Most organizations strive for efficiency because it ties to cost savings and better performance, while helping to anchor competitive advantages. However, improving efficiency requires organizations to continually seek new methods of managing increasingly complex business processes. 

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we look at the IT challenges facing retailers, as consumers turn increasingly to web and mobile shopping channels. Oracle president Mark Hurd talks about how the supplier intends to simplify IT infrastructures. And new government CIO Andy Nelson discusses how he plans to transform Whitehall IT. Read the issue now. 

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are among the biggest challenges for enterprises and their IT organisations to navigate. Conventional leadership and management techniques often are not enough. 

In this new release of SOA Suite, Oracle continues to emphasize the development, management and monitoring of service-oriented architectures, while delivering the extreme performance & scalability required for mission-critical environments. 

Applied Oracle Security (Oracle Press, 2010) is the definitive guide to safeguarding Oracle Database 11g written by the security experts in Oracle’s National Security Group. This complementary chapter on auditing covers how to audit database activity efficiently, improve security, address regulatory requirements, and automate compliance reporting. 

Successful execution of an SOA strategy, combined with the release of the business value contained in legacy systems, can bring five proven benefits to the enterprise. Functioning as both a software development environment and a delivery framework, SOA provides a mechanism for defining business services and operating models. 

Consolidation, outsourcing and cloud computing are just a few of the business initiatives driving IT organizations to focus on data security. Companies have moved beyond securing the network perimeter and made strengthening security controls around data a top priority. Read this whitepaper to learn more. 

It is important for the IT Manager to know the basics of formalized project management. Why? Because every organization needs to be able to implement change and almost all important changes are defined or implemented through project teams. 

As organizations begin implementing server virtualization, it is critical that they consider the fact that backup and data protection processes will need to be done differently and may become more complicated. This DCIG analyst report discusses methods of effectively protecting data in virtual environments and the different solutions available. 

Introducing the Sun SPARC Enterprise M3000 Server. Oracle’s Sun SPARC Enterprise servers are highly reliable, easy-to-manage, vertically scalable systems with all the benefits of traditional mainframes—without the associated cost, complexity, or vendor lock-in. 

Gallup has deployed Oracle's OBIEE Plus suite, Oracle BI Publisher which along with several best practice implementation efforts has provided Gallup a new reporting and business analysis platform. Listen to this podcast to learn more. 

Read this guide to learn five areas to consider when choosing a SaaS CRM solution.