AppWrap November 2008

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

Tuapeka Gold Print picks SYSPRO Software for ERP

Tuapeka Gold Print, New Zealand’s largest supplier of printed pens and promotional products, has selected SYSPRO Software as its new company-wide ERP system to underpin rapid growth plans.

Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) in Scotland has chosen Australian enterprise business software solutions provider TechnologyOne to supply its financials, supply chain, and business intelligence solutions to the organisation.  SPT plays a major role in the operation of the Glasgow Subway. The organisation also has a strategic duty to improve transport connections across Strathclyde, as well as developing the transport network and encouraging changes to the way people travel.

OneSteel Whyalla has signed a contract with QMASTOR for the provision of QMASTOR’s Horizon advanced planning and scheduling system for OneSteel’s iron ore supply chain at Whyalla, South Australia. The agreement covers software design, installation and commissioning of QMASTOR’s Horizon APS with the majority of revenue to be received in the 2008/2009 financial year. Both parties expect to sign a support and maintenance contract for a period of five years in the coming months.

The Australian Defence Organisation has signed a contract extension of up to six years with electronic document and records management solution specialist Objective Corporation for support of its enterprise content management solution.

National Australia Bank (NAB) has purchased CCK Financial Solutions’ Guava Suite. The system will be used within NAB’s Group Treasury, initially to handle its Structured Notes business.

Footwear and apparel brands distributor True Alliance has selected Sterling Commerce (Australia) Pty Ltd, an AT&T subsidiary, in conjunction with HCL, to supply Sterling’s Multi-Channel Selling Solution. True Alliance says it chose to partner with Sterling Commerce and HCL in a strategy designed to build supply chain efficiency, improve customer service and enhance supplier relationships.

Accenture has signed a five-year, multi-million-dollar application outsourcing contract with Telstra, to maintain the telco’s customer care and billing platform, which Accenture helped design and deploy.

Utilities billing and provisioning platform Utilibill has incorporated business intelligence provider Yellowfin’s BI solution as its presentation layer for reporting for specific clients.

Macquarie University Private Hospital is set to become iSOFT’s first customer in the southern hemisphere for LORENZO Acute Care under a deal worth up to $7.6 million for a range of advanced healthcare IT applications to be deployed at Macquarie University’s new state-of-the-art hospital opening in the latter half of 2009.

Hansen Technologies to acquire Peace International

Hansen Technologies Limited is to purchase the Peace utility customer information system business from First Data Corporation. Hansen says the addition of Peace will complement its existing utility billing business. Andrew Hansen, managing director of Hansen said, “Although we have historically competed in the same utilities billing space, Peace and Hansen have only rarely been in direct competition. For Hansen, this purchase will represent not only a growth in our utility billing business revenues but it will also represent a positive expansion in our product range and areas of geographic influence.”

NetSuite delivers SuiteSuccess

On-demand business management software vendor NetSuite has launched SuiteSuccess, a professional services, training and customer support solution designed to address the economic requirements of mid-market companies deploying NetSuite's on-demand solutions for ERP, CRM and e-commerce.

Lawson Software has announced the availability of Lawson M3 Analytics for Food & Beverage, a new application it says helps food companies access meaningful business intelligence to improve decision-making without having to develop analytics tools in-house. Lawson Software has also announced the availability of Lawson Stock Build Optimizer and Lawson Planning Workbench for Food and Beverage, applications will help food and beverage manufacturers improve long- and mid-range production planning.

Software vendor Infor has used the inaugural Australian Inforum conference to unveil MyDay, a new role-based Web 2.0 user interface that sits on top of Infor's Open SOA platform. The preconfigured interface provides users with home page-style access to Infor application content, task lists, metrics and key performance indicators tailored for their job roles. Currently in limited release, MyDay will be rolled out across Infor solutions from January 2009 onwards.

CEOs want high-speed broadband

A survey of CEOs has concluded the development and deployment of a high speed national broadband network is now seen as crucial in building the future competitiveness of both Australian companies and the Australian economy. The survey, conducted by the Australian Industry Group in conjunction with Deloitte, canvassed 526 chief executive officers, representing companies with sales revenue of more than $82 billion, and employing around 215,000 people.

Fujitsu to build sustainable data centre

Fujitsu Australia has announced plans to build what it is calling “Australia’s most advanced, environmentally sustainable data centre” in Perth. The multi-million dollar facility, which will be purpose-designed and built to incorporate the latest developments in energy-efficient technology, is expected to open in late 2010. “Fujitsu will take the lessons learned from our new Sydney Data Centre, which opened just a few weeks ago, and refine them in the design and construction of this new, larger facility to set a new standard in data centre management,” said Rod Vawdrey, chief executive officer, Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand.

SAP taps Ian Black for COO role

SAP Australia New Zealand has appointed Ian Black as chief operating officer, reporting to ANZ president and CEO Tim Ebbeck. Black was previously SAP New Zealand’s managing director.

Enterprise software solutions provider TechnologyOne has appointed Robert Williams as general manager, TechnologyOne Works & Assets. Prior to his appointment as GM, Williams was TechnologyOne’s practice manager, Works & Assets.

Meanwhile TechnologyOne has appointed John Vickers to the role of general manager, TechnologyOne Plus, the custom software development arm of the company. Vickers joins TechnologyOne from the Queensland Department of Education, Training and the Arts where he was executive director for information technology and product services.

Star Business Solutions has appointed Peter Mclean as a senior consultant and team Leader in its Melbourne office. Mclean is a chartered accountant with over 20 years experience both as a consultant and an end-user of business and accounting software packages.

Dataweave, a Sydney-headquartered Oracle Certified Advantage Business Partner, has opened offices in Melbourne, appointing two senior executives to lead the company’s expansion in Victoria. Mike Turner has been appointed regional manager – southern region and Phillip Brown has been appointed lead technical consultant.

Orange Business Services, the business communications arm of France Telecom, has appointed Tim Cavill as managing director for Australia and New Zealand. He was previously SAP’s vice president, indirect channels, Asia Pacific and Japan.

Network security and connectivity solutions provider WatchGuard Technologies has appointed David Brennan in the newly created position of ANZ Channel Sales Manager based in Sydney. He was previously CRM business manager for Oracle Corporation based in Thailand.

TANDBERG has appointed Kahn Millis has joined as an account manager. Millis will be responsible for driving sales of the company’s range of video conferencing solutions across Queensland. TANDBERG has also announced that Andrew Pillon, who originally joined the company in 2003 as area manager for Queensland, will now also support the company’s business in New Zealand.
 
Enterprise content management specialist Open Text has announced five appointments: Sean Guillemot joins as channel account executive, Ian Poulton joins as senior solutions consultant with responsibility for the enterprise content management suite, Simon Niblock has been appointed lead account development executive Asia Pacific, Craig Bates becomes major account executive, Australia and New Zealand, while Tim Morris has been appointed Australian Sales Manager for the Open Text Web Solutions Group.