Stories by Georgina Swan

IP entertainment system connects Pilbara workers

When you work in the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia, it’s easy to feel isolated. Which is why resources and energy companies that operate in the area go to great lengths to ensure employees are connected – and entertained.

Enterprise agility through adaptive leadership

Jim Highsmith is somewhat of a luminary in Agile circles. The co-author of the Agile Manifesto, which guides the Agile project management philosophy, is in Australia for the Thoughworks Live conference, which focuses on helping large enterprise be lean and innovative.

Time management for CIOs

Everybody has a few New Year’s resolutions for 2012 and CIOs are no exception. An old chestnut: Time management.

Cloud computing and governance in the digital age - Part 3

During the Saleforce.com Dreamforce event in San Francisco, CEO Marc Benioff sat down with some of the leaders in the industry to talk about Cloud computing and governance in the digital age. The panelincluded former US federal government chief information officer, Vivek Kundra, the vice-president of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, and Burberry chief executive officer, Angela Ahrendts.

Facebook CIO: Enterprises no longer organised to do business

When you're the CIO of Facebook, moving quickly is par of the course. Tim Campos, who took the stage for the second day of keynotes at Salesforce.com's recent Dreamforce 2011 conference, said massive IT implementations take place in a matter of just weeks to months.

Perth hospital signs with BT for communications, IT services

The new Fiona Stanley Hospital in Perth, Western Australia, will put communications and sustainability at the forefront of its IT agenda, thanks to an agreement with international services firm, Serco, for facilities management and support services.

The dangers of 'groupthink'

Nigel Cameron has a question. Several questions actually. As the chief executive officer of the Center for Policy on Emerging Technologies (C-PET), Washington DC’s independent think tank on science and technology policy, his role is to ask questions to which nobody yet has the answers.

Be mindful of information you disclose about former staff

Employment references are par for the recruitment course, but it's not always simple. You should be careful about the information you disclose about former staff to potential employers, warns senior associate for Harmers Workplace Lawyers, Peter Ferraro.

How Green is my Cloud?

When it comes to Cloud computing, CIOs are pragmatic, and perhaps cynical enough, to take its Green credentials with a grain of salt. It’s not that sustainability isn’t an issue, but it’s the flexibility and potential savings of Cloud computing that really have everybody excited. It’s probably just as well, because although Cloud companies are quick to play the ‘Green IT’ card, it seems they’re not always so eager to provide information to back up the claims. And as is so often the case when it comes to sustainability, it’s not just a story about energy efficiency — it’s about clean energy.

Qantas flies with Akamai for website performance

Today’s airlines live and die by their online systems. Their websites must combine performance and availability with functionality and efficiency — and the customer experience is everything, especially when competitors are only a click away. And when you’re the world’s longest continuously operating airline — Qantas — your customers can be anywhere.

CIOs come of age as business leaders: Study

We have been talking about it for years but it looks as if it’s finally happening; CEOs and CIOs are aligned in their thinking around the future challenges and complexity and IT plays a critical role.

Australian NBN Co chief issues statement on US bribery case against Alcatel-Lucent

NBN Co chief, Mike Quigley, has been forced to issue a statement regarding the bribery case by US authorities against Alcatel-Lucent, following reports of discrepancies between his public statements about his former employer and US court documents.
In December 2010, Alcatel-Lucent agreed to make payments of more than $US137 million to settle bribery cases concerning allegations about the sales activities of French telecommunications giant Alcatel from the 1990s through its 2006 merger with Lucent Technologies.
Alcatel-Lucent and three of its subsidiaries, Alcatel CIT, Alcatel de Costa Rica and Alcatel Standard agreed to pay a penalty of $92 million in settlement of cases brought by the Department of Justice (DOJ) under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The companies voluntarily agreed to stop using third-party sales and marketing agents to conduct worldwide business — a business model, the DOJ said, that was prone to corruption as the third parties acted as conduits for bribes to customers and officials in many countries.
According to the DOJ, the three Alcatel-Lucent subsidiaries made improper payments to officials to win deals in Costa Rica, Honduras, Malaysia and Taiwan.
On December 31, 2010, Alcatel-Lucent issued a statement ruling out any involvement by Quigley or NBN Co chief financial officer, Jean-Pascal Beaufret, in the case.
“In its investigations, Alcatel-Lucent found no evidence that either Mr Quigley or Mr Beaufret had any involvement in, or knowledge of the actions of the former Alcatel or its subsidiaries' employees that are outlined in the allegations presented by the US Department of Justice or the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with Monday's announcements," the statement said.
It has come to light, however, that Costa Rica was part of Quigley’s portfolio. In a statement, the NBN Co chief issued the following rebuttal.
“I have today been advised by Alcatel-Lucent that, contrary to previous advice, Costa Rica was among the many countries and territories in North, Central and South America that were part of my wide-ranging portfolio of responsibilities in the period March 2001 to January 2003, including operations involving approximately 15,000 staff.
“This, however, does not change the fact that I was not involved in any of these matters as is evident by the fact that in the course of their thorough investigation, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the US Department of Justice did not seek to interview me nor did they make an adverse finding in relation to me.
"I don’t intend to comment further on this matter as it is the subject of ongoing legal proceedings in the US, to which I am not a party.”

Westpac promises review into outage

Westpac has restored its online banking service following a prolonged outage, caused by an air-conditioning fault at a data centre. The bank’s group executive for retail and business banking, Rob Coombe, has also apologised to customers, promising a review of the events that caused the system failures.

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