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News

• Westpac recruits troops for integration

  Westpac Banking Corporation is assembling a team of senior information
  technology executives to drive integration and core banking system

• Brave new world

  On the day the global financial systems melted down, a mate who is a
  chief information officer at a bank called me with gallows humour in

• Gen Y may survive recession better than Gen X

  You'd think Generation Y professionals would be the least equipped to weather a recession and layoffs. After all, this is the generation whose "helicopter parents" hovered over their every move, catered to their every caprice and taught them that they were all winners.

• Shotgun M&As put the heat on IT

  Mergers and acquisitions are not usually quick affairs. Just the due diligence process of examining a company's enterprise IT systems -- the infrastructure, applications, outsourcing deals and vendor contracts-- can take up to a week, according to industry consultants.
  But as Wall Street imploded in September, entire deals in financial services have closed over a weekend. Bank of America and Merrill Lynch. JPMorgan Chase buying Washington Mutual. The Wells Fargo purchase of Wachovia.

• National Australia Bank stands by A$1bn systems overhaul

  Incoming National Australia Bank chief executive Cameron Clyne says the bank remains committed to a A$1 billion overhaul of the computer systems that drive its operations, despite fears of technology spending cuts in the financial services sector.
  The bank has reported a surge of nearly $100 million in deferred software spending in the past year, increasing capitalised IT costs to the highest level since 2004, when it took a $200 million write-down on a botched enterprise resource planning project.

• ANZ Bank overhauls technology units

  A global restructure under way at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group has brought major changes to the way the company manages its information technology operations.
  The changes have meant the appointment of new general managers within the bank's technology operations, with several more senior positions yet to be filled.

• Oracle wins bid to update National Australia Bank software

  National Australia Bank has embarked on a $1 billion information technology overhaul after it yesterday confirmed it had selected US multinational Oracle to provide software for the $30 million first phase of the project.
  NAB Australia chief information officer Michelle Tredenick also confirmed that the project would take close to five years to complete as the bank attempted to minimise the risk of upgrading systems at the heart of its Australian operations.

• Tech players brace for crunch

  The technology sector is bracing for a string of earnings downgrades over the next month as rising fuel costs and a tightening of corporate belts rein in the surging growth that listed computing and communications companies have delivered over the past six years.
  Some information systems and services suppliers are already reporting a spending slowdown in key sectors such as consumer goods and transport and logistics as projects go on hold while the impact of spiralling oil prices is assessed.

• Using SharePoint to show customer risks

  When Microsoft SharePoint 2007 began pervading the enterprise more than a year ago, many IT shops looked at how they could use the platform internally to help their employees collaborate on key projects and store documents in central repositories.

• Westpac takes new tech tack

  Westpac Banking Corporation has engineered a dramatic shake-up of its computing and communications division as it prepares for major information technology projects, including a potential high-risk integration with St George Bank and the replacement of its core transactional systems.
  The bank has dumped its business technology solutions and services unit in favour of a standalone technology department and a new products and operations group that will assume the non-technology functions of BTSS.

• Westpac group CIO bound for Singapore

  Westpac Banking Corporation's group chief information officer in Australia, Simon McNamara, has resigned.
  He plans to take up the CIO role with British bank Standard Chartered's global consumer banking business in Singapore.

• ANZ bank builds a common Asian platform

  Australia and New Zealand Banking Group is working to shorten the time taken to build information systems to support its new banking operations in Asia.
  The bank has already gone live with new technology platforms in Laos and is now focused on Indonesia as it works through a three-year roll-out of computer and communications software and hardware to its Asian businesses.

• Budget blowback: Virtualisation isn't that easy

  There are a lot of things that are simple in principle that are a lot more complicated in reality. International relations. Poverty. Even virtualisation may be a topic where your ideas and everyone else's ideas of how to solve other people's problems may not mesh up.

• Qantas makes up time on Oracle financials system

  Qantas is set to complete the introduction of Oracle financials across the group soon, a move that may finally allow the airline to see the back of its long-running eQ software project.
  Qantas chief information officer Jamila Gordon confirmed that Oracle financials was now in production at both Jetstar and the Qantas group's regional airlines.

• How oil companies use ICT to maximise profits

  Gas tops US$4 per gallon. Crude is trading at all-time highs-above $125 a barrel. And oil and gas companies are booking fat profits. In May, Exxon Mobil reported $10.9 billion in profits for its latest quarter, just short of its record-breaking $11.7 billion the quarter before.