the customer, and when retail IT systems are used simply as a back-room support function they end up having very little impact on the customer, except for keeping the point of sale (POS) system functioning properly. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
There still seems to be much confusion about what is meant by convergence and what it can actually offer to whom. What is clear, however, is that it differs from organisation to organisation. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
Locally developed software has, for many years, been perceived as the poor cousin of its US, UK and Australian counterparts. SA IT gurus believe that, when it comes down to locally developed products, we are our own worst critics. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
Consolidation in the marketplace is gathering pace. Hot on the heels of the announcements that Hummingbird has recommended to its shareholders that they accept the bid from Open Text, Stellent was acquiring SealedMedia, and Brocade was to acquire McData, IBM has announced its third software vendor acquisition in the space of about a week. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
Supplier of ERP solutions, Softline Enterprise, has launched an initiative aimed at driving integration of its flagship products. Ashley Ellington, MD at Softline Enterprise, says the increasing demand for integration has spearheaded the company's new strategy. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
i-mate, a specialist in Microsoft Windows Mobile devices and software applications, has been awarded Gold Certified status in the Microsoft partner programme with a competency in mobility solutions. Microsoft Gold Certified Partners are chosen from selected Microsoft Business Partners who earn the highest customer endorsement. [Issue:One hundred and ninety nine (14/8/06 - 18/8/06)]
