Stories by: Peter Scott

corProcure selects supplier, Technology One scores in NZ, Data#3 picks up Queensland contract, and Microsoft warns court, "Don't mess with us"

Finance and accounting outsourcing industry on fire. As enterprises become more comfortable contracting more of their finance and accounting duties, the worldwide finance and accounting outsourcing market is projected to grow from $US12 billion 1n 1999 to $US37.7 billion by 2004, according to Dataquest.

Cable & Wireless has won a $US100 million, three-year contract to supply global telecommunications services to News Corp.

A survey by RHI Consulting has found that employee turnover at US companies rose two per cent last year from the levels of 1999. At the same time, salaries for IT professionals rose by 6.6 per cent, with the greatest increase in networking and Internet related areas.

IT professionals have spent one-third more hours on the job this last year than they did the previous year, according to a report issued by Meta Group. Analysts and users attributed the rise to time spent learning new technologies and additional work from the increasing threat of new viruses.

The rash of financial reports released in the US this week continued to give mixed signals about the state of the IT industry. Upbeat performances by high-fliers like EMC and Nortel were countered by a shocker from Lucent, mediocre results from Computer Associates, 3Com and others, and a gloomy forecast from Dell.

Bullant, the privately owned Australian company that is attracting international attention for its Internet accelerator software, has attracted more than $A40 million in a private capital raising from a consortium led by JP Morgan Equity Partners. The financing will allow Bullant to begin a program of international expansion, with a focus on OEM licensing to big name players in the US, Europe and Japan.

All change at Interpath after Caravias promotion, Musical chairs for Online Trading Systems, IT chief moves on from travel.com.au, Old favourites keep going around, Around the traps

Internet services company Icon Medialab Asia has bought Sydney e-business and multimedia developer Vitascope. Goran Malm, CEO of Icon, said the acquisition will expand the range of services his company is able to offer.