News

• The Grill: TASC CIO Barbie Bigelow

  After spinning off from Northrop Grumman in 2009, TASC had one year to establish itself as an independent company. That meant the 6,000-employee systems engineering operation needed to deploy a new IT infrastructure. In overseeing that effort, TASC CIO Barbie Bigelow built an IT organization and infrastructure from scratch. Her team spent about eight months working with 64 vendors and partners to design and build an operation that included a new ERP system, more than 4,000 computers, 800 mobile devices, 400 network devices and 134 data circuits across 60 facilities -- and they did it in six weeks. Here, Bigelow discusses the failures and successes that the team experienced as they pursued the aggressive schedule, and she reflects on how TASC's IT unit has evolved.

• SAP co-CEO Bill McDermott explains its five-market focus

  If you think SAP equals ERP, Bill McDermott would like a few minutes to set you straight about the 2012 version of the software giant, which he claims is in the midst of "an intellectual renewal." McDermott has been co-CEO -- along with Jim Hagemann Snabe -- of SAP since 2010 and has helped broaden the company's strategy beyond traditional applications and analytics to the cloud, mobile, Big Data and a bet-the-business focus on real-time computing with the HANA in-memory database at the forefront.

• Air Force's Huge Oracle Project Still Struggling

  As part of a restructuring plan to be announced soon, the U.S. Air Force is expected to scrap pieces of a massive Oracle ERP deployment that has experienced difficulties since it was launched in 2005.

• Oracle seeks new trial in IP theft suit against SAP

  Oracle's plan to drag its legal fight against rival SAP's defunct TomorrowNow subsidiary through a second trial is not surprising, analysts said Tuesday.

• ERP makes a comeback

  They couldn't put it off any longer. The ERP system for the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) had reached the end of its useful life.

• Deal Means More SAP Cloud Changes

  If its $3.4 billion bid to buy SuccessFactors is successful, SAP could finally stabilize its cloud computing strategy -- which has so far been mostly ineffectual.

• Mobile mania spurs demand for unified communications

  In the space of just the past few years, Art Johnston has gone from thinking of unified communications as optional to viewing it as "a strategy that we need to implement to be competitive."

• CSG inks deal with Ausenco

  Australian ICT services firm CSG (ASX:CSV) has inked a deal with engineering firm Ausenco for the implementation of an Oracle enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

• OpenWorld 2011: Big Red apps coming to iPad and Android

  In a clear sign of the influence consumer mobile devices are having in the enterprise Oracle has flagged that it plans to make available iPad- and Android-compatible versions of its traditional ERP and CRM suites as well as its latest Fusion apps.

• Orix puts Android, iOS app development into gear

  Fleet leasing company, Orix, is set to create smartphone applications for Android and iOS, following major enterprise resource planning (ERP) and disaster recovery (DR) projects.

• Cloud Computing: More IT leaders turn to SaaS ERP

  In 2006, Epec Engineered Technologies found itself in a situation familiar to many in corporate IT. With a series of business acquisitions behind it, the New Bedford, Mass.-based manufacturer of printed circuit boards, battery packs and other electronic components needed to replace multiple ERP systems with a single platform capable of supporting the entire organization.

• Employers look to address skills shortage

  Ongoing investment in software and infrastructure projects by enterprise is fuelling demand for program managers, according to the April-June quarterly report by recruiting group, Hays.

• How SaaS will impact six key software categories

  As more sourcing executives consider incorporating SaaS solutions into their overall technology vendor landscape, the potential to significantly disrupt the current software market grows. And while SaaS adoption is expected to expand in the coming years, the challenge for sourcing professionals will be a lack of uniform adoption across the whole software market. In some software categories, SaaS will be a disruptive technology, in others the only option, and in many cases SaaS will have minimal impact.

• Meyer Cookware signs Pronto in ERP deal

  The Australian division of global cookware manufacturer, Meyer Cookware, has signed a six-figure deal with ERP developer, Pronto Software, to implement Pronto-Xi across the enterprise.

• Adairs on the lookout for national IT manager

  Australian homewares retailer Adairs is on the hunt for a national IT manager to assist in the implementation of strategies for expansion within the retail sector as the company plans for a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.