Microsofts iPod-Konkurrent Zune ist offiziell am Ende. Eine Notiz auf den Service-Seiten des Windows-Konzerns bestätigt knapp, dass der Musikplayer nicht mehr produziert wird. …mehr
Wer unterwegs ins Internet geht, verwendet dabei meist ein mobiles Gerät von Apple. Die Webanalyse-Firma Webtrekk registrierte im dritten Quartal für Apples iOS-System einen Marktanteil von 78,4 Prozent bei der mobilen Internet-Nutzung in Deutschland. …mehr
Letzte Woche hat Amazon mit einem großen Knall sein eigenen Android-Tablet Fire vorgestellt. Inzwischen melden sich immer mehr Analysten zu Wort, die am großen Erfolg des Amazon-Tablets zweifeln. …mehr
Das Samsung Galaxy Note soll noch in diesem Monat in den deutschen Handel kommen. Anders als im Heimatmarkt Südkorea bringt der Hersteller das Smartphone-Tablet mit 5,3 Zoll großem Touchscreen hierzulande ohne LTE-Unterstützung heraus. …mehr
Die größte chinesische Handelsplattform Alibaba könnte sich laut einem Medienbericht mit russischen und amerikanischen Investoren zusammentun, um den kriselnden Internet-Pionier Yahoo zu kaufen. …mehr
Deutsche Verbraucherschützer wollen den Datenschutz im Internet vereinfachen. Nach ihren Vorstellungen müssen schon die Voreinstellungen bei Geräten und Diensten maximalen Datenschutz gewährleisten. …mehr
Die EADS-Tochter Astrium wird zusammen mit der Europäischen Weltraumorganisation ESA das sogenannte Europäische Datenrelais-System (EDRS) konzipieren, liefern und betreiben. …mehr
Der Halbleiterhersteller Infineon stellt im Fall eines Konjunkturabschwungs Ausbaupläne in der Produktion infrage. …mehr
Ingenieure und Wissenschaftler finden in XCALC einen gelungenen UPN-Rechner für Windows. …mehr
Wer gerne draußen oder auch mal unter Wasser filmt, sollte einen Blick auf Kodaks neuen Playfull Waterproof Camcorder werfen. …mehr
Wie HTC inzwischen bestätigte, können Schad-Apps bei Modellen wie dem Evo 3D unbemerkt IP-Adressen, Listen der installierten Apps oder den Aufenthaltsort des Gerätes an Fremde senden. …mehr
Auf der Oracle-Hausmesse OpenWorld in San Francisco wirbt der CEO für neue Database Appliances und teilt gegen den Rivalen IBM aus. …mehr
Der amerikanische IT-Konzern IBM will sein Softwaregeschäft mit mittelgroßen Zukäufen verstärken. …mehr
Microsoft hat aus Versehen die Namen von ersten Windows Phones von Nokia verraten. …mehr
Das lange Warten für Apple-Fans ist vorbei: Morgen wird ein neues iPhone vorgestellt. Die Erwartungen sind groß. Rund 15 Monate - länger als sonst - hat der US-Konzern diesmal gebraucht, um sein nächstes Handy-Modell und das neue Betriebssystem iOS5 fertigzustellen. …mehr
SharePoint Server wird als strategische IT-Plattform für die Zusammenarbeit positioniert. Wird er diesem Anspruch gerecht? …mehr
Abgeordnete haben gefragt, wie hoch die bisherigen Kosten für Elena sind und was der Stopp kosten wird. Die Antwort der Regierung: Man weiß es nicht genau. …mehr
Die Aufwendungen können nach den sogenannten Veranlassungsbeiträgen aufgeteilt werden. …mehr
Statt auf Downsizing und Outsourcing setzen Führungskräfte auf Umsatzsteigerung. Skeptisch sind sie bei Social Media, laut einer Bain-Studie. …mehr
In Zeiten des IT-Fachkräftemangels müssen Arbeitgeber umdenken. Wie die Best Ager auf dem Arbeitsmarkt punkten können und was Arbeitgeber tun müssen, um an gute SAP-Fachkräfte zu kommen, darüber sprachen wir mit Susanne Glaser-Radtke, Geschäftsführerin der GIM-Gruppe. …mehr
Wo Anwender sich heute sicher fühlen, erwachsen ihnen morgen neue Bedrohungen. Kein IT-Marktsegment ist so stark in Bewegung wie die Security-Branche. Durch Cloud-Computing und Mobility wird sich der Trend weiter verstärken. …mehr
Tomorrow's the , and boy, are people fired up: There's the Siri co-founder who's convinced Apple's announcement will , the company willing to fork over billions for a (big) piece of the action, and the familiar face that may make an appearance. I don't know about you, but the remainders for Monday, October 3, 2011 have fallen prey to the hype. …mehr
Bottom Line …mehr
LightSquared may take legal action if it is denied permission to build its planned LTE network because of concerns over interference between that network and GPS, an executive said Monday. …mehr
In conjunction with its new , Adobe has announced six mobile apps designed to make it easier for artists and designers to create and share their work. Files created with the apps--Photoshop Touch, Collage, Debut, Ideas, Kuler, and Pronto--can be shared, viewed across devices, and transferred into Adobe Creative Suite CS5.5 for further refinement. …mehr
For retail-industry finance chiefs, it's never too early to start thinking about holiday sales --- which traditionally account for at least $1 of every $5 spent in annual retail activity. And in , there's some reason to hope for a better year-end in 2011. …mehr
Behind the healthcare provided to millions of patients in a hospital lies an efficient system in place that aids in faster communications and information dissemination. Today, information technology serves as nourishment to the healthcare industry -- integrating voluminous pieces of information that circulates in the complex operations of healthcare providers day by day. …mehr
Oracle unveiled the Big Data Appliance, the newest addition to its line of products that combine software and hardware, during the OpenWorld conference in San Francisco on Monday. …mehr
Yes, Tuesday's Apple event will almost certainly center around iOS 5 and the iPhone, as have intimated. But what about Apple's planned fall unveiling, iCloud? …mehr
Problem: Aging legacy system and lack of flexibility making backend operations difficult to manage in light of growing demands …mehr
If you are a Web designer, graphic designer, or other creative professional, most likely you work with the Adobe suite of products. Up until now, you haven't been able to migrate your work to your tablet PC of choice. That's about to change. Adobe on Tuesday available in the coming months that will drastically shift how creative professionals will work: and for tablets. …mehr
Piracy is less of an issue for the movie industry than is the dominance of the digital distribution channel by a single company, such as Apple. …mehr
True story: I'd been getting fed up with Firefox, in part because it was acting sluggish and flaky, so I decided to give a try. And by "try," I mean make it my primary browser for a couple weeks. …mehr
Last year, insurance company Farmers Mutual Group (FMG) decided to complete the upgrade of its SAS business intelligence solution installed more than five years ago. The solution was put to the test in extreme circumstances when, as the first earthquake struck Canterbury at 4:35am on September 4, FMG made a concerted drive to pro-actively contact policy holders who might have been affected. Within two hours, FMG assessors were headed towards the area and, making use of its BI tool, the company was able to quickly identify who were the most at-risk policy holders. The national sales and service centre in Palmerston North was also supplied with contact details of every client who might have been impacted. In this extreme situation, as in routine sales reporting, SAS proved to be an invaluable tool for the company.FMG is currently using SAS in a two-fold way: For operational support, with weekly sales KPIs available to sales staff, and for the analysis of performance drivers. "We make OLAP cubes available to people for almost self-service exploration," says Craig Skett, FMG business information and analysis services manager. Skett says the solution is easily integrated with Microsoft Office and the only training necessary is "more about learning the data than the actual tool"."We made a conscious decision to make it a company-wide capability. We have one BI solution across the whole company," he says, adding that the company has realised "people don't access the system until it has information that they need".FMG is now using SAS to generate daily reports for Canterbury earthquake claims. "It makes it easier to monitor the progress of these claims." Business intelligence is "a vital part of any financial organisation," says Skett. "The more you can get out of the information you capture, the more advantage you'll have over your competitors."Despite believing the current solution is serving business needs, he says that "every BI manager has a list of 20 things they want to develop" at any time. His current list includes more sophisticated analytics and the integration of geo-spatial information. The number eight wire mentality played a key role when CallPlus embarked on a business intelligence project.Adrian Dick, chief technology officer at the telecommunications company, traces the beginnings of the project to a year ago, when the company was discussing its objectives for the coming months. "A lot of them were about improving efficiency and improving the way the business operates," he says. "So the question was asked: how efficient are we at the moment?"Getting the answer requires a business intelligence system that can be used across the group. But getting the information to get these answers was not as straightforward because CallPlus, which includes the Slingshot internet provider, generates a huge amount of operational data that is stored in silos. "We produce millions of records every day here, from internet use to each individual phone call. They [transactions] might produce three records depending on what platform they are from," says Dick.At that time, Call Plus produced reports that were demand or request driven. "If you need to know about a problem, you have to request information on it rather than being able to browse through and see what is happening," he says. There was always a backlog of reports that were required and once reports were produced, they were obviously outdated. "It was really about users being able to browse key metrics of the business in real-time or in near real-time."Those were the business drivers behind the development of Nostro, which Dick and his team developed using existing database software, and integrated and supported by internal resources. "It is business intelligence on a budget. We didn't go out and throw tens of millions at a solution. We just invested in the resources to design it. It is the number eight fencing wire [thinking]," says Dick.Nostro has been recognised in the recent US-based , making CallPlus the only local organisation to win this year. The awards recognise organisations across the globe for operational excellence and strategic excellence in IT.Dick says each of the general managers has their own interface of Nostro. "What it has done is take a complicated environment and present it in a summarised view to decision makers in near real time."A key benefit is the highlighting of trends that they were not aware of. For instance, he says, they have calling packs wherein a number of destinations are bundled together for certain dollars a month. "We weren't aware some of the destinations in a calling pack were losing us a lot of money, because it was bundled with a lot of destinations," he says. The system has also alerted them early on about fraudsters that may be using their customers' systems. Nostro sees a spike in the calls to a customer account and CallPlus can alert them this is happening, even before the customers are aware of it. Dick and his team are extending Nostro to another platform. They are working on making the system available on the iPad. Around seven executives, including the CEO and CFO, use the iPads for email and remote desktop. "At a slice, we are able to show them the key metrics of the business wherever they are," says Dick."It is all about the data, it is not all the formatting presentation, the colours of the graphs," says Dick. "When you start aggregating millions of records down, it is the exception which pops up [and] that is where you can get a lot of value."You see the data, warts and all. Without it, you don't have the visibility of what you are doing wrong and how you can improve. The benefits will come from areas you don't expect."Formed in 1982, Ceres Organics specialises in sourcing and supply of organic fresh and packaged food and beauty products. The business includes a retail outlet, online shops, plus a range of wholesale customers including Progressive Enterprises and Foodstuffs, and Farmers. The company installed its fully-integrated BI solution in September 2010.The general manager David Josephson says the great thing about having a BI suite is "the immediacy of information". "Before, you would have to pass it to an accountant to write a report and then send it back to you. Now everybody can access the information at any given time," he says. The BI tool helps the company analyse and track data each day and, in doing so in an immediate way, is directly related with an increase in productivity. "It also tracks how things are being done so we can change behaviours if necessary, rather than having to go back to fix things later."Ceres' previously had a legacy DOS solution that was limiting the growth, efficiency and profitability of the company, as it lacked a warehouse management system and included a high amount of manual processes. Koorb implemented Microsoft Dynamics AX and a range of plug in solutions that included wireless warehousing to address these issues. The result was what the company considers to be a fully integrated BI solution. Josephson says the system works "in a standard business intelligence set up and can be accessed on an ad hoc basis using Excel spreadsheets". "It gives us various snapshots of the business," he adds, as it is integrated for warehousing, inventory and reporting. "For example, the warehouse manager can at any time see how many sales orders are outstanding. At the same time, a person in an administrative role in the office can look at sales. It covers the whole range of business." …mehr
Apple took the wraps off the next iPhone Tuesday, and Macworld's Jason Snell and Dan Moren were on hand to . Now they stop by the Macworld Podcast along with to tell you what they saw and to lend some perspective to Tuesday's Apple news. …mehr
A group of financial market experts wrote to policy makers in Brussels recently calling for greater scrutiny of proposals designed to improve regulation of the derivative trading and clearing industry across Europe. …mehr
With Facebook's constant stream of changes, keeping up with your privacy settings can be daunting. Here's a rundown of the newest features, what the changes mean to your privacy and how to update your settings. …mehr
The UK's construction sector came close to stagnation during September as home building and civil engineering work dried up around the country. …mehr
Global telecoms service providers are only scratching the surface of the huge business opportunity in Asia-Pacific, and need to redouble their efforts to increase their impact, according to Ovum. …mehr
Time to get over the fact that Apple didn’t announce the iPhone 5, but instead introduced the iPhone 4S, which boasts a collection of upgrades nonetheless. Here’s a quick spin through what’s new. …mehr
It's the last thing McAfee would want users to hear about one of its products, but the Firefox browser is advising users to disable McAfee's ScriptScan software, saying that it could cause "stability or security problems." …mehr
The Asia-Pacific (AP) public cloud services market will increase five fold over the next five years with revenues of US$12billion in 2016, according to Ovum. …mehr
Problem: Aging legacy system and lack of flexibility making backend operations difficult to manage in light of growing demands …mehr
Deutsche Bank said on Tuesday its full-year pre-tax profit target of €10 billion (£8.6 billion) is no longer realistically attainable. …mehr
Should private companies that report financial results to lenders or investors do so under the current set of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, which is more oriented to public companies? Or does it make sense to develop a set of standards, independent of GAAP, specifically for private firms? …mehr
With all the , you'll be forgiven if you missed a change the company made to its AppleCare extended-service offering for the iPhone. But that change is significant and will make the plan more appealing to some users. …mehr
With its Napster acquisition this week, Rhapsody, the venerable U.S.-only digital music subscription service, is in battle mode as rival Spotify attempts to carry its strong momentum in Europe to America. …mehr
Scientists have discovered an unprecedented depletion of the Earth's ozone layer in the Northern Arctic region. A NASA-led study released on October 2 in the journal Nature reports that a loss of ozone similar to the one found in the Antarctic has begun to develop due to a prolonged period of low temperatures. …mehr
's announcement in Cupertino, Calif., predictably turned into a major social media event, prompting techies to post tens of thousands of related tweets on , thousands of thumbs-up likes on Facebook, and hundreds of comments on popular news sites during the 90 minute-long event. …mehr
Apple's new has some impressive upgrades, including voice controls, a faster processor, and a better camera. But to millions of tech fans hoping to be dazzled by Apple's latest creation, the 4S is, well, a tad disappointing. Here are the top pre-launch rumors that didn't come true: …mehr
In case you missed it, Apple held a little event today. While no was unveiled, Apple did announce a retooled, and updated iPhone 4----which will be available on October 14. …mehr
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Sprint's service can be used by enterprise customers as an alternative to T-1 lines, a Sprint executive said today. …mehr
If history is any guide, the advent of the will soon render the iPhone 4 both significantly less sexy and significantly less valuable on the resale market. But the good news for early adopters is that Apple will pay them up to $200 to buy back their mint-condition iPhone 4. …mehr
Social media use for collaboration in the enterprise is set to double by 2013, with the education, financial and professional services sectors driving the uptake, a new report claims. …mehr
The number of UK accounting and finance vacancies fell sharply between August and September as and took their toll, according to the latest data. …mehr
