Julian Bajkowski

Vendor hype that RFID is stable and ready for enterprise deployment got another reality check from the logistics industry, this time by FedEx Asia Pacific CIO Linda Brigance. Addressing delegates at Wireless Enterprise World in Sydney last week, Brigance said FedEx research and development trials of RFID were still showing scanning failure rates as high as 25 percent.

A lack of eager and willing aspirants to take over the Telstra Corp. Ltd. CEO's chair of ousted boss Ziggy Switkowski may see the appointment of a successor delayed, with Telstra chairman Donald McGauchie conceding a July deadline may not be fixed.

IT infrastructure services giant Electronic Data Systems Corp. has drawn a line in the sand over the way it intends to drum up new infrastructure business, with selective sourcing, open source and IBM definitely not part of the equation.

Australian communications minister Senator Helen Coonan has ruled out the break-up and individual sale of Telstra Corp. Ltd.'s different business divisions as part of the government's forthcoming sale of the telecommunications carrier.

A series of major federal government IT projects face delays and escalating costs as solid evidence emerges Australia could soon be in the midst of a high-level IT skills shortage.

Dissatisfied with the competing opinions of IT lobby groups, vendors, peak bodies and bush electorates, federal Communications Minister Senator Helen Coonan wants even more statistics on the state of Australia's ICT industry, with a study now commissioned a to come up with them.

After a combative 18 months under PeopleSoft Inc., Australian JD Edwards (JDE) user groups are now forming the front-line of Oracle Corp.'s battle to win the hearts, minds and revenues of its newly acquired ERP customer base.While the rest of PeopleSoft's customers will have to wait until early Wednesday to learn of their fate under Larry Ellison, representatives of Australian JD Edwards' user groups are on Tuesday receiving a "special advance briefing" assuring them their vendor-independent autonomy will not be challenged under Oracle's control.

E-mail scammers have shifted their sights from a staple diet of banks, betting shops and auction sites to government agencies, with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) calling in Australian Federal Police over a spam deluge that tries to send taxpayers to Trojan-infected Web sites.