Computerworld articles from February 2005

Computerworld archives from February 2005

Mechanics of a merger: Vanguard Car Rental's IT operations were out of alignment and heading for a ditch until its new CIO set a better course.(Tyler Best)
February 14, 2005... IF IT'S BROKE, CIO Tyler Best likes to fix it, and in July 2003, he found himself put to the test. Best was hired to take over IT operations at ANC Rental Corp., a failing company that operated two major car-rental brands, National Rent A...

The chargeback conundrum: chargeback systems can help you manage IT costs, but some say the price is too high.(MANAGEMENT)
February 14, 2005... LAUNCHING A CHARGEBACK SYSTEM to recover IT costs may sound like a simple matter of putting together an accounting spreadsheet. Depending on the organization, however, IT chargeback plans are often complex, and they involve much more than...

Keep the core? No more!: A new view holds that nearly every function in your business--strategic or not--should be a candidate for outsourcing.(Q&A with Mark Gottfredson)(Interview)
February 14, 2005... Keep the core: That has been the conventional wisdom about outsourcing, but it's being challenged by Mark Gottfredson and his co-authors in this month's Harvard Business Review. The Bain & Co. partner told Kathleen Melymuka that in the new...

Users face prospect of further changes at HP: vendor says Fiorina's firing won't alter strategy, but board sets no firm conditions for next CEO.(Hewlett-Packard Co.'s Carly Fiorina)
February 14, 2005... Many of Hewlett-Packard Co.'s users, especially those running its older systems, were rocked by changes during the six-year tenure of former CEO Carly Fiorina, who was ousted by HP's board last week. And now there's the potential for more...

Microsoft tries new pitch to curb Linux use: users split on value of indemnification vows.(NEWS)
February 14, 2005... Just days before today's opening of the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo, Microsoft Corp. made another attempt to sway users away from the open-source operating system by spotlighting the need for strong intellectual-property protection--an area...

IT execs seek weapons to fight spyware: several vendors to unveil tools at RSA.(RSA conference in San Francisco)
February 14, 2005... Tools designed to fight off a spyware "epidemic" are expected to get close scrutiny from corporate users at this week's RSA Conference in San Francisco. Spyware, which was a low-priority item on many IT security agendas a year ago, has...

Microsoft delays CRM ship again.(shipment of updated customer relationship management software)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Microsoft Corp. once again delayed ship dates for its CRM 2.0 update, this time until the end of this year. The company disclosed the delay along with an announcement that it is expanding the software's feature set. The move came a week after...

IBM adds 64-bit Xeon servers.(AT DEADLINE)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... IBM today will unveil four eServer XSeries servers and one Blade-Server based on Intel Corp.'s new 64-bit Xeon processors. IBM said the new systems will take advantage of two key 64-bit Xeon functions, Demand Based Switching and Execute Disable...

Dell profits lower on tax charge.(AT DEADLINE)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Dell Inc. posted solid growth across its hardware business in its fiscal 2005 fourth quarter, but a one-time tax-related charge caused a decrease in net income. DELL BY THE NUMBERS REVENUE PROFIT Q4'05 $13.5B $667M ...

Siemens to increase R&D staff in India.(research and development)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Siemens AG plans to hire 1,000 software engineers in India this year as part of an effort to expand its research and development activities in growth markets. The new hires will bring the number of software engineers Siemens employs in India to...

Users seek answers on Indigo: Microsoft moves to reassure developers at VSLive event.(NEWS)
February 14, 2005... MICROSOFT CORP. last week vowed to dramatically boost developer productivity with its forth-coming Indigo communications technology for building Web services. Some users, however, say they're still grappling to understand the tools in Indigo's....

VS 2005 eases Web development.(Visual Studio)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... SAN FRANCISCO MICROSOFT user last week applauded Visual Studio 2005's focus on tools that can more easily build Internet applications and support development teams. At the VSLive developer conference here, Microsoft executives said...

Omaha bank picks IBM to replace Sun, Wintel: savings estimated at $11.4m through 2011.(First National Bank of Omaha)
February 14, 2005... First National Bank of Omaha is nearing completion of a project to replace a Sun and Wintel distributed server infrastructure with an IBM-based mainframe and blade-server architecture based on Linux. Though the project is only 80% complete,...

iSCSI gains foothold in data center: users cite cost, ease-of-use benefits.(internet small computer system interface)(Wurld Media Inc.)
February 14, 2005... EMC Corp. today will unveil new Internet SCSI versions of its midrange and low-end arrays, the latest in a series of industry moves that experts say will significantly boost corporate adoption of the LAN-based technology. Storage-area...

Cisco profits double in second quarter.(Cisco Systems Incu.)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... For the first time in several quarters, Cisco Systems Inc. saw strong momentum in its enterprise and commercial business worldwide as revenue rose 12.3%. Profits almost doubled in the vendor's second quarter. CISCO BY THE NUMBERS ...

IBM adds low-end pSeries server.(eServer p5 510)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... IBM has rolled out its first pSeries server for under $4,000. The company hopes it will attract first-time users looking to blend existing Unix- and Linux-based environments. The eServer p5 510, fueled by IBM's Power5 processor, can be...

Merrill to deploy Avaya systems.(Merrill Lynch and Company Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Merrill Lynch & Co. has signed agreements with Cisco and Avaya Inc. to deploy telephony systems at a variety of sites. Merrill Lynch will deploy Cisco voice-over-IP systems for the company's 14,000 financial advisers in 600 offices nationwide....

Ask Jeeves buys Trustic's Bloglines.(BRIEFS)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Seeking to complement its flagship search engine, Ask Jeeves Inc. acquired Trustic Inc., which owns and operates the Bloglines online content-aggregation service. Bloglines will operate independently within Ask Jeeves and retain its Web site,...

Prevent app hacks with automated ...(briefs)(Cenzic Inc., Theoris Inc. and Five Across Inc.)
February 14, 2005... ... "pen test" tool that reveals coding flaws. Cenzic Inc. in Santa Clara, Calif., this week unveils its application-penetration-testing product, Hailstorm 2.0, which automates assessments of your software's security. Given that IBM charges...

Microsoft's latest patch release takes shine off antivirus deal: flaw problems overshadow latest security purchase.(NEWS)
February 14, 2005... MICROSOFT CORP. last week announced plans to acquire antivirus tools vendor Sybari Software Inc. But the eight software patches that Microsoft released on the same day to fix critical flaws in its products added to the skepticism that some...

Arkansas vote calls for end to budgeting scheme: performance-based model doesn't meet business goals, says state legislature.(Arkansas State Senate)
February 14, 2005... The Arkansas State Senate last week voted to repeal a law mandating that agencies use performance-based budgeting methods enabled by the state's ERP system. But some officials said the problems with the approach aren't related to the budgeting...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
February 14, 2005... Last week's front-page story about the move away from performance-based budgeting In Arkansas contained inaccurate information. A revised version of the story can be found on our Web site: QuickLink 52392

Swainson officially made CEO at CA.(John Swainson of Computer Associates International Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Computer Associates International Inc. has officially named John Swainson CEO. Swainson was hired by CA in November from IBM as president and CEO-elect. As CEO, he succeeds Kenneth Cron, who had served as interim CEO since April 2004. Swainson...

Symantec releases major security fix.(software patch)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Symantec Corp. has issued patches to fix a "high impact" security hole that affects almost all of its products. The vulnerable module fails to properly check within files for viruses and could allow an attacker to cause a "heap overflow" using...

NYC signs pacts with Unisys, IBM.(BRIEFS)(New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... New York has signed deals with Unisys Corp. and IBM to run parts of its transit operations. Unisys will manage 12,000 PCs and 350 severs under a $105 million deal with NYC Transit. IBM will manage multiple processing operations under a $65...

Novell issues road map for GroupWise.(BRIEFS)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Novell Inc. has unveiled long-term plans for its GroupWise collaboration product that include three releases over the next four years. Novell said the road map underscores the status of GroupWise as a key piece of its strategy. The next...

Voice, data teams at odds over VoIP: IT managers struggle to bring together disparate networking staffs for projects.(NEWS)
February 14, 2005... THE THORNIEST question facing voice-over-IP project managers remains whether they can get their voice and data networking staffs to work effectively together on rollouts, attendees said at last week's VoiceCon 2005 conference here. As VoIP...

Users cite VoIP's convenience, cost savings.(NEWS)
February 14, 2005... LAKE BUENA VISTA. FLA. DURING sessions at VoiceCon 2005, IT managers described the hunt for the killer VoIP app in many different terms. But convenient messaging, especially for on-the-go-workers, was cited as a strong selling point for...

Travel services firm plans more offshoring.(TUI AG)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... BANGALORE, INDIA EUROPEAN TRAVEL SERVICE TUI AG is expanding its IT outsourcing in India to further reduce costs and become more competitive in the travel booking market, an IT executive at the company's U.K. division said earlier this...

13 European nations unite to tackle spam.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... BRUSSELS THIRTEEN EUROPEAN UNION countries last week agreed to cooperate in investigations and prosecutions of spammers located in other EU countries. The goal is to address the problems that occur when one country's antispam agency lacks...

German railway moves Lotus Notes to Linux.(Deutsche Bahn AG)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... DEUTSCHE BAHN AG, the company that manages Germany's railway system, has successfully migrated its 55,000-user Lotus Notes system to an IBM mainframe running Linux, IBM announced earlier this month. That was one phase of a much larger Linux...

Red Hat Inc.(Briefly Noted)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Red Hat Inc. in Raleigh, N.C., last week said it has set up an IT facility in Pune, India, to provide support for its customers in that country and in English-speaking markets worldwide. Red Hat already has support centers in North America, the...

Global Exchange Services Inc.(Briefly Noted)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Global Exchange Services Inc. in Gaithersburg, Md., announced last week that it will provide business-to-business e-commerce software for a pilot project that will link China's automakers and their suppliers. China Enterprise Communications...

Denmark and Sweden.(Briefly Noted)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Denmark and Sweden have Western Europe's most advanced e-government systems for providing online services to citizens, according to a study by researchers at IDC's office in Milan, Italy.

Users eye computer grids as potential servers for mainstream applications: technology seen as 'virtual app server'; security issues, other obstacles remain.(NEWS)
February 14, 2005... Computer grids are emerging as potential application servers for mainstream business uses, which could broaden their deployment in corporate enterprises, said IT managers and vendors who attended the GlobusWorld conference here last week. ...

Bush plan calls for more IT spending.(George W. Bush)
February 14, 2005... President George Bush's proposed budget for the federal government's 2006 fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1, includes an increase in IT spending, despite significant cuts elsewhere. The plan also asks Congress to permanently extend a...

Bill seeks to fix e-voting flaws.(NEWS)(Voting Integrity and Verification Act)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... A group of U.S. lawmakers last week introduced a bill to require that electronic touch-screen voting machines allow a voter-verifiable paper trail. The Voting Integrity and Verification Act would require printed ballots that voters could...

Platt in pumps.(Carly Fiorina of Hewlett Packard Co.)(Column)
February 14, 2005... I WOULD JUST LOVE to have been in the room when Carly Fiorina got the word that she was getting the boot. I have a hunch the discussion with Hewlett-Packard's board went something like this: Board Member 1: "Good morning, Carly. You're...

Health care needs 'IT value docs'.(Column)
February 14, 2005... AT THE IT Leadership Academy, scholars are involved in a three-year mission to map what roles, responsibilities and skills the next generation of IT leaders will need to be successful. One emerging role being examined is that of "IT value...

Seeing the limits of technology.(Column)
February 14, 2005... LAST WEEK, I watched All the President's Men, the film about the Watergate break-in and the subsequent revelations of political dirty tricks in the Nixon White House. The reporters at the heart of the story, Bob Woodward and Carl...

If the board's your goal, get out of IT now.(Letter to the Editor)
February 14, 2005... CIOs can earn their way onto a board of directors by dealing with strategy issues while gaining the gray hair and scars typical of most public company board members ["CIOs on the Board," QuickLink 51548]. Being a CIO probably isn't enough....

ARAD article snubbed Clarion.(Letter to the Editor)
February 14, 2005... THE ARTICLE on architected rapid application development ["Fast-moving Development: ARAD Tools Can Cut Costs," QuickLink 51559] unfortunately left out what I consider the granddaddy of all ARAD vendors, SoftVelocity Inc.'s Clarion language and...

ERP at your service: vendors are racing to retool ERP software around service-oriented architectures in an effort to make deployment and integration more flexible. But the move toward componentized applications could bring its own set of challenges.(TECHNOLOGY)(enterprise resource planning)
February 14, 2005... WHEN John Schindler thinks of enterprise resource planning software, business flexibility isn't exactly the first phrase that leaps to mind, he says. But increasingly, that's what he and other users are demanding from their ERP vendors. "We're...

Why WiMax: outlook: these wireless broadband technologies promise office-grade connections almost anywhere and breakthroughs for disaster recovery--eventually.(EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES)
February 14, 2005... THE HOT NETWORK TECHNOLOGY DU JOUR is WiMax, an informal term that covers two emerging broadband wireless standards for metropolitan-area networking. WiMax promises alternate routes to land lines for disaster recovery and relief from the price...

Spring comes to AI winter: a thousand applications bloom in medicine, customer service, education and manufacturing.(artificial intelligence)
February 14, 2005... FOR MANY PEOPLE, artificial intelligence evokes the menacing computer Hal from 2001: A Space Odyssey, a machine so intelligent that it could function independently of humans. Those inflated notions spawned by science fiction writers about...

Disaster recovery planned on the fly: our security manager has to come up with an overnight disaster recovery plan in case this is the year of the flood.(SECURITY MANAGER'S JOURNAL)
February 14, 2005... FLOODING? It's been snowing. Why are we talking about flooding? My new boss had asked me to step into his office, closed the door and lowered his voice. "The senior management team is concerned that we could experience some flooding when...

Security bookshelf.(The Executive Guide to Information Security)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
February 14, 2005... The Executive Guide to Information Security, by Mark Egan, with Tim Mather (Addison-Wesley Professional, 2004). It's rare that I find a book I would recommend to senior management about technology, especially security technology. But...

Sophos looks to expand offerings.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... U.K. antivirus company Sophos PLC said it's licensing Agnitum Ltd.'s Outpost personal firewall technology for integration into its enterprise and small-business products by the end of this year. The move is part of Sophos' broader effort to...

The worm turns.(modifying open-source relational data-base MySQL)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... In the wake of the Forbot worm, the developers of the open-source relational data-base MySQL may modify the software, said Zack Urlocker, vice president of marketing at MySQL AB. New features could include automatic update tools that push...

Canto adds to asset management tool.(Canto Software Inc. upgrades Cumulus)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Canto Software Inc. in San Francisco has released Version 6.5 of its Cumulus digital asset management software. The release focuses on simplifying administration with enhanced authentication methods, including LDAP support and new tools for...

Blazent upgrades optimization tool.(BRIEFS)(Blazent 3.0)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Blazent Inc. has begun shipping Blazent 3.0, an upgrade to its IT analytic and optimization tool with new visualization capabilities. The software is designed to enable IT managers to visualize how and whether IT activities are supporting an...

Retail group's XML schema released.(BRIEFS)(Association for Retail Technology Standards)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... The Association for Retail Technology Standards, a division of the National Retail Federation, announced last week the release of XML schemas to help retailers maintain consistent and accurate data. The new item-maintenance schema can be used...

Milking Moore's Law.(processing power)(Column)
February 14, 2005... MOORE'S LAW has been going strong for decades. And for all that time, IT has kept sopping up the resulting compute power, on clients and servers alike. Not for nothing is it said, "Intel giveth and Microsoft taketh away." So will this...

Career watch.(Q&A with Tony Lee)(Interview)
February 14, 2005... Tony Lee TITLE: Editor in chief and general manager COMPANY: CareerJournal.com, an online career site for executives, managers and other professionals that draws upon the editorial resources of The Wall Street Journal Get ready...

Wither Silicon Valley?(job cuts)
February 14, 2005... THAT'S NOT A TYPO in the headline. It's the question that comes to mind after taking a look at the 2004 Index of Silicon Valley, put out by Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network in San Jose. So is the Valley withering? In some respects it...

Getting rich on the job.(executive pay)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... IT HAPPENS, and not just to the Ellisons and Trumps of the world. The Wall Street Journal reported that Sprint Corp. has adopted a cash-incentive program that could result in payments of about $1 million to a few of its top executives. The idea...

Jo-Ann Stores taps new CIO.(Gertrudge G. Van Horn)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Jo-Ann Stores Inc., a fabric and craft retailer based in Hudson, Ohio, has appointed GERTRUDE G. VAN HORN as senior vice president and CIO. Prior to joining Jo-Ann Stores, Van Horn served as vice president of global information delivery systems...

Luu is named CTO at Entheos.(Timothy N. Luu joins Entheos Technologies Inc. as chief technology officer)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... TIMOTHY N. LUU has joined Entheos Technologies Inc. in Vancouver, British Columbia, as chief technology officer. He will also sit on the board of directors of the company, which provides outsourced e-mail services for small to midsize firms....

SiVault announces new IT roles.(SiVault Systems Inc. appoints Russel Davis as general manager)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... SiVault Systems Inc. has appointed RUSSEL DAVIS as general manager and STEVE POLLINI as CIO. As general manager, Davis, who will continue to serve as CTO, will also be responsible for the San Jose-based company's daily operations. He joined...

Enterprise agreements? Not so fast!(MANAGEMENT)(Column)
February 14, 2005... ENTERPRISE AGREEMENTS consolidate contracts with a single vendor across the corporation to reduce overall costs and provide consistent service. Seems like a good idea, but many enterprise agreements are fairly inflexible and may not meet the...

HP: reinvent.(FRANKLY SPEAKING)(Hewlett-Packard Co.)(Column)
February 14, 2005... BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS, Carly Fiorina's bones will have been picked clean by reporters, pundits and the usual gang of analysts. They'll have told you how wrong Fiorina was with the Compaq merger (duh!), how Hewlett-Packard now needs to break...

It's the little things ...(SHARK TANK)
February 14, 2005... This new customer-support application truly is slow - instead of seconds, response time is in tens of minutes. But the last straw for this manager comes when one user's PC won't respond except with "Login is incorrect." "I walked over and found...

Guide to managing vendors: learn how to take control of the relationship.(SPECIAL REPORT)(Brief Article)
February 21, 2005... EDITOR'S NOTE ONCE, I WAS TRYING to interview a CIO in his office, but his phone kept ringing every few minutes with sales calls. He'd pick up the phone, bark some command like "Mail me some stuff" and slam down the phone to resume our...

Getting to know you: a healthy partnership with a technology vendor requires two-way information flow.(KNOWLEDGE CENTER IT MANAGEMENT)
February 21, 2005... PICK UP NEARLY any piece of technology product literature today, and it will proclaim not only the vendor's desire to sell you a "solution" but also the vendor's desire to become your "partner." But for veteran technology buyers, there is a...

The vendor management office: how to create IT.(KNOWLEDGE CENTER IT MANAGEMENT)
February 21, 2005... TEN YEARS BEFORE Jim Lester became CIO at AFLAC, he worked for a vendor that sold property and casualty insurance software. In the worst client meeting he can recall, two managers nearly came to blows over whether their insurance company needed...

How to staff IT.(managing vendor relations)
February 21, 2005... WANTED: Vendor Management Superstar. A technology guru with thorough knowledge of hardware, software and systems, plus awareness of business unit needs. Must be a creative negotiator with stellar communication skills and experience in finance,...

Tough tactics: Joe Auer gives the straight scoop on hardball negotiating.(Interview)
February 21, 2005... FEW READERS require an introduction to JOE AUER. He has been offering procurement and negotiation advice for nearly 30 years, through his consultancy--Winter Park, Fla.-based International Computer Negotiations Inc.--and, for several years, in...

Cold-call cascade: tips for dodging some of those pesky technology pitches.(KNOWLEDGE CENTER IT MANAGEMENT)
February 21, 2005... "I ALMOST NEVER pick up the phone unless I recognize the caller" via Caller ID, says Liz Parker, CIO at Thoits Insurance Service Inc. Lately, however, she has found herself stuck on the line with more vendor sales reps, and Parker thinks she...

Go 'glocal'.(KNOWLEDGE CENTER IT MANAGEMENT)
February 21, 2005... OLD HABITS DIE HARD, often for good reason. For years, I've been doing business at the local bicycle shop, even though two newer and bigger stores have opened downtown with better selection, lower prices and competent mechanics. My local guy...

Linux starts to take a more central IT role: open-source OS gets increased use for databases, key apps.(operating system)
February 21, 2005... IT managers who once used Linux chiefly to support Web and file-and-print servers said at last week's Linux World Conference & Expo here that they're now running key applications and databases on Linux-based systems--a sign that the open-source...

IBM opens wallet for Linux client.(NEWS)(Brief Article)
February 21, 2005... BOSTON Saying it thinks the time is right to offer users an alternative to Windows-based desktop applications, IBM last week announced plans to spend $100 million during the next three years to expand client-side Linux support in its Lotus...

Linux struggles for desktop acceptance.(NEWS)
February 21, 2005... BOSTON One of the "birds of a feather" evening sessions at the Linux-World Conference & Expo was called "Year of the Linux Desktop... Again." And the consensus among the handful of nighthawks at the session was that this still won't be...

E-health records slow to catch on: high costs, lack of standards for exchanging data hold up plan for national health network.(News)
February 21, 2005... Interoperability problems and lagging adoption of electronic health record technology are challenging the federal government's efforts to foster the creation of a national information health network, said the Bush administration's point man for...

Demand for IT certifications on the rise.(News)
February 21, 2005... Rising corporate IT spending is leading to increased demand for workers with certifications in information security, project management and other disciplines, CIOs and IT labor experts said last week. "We're very interested in project...

AOL stalls new Netscape release.(America Online Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 21, 2005... America Online Inc. has delayed the release of the first public test version of its new Netscape Web browser until the end of the month to fix some bugs. The beta version of Netscape 8 was scheduled for release last week. The browser, aimed at...

ChoicePoint to warn on ID thefts.(identity theft)(Brief Article)
February 21, 2005... ChoicePoint Inc., a provider of credit and personal information, reached an agreement with 19 states to contact 145,000 consumers whose personal information--including names, Social Security numbers and credit reports--may have been stolen by...

The SEC threatens SCO with delisting.(Securities and Exchange Commission and The SCO Group Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 21, 2005... Unix vendor The SCO Group Inc. disclosed that it has been notified that it could soon be delisted by Nasdaq because the company hasn't yet filed its Form 10-K annual report for fiscal 2004. Under Securities and Exchange Commission rules, the...

Sun starts selling Fujitsu servers.(Sun Microsystems Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 21, 2005... Sun Microsystems Inc. has begun selling Fujtsu Ltd.'s PrimePower line of Unix servers, a first step in a plan to unify the companies' Sparc-based product lines by 2006. Sun and Fujitsu said they will jointly develop a line of Sparc systems,...

Handheld risks prompt push for usage policies: devices seen as 'next frontier' for IT security threats.(NEWS)
February 21, 2005... THE INCREASING security risk posed by handheld devices is creating a need for formal policies governing their use in corporate settings, according to IT managers and analysts who attended the RSA Conference 2005 here last week. They added...

Symantec continues effort to sell Veritas deal.(NEWS)(Veritas Software Corp.)
February 21, 2005... SAN FRANCISCO Symantec Corp. CEO John Thompson last week found himself again defending his company's planned acquisition of Veritas Software Corp. amid continued concerns about Symantec's strategy and Microsoft Corp.'s looming presence in...

Union calls on San Antonio to fix SAP-based system: legacy data issues, other glitches lead to payroll snafus.(San Antonio Police Officers Association)
February 21, 2005... The head of San Antonio's police union has called on the city to fix or discard an SAP-based payroll system that has caused headaches for his membership since its installation five months ago. The payroll application is part of the city's...

IBM, Sun look to simplify IT infrastructure: vendors build tools to provide management links.(Sun Microsystems Inc.)
February 21, 2005... IBM and Sun Microsystems Inc. are both building software to provide systems administrators with a single, consistent view of their IT infrastructures, from business applications and related servers, through the network and down to the storage...

M&A expert named to new CA post.(Michael Christenson new vice president of Computer Associates International Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 21, 2005... Computer Associates International Inc. named Michael Christenson to a new post, executive vice president for strategy and business development. Christenson, 46, retired last year from Citigroup Global Markets Holdings Inc. after a 20-year...

Alliance extends security specs.(Liberty Alliance)(Brief Article)
February 21, 2005... The Liberty Alliance has released a draft version of ID-WSF 2.0, its set of specifications for identity verification for Web services. The specifications have been extended to support SAML 2.0, which should make it easier for developers...