PERTH, Australia -- Aggregating voice and data services under a new common-use arrangement with six preferred vendors is projected to save government agencies in Western Australia up to A$14.6 million ($10.7 million U.S.) annually, according to a state official.
Western Australia government agencies spent A$79 million on voice and data services last year.
In a presentation to government officials here, John Crowe, director of information technology and telecommunications for the state's Department of Treasury and Finance, said that the list of preferred voice and data service providers will eliminate the need for contract negotiations by individual agencies and should keep prices down. The program began on March 1.
Crowe said that the preferred voice providers are Bright Telecommunications in Perth; Macquarie Telecom Pty. in Sydney; Optus Networks, a North Ryde-based unit of Singapore Telecommunications Ltd.; and Telstra Corp. in Melbourne. Amcom Telecommunications Ltd. and Swiftel Communications, both in Perth, are the preferred data services providers.
-- Rodney Gedda, Computerworld Today (Australia)
Philippines pushes IT services growth plan
MANILA -- Philippine Sen. Manuel Roxas III has proposed that the country create a five-year plan to expand its outsourcing reach from contact centers to larger and more advanced technology services providers.
Roxas told an audience at the e-Services Philippines 2006 CEO Forum here last month that his plan can help the country improve the technical skills of its workers. Providing an advanced workforce, he said, would persuade offshore firms to open facilities for more strategic activities, like software development and animation projects.
Roxas said the proposal calls on the federal government to "reconfigure" tax incentives given to foreign investors to ensure that those companies invest in education programs for their workers.
"The [Philippine outsourcing] industry needs to expand skill sets," he said. Workers need to be "more than just excellent in English and well acquainted with American culture," he added.
-- Lawrence D. Casiraya, Computerworld Philippines
IBM opens hub for SOA component growth
BANGALORE, India -- IBM has set up a global hub here for creating and managing replicable software components based on a service-oriented architecture.
The Bangalore operation, called the Global Business Solutions Center, opened last month to oversee the creation of SOA-based components across 17 industries.
Matt Porta, head of the global business solution program for IBM Business Consulting Services, said the company plans to spend $200 million a year to develop and manage the components. Previously, the building of replicable components was overseen from several IBM locations worldwide, Porta said. "We decided that if we were going to get serious, we needed a global hub to manage all this," he said.
The center will work with about 60,000 IBM consultants and other resources worldwide on the conceptualization, development, maintenance and enhancement of the components, said Jeby Cherian, head of the Global Business Solutions Center.
The center's staffing level will depend on its projects, Cherian said.
Briefly noted
-- Freescale Semiconductor Inc. has acquired a 300,000-square-foot facility in Noida, India, to expand its design center there. With the new facility, Freescale will triple its Noida workforce to 1,500. Austin-based Freescale's Noida design center focuses on intellectual property development and system-on-chip design.
-- The amount of malware coming from China rose 153 percent during the past six months of 2005, mostly from remote-controlled "bot" attacks emanating from that country, according to security software maker Symantec Corp. Rising Internet use in China, and a lack of precautions taken by new users, may be contributing to the malware jump, Symantec said.
-- The German government's Research Center in Julich last week unveiled Europe's most powerful supercomputer, an IBM Blue Gene system that will be used by European scientists to do environmental and particle physics research. The Julich Blue Gene/L system supplants another IBM system, the Mare Nostrum blade cluster at the Barcelona Supercomputer Center, as the continent's fastest supercomputer.
Global fact: 52 percent
-- The increase in the number of people arrested in Japan for Internet crimes during 2005 over the previous year. There were 3,161 arrested for such crimes last year, up from 2,081 in 2004.
Source: Japan National Police Agency