It is often difficult for call centre agents to assist clients when they do not understand the language being used for communication. To this effect, The Pan South African Language Board, in association with ForgeAhead's African ICT Achiever for top ICT Businessman in Africa, Thabo Olivier, has created a language tool. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Vodacom announces lower roaming rates
Vodacom has announced the arrival of Vodafone Passport - the roaming option which aims to allow Vodacom Contract customers to take their home tariff with them, when making or receiving calls while travelling overseas. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Local trade conditions show deterioration
The conditions of trade within the local business environment deteriorated slightly in September, after having improved in the previous month, according to the latest Absa/South African Chamber of Business (SACOB) Trade Conditions Survey. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
PMP launches Datamax H-Class
ProScan Media Products (PMP) has introduced the Datamax H-Class family of printers, which aim to combine high performance, durability and accurate print quality for high volume, mission-critical and specialty labelling applications. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Nashua Mobile has launched a multimedia messaging services (MMS) portal that aims to give companies of all sizes the ability to easily communicate with their customers using MMS as a tool. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Mimecast makes inroads into SA's user base
Mimecast, a specialist e-mail management and security company headquartered in London, has expanded its operations into this country, where, it says, it has already gained a strong foothold within the market, and established a base of some 22 000 users. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Investec selects Reveleus for Basel II compliance
Reveleus, a business of i-flex solutions and a global provider of analytical applications for the financial services industry, has announced that Investec, an international banking group that provides a diverse range of financial products and services to a select client base, has selected the Reveleus Basel II Solution. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
In its biggest tender win to date, Bidvest Group company, Minolta SA, has been awarded a three-year contract to supply national government with mid- to high-volume black and white and colour multifunctional devices. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Leaf Wireless to develop African 'smart device' market
"There is no doubt that Windows Mobile is the operating system of the future. HTC is a provider of Microsoft Windows Mobile devices, and Leaf has strong credentials in the same field." [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
MigrationWare provides offshore development services for LogicaCMG
MigrationWare, a Cape Town-based company that specialises in application system migrations, has been contracted by LogicaCMG, a European IT services company, to assist with the development of essential additions to its rFrame Financial Reporting application. This added functionality is aimed at supporting the Basel II regulations which go live in 2007. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
BulkSMS.com, a Cape Town-based wireless application service provider, has expanded its operations to offer support desk services to its German and Spanish business clients. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
The status of ICT within local government - report
According to ForgeAhead's ICT in Local Government Research Report, the local government ICT budget is expected to grow by 22% this year and 13% in 2007/2008. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Elizabeth Montalbano, IDG News Service (New York Bureau)
Microsoft has released what it believes will be the last test version of Windows Vista before the product is released to manufacturing. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Hackers find use for Google Code Search
Robert McMillan, IDG News Service (San Francisco Bureau)
Google has inadvertently given online attackers a new tool. The company's source-code search engine, unveiled last week as a tool to help to simplify life for developers, can also be misused to search for software bugs, password information, and even proprietary code that should not have been posted to the Internet in the first place, security experts say. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
French govt wants 4m online via fibre by 2012
Peter Sayer, IDG News Service (Paris Bureau)
French Minister for industry, François Loos, wants service providers to link four million homes to the Internet using ultra-high-speed fibre to the home (FTTH) connections by 2012. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Nokia completes navigation software company buy
Nancy Gohring, IDG News Service (Dublin Bureau)
Nokia has completed its acquisition of navigation software company Gate5 AG, just a week after licensing hundreds of navigation patents from Trimble Navigation. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
HP hires ethics and compliance officer
Robert Mullins, IDG News Service (San Francisco Bureau)
Hewlett-Packard (HP) is hiring a chief ethics and compliance officer to make sure that its businesses practices, sullied by a boardroom spying scandal, remain on the straight and narrow. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
AMD's proposed acquisition of ATI receives Canadian approval
Advanced Micro Devices, (AMD) and ATI Technologies (ATI) have announced that the proposed acquisition of ATI by AMD has been approved by the Minister of Industry under the Investment Canada Act, satisfying one of the conditions to the closing of the acquisition. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Fujitsu to offer flash-disk option with laptops
Martyn Williams, IDG News Service (Tokyo Bureau)
Fujitsu will soon join two other major PC makers in putting on sale a portable computer that uses flash memory in place of the traditional hard-disk drive. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Ericsson's high-performance broadband named best access technology
Ericsson's High-Performance EDA (VDSL2) solution has been named as 2006's best access technology by the International Engineering Consortium (IEC) at Broadband World Forum 2006. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Webroot and Sophos join forces to combat Internet security threats
Webroot Software, a provider of anti-spyware software for consumers, and Sophos, whose solutions aim to protect businesses against viruses, spyware and spam, have announced a technology partnership that intends to bring to market a new standard of protection against the most dangerous Internet security threats. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Integr8 IT extends its business frontier in Africa
Integr8 IT, a local network integration and infrastructure management specialist, has completed the roll-out of Computer Associates technology as part of a Disaster Recovery Project initiated by the Botswana Export Development Investment Authority (BEDIA). [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
European businesses weighed down by security labyrinth
McAfee has announced findings from new research which reveals that a desire for easier management of IT security is being undermined by complex security purchasing strategies. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Nokia expands channel for new enterprise products
Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service (San Francisco Bureau)
Nokia is enlisting systems integrators and value-added resellers in its drive to deliver more complete mobile systems to enterprises. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Nortel claims a fatter WiMax pipe
Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service (San Francisco Bureau)
With some vendors and service providers looking to WiMax as the next big acceleration in wireless, Nortel Networks says it has a supercharged version of that system. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
MTN, Ericsson and GSMA to use biofuels to expand mobile coverage
The MTN Group, the GSM Association and Ericsson have teamed up to establish biofuels as an alternative source of power for wireless networks in the developing world. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Supercomputer users plan fast quad adoption
Patrick Thibodeau, Computerworld (US)
Users of high-performance computers are already making plans for x86-based, quad-core processors due from Intel next month and from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) by mid-2007. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Acer SA has announced the immediate local availability of the Windows Vista Ready Acer TravelMate 4280 and TravelMate 4230 notebooks, which both feature 15,4" widescreen displays as well as the latest Intel dual-core processors, the company says. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Wireless Dimensions, the IP communications and security company, has released version 2 of its security and Internet management tool, called WD Guard. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Workgroup Horizon announces Sun servers
The Sun division of Workgroup, Horizon CDP, has announced the local availability of a range of AMD Opteron-powered servers and workstations, namely the Sun Fire X2100 M2 server, the Sun Fire X2200 M2 server and the Sun Ultra 20 M2 workstation. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Norton product 'protects against fraud when conducting online transactions'
Symantec has announced the availability of Norton Confidential, said to be a comprehensive online transaction security solution. Norton Confidential aims to provide consumers with a dual level of protection against the most dangerous tools in an attacker's toolkit: fraudulent phishing Web sites and eavesdropping crimeware. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Symantec unveils solution designed to protect enterprise databases
Symantec has announced Symantec Database Security, a solution that aims to reduce risks to information stored in major enterprise database management systems. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Acer Veriton 1000 'puts high performance in ultra-small form factor'
Acer SA has announced the local release of the Veriton 1000 PC, an ultra-compact desktop PC that is designed to provide a full menu of features in a form factor that is up to 10 times smaller than conventional tower PCs. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Oracle buys Sunopsis
Oracle has announced plans to enhance its Oracle Fusion Middleware offerings through the acquisition of Sunopsis, a provider of heterogeneous data integration products. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Dell expands SME portfolio with PowerEdge servers
Dell has announced the launch of a portfolio of five business-ready enterprise-class PowerEdge servers, claimed to offer up to 211% improvement in performance and specially designed for SMEs as well as larger enterprises the Dell PowerEdge 840, 860, SC440, SC1430 and 1900. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Clearswift 'simplifies content security for internal e-mail'
Clearswift says that it has continued to simplify content security by launching revised versions of its internal e-mail solutions: MIMEsweeper for Exchange and MIMEsweeper for Domino. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
P975X Core 2 Duo board available from Pinnacle
Advancing platforms for extreme gaming, intensive multimedia and demanding business applications, Pinnacle Micro has announced the local availability of Foxconn's 975X7AB-8EKRS2H. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Dell 1800MP projects XGA performance
Dell has introduced the 1800MP projector, which is designed to deliver high quality image and text reproduction to businesses, educators and consumers across Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
HP Laserjet P3005 and P2015 series targets SMEs
SMEs, especially those in document-intensive professions like accounting, human resources and law, are the target market for HP's P3005 and P2015 Series printers, which are said to be compact, fast and reliable and capable of printing documents at professional-quality 1200 dpi. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Covisint's collaborative healthcare platform 'helps to control costs'
Compuware Covisint says that it has leveraged its existing infrastructure to provide a collaborative exchange that enables access to and improved visibility of critical healthcare information, resulting in reduced costs and an increase in the quality of care. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Novell introduces virtualisation solution optimised for Intel technology
The latest accessory for stylish desktops is said to weigh two kilograms, measure 5 x 16,5 x 16,5cm, and offer full computing power. With its Esprimo Q5000 Mini PC, Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC) says that it is striking out on a completely new path in the field of professional desktop PCs. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
One laptop - one desktop - one monitor
IT infrastructure distributor, Axiz has announced the availability of a switch designed to share one monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers between two computers. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Gigabyte delivers gaming and home technology
Gigabyte Technology says that it is knocking the digital visual experience up another notch with the launch of the AGP GeForce 7600GS GPU, which is being distributed in SA by Rectron. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Annex Distribution, local distributor of Intel products, has announced the availability of Intel's SR2500AL - an enterprise-level 2u rack-optimised system level server platform. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
CyberMatrix has released version 2 of In Out Scheduler, a multi-user attendance tracking application. With this release there is a feature to automatically export the schedule to an HTML file that regularly updates itself, the company says. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Stackable switches from ProCurve 'provide cost-effective performance'
ProCurve Networking by HP has expanded its Layer 2 stackable Ethernet product line with the introduction of three series of switches that aim to offer high reliability and cost-effective performance. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Corex announces silent liquid cooling system
Corex has announced a silent liquid cooling system from Thermaltake. The Orchestra cooling system, equipped with oversized radiator fins and an all-aluminium enclosure, is designed to create a near zero decibel operation environment, aiming to make it one of the most efficient cooling systems on the market. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Axis camera 'carries a lot in a small package'
The Axis 207MW from Axis Communications is claimed to pack a lot into a very small package, and is said to be the smallest wireless megapixel camera in the world. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
'Enhance your virtual world with PhysX'
Physics is all about how objects move and react, a challenge in the gaming environment. Based on a set of physics algorithms, the gaming environment is extremely compute-intensive, requiring tremendous amounts of mathematical and logical calculations supported by massive memory bandwidth. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
FSC 'breathes new life into mobility' with T Series
Annex Distribution, a local distribution partner to Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC), has announced the availability of the revamped Lifebook T-Series professional notebook range. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Transcend releases 8GB SDHC secure digital card
Transcend Information, a world supplier of flash memory cards, has announced the 8GB high-capacity SDHC. The SD card is the most popular flash memory standard in the world now, and the SDHC (SD High-Capacity) is the new generation of SD cards (Version 2.0). [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
IBM recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of hard-disk storage; and, looking at those humble beginnings half a century ago, it is hard to believe just how much storage volumes have grown and costs have plummeted. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Manufacturers fudging LCD response times?
Corporates and consumers in the market for Liquid Crystal Display (LCDs) - whether for use with business applications, or for gaming, video or television - need to be aware of the questions being raised around the validity of LCD response times as quoted by manufacturers. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Compliance 'defining and securing today's business landscape
Christo van Staden, director at Carrick Holdings
Compliance has emerged as a key issue within the modern workplace. Businesses are compelled to prove the credibility and success of policies and procedures and this process takes on a new meaning when focused on IT security. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Anti-spam versus content filtering - clearing the haze
There is a common misperception that anti-spam and content filtering are one and the same, with the result that anti-spam solutions often get a bad wrap from companies that expect the software to perform content filtering tasks and visa versa. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
The success of security training lies in the approach
A company's approach has everything to do with the success of IT security training and skills development, says Christo van Staden, director of Carrick Holdings, a local provider of security solutions, training and consulting services. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Locking down Pandora's box
ICT World exclusive
The Internet is an important business tool, but it is also a Pandora's box of spam, viruses, worms and spyware - invasive and harmful bits of code that that can bring a company's network to a screeching halt and put its data at risk. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Service management skills - why we are not taking the road less travelled
Charles Osburn, CEO at Quintica
It has become blatantly obvious that Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) skills are no longer an interesting resume add-on, but an essential job prerequisite. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
Re-inventing the CFO
Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) are under greater pressure than ever before. While they aspire to be business partners, their departments have shrunk, their people are stretched to breaking point and they continue to struggle with basic accounting tasks. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
ProScan Media Products (PMP), specialist in barcode labelling products and printing solutions, recently announced the opening of a Datamax warehouse in Europe, which is expected to benefit its customer base in SA immediately, through an elevated level of service and enhanced logistical capabilities. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
10Net ICT Solutions has secured the distribution rights to BullGuard software for sub-Saharan Africa. The product is a full Internet security suite that includes anti-virus, spam and spyware filters, firewall and online backup with 24 x 7 online interactive chat support, the company says. [Issue:Two hundred and seven (9/10/06 - 13/10/06)]
