News

• The Grill: TASC CIO Barbie Bigelow

  By Robert L. Mitchell | 21 May, 2012 20:11

  After spinning off from Northrop Grumman in 2009, TASC had one year to establish itself as an independent company. That meant the 6,000-employee systems engineering operation needed to deploy a new IT infrastructure. In overseeing that effort, TASC CIO Barbie Bigelow built an IT organization and infrastructure from scratch. Her team spent about eight months working with 64 vendors and partners to design and build an operation that included a new ERP system, more than 4,000 computers, 800 mobile devices, 400 network devices and 134 data circuits across 60 facilities -- and they did it in six weeks. Here, Bigelow discusses the failures and successes that the team experienced as they pursued the aggressive schedule, and she reflects on how TASC's IT unit has evolved.

• SAP co-CEO Bill McDermott explains its five-market focus

  By John Gallant and Patrick Thibodeau | 19 April, 2012 05:31

  If you think SAP equals ERP, Bill McDermott would like a few minutes to set you straight about the 2012 version of the software giant, which he claims is in the midst of "an intellectual renewal." McDermott has been co-CEO -- along with Jim Hagemann Snabe -- of SAP since 2010 and has helped broaden the company's strategy beyond traditional applications and analytics to the cloud, mobile, Big Data and a bet-the-business focus on real-time computing with the HANA in-memory database at the forefront.

• Judge dismisses one Marin County suit versus Deloitte

  By Jaikumar Vijayan | 13 April, 2012 06:07

  A former judge hired to settle a protracted legal dispute between Marin County, Calif., and Deloitte Consulting over a botched SAP project last week dismissed all charges made by by the county in one of two lawsuits.

• How CIOs can help facilitate systems of engagement

  By Michael Friedenberg | 29 March, 2012 02:28

  As the U.S. economy begins to brighten, it's reassuring to see spending in the manufacturing, retail, financial and healthcare sectors starting to respond. Conversations within the IT leadership community also seem to be lightening up, as IT priorities are rebalanced to include strategies for revenue growth and customer engagement.

• 13 common ERP mistakes and how to avoid making them

  By Jennifer Lonoff Schiff | 28 March, 2012 07:47

  Costing anywhere from hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars, and requiring hundreds of man hours to implement, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are huge investments of money, resources and time. And while a successful ERP implementation can help your organization streamline workflow and cut costs, a poorly planned and implemented ERP rollout can severely cost organizations, in terms of lost productivity and delays.

• Fast, easy ERP, here's how to get it

  By Stephanie Overby | 17 March, 2012 03:12

  Gallus BioPharmaceuticals is one ERP customer that took a faster, cheaper approach. The nascent contract manufacturer of biopharmaceuticals acquired an existing, FDA-approved biologics plant from Johnson & Johnson last year and had 120 days to wean itself off the corporate giant's IT infrastructure--including desktops, networks, phone systems and software.

• Six ways to reduce expenses using ERP

  By Ian Whiting | 05 March, 2012 12:42

  If your business engages in distribution, reducing costs will be an important pursuit. Increased revenues lead to increased expenses -- something you’ll be keenly aware of if you experienced a Christmas bump.

• Air Force's Huge Oracle Project Still Struggling

  By Chris Kanaracus | 27 February, 2012 22:09

  As part of a restructuring plan to be announced soon, the U.S. Air Force is expected to scrap pieces of a massive Oracle ERP deployment that has experienced difficulties since it was launched in 2005.

• Q&A: Copyright Agency CIO, Jacob Dudzinski

  By Hamish Barwick | 09 February, 2012 09:36

  Jacob Dudzinski has been CIO of the Copyright Agency in Sydney for four years. Over the past two years, he has been responsible for a business process and systems improvement program.

• Oracle seeks new trial in IP theft suit against SAP

  By Jaikumar Vijayan | 08 February, 2012 05:26

  Oracle's plan to drag its legal fight against rival SAP's defunct TomorrowNow subsidiary through a second trial is not surprising, analysts said Tuesday.

• ERP makes a comeback

  By Dan Tynan | 20 December, 2011 22:17

  They couldn't put it off any longer. The ERP system for the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) had reached the end of its useful life.

• Deal Means More SAP Cloud Changes

  By Chris Kanaracus | 19 December, 2011 22:09

  If its $3.4 billion bid to buy SuccessFactors is successful, SAP could finally stabilize its cloud computing strategy -- which has so far been mostly ineffectual.

• Q&A: Qantas CIO, Paul Jones

  By Hamish Barwick | 14 December, 2011 13:21

  While Paul Jones has been CIO of Qantas for less than a year, he has spearheaded a number of IT projects at the airline including a freight enterprise resource planning (ERP) replacement.

• Mobile mania spurs demand for unified communications

  By Mary K. Pratt | 01 December, 2011 02:09

  In the space of just the past few years, Art Johnston has gone from thinking of unified communications as optional to viewing it as "a strategy that we need to implement to be competitive."

• Use Analytics to Create a Greener Business

  By Elana Varon | 01 November, 2011 04:51

  Saab Group, a defense and aerospace company with a global supply chain and customers in 100 countries, must comply with a growing set of local environmental regulations and with customer requirements that it run a greener business. Plus, the $3.7 billion company has its own goals: cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 2 percent a year, save energy and water, increase recycling and reduce its use of hazardous chemicals.