The Howard government's federal budget handed down yesterday contained little joy for Australia's ICT industry and the development of a world class communications sector.
Although big ticket areas such as infrastructure, education and health received the lion's share of the Victorian Budget today, the IT industry will take some benefit with the technical spend totalling over $100 million.
Western Australia's largest energy retailer Synergy stated in yesterday's Western Australian State Budget that it plans to establish its own IT environment.
The Tasmanian State Government has outlined a variety of technology-related initiatives in its budget today, including funding for e-health, policing and digital marketing projects.
Australian Government chief information officer Ann Steward defended last night's Federal Budget in a speech at the CeBIT conference this morning, saying that despite some complaints that it was light on tech spend, there had been ICT initiatives.
IT often promises the government much with the big pull being productivity gains and cost savings, but does the government think about IT in the terms of something that will cure its ills or something which could backfire and give it process diarrhea for a decade?
I should have known better, but I was still a bit suprised to find absolutely zilch for broadband in the latest Howard-Costello Budget.
There's something to be said for the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen an idea of continually improving business via small changes something that unfortunately doesn't seem to glean many votes or impress punters.
When Coles introduced Fly Buys, Woolworths introduced Everyday Rewards. When Coles introduced petrol discount vouchers, Woolworths introduced petrol discount vouchers. It's a bold plan, but can it and Coles' inevitable copycat product change the prepaid mobile world for the better?
What's next for AAPT? Australia's number three telco refused to join Twisted Wire this week, so we decided to cover them anyway, guerrilla-style.
There are as always exceptions, but most ICT vendors are simply not doing the right thing by the thousands of SME customers in Australia and New Zealand.
Ahead of the election, with promises for nationwide broadband networks and digital revolutions in schools, the ICT industry could hope the government was on their side. But now the glamour of a sparkling new government has worn off, how ICT-friendly is the Rudd government really?
The biggest loser in this week's budget was broadband -- not one cent was allocated to improve infrastructure works. However, security was the winner with funding confirmed to fight intellectual property crime and cyber-terrorist attacks.
John Turato, Vice President of Technology for Avis-Budget Group talks about managing technical operations for a rental fleet of more than 400,000 vehicles worldwide. Turato also discusses transformation at the rental car operator, and his other role, Chairman of the OpenTravel Alliance, a group of companies developing web 2.0 standards for the online travel industry.
The year may be underway, but for CIOs and IT managers there are many trends on the horizon. ZDNet Australia takes a look at some tips and strategies to help with planning.
John Turato, Vice President of Technology for Avis-Budget Group talks about managing technical operations for a rental fleet of more than 400,000 vehicles worldwide. Turato also discusses transformation at the rental car operator, and his other role, Chairman of the OpenTravel Alliance, a group of companies developing web 2.0 standards for the online travel industry.
Dell's new mainstream Dimension 4700 is an affordable, forward-looking PC that's well suited for the home or the small office.
Cheaper budget PCs can be had elsewhere, but Dell's Dimension 2400 offers a solid feature set, a strong warranty, and adequate performance.
HP's 21.5-inch monitor is fairly average for its class however, in the face of its limitations, the price doesn't add up.
They're certainly a colourful bunch, but underneath the bling, Fujitsu's latest range of notebooks fails to impress.
Apple's smaller-scale iMac remains our favourite all-in-one. And while its looks, its ease of use, and its performance are all selling points, Windows PCs are starting to catch up (at least with the latter).
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