Software Briefs: Novell, AUUG, ACCPAC

Novell stitches up NSW

Novell Australia has won a four-year contract renewal to supply "Common Use Software" to the New South Wales Government under a newly signed agreement. The contract provides NSW Government departments with software purchasing through the inclusion of a strategic enterprise agreement and ongoing annual software maintenance, software licences and technical support from Novell. The renewed contract provides NSW Government departments with greater operational efficiencies and reduced costs through the provision of software across departments that will be updated and supported over the next four years, according to Novell.

AUUG lobbies for open source

The Australian Unix and Open Systems User Group (AUUG) has congratulated the government sector on recent adoptions of open-source systems and called for the accelerated uptake of open standards such as Linux within departments and agencies. The call follows Centrelink's decision to establish a Linux Laboratory in collaboration with IBM to reduce costs and raise the flexibility of the agency's IT systems. The Federal Department of Veterans' Affairs also announced that it is moving file and print services for all branch offices to an IBM zSeries mainframe running Linux. AUUG has asked the Federal Government to ensure there is no bias against open-source solutions.

ACCPAC to ease EDI

ACCPAC is out to simplify the integration complexity and reduce the cost of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) transactions for small and medium businesses with the release of ACCPAC Exchange. The company touts the offering as the first to integrate mid-market accounting applications with IBM's Business Exchange Services over the Internet. Using the software and associated service, SMEs will be able to create inexpensive trading communities with their suppliers and customers, according to ACCPAC.