DiageoM, the company behind alcoholic drinks brands such as Guinness, Smirnoff, and J&B aims to reduce monthly reporting cycles through financial analytic applications from Cartesis. The company will use the software for web-based planning, reporting, consolidation and performance analysis. Diageo hopes to collect and analyse data on more than 400 brands and markets from 250 operating units across the group.
Accountancy software vendor Sage
has buoyed the technology industry with news that it is on course to meet expectations for its financial year 2002. The company said it expects a profit of between £133m to £139m, up from £121m last year, and in line with analyst predictions of £136.2m.Sage said in a statement: ‘This performance, in challenging market conditions, was encouraging.’ The company could not give more information but further details will be provided in its preliminary results, announced on 3 December.
Nottinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service has chosen Kypera Financials as their new accounting and procurement system. All employees are now able to access the financial system so they can order and track goods they need out of normal office hours. The web-enabled system replaces a paper-based method which was struggling to cope with the demands of the 24-hour basis fire services operate on.
Business software giant Siebel will offer its Customer Relationship Management Software as an add-on to Microsoft dot-Net. An alliance between the two rival companies means the CRM vendor will integrate its product roadmaps with dot-Net. The close integration with dot-Net will be a boost for Microsoft, said Neil Morgan, VP of European Marketing at Siebel. ‘It’s important for Microsoft to have enterprise application vendors endorsing dot-Net,’ he said.
The government has been urged to reintroduce tax incentives on training that boosts technology skills at A-level standard. Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman Baroness Sharpe raised a formal question in the House of Lords last week asking whether the numbers being trained in IT systems support were adequate. Baroness Sharpe said the collapse of the government’s Individual Learning Accounts scheme – abused by rogue IT training organisations – had led to inadequate support for those seeking certain qualifications.