Tag: company

IBM goes Dutch on big cloud contract

Posted on December 2, 2014 by - News

blue_klompenBeleaguered Big Blue has signed a 10-year, multi-billion dollar deal to provide computer infrastructure services to Dutch bank Amro.

Amro thinks that the men in suits are exactly the sorts of types it wants running its cloud operations. However it is a case of “better the devil you know”. IBM has been running Amro’s computer services for a while now.

Under the first €1.5bn deal in 2005, 1,500 people in IT lost their jobs when the bank outsourced most of its IT to the global outsourcing arm of IBM.

At the time, IBM took over the management of the datacentres for the bank’s commercial and consumer clients, private clients, asset management, and new growth markets.

IBM has had some difficulty attracting much interest in its internet-delivered services, as it seems a bit outclassed by the likes of Oracle, Microsoft and Amazon.

IBM will provide fully managed services for mainframe computers, servers, storage and end-user computing as well as a help desk and other technical support. IBM did not disclose financial details of the deal.

Actually it has been a good few weeks for IBM. It recently won a 7-year outsourcing contract from Germany’s Lufthansa worth $1.25 billion that will see the U.S. company take over the airline’s information technology infrastructure services division and staff.

 

Facebook feature stuffs up your phone bill

Posted on September 4, 2014 by - News

shockThe phone companies are rubbing their hands with glee thanks to Facebook’s decision to autorun movies on their news feeds.

Facebook introduced a system where your films of cute cats, guilty dogs, pigglets being thrown into sausage machines and people being beheaded play automatically as you scroll down.

While that is not a problem for those on home broadband, it has been a major killer for mobile users.  Reports are coming in from the US where smartphone users are maxing out their data plans because their phones are downloading movies they are probably not even looking at.

Consumer finance site MoneySavingExpert.com, said it had “seen many complaints from people who have been stung with data bills after exceeding their monthly allowance and who believe it to be because of Facebook autoplaying videos”.

It is not that difficult to fix as the autoplay feature can be switched off but it is not as if Facebook, or anyone else is rushing to tell users.Tap your “Settings” button and then scroll down and click “Facebook.” From there, click “Settings,” “Auto-play,” and then choose “Wi-Fi only” or “Off.” On Android, bring up the Facebook app and go to your account settings. Click “App Settings,” and then choose ‘Auto-play only on Wi-Fi’ or ‘Off.’

 

Tradeshift shouts about success

Posted on May 7, 2013 by - News

megaPhTradeshift has released a teaser statement declaring its  success in the first quarter of this year.

The company, which has reams of blog posts about how well it’s been doing, has announced that 250,000 new suppliers have joined up to its services.

Tradeshift first began by helping companies handle invoicing online. Since, it has grown into offering customers a range of apps that allow them to add functionality such as quotes and purchase orders.

The company said it had seen new clients such as  Deutsche Post DHL with large supplier volumes, as well as a “massive” public sector organisation with 130k suppliers joining its books.

A global healthcare company, claimed to have 15,000 suppliers, as well as products sold worldwide through subsidiaries and distributors, had joined Tradeshift’s books, while a  global publisher working with 5,000 suppliers in the industry has also signed up.

Though it is just releasing teaser statements for now, it promised more details would be available soon. Existing customers include the NHS and the French government.