Stories by: Julian Bajkowski

Australia's persistently controversial relationship with offshoring IT work to India has taken a new twist in South Australia.

The NSW Office of State Revenue (OSR) is taking a tough stance against Microsoft's decision to make an enterprise edition of Windows Vista only available to companies that have signed on to its Software Assurance program. The tax collection agency has declared it would rather switch desktop operating systems than lock itself into Microsoft's licensing regime.

Federal government employees will become human guinea pigs as a preliminary test to an Australia-wide rollout of smartcards federal government services delivery under a proposal floated by Special Minister of State, Senator Eric Abetz.

In a sign big brother is becoming a commercially mature technology player, the US National Security Agency (NSA) not only wants to find out exactly where you are from your VoIP phone or PC - it wants to own the intellectual property around the locating process as well.

The Australian Customs Service has dispensed with the niceties over the introduction of its $200 million Cargo Management Reengineering (CMR) system, warning users to sign up for digital certificates or watch their goods go nowhere in a hurry.

Information technology shops across Australian companies remain the scapegoat for poorly conceived projects that originate in the boardroom.

IT managers using low-hanging fruit, quick runs on the board and easy wins to sell the virtues of new technology deployments to management need to ensure they are not creating lemons in the process.

There are several mission-critical items Australian soldiers sent to Iraq need, not least adequate ammunition, rations - and real-time access to the AFL Grand Final.

Technology staff at the Commonwealth Bank (CBA) are ushering in the dawn of a new era in IT with the departure of their former CEO David Murray, Australia's harshest critic of technology's failings.

Indelibly scarred by the all too human mistakes of its previous senior management, the Department of Immigration, Multiculturalism and Indigenous Affairs has rekindled its faith in information technology.

Multinational outsourcer EDS has retrenched 106 applications development staff from its Australian operation, however the company is vehemently denying the redundancies are payback for failed wage negotiations late last month.