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Enterprise Application Roundup 

Swiss Re renews BPO until 2020

Swiss Re has renewed a business process outsourcing deal with CSC until 2020.

Lloyds readies new system architecture

Lloyds Banking Group has said it is readying a new system architecture, as it rationalises existing technology following the acquisition of HBOS two years ago.

VMforce will let you build any Java application

The VMforce cloud platform in development by VMware and Salesforce.com will be most useful for customers with existing Salesforce deployments, but can technically be used to build any Java application, a VMware official says.

Microsoft plays second fiddle to VMware in virtualisation market

Microsoft rarely finds itself in second place, but Microsoft's head of server virtualisation says he doesn't mind playing catch-up to VMware in the hypervisor market.

Shell hits £2.3bn savings with process standardisation

Royal Dutch Shell has made $3.5 billion (£2.3bn) savings through an accelerated business overhaul, driven by process standardisation, operational simplification and job cuts.

SAP users criticise 'slow' Business ByDesign introduction

SAP users have criticised the "slow" introduction of software as a service offerings by the vendor.

Britvic moves to hosted applications

Britvic has signed a deal with Atos Origin to move to hosted applications.

BP casts doubt on main safety system

BP has cast doubt on the ability of its key safety system to stop future accidents.

Google Apps for Government launched

The cloud-based productivity apps feature enhanced security and are being pitched as cost-savers.

Roberto Cavalli follows the cloud trend with Google

Designer fashion house Roberto Cavalli has decided to standardises its email systems by moving to the Google cloud.

XML pioneer backs Erlang and Clojure for multicore processing

Rather than using threads, functional programming presents the superior approach for developers who must program for newfangled multicore processors, XML co-inventor Tim Bray stressed at a technical conference on Friday.

Java now supports Terabyte-sized apps

The new version of the Terracotta distributed Java caching software is able, for the first time, to aggregate more than a terabyte of pooled memory for a single application and its data, the company announced this week.

Avaya builds call centre software with Nortel technology

Avaya is overhauling its contact center software with features designed to boost productivity and also to demonstrate that the company is brimming with innovation it hopes will attract new customers, and keep those it acquired along with Nortel's enterprise division.

SAP wins EC approval for Sybase deal

SAP has won European Commission approval for its acquisition of Sybase.

Rural Payments Agency 'must learn' from £350m IT disaster

The Rural Payments Agency has been told it must learn from a highly flawed and "rushed" £350 million farmer subsidies system implementation.

HMRC system delay creates seven million more unresolved tax cases

HM Revenue and Customs has seven million new unresolved tax cases to process from the last year, directly as a result of a delayed system overhaul.

Fluke rebrands its app performance product range

Fluke Network Systems has created a new company to better target the application performance market (APM) with what a company exec calls an "enterprise intelligence" strategy.

London Stock Exchange CTO leaves during move to Linux

The London Stock Exchange, which is currently in the process of moving its trading platforms to Linux, has lost its chief technology officer, Robin Paine.

Microsoft partners get free access to cloud tools

Microsoft is giving its partners tools that could help drive more business to its cloud-based services.

NHS scraps huge Microsoft licensing deal

The NHS has axed a huge licensing deal with Microsoft, originally estimated as being worth £500 million.

Microsoft fixes critical Windows and Office bugs

Microsoft today patched five vulnerabilities in Windows and Office, including a bug hackers have been exploiting for almost a month.

Microsoft to open online CRM app store

Microsoft plans to take a cue from rival CRM (customer relationship management) vendor Salesforce.com with the upcoming release of CRM 2011, by adding a marketplace site where partners can sell complementary applications.

Third-party software bugs surge in 2010

A surge in third-party software vulnerabilities accounted for the bulk of a ballooning bug count in the first half of 2010, said Danish security firm Secunia today.

Microsoft Azure cloud platform appliance released

Microsoft has released a version of its Windows Azure cloud platform as an appliance, the company announced at its Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) being held this week in Washington DC.

Lawson Software and Carl Icahn in talks

There's still no public word of what may come of billionaire investor Carl Icahn's stake in ERP (enterprise resource planning) vendor Lawson Software.

McLaren tunes up for Silverstone with SAP PLM

The McLaren Formula 1 team is using SAP product lifecycle management and business intelligence analytics to help it tune its cars with precision and judge the fastest route round the Silverstone circuit, ahead of this Sunday's British Grand Prix.

VMware still nowhere with client hypervisor

Nearly two years after promising a client hypervisor, VMware has yet to deliver.

SAP: We will push all useful data to mobile devices

SAP has vowed to make all data from its systems that would be useful on the move available on mobile devices.

Websense data loss prevention tool goes on free trial

Websense is announcing that it's making its data loss prevention (DLP) suite free for 30 days under a "DLP for Download" programme.

Oracle: Business Intelligence 11g the 'most integrated' with whole IT stack

Oracle has launched the new version of its Business Intelligence suite, promising it is the "most integrated" and scalable version of the product so far.

Travis Perkins IT vital in £25m merger savings

Travis Perkins is targeting IT to drive an important part of cost savings after announcing it will acquire BSS Group, a specialist distributor of heating and plumbing supplies, for £558 million.

SAP extends Sybase bid as it waits for EU approval

SAP has extended its $5.8 billion bid for Sybase while it awaits approval under European merger regulations.

BAA plans £121m IT investment at Heathrow Airport

BAA will invest £121 million overhauling IT at Heathrow Airport over the next three years.

Northgate apology for misleading promotional mailings about rival Open Text

Northgate Information Systems has apologised for sending customers of rival supplier Open Text misleading mailings about their support packages.

Magic brings ERP to mobile devices

Magic Software has launched new software for CIOs wanting to access their ERP applications around the clock.

Miguel de Icaza says users are scared of installing software on Windows

Open source icon Miguel de Icaza says Microsoft's plan to build an App Store for Windows won't solve a larger problem faced by Microsoft: "Everyone is scared of installing applications on Windows."

HMRC freezes IT spending

HM Revenue & Customs is not allowing any cash to be spent on "routine improvements" to its IT systems, according to a report by the National Audit Office.

SAP abused ERP market dominance, Versata tells European Commission

Versata Software lodged a complaint against SAP with the European Commission on Tuesday, claiming that the vendor illegally blocked it from selling its pricing software to SAP customers.

Oracle datacentre manager shows latency analytics

Heat maps can reveal, though not always explain, systems latency, an Oracle engineer argues

Lloyds trialling client financial checking system

Lloyds Banking Group is trialling software that extracts and standardises financial data from potential clients, in order to give it access to recent information on which it can better judge lending.

A third of IT managers in fight with board for higher budgets

A third of IT managers in the UK are trying to convince their organisation's directors to invest more in technology, following a tough year of budget cuts in many firms.

Red Hat launches updated JBoss Enterprise Portal

Red Hat releases version 5.0 of its JBoss Enterprise Portal Platform.

BP robot accident seriously hampers oil spill containment

A high-tech effort by BP, to slow the oil gushing from its ruptured wellhead, led to a large accident yesterday that forced the company to remove a vital containment cap for 10 hours.

Gmail users suffer as hosted email service goes down

A "significant" portion of Gmail users experienced long inbound and outbound delivery delays for several hours on Tuesday, and the affected included organisations that use the email service for workplace communications through the hosted Google Apps suite.

Dixons standardises e-commerce platform

DSG International, owner of the Currys and PC World store chains, has standardised its UK and French operations on a single e-commerce platform.

NHS IT supplier's former directors in court

Four ex-directors at NHS IT supplier iSoft have denied misleading the stock market about the company's performance.

Socitm: Ministers need to trust councils to deliver Budget efficiencies

The government should trust local councils to make their own decisions on IT-led efficiencies.

IBM debuts Financial Markets Industry Framework software package

IBM unveiled a new package of pre-integrated software applications, called the Financial Markets Industry Framework, configured for the financial services market.

Tibco buys Proginet managed file transfer vendor

Middleware vendor Tibco is buying Proginet, maker of MFT (managed file transfer) software, for roughly $23 million, the companies announced Tuesday. The transaction is expected to close later this year.

Salesforce.com Chatter social networking client comes out of beta

Salesforce.com's Chatter social collaboration platform became generally available, with the vendor hoping to spur adoption beyond sales workers to entire enterprises via a low-cost licensing option.

Barclays focuses on forecasting and reporting with analytics system

Barclays is using business intelligence and analytical software from supplier SAS to improve how it calculates its capital.

Metropolitan Police extends IT support contract

The Metropolitan Police has extended an IT support deal with Capgemini, for three years from 2012, as part of attempts to cut £43 million from costs in the period.

DoJ accuses Oracle of defrauding US Government

The involvement of the US Department of Justice in a whistleblower case against Oracle, alleging that it overcharged government customers, significantly raises the legal stakes for the company.

Microsoft patch knocks over SharePoint servers

Admins report that a new Microsoft patch is causing SharePoint servers to fall over - and getting them back up isn't easy

Compuware pushes out new project management system

Compuware has upgraded its Changepoint software

Microsoft shows internal "YouTube" podcast network

Microsoft exploits SharePoint to support internal podcasting network.

NHS electronic care records of almost no benefit to patients, says official report

NHS summary care records are delivering "only modest benefits" after billions of pounds have been spent creating them, according to the damning conclusions of a government-commissioned report.

IBM buys Coremetrics web analytics company

IBM will purchase Coremetrics, a provider of web analytics software, the company announced. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. IBM will add Coremetrics into its portfolio of business analytics software and services.

Oracle E-Business Suite 11 users urged to upgrade

Oracle is hoping to make a big splash with its upcoming Fusion Applications launch, but in the meantime has the perennial and less glitzy task of persuading users to upgrade from older releases of E-Business Suite.

BCS testing group celebrates 21st birthday at conference

The BCS Specialist Group in Software Testing (SIGiST) is celebrating its 21st birthday this month.

SAP UK & Ireland User Group to influence BusinessObjects charter

BusinessObjects users in the UK and Ireland are being invited to play an influential role in the development of the software by joining the SAP user group.

HP updates enterprise IT management tools

Updated versions of HP Service Manager and HP Configuration Management System aim to help enterprise IT departments handle incidents more quickly and operate more efficiently.

Evizone releases cloud email and document management for business

Evizone has released a new communication and document management service for businesses that need to batten down their security hatches.

Microsoft releases Office for Mac updates

Microsoft released a couple of Office 2004 and 2008 updates and confirmed a few new technical details about the upcoming 2011 suite upgrade.

Microsoft launches Expression Studio 4

However, the application design toolset will not support the Google-backed VP8 video codec.

Cisco Quad takes on Facebook with social networking for the enterprise

Cisco Systems is looking to take popular social networking tools and tricks and bend and meld them into a platform that's focused on business.

HP pays BSkyB £318m in final settlement of CRM lawsuit

HP has agreed to pay BSkyB a total of £318 million to settle a high profile lawsuit over a failed CRM implementation by EDS ten years ago. It has dropped plans for an appeal.

Microsoft Azure and Windows Phone 7 focus of TechEd

Industry watchers are looking for Microsoft to sustain the buzz around Windows Phone 7 at its annual TechEd conference this week, as well as share details about its cloud computing strategy in general and Azure cloud services in particular.

Oracle finally to release Fusion Applications

Oracle's upcoming OpenWorld conference is set to broadly feature its long-awaited Fusion Applications, according to newly released agenda information for the show, which is scheduled for September 19-23 in San Francisco.

Coalition's NHS IT policy marred by confusion as key system goes live

CSC has delivered a key patient system at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Trust, but confusion is rife as to what it means for the new government's NHS IT policy.

JP Morgan in record £33m FSA fine after system change

The Financial Services Authority has issued JP Morgan Securities with a record £33.32 million fine, after the firm failed to separate its own money from that of clients for over seven years.

RBS axes IT jobs

The Royal Bank of Scotland has announced 500 new job cuts in its wealth management division over the next three years, including IT staff.

Lawson Software for sale?

Billionaire Carl Icahn's stake in Lawson Software could lead to a sale of the ERP vendor to larger rivals, a move that would take the already significant consolidation of the market to a new level.

BP oil spill 'slows' but serious IT failures come to surface

An internal investigation at BP has revealed serious IT failures played a part in the devastating Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Burberry SAP rollout near completion

Burberry has said it is nearing the end of a business-wide SAP rollout, aimed at slashing costs and improving stock tracking.

Oracle buys up marekting automation vendor assets

Oracle has acquired the intellectual property assets of Market2Lead, maker of marketing automation and demand-generation software, for an undisclosed sum.

Firefox lags behind Internet Explorer in business uptake

Microsoft's Internet Explorer continues to dominate corporate browser use more so than it does private use, with its nearest rival, Mozilla's Firefox, lagging far behind with one in seven businesses opting for it, according to data collected by Internet-based security service Zscaler.

Salesforce.com CEO: Microsoft is a 'patent troll'

Salesforce.com chairman and CEO Marc Benioff declined to comment on the patent lawsuit brought against his company by Microsoft, but that didn't stop him from calling his rival names.

Microsoft Codeplex project cracks open Outlook data files

The open source projects provide developer tools and can enable migrations.

Marks & Spencer completes first phase of three-year SAP rollout

Marks & Spencer has completed the first part of a major SAP rollout across its UK operations.

Pfizer spends £144m on Wyeth system integration -- in three months

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has spent $208 million (£144 million) primarily on system integration and consulting in just three months, in order to integrate new acquisition Wyeth.

Microsoft releases BizTalk Server 2010 beta

The products provide speed, scalability, and high availability for Web applications and simplify the development of composite applications

Linux trading system to save London Stock Exchange £10m a year

The London Stock Exchange has said its new open source-based trading system will save it at least £10 million annually, as well as driving new business.

Vodafone dialling up to £2bn savings with system standardisation

Vodafone has said a system standardisation programme will play a key role in delivering it with £2 billion worth of savings by 2012.

CA World: BT cuts costs of deploying applications

BT has lowered the costs of deploying new applications, with a user authentication tool.

Clegg: £7bn worth of 'outrageous' databases will be scrapped

Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg today confirmed that over £7 billion worth of government databases will be scrapped in an attempt to reverse what he called an encroachment on civil liberties.

HP revenues hit £22bn

HP reported solid results for its second quarter as strong growth in PC and x86 server sales helped offset what analysts called a "lacklustre" quarter for its services business.

SAP co-CEOs promise to build customer trust, proclaim new tech frontier

SAP's co-CEOs pushed two central messages during a keynote address Tuesday at the Sapphire conference running simultaneously in Frankfurt and Orlando.

British firm wins substantial damages over problematic software

A London hotel has won £111,000 in damages from supplier Red Sky IT Hounslow, in a case that could have strong implications for UK software licensing terms as well as sales pitches.

SAP: We're paying a fair price for Sybase

SAP co-CEO Bill McDermott insisted that he was paying a fair price for the acquisition of mobile and database technology vendor Sybase, during a press conference at the Sapphire show yesterday.

Deutsche Bank: BPM initiative 'was wise' to get early management buy-in

The heads of an extensive business process management project at Deutsche Bank have said they were "wise" to have ensured executive support for their project from its initiation.

Sapphire: SAP developing in-memory database appliances

SAP is planning to work with partners to develop new hardware appliances that employ its in-memory database technology, potentially serving as a rival to Oracle's Exadata data-processing platform.

Citrix XenApp to be available the cloud

Citrix and Amazon are teaming up to put Citrix's application delivery software into the cloud, letting enterprises stream apps to users from Amazon's datacentres.

BT rolls out its own 'Facebook' for staff

BT plans to roll out an internal social networking site to its 100,000 employees, having developed the site based on early versions of the new Microsoft Sharepoint 2010 system.

Deutsche Bank in £400,000 fine for system breach

A US regulator has fined Deutsche Bank $575,000 (£394,000) for disabling a crucial system that was needed to block incomplete trading orders.

Microsoft hits back at Google over Apps sales pitch

Microsoft has gone on the counterattack against Google, saying that its rival's online applications don't cut it as supplements to Microsoft Office.

Office 2010 head into cloud

Microsoft has launched the newest versions of its Microsoft Office and Microsoft SharePoint software packages, with a strong focus on the cloud.

Microsoft claims Office 2010 'easiest version to use' for businesses

Microsoft has claimed Office 2010, is "easily the most innovative and easy to use" version of the software, with "easy" transfer for users from previous releases.

SAP puts its money on mobile with $5.8 bn Sybase acquisition

SAP is buying Sybase for US$5.8 billion (£3.9 billion) in a deal which emphasises the improtance of mobile business applications for the future.

Software piracy on the rise, says Business Software Alliance

Expanding PC sales in emerging market is increasing the rate of software piracy, according to a recent study by industry watchers.