Stories by Donna van Leeuwen

Piloting an airline's makeover

Managing 160 projects simultaneously and over 700 staff, Qantas CIO Fiona Balfour thrives on the complexity of business. Her focus today is on shifting an ageing IT shop with a 30-year-old data centre into a lean, mean outsourced machine that will eventually be an 'on-demand' style operation.

Telstra on track with Kaz bid

Telstra's $333 million acquisition of local IT outsourcing provider Kaz is on track for completion in July with customers optimistic there will be little disruption.

Mergers challenge IT's savoir faire

It's challenging enough managing the IT operations of a large financial services organization but add a merger to the mix and that's when the real fun begins.

Shelfware can make a mountain of waste

Shelfware – not to be confused with off-the-shelf - is the term given to applications that sit on a shelf collecting dust somewhere in the IT shop.

Overnight sensations

In the late 90s the Australian IT industry saw an influx of obscurely named companies with niche applications. These companies usually originated in the UK or US, were often housed in fancy, serviced offices and had an aura of being well-accomplished. Certainly some were. Others didn’t get a chance as they were gobbled up by larger IT companies or retreated from the region. So where are these vendors now; are their customers in need of someone to pick up the pieces from the overnight sensation that some of these companies tapped into?

P2P technology puts enterprise at risk

To the detriment of the enterprise, peer-to-peer (P2P) networking technology is making inroads into Australian companies with employees indiscriminately sharing music and videos.