Stories by: Julian Bajkowski

Twenty-year veteran of reporting and analytics Cognos has finally thrown in its lot with Web services and the SOA camp. It has replaced its existing suite of tools and applications with a full rebuild and a single, Web-architected application platform it hopes will see it right for the next decade.

The world's biggest software company, Microsoft, could find its reception in China, the world's most populous nation, that little bit frostier after a former employee testified in a Washington court that chairman Bill Gates said the Chinese people and its government had "f*****" his company.

Communications Minister Senator Helen Coonan has waved off concerns of a looming spectrum shortage, predicting wireless broadband, datacasting by television networks and third-generation mobile technologies will all be able to live happily together.

Australian employees of outsourcer EDS have firmly rejected the company's latest remuneration offer, with staff voting down a deal that would have frozen wage levels but improved some entitlements.

The federal government is to dramatically shake up its internal IT strategy by the end of the year and will implement an ambitious scheme of programs including identity management, tougher contracts for vendors and an IT skills program.

The federal Privacy Commissioner has opened a formal investigation into possible breaches of the Privacy Act by Telstra mobile reseller Switch Mobile and call centre outsourcer One Touch Solutions following revelations that customer data from the two companies is for sale on the black market in India.

Damaging new rifts have appeared in coalition ranks less than 24 hours after Cabinet approved the full sale of Telstra, with Liberal back bencher Alby Schultz now refusing to support the full float of the telco.

The office of Attorney General Philip Ruddock has warned companies operating in Australia to take the Privacy Act and its penalties seriously, regardless of where their offshore call centre or IT operations are handled.

Another wave of sudden consolidations has hit the business intelligence and analytics world.

Technology costs for enterprises are on the march upward again, with 44.5 percent of independent contractors upping their rates over the last 12 months, rocketing from 29 percent in 2004, to according to the Australian Computer Society's annual remuneration survey.