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News

• Don't Just Build Business-IT Alignment, Map It

  As CIOs strive to evolve IT from a Solid Utility or Trusted Supplier to a fully integrated business partner, they need the ability to describe IT functions in business terms. Business-IT alignment will only occur when both parties develop a common understanding of what's important to the business, how this relates to the business model and the supporting technology, and where to prioritize investments for measurable improvements. Business capability maps provide a framework to capture, assess, and communicate these needs. These maps put technology strategies such as SOA and application consolidation in the context of the business process, functions, and capabilities they affect, as well as help enterprise architects design application and information architecture.

• IDC: SaaS momentum skyrocketing

  Interest in the SaaS (software as a service) delivery model is growing to the point that by 2012, almost 85 per cent of new vendors will be focused on SaaS services, according to new research from analyst firm IDC.

• Oracle denies report of $US70 billion in planned acquisitions

  Oracle on Friday strongly downplayed comments made by co-President Charles Phillips at a conference on Thursday, saying that contrary to Phillips' suggestion, it is "highly unlikely" that it will spend roughly $US70 billion buying up companies during the next five years.

• Oracle denies report of $70 billion in planned acquisitions

  Oracle is distancing itself from comments reportedly made by its co-president, Charles Phillips, about the amount of money it intends to spend on future acquisitions.

• Microsoft fourth quarter boosted by Office, Windows sales

  The release of Office 2010, as well as continued strong sales of Windows 7, helped buoy Microsoft through another quarter of increased revenue and profit, the company announced on Thursday.

• AT&T net income up on smartphone additions

  AT&T reported net income of $US4 billion for the second quarter of 2010, up nearly 26 percent from the second quarter of 2009, driven largely by increasing demand for Apple's iPhone and other smartphones, the company said Thursday.

• Dell to pay $100 million to settle SEC case

  Dell will pay US$100 million to resolve an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission into the company's past accounting and financial reporting practices, it said Thursday.

• Microsoft fourth quarter boosted by Office, Windows sales

  The release of Office 2010, as well as continued strong sales of Windows 7, helped buoy Microsoft through another quarter of increased revenue and profit, the company announced on Thursday.

• World Cup helps Baidu score record Q2

  Internet searches surged during the World Cup soccer tournament, helping Baidu.com score its best quarter ever in terms of revenue and net profit.

• Download Global Infrastructure Outsourcing Governance Model

  Who: Jeff Steinhorn, CIO, Hess Corporation

• Think Apple Is Big Now? You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

  All signs from Apple's jaw-dropping quarter point to even greater times ahead, says analysts. Even businesses are riding this wave. Eighty percent of the Fortune 100 are either deploying or piloting the iPhone, boasted Apple COO Tim Cook during the quarterly earnings call, and 50 percent are doing the same with the iPad.

• Team Up for Business Value

  In this CIO 100 Award-winning initiative, Hess CIO Jeff Steinhorn created metrics and governance with vendors to boost

• Birst offers concurrent user pricing for BI

  On-demand BI vendor Birst announced Tuesday that it is now offering the option of concurrent user pricing, a licensing model few BI providers use because it can limit the amount of money they make compared to typical "named user" pricing.

• Yahoo profit up, but revenue falls short of forecasts

  Yahoo's second-quarter revenue was US$1.60 billion, coming in on the low end of the company's expectations and falling short of analyst predictions.

• Yahoo profit up, but revenue falls short of forecasts

  Yahoo's second-quarter revenue was $US1.60 billion, coming in on the low end of the company's expectations and falling short of analyst predictions.