AppWrap August 2008

iStart’s monthly summary of news and deals affecting Australia’s enterprise ICT market...

Incomplete data: a near universal cost

97 percent of Australian organisations believe inaccurate or incomplete data costs their organisation in terms of wasted revenue, resources and productivity, according to a survey by contact data management specialist Experian QAS. The survey of 2,078 respondents with a data-related role within companies showed that worldwide, 48 percent of businesses do not know how much revenue and resources are wasted on inaccurate and incomplete data while in Australia, 39 per cent of businesses do not know what impact poor data management has.

City of Wangaratta signs TechnologyOne

Enterprise software solutions provider TechnologyOne has won a contract worth more than $1.1 million to supply its Financials, Supply Chain, Works & Assets, Property & Rating and Human Resources & Payroll solutions to the City of Wangaratta. Meanwhile, TechnologyOne has also won new business from two Australian health organisations: Healthscope, a large private healthcare provider with operations throughout Australasia, and the Whiddon Group, a not-for-profit organisation that provides aged care services to NSW residents.

Unisys is standardising its operation on key pieces of BMC Software’s Business Service Management (BSM) offering, including BMC Asset Management, Discovery, Performance Management, and Monitoring solutions, to support its IT outsourcing services delivery across Asia Pacific.

Wine Selectors, the country’s largest independent, direct supplier of wine, has chosen Eclipse Computing (Australia) Pty to implement Microsoft Dynamics NAV across its organisation. Wine Selectors’ general manager of operations, Dave Karlson, said Eclipse won the contract as a result of expertise and experience with the Dynamics NAV solution and its “solid understanding” of the wine industry. Eclipse’s VinPoint business solution is used across many Australian vineyards.

SmartSpeak Solutions, a specialist in hosting dynamic text-to-speech, speech recognition and interactive call flow services with operations in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, has implemented RightNow Technologies for customer incident management and web self-service technology.

Dimension Data has deployed a new internal collaboration platform for CrimTrac, the national law enforcement information-sharing agency. The new intranet is based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and provides the national government agency with a collaborative platform to increase productivity and enhance information-sharing among CrimTrac’s staff.

Global logistics management company Logistics+ has implemented CargoWise edi’s ediEnterprise software solution into its operations in the US, Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom, and says it plans to expand the system globally.

A consortium led by public sector software specialist Civica has been chosen to develop innovative learning technology for one of the five “FutureSchools” in Singapore, in a $S80 million ($A61.9 million) four-year project . The project, known as FutureSchools@Singapore, is a joint initiative of the Singapore Ministry of Education, the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore and the information technology industry. The Civica-led consortium includes Playware Studios, HeuLab and G Element.

Infosys has implemented its Finacle Universal Banking Solution for ANZ in Laos. It marks the first milestone in a multi-country deployment planned by ANZ over the next three years.

The South Australian Department of Health (SA Health) has selected electronic document and records management solution specialist Objective to deliver an enterprise-wide EDRMS to underpin SA Health’s key business processes, improve business efficiencies and assist with legislative compliance.

New version of Author-it solution released

Authoring and content management software specialist Author-it Software Corporation has released the latest version of its flagship solution, Author-it 5.1. The company says the addition of new functionality, including Object Variant capability and a Quick Search function, means the new release offers increased versatility while retaining all of the functionality of its predecessor, Author-it 5.0.

Fuji Xerox Australia has launched a new Carbon Calculator, designed to help Australian customers identify opportunities to reduce greenhouse gases and streamline their document systems.

Also in the carbon awareness space, Dimension Data has launched Office Sustainability Services, a suite of four service modules designed to provide office-based organisations with an integrated ICT approach to developing and executing greenhouse gas emission reduction initiatives.

Australian business intelligence software developer Yellowfin has released an enhanced version of its flagship solution, Yellowfin Business Intelligence 4.0. The company says the new version has an improved user interface using Web 2.0 technologies and a range of new functional elements including “location intelligence”.

Carbon measurement eludes most businesses

Only 22 percent of businesses have practices in place to enable them to measure carbon emissions, a survey of 2,500 IT professionals from medium and large businesses and government organisations found.  The second in an annual survey of Sun Microsystems’ Australian and New Zealand customers was commissioned to identify attitudes towards and practices in place to progress eco responsible business and IT practices. 

The Australian Information Industry Association has welcomed the release of the draft Garnaut Climate Change Review as a significant step towards understanding the future role of ICT in climate change management and emissions control across all areas of business, industry and government. A recent report by the Climate Group said that better use of technology could reduce worldwide emissions by 15 per cent – or five times more that the total emissions from the ICT sector – and save global industry over $800 billion in annual energy costs by 2020.

Lawson names partner engagement director

ERP vendor Lawson Software has appointed Axel van der Smagt as partner engagement director for the ANZ region, based in Sydney. He was previously ANZ managing principal mid-size enterprise at SAP.

Enterprise software solutions company TechnologyOne has appointment Roger Manu to the role of general manager, enterprise content management, DataWorks. Manu was previously sales director, Australia and Pacific Islands, at Fiserv CBS.

IT Service, infrastructure and CRM solutions developer FrontRange Solutions, which recently acquired Centennial Software, has appointed Matt Lowe as regional manager for the Centennial line of business in Asia Pacific. Lowe was previously channel manager for Centennial Software.

Enterprise content management solution provider Open Text has appointed Graham Pullen as Sydney-based vice president for Asia Pacific. Pullen joins Open Text with more than 25 years of experience in regional software sales and was most recently vice president and general manager Asia Pacific for Vignette Corporation.

As a result of Pullen’s move, web content management specialist Vignette Corporation has appointed Craig Broadbent as its new vice president and general manager, Asia Pacific. He was previously Vignette’s vice president, professional services.

Cúram Software, a social enterprise management solutions provider, has appointed Dirk Klein as managing director for Australia and New Zealand. Klein was previously state general manager, ACT and the federal sector, for Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand.

Stuart Rees has been appointed sales manager for the webMethods business division at business infrastructure software company Software AG. Rees has over 24 years of experience within the IT industry, including 16 years in software sales.

IT services and solution provider Dimension Data has appointed Mark Miller as Melbourne-based general manager – application integration, responsible for the business and financial strategy of Dimension Data’s Microsoft solutions – application integration line of business.

Sun and NSC form alliance

Sun Microsystems has formed a strategic alliance with NSC Enterprise Solutions in which NSC will add Sun’s range of thin clients to its converged communications solution portfolio. Australian owned and operated NSC Group specializes in the design, implementation, management and maintenance of IP telephony solutions.

Australian developer and supplier Mid-Comp International has launched the Stockman enterprise supply chain software solution for SMBs and is seeking channels partners. Stockman is a new shrink-wrapped version of Mid-Comp’s Odyssey enterprise solution, chosen recently by agribusiness giant Elders Limited. Third party logistics company Southern Cross Logistics is an early Stockman customer.