Articles By Geoffrey Downey

One happy outsourcee: Agriculture Financial Services

In an industry where trends, technology and partnerships have life cycles resembling fruit flies, a 10-year relationship carries some weight.Agriculture Financial Services Corp. (AFSC) and Fujitsu Consulting celebrated their tin/aluminum anniversary on Thursday.

Published on: February 13th, 2003 Geoffrey Downey @itbusinessca

Forward-thinking utility CEOs outsource: CGEY

Environmental groups preach the pooling of resources to help save money. An outsourcer is telling energy companies the same thing.Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (CGEY) Canada Inc. vice-president Darren Saumur says not only

Published on: February 12th, 2003 Geoffrey Downey @itbusinessca

Cab company picks up wireless POS across entire fleet

Crown Taxi has installed wireless point-of-sale (POS) devices in all its vehicles. Thanks to terminals from Vancouver-based EXcape Business Transactions Inc. Crown said its end result is a ten-fold increase in credit card

Published on: February 11th, 2003 Geoffrey Downey @itbusinessca

Alcatel buys iMagic to conjure digital TV over DSL

Alcatel thinks it has found the final player to complete a triple play.The Paris-headquartered telecommunication infrastructure company announced Friday it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire iMagicTV. The Saint John, N.B.-based

Published on: February 10th, 2003 Geoffrey Downey @itbusinessca

Real estate firm sees decentralized enterprises post 9/11

A corporate real estate company says large businesses are moving away from a centralized facilities model in response to the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.According to Toronto-based Real Facilities Inc., companies and

Published on: January 30th, 2003 Geoffrey Downey @itbusinessca

Sun Life brings together time tracking after Clarica deal

Two things you’ll never hear during merger discussions: there will be no layoffs and the IT systems are a perfect fit.Sun Life Financial Services of Canada Inc. discovered the latter when it began

Published on: January 29th, 2003 Geoffrey Downey @itbusinessca

U of T adopts videoconferencing as research tool

A Canadian school hopes its upgraded videoconferencing system will get students travelling and keep professors at home.University of Toronto's director of instructional technologies for the humanities and social sciences says the Internet protocol

Published on: January 27th, 2003 Geoffrey Downey @itbusinessca

Michael Dell’s love/hate channel relationship

Had it been produced by MTV, it would have been billed as ""Michael Dell: Unplugged.""Dell Computer Corp. invited some international media to its headquarters this week to get to know the company a

Published on: January 23rd, 2003 Geoffrey Downey @itbusinessca

Dell builds up services network for enterprise clients

ROUND ROCK, Tex. -- Dude, you're getting Dell . . . services?The company best known for its direct sales model has more to offer than hardware, executives said during a series of briefings

Published on: January 22nd, 2003 Geoffrey Downey @itbusinessca

LPI boss named CDN newsmaker for 2002

It’s not an animal on the Chinese calendar, but in many ways 2002 was the year of the penguin, according to Evan Leibovitch.Few are as qualified to judge the progression of Linux in

Published on: January 22nd, 2003 Geoffrey Downey @itbusinessca

U of T supercomputer upgrade puts biology on display

What would you do with a supercomputer hooked up to a five- by 12-foot screen?Probably something less altruistic than the staff at the University of Toronto's Molecular Design and Information Technology (MDIT) centre,

Published on: January 15th, 2003 Geoffrey Downey @itbusinessca

CGI wins over Cognicase shareholders

CGI Group Inc. finalized the acquisition of Cognicase Inc. on Tuesday, but the integration roadmap has yet to be completed.More than 90 per cent of Cognicase's 71.5 million outstanding common shares were tendered

Published on: January 14th, 2003 Geoffrey Downey @itbusinessca

Sun opens Linux Competency Centre in Belleville

It's probably too early to brand Belleville, Ont. a tourist hotspot, but Beonix Technology says its Linux training centre is drawing people from far and wide.The Linux consulting company has teamed with Sun

Published on: January 13th, 2003 Geoffrey Downey @itbusinessca

M&As 2003: Who will buy what

Mergers and acquisitions of foreign companies in the software and computer services industry declined last year, and experts aren't predicting a huge turnaround in 2003.According to statistics from Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATA),

Published on: January 9th, 2003 Geoffrey Downey @itbusinessca

Credit union invests in IP

Vantis Credit Union is making a withdrawl from the PBX market and putting its money on Internet protocol.The Winnipeg-based company recently switched from a private branch exchange (PBX) telephone switching system to IP

Published on: January 8th, 2003 Geoffrey Downey @itbusinessca