Off the shelf
Is your company now paying licence maintenance fees for CRM seats purchased but never used?
Stories by David Beynon
5 minutes with... Geoff Wenborn, CIO wealth management, National Australia Bank
National Australia Bank's CIO wealth management, Geoff Wenborn, shares his IT experiences with Computerworld's David Beynon.
5 minutes with... Udo Bauermann, Regional IT executive, Munich Reinsurance
Munich Reinsurance's regional IT executive Udo Bauermann shaers his IT experiences with Computerworld editor David Beynon.
Linux Losers
SCO, how can you invoice enterprise IT for the use of Linux at this time? SCO is out to extract licence fees for what seems like relatively small amounts, but why should enterprises pay for SCO code before it is even established in law that they have acquired some of this property, inadvertently or not?
IT takes two to tango
Today's CIO is expected to lead like a CEO, analyse like a CFO and execute like a COO, according to Gartner's group vice president Dr Marianne Broadbent.
Whittle down IDS waste
Intrusion detection systems (IDSes) are a waste of electricity unless you are willing to do the hard work to tune and optimise them, according to Mark Ames, chair of the Information Security Interest Group (ISIG).
Apple cores
If you’re a pragmatic IT management type you’re probably perplexed or amused by technophile zealots. Religious wars in IT are old hat and are just tedious crap where they still exist. I confess, I used to see in Apple supporters some of the characteristics of tub-thumping believers. That stance is clearly outdated given the advances in Apple’s technology and the company’s pursuit of standards in recent years.
Wrestlemania tag-team
There's nothing like a stoush to grab an audience. I'm thrilled that Julian Bajkowski's article "SCO war of attrition descends to farce" (page 6) scored fantastic online hit rates when we put it up on our site, but left wondering if "Source Wars, Episode 7" is more world series wrestling than really serious reckoning. This round of the battle has Red Hat tag-teaming with IBM in a legal counterattack on SCO. Nursing a broken ankle (rumoured to be from a leaping headlock manoeuvre gone wrong), Mark Webbink general counsel for Red Hat is now kicking out with claims that SCO cannot survive the legal war of attrition. SCO has countered by putting up some scary posters. The posters, pegged in the ground outside SCO's corporate HQ, include one showing Linus Torvalds as a fat, dope-smoking hippie wearing a T-shirt bearing the slogan "Legalise stupidity, smoke Linux".
Westpac tunes in to IP telephony
Telstra has launched an IP telephony service and named Westpac as the first major customer.
Right of reply
Public accountability and transparency are rightly legislated requirements of government departments and agencies. As part of this, watchdog agencies such as the Victorian Auditor General’s Office and its pasting of the Electronic Commerce for Procurement (EC4P) project (CW, June 16, p8), and more recently, the Australian National Audit Office’s (ANAO) critique of the Department of Immigration Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs’ (DIMIA) IT systems (CW, July 14, p1), get coverage. That ANAO report focused on DIMIA’s difficulties in integrating data between its onshore and offshore visa application processing systems.
Linux TCO mud
Linux's total cost of ownership (TCO) is a hot topic which thaws more than a few penguin supporters. People who are passionate about one technology or another are always ready for a fight.
25 Q&As: Linking with many bosses
As part of Computerworld's silver anniversary celebrations 25 IT managers recall the ups and downs of their careers. Here, Adelaine Hancock Shorelink network manager, Shorelink Library Network, Sydney, shares her experiences with David Beynon.
25 Q&As: Flat out at Dalrymple Bay
As part of Computerworld's silver anniversary celebrations 25 IT managers recall the ups and downs of their careers. Here, Paul Green, superintendent IT services, Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal, shares his experiences with David Beynon.
25 Q&As: The power of the spreadsheet
As part of Computerworld's silver anniversary celebrations 25 IT managers recall the ups and downs of their careers. Here, Jeff Hodder, Group IT manager, Australand Holdings Limited, Sydney, shares his experiences with David Beynon.
25 Q&As: British Rail to Hume Highway
As part of Computerworld's silver anniversary celebrations 25 IT managers recall the ups and downs of their careers. Here, Howard Malyon, IT manager, Grace Removals Group, Seven Hills, NSW, shares her experiences with David Beynon.